Comments on: Tricking Out Your TrixBox

By: Alexander Rose

Alexander Rose — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:06:55 +0000

Great stuff, this will be great for my research for my uni project.

Thanks!

By: Rollo

Rollo — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:06:04 +0000

Looks like Ward’s been testing – I was going to post up that the choppy audio issue isn’t strictly on trixbox. Ran a clean install on debian and dropped freepbx on and have the same issue with 1.2.12. Bummer, really as this makes the build virtually unusable. I’m still trying to figure out what could be causing it but it’s a bit over my head. Something though seems to be eating up the processor (& this isn’t a p3 500 so what gives? Xeon 2.6ghz with 2gb ram) because you’ll notice that on certain occasions the audio is perfect. A simple reboot while the audio is playing demonstrates that it is capable of playing perfect audio. As the system begins to kill processes the "Voice" picks up and gets back to normal speed & quality.

Please (pretty please?) – if you do happen to find a workaround on this – do share!

By: Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 05:38:16 +0000

Ward, as per my previous comment, I put some step-by-step instructions together for Un-Trixboxing Trixboxes:

http://www.freepbx.org/2006/09/28/un-trixbox-your-trixbox/

–Rob

By: Mike White

Mike White — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:15:46 +0000

Thanks for the useful info- We refer customers to your pages almost everyday.

Thanks!
mike
http://www.digiumcards.com

By: Ward

Ward — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:45:32 +0000

I’ve tried the latest yum updates mentioned above by Rob and I've gotten exactly the same results as before, i.e. lousy, choppy audio with Allison prompts, voicemail messages (creating and listening), and all Flite apps. Haven't gone searching for further bugs because this one's a deal breaker in my book. I’m going to play with some other toys for a bit until this gets sorted out. I’m just tired of wrestling with it. It still looks like an Asterisk timing problem to me. But I'm amazed that something this bad has slithered into an otherwise stable product, especially this far down the road. Sure makes us want to hurry to install 1.4. Oh well. The good news: TrixBox 1.1.1 works and works well on most platforms including VMware builds so there’s really no pressing need for the later versions of CentOS or Asterisk except for the one voicemail bug, and there are published workarounds for that. And, of course, freePBX can be brought current using the 1.1.1 build with minimal effort which we'll try to cover in an article shortly.

By: Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 10:02:55 +0000

Ward, apparently there's been a whole pile of asterisk/zaptel updates come through via RPM today, that seems to fix the issues that people were having with with originally distributed rpms. You might want to try an update and then check it again. Also, I should point out, you are the one who is personally responsible for convincing me to change the front page of FreePBX.org to WordPress (after thinking about it for a while and umming and aahing - and I'm pretty happy with how it looks! So thanks. [WM: I will try the updates today! FYI: I shun being personally responsible for much of anything, but WordPress is a pretty neat product. Glad you like it. Here's a pretty cool neighborhood web site that we put together using WordPress, and it, too, has worked pretty well.]

By: Graham

Graham — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:12:45 +0000

Great site and because of it I have a very good working version of Trixbox 1.1.1. However, I notice that you are unhappy with the next version just released and you wondered if it was centos, trixbox or the build or the combined cd package. I built my trixbox, not from the CD package but from a full everything base centos 4.2 installation to which I added trixbox and I have kept the centos updated independantly of any asterisk trixbox updates. So far all is working very well but I am reluctant now to upgrade the trixbox asterisk part following your article and I will wait for any issues to be sorted out. Just wanted to say that I don't think the problems you describe are in the Centos area. Graham. P.S. I use my CentOS PC also for testing other software, as a media player, for browsing the web on my TV, and it runs a version of the old mrhouse home automation software. [WM: Thanks for your note. We're getting closer to finding the problem, I think. We also have done some further testing. Starting with a base install of TrixBox 1.1.1 from our ISO snapshot that was used to build the VMware image, we manually upgraded to Asterisk 1.2.11 using the 2.6.9-34.0.2 kernel with no problems. But then we tried two new VMware builds using Clark Connect (just to make sure this wasn't a problem in Andrew's TrixBox builds) and guess what. Builds using ClarkConnect 3.2R1 with the 2.6.9-27 kernel and Asterisk 1.2.12.1 as well as ClarkConnect 4 with the 2.6.9-42 kernel and Asterisk 1.2.12.1 BOTH FAIL with the choppy sound problems exactly like TrixBox 1.2. It would be easy enough to blame this on Asterisk 1.2.12.1 except TrixBox 1.2 used Asterisk 1.2.11. So it's something in the interaction between the two latest Asterisk builds and latest Linux kernels, both of which may be increasing the processor load to the point that VMware simply no longer works reliably on machines which previously were acceptable. What we have ruled out, I think, is that this was somehow caused by Andrew's building skills because the exact same symptoms appear in both of the ClarkConnect builds which do much the same bundling that Andrew does.]

By: Tom Lynn

Tom Lynn — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 05:36:05 +0000

I see you still haven't registered your test line number in any of the ENUM services. My guess is you get a cut of the PSTN charges and your test line is simply another revenue stream. Seems to me you used to show people how to NOT spend money on their phone calls. [WM: Sorry to disappoint you but we provide all the sample numbers to demo our "creations" with no financial benefit to us. A "cut of the PSTN charges"? What does that mean? You think we get money when someone calls our PSTN numbers? Great idea. If you find out a way to make that work, please share it with the rest of us so we can all share the wealth. ]

By: Graham

Graham — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 21:41:41 +0000

If you’re using X10 (or Insteon) with a Mac, the new beta of Indigo is hard to beat in terms of functioanlity and slickness. For more info check out http://www.perceptiveautomation.com/indigo/index.html. I’ve got it and a Linux based asterisk install tied together via ssh and AppleScript.

The "on the phone" light (triggered in asterisk, dispatched to Indigo before and after the call) comes in handy with the kids and my home office line. XTension is another alternative with about the same potential, but Indigo seems to be pushing the boundaries and has always felt more polished and it has been much more stable in my experience.

Keep the vittles coming!

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 10:28:02 +0000

As part of an install of ZAPHFC drivers on my box a recompile of Asterisk sorted out all the problems. However, my carefully backed up config files and databases were all not readable – initially.

I also had problems with the online module update indicating that I did not have the latest version of FreePBX – a quick visit to the site and following their instructions sorted that one out too.

I did manage to bodge the old backed up database settings back into the box, and they worked – mostly, but in the end I had to resort to a complete virgin install followed by install-ZAPHFC (reverting to asterisk 1.2.10).

So far, touch wood, is stable and working as expected. Have not noticed any of the symptoms descibed elsewhere. So perhaps not a complete house of horrors, but certainly a bit too cutting edge for a proper production box I think.

Off now to look into the x10 stuff Ryan mentions above, looks cool!

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 21:36:53 +0000

Two questions:
1. I want to follow Rob’s advice. How do I remove asterisk and all its files from my TB system?
2. If I compile from source 1.2.12.1 will the trixbox-update script still work in the future?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 18:03:00 +0000

The coolest thing that I have done with AAH/Trixbox is to implement an x10 interface to control my home lights. I used an x10 firecracker available for very cheap and a program called bottlerocket http://www.linuxha.com/bottlerocket/ to add x10 capability to Asterisk. I setup extentions that run scripts to turn lights on and off in my house. I then went as far as implemnting the bluetooth proximity to turn on and off lights at certain times in the evening by using a cron job. I love Asterisk!

By: Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:47:12 +0000

(PS Ward – Do you ever get on IRC? I’ve never seen you there, have I?)

[WM: I do get on IRC … usually with some silly alias to keep my low profile.]

By: Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:46:48 +0000

FWIW, removing the trixbox supplied asterisk and compiling a nice fresh 1.2.12.1 from source fixes all of the problems. I’m somewhat tempted to roll up my own asterisk RPM and try to figure out some way to stick it into the FreePBX online updates.

–Rob

[WM: Problem-solving RPMs are always appreciated! And, for those that don’t know, Rob’s claim to fame is an open source product called freePBX.]