Ubuntu 12, asterisk 11 & vicidial

[apb1963]

I have the latest asterisk 11.2.1 installed & working nicely on the latest ubuntu 12.04.

I've only just learned about vicidial recently and would like to install it. Is there any chance that anyone has a working installation package to share?

Thank you

[DomeDan]

Vicidial in package form is either Vicibox or Goautodial
They are full gnu/linux OS installs so grab yourself an old pc you're not using (P4 or something) and install on that if you want to poke around with it,
or you could install virtualbox (in ubuntu: apt-get install virtualbox) and boot up the iso in there.

Vicidial can be installed on any gnu/linux distro like ubuntu, that is called a 'Scratch install', but i recommend you not to try that yet because you would need to downgrade asterisk, apply patches and recompile and a lot of other changes to make it work.

Good luck!

[williamconley]

While having asterisk XX installed in ubuntu XX is "cool", it is pointless if you want to install Vicidial. The Vicidial installation is quite "solid" (ie: stable!) and will install in OpenSuSE instead of Ubuntu, but the nicest thing is that the entire installation is automated. You need to supply the system with necessary information (Time Zone/IP/DNS/Subnet/Gateway) but the rest of the install is handled for you.

If you are a beginner, the Vicibox.com '.iso' image is definitely the way to go.

Unless you want to wait for our distro this spring/summer which will be Ubuntu 12.04LTS.

[Framercy]

Unless you want to wait for our distro this spring/summer which will be Ubuntu 12.04LTS.

Is this change to Ubuntu 12.04LTS official?
Because I have to upgrade Ubuntu 10.04 LTS latest in summer (end of life cycle)...

Best regards
Fram

[williamconley]

This is not a Change. And I cannot make anything "Official" in Vicidial. I work at PoundTeam Incorporated, not The Vicidial Group.

They are the only ones who can make anything "Official" for Vicidial That being said, we at PoundTeam became accustomed to Ubuntu, as did many of our clients, when the Original Vicibox came out (version 1.0.0RC2). That original version was in Ubuntu and was excellent. But it was retired when 2.0 came out in OpenSuSE.

Since we have clientele who want it and Ubuntu is popular, we are creating a Vicidial distro for Ubuntu to allow the community another OS in which to Enjoy Vicidial.

[apb1963]

or you could install virtualbox (in ubuntu: apt-get install virtualbox) and boot up the iso in there.

Well that would certainly be interesting. I'm running VMware on Windows XP, with Ubuntu as a guest OS. Installing virtualbox on top of Ubuntu makes me wonder...

[DomeDan]

So you are running ubuntu in VMware? then just install vicibox in wmware too and check it out.

[apb1963]

The only problem is I need Google Voice, which I currently have working.

I think I may attempt the scratch install of vicidial and see how much pain it causes me

[williamconley]

what does google voice have to do with ubuntu vs opensuse? you can use the same version of asterisk regardless of the base OS.

[apb1963]

GV has nothing to do with ubuntu or opensuse. It does however have everything to do with asterisk. I'm running asterisk 11, and your suggestion of using vicibox because I'm running vmware would send me backwards in time to an older version of asterisk which means I'll have to use an older version of the google voice modules that (I've heard from the asterisk/freepbx guys) doesn't work as well as the current "chan_motif" module.

As to using the same version of asterisk, why would I want to install a vicibox distribution which installs asterisk 1.4, which is so far behind that version 1.8 has come and gone from long term support. That means I'd have to upgrade asterisk all over again to a brand new (to me) Linux distribution where I have no experience, when I already have asterisk working fine on the latest (beta) version (11) under ubuntu. Worse, I'll likely STILL have to bring vicidial up to speed to use asterisk 11. I fail to see any benefit whatsoever, but do see lots of downside.

In any event thank you for the suggestion, but as indicated in my previous post I went ahead with the scratch install of vicidial so it's all moot at this point.

[apb1963]

I'm not sure if I should start a new thread or just continue with this one. I decided to continue this one for the simple reason that the subject line is still relevant, and I'm not sure what to change it to if I were to start a new thread.

I've taken the vicidial installation instructions and have been steadily working on scripting it all in bash, and I'd be happy to share those scripts with anyone that wants a copy. I make no guarantees, but it seems to work for me for the most part (so far). I've gotten as far as the "perl install.pl" portion.

I decided to make some fairly heavy changes to install.pl primarily because I couldn't follow the logic, as it's one big 3000 line monolithic beast. Quite frankly it was bending my mind. I rewrote it to use subroutines so I could understand it (and to avoid breakage of my mind). In my opinion, it's now actually readable, manageable and maintainable to a better degree. Other than that I didn't make too many changes, other than to add "dummy" support for asterisk 11. (There are still things that I think need re-doing, but my goal here is to simply get vicidial up and running with asterisk 11 and ubuntu 12 with the least possible work in the shortest possible time, so I made only what I considered to be the bare minimum changes necessary to save my sanity & soul).

In other words, asterisk 11 can be chosen from the menu in addition to the previous choices of 1.2, 1.4 and 1.8 - however it doesn't actually do much of anything different. It seems that the original choices didn't differ, other than to copy different sample configs. So if one says "no" to the sample configs, then you get the same installation you would have gotten under any version of asterisk/vicidial.

By selecting "yes", you don't get any version specific sample configs - which is what I mean by my usage of the word "dummy" above. Hopefully that makes sense. I'd be more than happy to share these changes with anyone that wants them, including the original developers of course. If someone would like to host the files, you have my blessing - in fact I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'd like to state clearly that I would not suggest using these files I've changed if you're not prepared to do your own modifications, because 1) I left out anything hardware specific (dahdi, etc.) as I only use softphones here, and 2) I am not prepared to provide any support whatsoever - I'm a noob to vicidial, not much "older" in asterisk and even ubuntu is new to me. I've made these changes entirely for my own benefit, but if someone can make use of what I've done so far, I'm happy to help the cause.

With all that said, I'd like to also mention the fact that although the install.pl file seems to be working for the tiny little amount of testing I've done, I'm "stuck" at the last step where it attempts to login to the database. It wants to login as "cron", but I don't believe cron exists as a user in the database at this stage, so the login of course fails. Perhaps I deleted a piece of the code by accident, where cron is added as a user, I'm not sure at this moment in time. I can probably get around it by using a user that does in fact exist in the db, such as "root" but I'm reluctant to just plow ahead without understanding what I'm doing, even if it's only a "surface" understanding. Again, I'm happy to share the code either for help with debugging or for any other purpose as you see fit.

Thank you

[williamconley]

If you check the vicibox (or any other distro) based primary installation scripts, you'll find that the cron user is indeed created. That user is expected to "exist" and have credentials in the astguiclient.conf file before the install.pl file is run. There is a sample in each method of installation.

If you have gone to all this trouble to build a "more friendly" modular version of install.pl, it would be worth your time to either put back in the missing pieces or post what you have to the Vicidial Issue Tracker (link at top of page) in case it turns out to be useful. Requirement: You would need to release your code to be branded by The Vicidial Group as they do not maintain different licensing/code ownership for individual contributors. We contributed Quality Control with the express understanding that we may get "some recognition" or NONE, but ultimately the code would be completely merged and the final result will be "NONE" except that everyone "knows". LOL (And we have no problem with that, since that was the goal of the project in the first place! We did not create an independent QC module, it's designed specifically for ... Vicidial!).

The choices of asterisk versions (or ANYTHING else for that matter inside install.pl) do not have to do with "installing" those applications, but configuring vicidial to work with them. So choosing asterisk 1.2 does not install asterisk 1.2, it merely copies the appropriate configuration files so Vicidial issues the correct commands for asterisk 1.2. If you were to create a custom ".conf" file set for asterisk 11, that would certainly be in line with the existing system.

[apb1963]

If you check the vicibox (or any other distro) based primary installation scripts, you'll find that the cron user is indeed created. That user is expected to "exist" and have credentials in the astguiclient.conf file before the install.pl file is run. There is a sample in each method of installation. If you have gone to all this trouble to build a "more friendly" modular version of install.pl, it would be worth your time to either put back in the missing pieces...

I am not using a distro, I am scripting a scratch install. One which could potentially be used to BUILD a distro. I have not confirmed whether or not the cron user is in the astguiclient.conf file prior to running install.pl, it certainly is after running it. The problem is not with the astguiclient.conf file, the problem is the cron user doesn't exist in the database, and therefore fails to login.

It turns out that the "missing pieces" or in this case, the missing database user "cron", is added at the next step of the installation instructions. So I guess the instructions were never tested with an actual scratch install.
The instructions I'm following are here: http://wiki.vicidial.org/index.php/VICI:UbuntuInstall Please confirm what I'm stating.

Note the GRANT statement which FOLLOWS the install.pl file execution. If you know of somewhere else this user gets created, please point me to it as I'm unable to find it. Seeing as how the "asterisk database" doesn't get created until that point in time, I'm quite curious to learn what I apparently don't understand.

From the latest mySQL (5.6) reference docs:

Code: Select all

Normally, a database administrator first uses CREATE USER to create an account, then GRANT to define its privileges and characteristics. For example:

CREATE USER 'jeffrey'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mypass';
GRANT ALL ON db1.* TO 'jeffrey'@'localhost';
GRANT SELECT ON db2.invoice TO 'jeffrey'@'localhost';
GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'jeffrey'@'localhost' WITH MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR 90;
However, if an account named in a GRANT statement does not already exist, GRANT may create it under the conditions described later in the discussion of the NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER SQL mode.


Although I admit I have not checked on earlier versions of mySQL, my guess is that this behavior " if an account named in a GRANT statement does not already exist, GRANT may create it" has always existed and therefore the cron user is being created as the step after install.pl is executed.

The simple solution of least resistance appears to be simply to run the GRANT statement prior to install.pl and voila problem solved (presumably - as I've not yet done it, that remains to be seen but I'm giving myself the thumbs up on proceeding with high expectations of success on this point.) Please let me know if I'm missing a piece of understanding.

... or post what you have to the Vicidial Issue Tracker (link at top of page) in case it turns out to be useful.

Thanks for the pointer. Will do.

The choices of asterisk versions (or ANYTHING else for that matter inside install.pl) do not have to do with "installing" those applications, but configuring vicidial to work with them. So choosing asterisk 1.2 does not install asterisk 1.2, it merely copies the appropriate configuration files so Vicidial issues the correct commands for asterisk 1.2. If you were to create a custom ".conf" file set for asterisk 11, that would certainly be in line with the existing system.

Perhaps my choice of words was poor. Thanks for providing better wording so I can explain what I did better. I have not done any work on the config files for vicidial, for asterisk 11 to work with vicidial. I have not as of yet looked at the specifics of that piece. Hence my usage of the word "dummy" in my prior post. All it does at this point is copy non-version specific (i.e. common) files, and stick the version number in the astguiclient.conf file - just like prior versions did. I hope that's more clear.

[williamconley]

I did not say You Were Using a Distro. I said you can look in a distro's installation method scripting to find your answer. The scratch install has been tested by hundreds of users, but is not maintained as it is no longer required (now that there is a distro install cd available ...).

However: I do not believe that I have heard a complaint about cron being missing during this phase, and I am unaware of "install.pl" requiring database access (unless you added that as a requirement).

If you have modified install.pl to actually install applications instead of it's present usage which is merely to install the vicidial scripts ... (not create databases, nothing related to DB, just copying the scripts into place as was its original intent ...), then that would be where your problem lies.

The Vicidial Installation system is segregated. DB and Scripts and Applications are NOT mixed in any way. The distro install (which happens before ANY vicidial scripts are copied) is responsible for installing all necessary applications, after which it creates the database and DB environment (such as modifying my.cnf and creating db users). Part of this process is also to download the source code (package or SVN) of the Vicidial Scripts so they are available. After all that jazz is done, install.pl is run (from the just downloaded vicidial scripts) and its job is just to copy all the vicidial script components where they belong. This is kept separate because it can be done as many times as you like, with no damage to the system because it will simply copy the same files to the same place over and over again. This means that if you upgrade your source code (via svn) and install again, you now have the new version of the scripts with no system damage. Just copied script files. And all from SVN. At that point, if you were upgrading, you would be responsible for upgrading the DB with the upgrade.sql script also in the svn (according to the UPGRADE document provided with the source code).

So if you are building an installer, you'll need to segregate these functions ... do not mix OS/package/DB into the install.pl or it will no longer be possible to use it for upgrading. If you build a special one that does work ... what about when the install.pl changes due to a new file being added to the package? then the upgrade process will install it, but the primary install will miss it. So having a single install.pl suitable for install and upgrade both is the solution.

Happy Hunting.

[apb1963]

However: I do not believe that I have heard a complaint about cron being missing during this phase, and I am unaware of "install.pl" requiring database access (unless you added that as a requirement).

The cron user not getting created at the proper moment is a trivial thing, I doubt most people would take the time to report it, but rather simply fix it and move on.

I understand how easy it is to have missed the code in install.pl that accesses the database - precisely the reason why I rewrote the thing, it's too hard to read in it's current incarnation. Simply look for the following, which goes on for about 80 lines in install.pl:

Code: Select all

##### BEGIN attempt to connect to database, if successful then update code information in database #####
use DBI;

$dbhA = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:$VARDB_database:$VARDB_server:$VARDB_port", "$VARDB_user", "$VARDB_pass")
 or warn "Couldn't connect to database: " . DBI->errstr;

If you have modified install.pl to actually install applications instead of it's present usage which is merely to install the vicidial scripts ... (not create databases, nothing related to DB, just copying the scripts into place as was its original intent ...), then that would be where your problem lies.

As mentioned in my prior post, the problem is that the install.pl script is run prior to creation of the cron user, as per the installation instructions posted on the wiki, which I followed. The solution is simple, and as I already stated in my prior post all that (appears to) need be done to correct this particular problem is to change the wiki instructions (and scripts I'm writing) to create the cron user before running the install.pl perl script.

The Vicidial Installation system is segregated. DB and Scripts and Applications are NOT mixed in any way. The distro install (which happens before ANY vicidial scripts are copied) is responsible for installing all necessary applications,
after which it creates the database and DB environment (such as modifying my.cnf and creating db users).

Sounds like your distro has already resolved the issue that I've found with the wiki. Good job!

[williamconley]

I stand corrected. In fact, if you have a correction for the wiki, please feel free to post it and I'll see about getting the wiki updated. In fact, if you have created a brand new functional scratch install, I'd be quite happy to post it or a link to it. If I can't get permission to pop it on here (which should not be a problem), I'll post it on ViciWiki.com

[apb1963]

I just posted my updated install.pl script to issue tracker. It is now issue 0000657. I'll continue work on my other installation scripts (bash) which handle the rest of the things needed to install vicidial as described in the wiki. One issue that I've been avoiding is the "meetme" application and I don't know when I'll be able to get to it. The asterisk/freepbx guys recommend confBridge over meetme. I currently have neither installed, and have no idea what sort of changes will need to be made to vicidial to change to confBridge. I've never used either application so for me it's all one great big puzzle at this moment in time. I'll need to spend time investigating.

[williamconley]

Happy Hunting.

[bghayad]

I do not know if I am asking in the right thread or not.

I need to do a fresh installation on a machine and I would to have new asterisk version (1.8 or 11) and the OS to be ubuntu but the problem that vicibox (and the goautodial) iso is installing opensusi and old asterisk version which is 1.4!

This thread is helping me? How?

I searched in the download and I found directory called ubuntu and a file in it called ubuntu-vici-installer-vicibox.sh, so can this help?
Also, I found the vicidial directory and inside it I found the install.pl, I do not know if this what the team here are talking about it?

Anyway, this is possible for vicibox (and goautodial) or not? And if possible, then to be applied for which kind of vicidial?

Regards
Bilal

[williamconley]

If you want ubuntu and asterisk 1.8, install Vicibox 1.0.0RC2 and then upgrade to the latest svn and look up the asterisk 1.8 instructions (very recently entered Beta, but theoretically working to a fair degree).

[bghayad]

It is too much OLD to install Vicibox 1.0.0RC2 ?

Do you mean if I upgraded to latest svn, I will reach to latest vicibox version?

Any documentation link to do this and reach for asterisk 1.8?

Can I understand that Vicibox 1.0.0RC2 is based on linux?

Regards
Bilal

[williamconley]

It is too much OLD to install Vicibox 1.0.0RC2 ?

This is subjective. I still have clients using it. But read on.

Do you mean if I upgraded to latest svn, I will reach to latest vicibox version?

You would upgrade to the latest ViciDIAL version. SVN upgrades viciDIAL not viciBOX. ViciBOX is the installer, vicidial is the software being installed. It is not necessary to upgrade the "installer" as its purpose is to supply the software. And there ARE upgrade instructions for ViciDIAL from any earlier version to the latest version. Without "reinstalling", just upgrading from that earlier version to the latest. It is, however, best to merely use an existing vicidial installer. Much simpler.

Any documentation link to do this and reach for asterisk 1.8?

Documentation for what? Installation? That is a PDF on the Vicibox.com site (although you'll need the original installer documentation, which may or may not still be available on the site ... I have not checked). It is of course quite possible to install without an installation manual, after all it is a "wizard" based install. And you can always ask if you get stuck somewhere.

Can I understand that Vicibox 1.0.0RC2 is based on linux?

Vicibox 1 was Ubuntu. Which is Linux. Vicibox 2 (and 3 and 4) are OpenSuSE which is also Linux. GoAutoDial is CentOS which is also Linux. Summary: Vicidial (which can be installed with any of these installers) is a linux application. It also has Scratch installation instructions available, which can be executed on any Linux distro (but each distro will require modifications due to the differences in the distros).

I guess the question is why you can't just use Vicibox 4.0? Is it against your company policy to install OpenSuSE?

[bghayad]

It is because of using old asterisk version and old dahdi version. Then, it is because of using opensuse (less importance).
If Vicibox 4.0 with OpenSuSe has Telephony version 1.8 or higher and higher DAHDI version, then it is fine to use it. But working with asterisk 1.4 is too late !

Is it possible to have Vicibox 4.0 with OpenSuSe and running asterisk 1.8 and new dahdi version without starting by Vicibox 1.0.0RC2 ?
Also, is it possible to do the samething for goautodial without need to start from old version and do delivery? I know that here it is not the right place to ask about goautodial, but in between: if I need to have goautodial with new DAHDI and Asterisk versions, then HOW? Could be by having vicibox 4 with asterisk 1.8 and new DAHDI version and then I can use goautodial interface?

Note: In my previous question, I wrote Linux in mistake, I was mean ubuntu.
Regards
Bilal

[DomeDan]

You can use asterisk 1.8 with a vicibox install if you update with svn http://vicidial.org/VICIDIALforum/viewt ... =3&t=26803
Its still in beta but try that out and create a new topic if you got any problems

[williamconley]

Is it possible to have Vicibox 4.0 with OpenSuSe and running asterisk 1.8 and new dahdi version without starting by Vicibox 1.0.0RC2 ?

Yes. In fact, that is the recommended method. Install with Vicibox 4.0.3 and follow the instructions for asterisk 1.8 elsewhere on this forum. Perhaps in DomeDan's link although I did not look. But: New DAHDI version is something you'll have to check. (After all, "New" is not a Version Number ...)

[bghayad]

Thanks alot for the help.

To do upgrade, all what I need to do is to download asterisk 1.8 from the link http://downloads.vicidial.com/beta-apps/ and then do the ./configure, make and then make install .. nothing else?

Samething to be done for DAHDI? Or there is a special DAHDI for vicidial?

Regards
Bilal

[williamconley]

Perhaps you should look for the instructions (in the post for this purpose) for the beta install of asterisk 1.8 and follow those instructions ... then we don't have them posted in several different places. It's not that old, a scroll through the topics or a google search should find them fairly easily.

[gardo]

If you're using GoAutoDial, you don't really need to use Asterisk 1.8 unless there's a specific feature you need from it that's not available in 1.4. Only the basic features of Asterisk is currently being used by Vicidial. Though Asterisk 1.4 has reached its EOL (end of life), it still compiles and runs on CentOS 5.X based systems (GoAutoDial is based from CentOS 5.X). Not to mention that Asterisk 1.4.X has been thoroughly tested by the Vicidial community and runs very solid.

Is it possible to have Vicibox 4.0 with OpenSuSe and running asterisk 1.8 and new dahdi version without starting by Vicibox 1.0.0RC2 ?
Also, is it possible to do the samething for goautodial without need to start from old version and do delivery? I know that here it is not the right place to ask about goautodial, but in between: if I need to have goautodial with new DAHDI and Asterisk versions, then HOW? Could be by having vicibox 4 with asterisk 1.8 and new DAHDI version and then I can use goautodial interface?

[boybawang]

If you want ubuntu and asterisk 1.8, install Vicibox 1.0.0RC2 and then upgrade to the latest svn and look up the asterisk 1.8 instructions (very recently entered Beta, but theoretically working to a fair degree).

works well, testing 1 right now in production

[apb1963]

I've taken the vicidial installation instructions and have been steadily working on scripting it all in bash, and I'd be happy to share those scripts with anyone that wants a copy. I make no guarantees, but it seems to work for me for the most part (so far). I've gotten as far as the "perl install.pl" portion.

[..snip...]
my goal here is to simply get vicidial up and running with asterisk 11 and ubuntu 12 with the least possible work in the shortest possible time, so I made only what I considered to be the bare minimum changes necessary to save my sanity & soul).

In other words, asterisk 11 can be chosen from the menu in addition to the previous choices of 1.2, 1.4 and 1.8 - however it doesn't actually do much of anything different. It seems that the original choices didn't differ, other than to copy different sample configs. So if one says "no" to the sample configs, then you get the same installation you would have gotten under any version of asterisk/vicidial.
[...snippity snip...]

Again, I'm happy to share the code either for help with debugging or for any other purpose as you see fit.

Well, I thought I'd provide some updates on my work on this, as I've been making steady progress. I'm happy to say that ViciDial seems to be up and running. As it's my first time using it, quite honestly I have no idea yet. I do get the login page so that's a good sign. I've resolved the cron user issue previously mentioned in another post, and other cron users (updatecron, listencron, sendcron) seem to be satisified. Since I'm using FreePBX I chose to create these users through that interface as the simplest method. However, various issues are still outstanding.

One issue I'm currently having difficulty resolving is how the asterisk version gets updated in the database. I have updated it in the /etc/astguiclient.conf file, but I don't see any code to update the database. The database field "asterisk_version" in the "servers" table remains at the default value of 1.4.21.2 as defined by the MySQL_AST_CREATE_tables.sql script.

Although I'm sorely tempted to simply update the aforementioned sql script, I would guess that an appropriate place to update the asterisk version in the "servers" table would be in the install.pl script at the same time the svn version gets updated. If anyone knows better, or has a better idea, please let me know. Quite frankly it baffles me that there is no existing code to update that field; maybe someone can point me to it if it does exist.

[williamconley]

More recent versions of the installer offer 1.8 as an option. Which then copies 1.8 asterisk conf files instead of 1.4 or 1.2 (I presume). But simply changing the 1.4 to 1.8 in admin->servers is certainly worth experimenting with.

[mflorell]

We don't fill in the asterisk version because it may not be running when the install.pl script is running, and there is no way to figure out the version reliably if that is the case. Also, you can't just use "1.4" as a version because for example, things are different between 1.4.21.2 and 1.4.27.1(zaptel engine changed to dahdi), and back in 1.2 there were other minor version differences as well.

Also, we won't be focusing on Asterisk 11 support for at least another year. Asterisk versions are extremely dynamic in the first two years after their release, so maintaining support for a version that can for example have it's entire SIP stack swapped out between minor versions is not something we have time for. After about 2 years, most Asterisk major versions become stable, which is when we usually focus on supporting them officially.

[apb1963]

Just wanted to let anyone that cares to know, that I have in fact been able to get viciDial up and running on Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS, with asterisk 11.2.1.

Once again I will make the offer to anyone that wants the (bash) install scripts I wrote is welcome to them, just ask - they're essentially complete at this point. For the most part I simply took what was written here: http://wiki.vicidial.org/index.php/VICI:UbuntuInstall and automated it so as to save on the editing, copying & pasting. They're relatively clean so minimal tweaking should be needed, if any. I do not have any telephony hardware of any kind (just softphones) so I made no effort in regard to anything involving hardware.

I'm able to bring up the initial administration screen and I've added a user group and a user. That's about as far as I've gotten in regard to testing. I guess configuring it to actually dial out will be next, and a campaign. Inbound as well at some point.

Since my own needs are quite insignificant at this time, I doubt I'll be able to exercise anything other than some of the basic features, so if something doesn't work I probably won't find it unless someone lets me know about it.

As I've mentioned before, this is my first look at viciDial and I have to say I'm quite impressed by the options, features and configurability provided. It's actually a bit overwhelming.

The changes involved were relatively minimal (not counting my cleanup efforts - just simply some modularization that includes a new perl module that I created from extracting the code in /usr/share/astguiclient/AST_vm_update.pl that parses the asterisk version and was redundant in several other .pl scripts - it does exactly what it did before, except I added support for version 11). Seems to work. Someone with some experience with viciDial, perl & php would have been able to get what I did done more swiftly but I'm happy with the results.

My current issue is that the /usr/share/astguiclient/ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl script which runs from cron, tries to login as "custom", which apparently doesn't exist, so it emails root. I would guess that the best place to create it would be during the step titled "- Dump vicidial database" in the aforementioned link. Anyone care to provide an informed opinion? It would appear that this "custom" user is used (in this script at least) for the sole purpose of rebuilding tables created in memory.

I've also written another script that both updates the server ip (I have a dynamic IP and although it's been stable for months, it suddenly changed on me the other day) as well as the asterisk version in the "servers" table. At first I found the asterisk version from the "core show version" command, but then I stumbled onto the /etc/asterisk/version file and stuffed that into my script just so it's there in case of emergency.

[williamconley]

have in fact been able to get viciDial up and running ... I'm able to bring up the initial administration screen and I've added a user group and a user.

Sorry if I burst a bubble, but you have a web server up on Ubuntu. You don't have Vicidial up until you make and take at least one call with Autodial.

You could say you have copied most of the necessary files to the server, but it's far from up. You have just Begun the battle. LOL

You should have a comparison stock Vicibox server running for comparison.

[bghayad]

Generally speaking, if there is a new asterisk version and I need to make it working with vicidial, from where I have to start to do this mission?

Regards
Bilal

[williamconley]

get the source code for an existing one. i believe they have all the patches listed in them. very old versions of Vicidial had the patches listed and required actually patching asterisk and compiling it before installation (which meant the patches were readily available). Of course, you will have to test each patch to be sure it applies correctly to the version you are trying to patch ...

if all else fails, get the last version to which source code is available on the vicidial download site and "diff" against the same (exact!) revision level on the digium site to find the differences. then apply those same changes to the later version (ie: create your own patches).

[mflorell]

The current svn/trunk codebase of Vicidial will work with stock Asterisk 1.8.21.0. We have recently released a patch for this version that only adds CPD support and additional SIP error code logging, but these are optional and not required for Vicidial to function.

We have not looked at Asterisk 11 at all, it is too new to be considered stable. It usually takes about 2 years from forking before an Asterisk branch becomes stable enough for us to use with Vicidial with any measure of reliability.

[bghayad]

More recent versions of the installer offer 1.8 as an option. Which then copies 1.8 asterisk conf files instead of 1.4 or 1.2 (I presume). But simply changing the 1.4 to 1.8 in admin->servers is certainly worth experimenting with.

I did installation for vicibox and did not see where it is asking the asterisk version .. Do u mean the vicibox is the newer installer that does this or it is another thing?

From the other side, if I have to place the version manually then I have to put: 1.8.21.0-vici-beta?

Regards
Bilal

[mflorell]

I don't believe vicibox has Asterisk 1.8 built in yet, but it is something we are working on.

[ZoVoS]

Just thought I would wade in here and offer a few titbits.

Firstly id like to request a copy of the config because I have just started a rewriting a ton of scripts for openSUSE and CentOS to auto provision remote servers, i am SLOOOOOOOWLY removing all user interaction (if anybody knows how to automate the CPAN install id greatly apriciate it). ubuntu would be nice to add to the list.

To expand on your issues;

I don't think there is much of a difference between the flow of asterisk 1.8 and asterisk 11, the main difference you have spotted your self in conf-bridge (I was also interested in this feature as it is what I base my meeting apps off)
However meet-me is heavily tied in with most of vicidials functionality. it would be quite a task for a person with minimal knowledgeable of how the system works to retrofit confbridge into vici (I believe the 2 can't be run simultaneously)

that said

./meetme.conf
./meetme-vicidial.conf
(this is populated from the admin interface, you probably had to manually fill it up as part of the install so you may need to change the keep-alive and other automatic scripts, more at the bottom)

./extensions.conf:exten => _X48600XXX,1,MeetMeAdmin(${EXTEN:2},T,${EXTEN:0:1})
./extensions.conf:exten => _X38600XXX,1,MeetMeAdmin(${EXTEN:2},t,${EXTEN:0:1})
./extensions.conf:exten => _X28600XXX,1,MeetMeAdmin(${EXTEN:2},m,${EXTEN:0:1})
./extensions.conf:exten => _X18600XXX,1,MeetMeAdmin(${EXTEN:2},M,${EXTEN:0:1})
./extensions.conf:exten => _55558600XXX,1,MeetMeAdmin(${EXTEN:4},K)
./extensions.conf:exten => _86000[0-4]X,1,Meetme,${EXTEN}|q
./extensions.conf:exten => _86000[5-9]X,1,Meetme,${EXTEN}|F
./extensions.conf:exten => _8600[1-2]XX,1,Meetme,${EXTEN}|F
./extensions.conf:exten => _78600XXX,1,Meetme,${EXTEN:1}|Fq

./extensions.conf:exten => _68600XXX,1,Meetme,${EXTEN:1}|Fmq
./extensions.conf:exten => _58600XXX,1,Meetme,${EXTEN:1}|Fmq
./extensions.conf:exten => _86009XX,1,Meetme,${EXTEN}|Fmq
./extensions.conf:exten => _986009XX,1,Meetme,${EXTEN:1}
./extensions.conf:exten => s,n,Set(MEETME_EXIT_CONTEXT=monitor_exit)
./extensions.conf:exten => _8[0-2]XX,1,Meetme(8600${EXTEN:1},mqX) ; Listen
./extensions.conf:exten => _99[0-2]XX,1,Meetme(8600${EXTEN:2},X) ; Barge


Looking at the AGI folder it there seems to be no direct references to meetme, just the conference numbers.

/var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin # grep -irA5 -B5 meetme ./

so that's quite promising. tbh it looks a lot easier to implement than I first thought but I'm sure its going to fall down somewhere,
basically a conference binds to a logged in agent. this person is dumped in the conference and the system makes a call. (also there is a call recording chanel and I dare say its used in 3way calling, lots to take into consideration)
when a call is answered it passes it to one of the conferences, meetme its quite a vital piece of the system.

./agi-VDAD_ALL_outbound.agi <- mhmmmmmm from what I can tell here and in the other agis, a drop in replacement may actually work =O as its all been written quite nicely to stick to the dial code rather than hardcode navigation into the scripts.




EDIT

soo the main bulk of changes will probably be here

./AST_manager_kill_hung_congested.pl: ### use manager middleware-app to zapbarge call being placed from meetme
./AST_conf_update.pl: $COMMAND = "Action: Command\nCommand: Meetme list $PT_conf_extens[$i]\n\nAction: Ping\n\n";
./AST_conf_update.pl: if($DB){print "Meetme list $PT_conf_extens[$i]- Exten:|$PTextensions[$i]| Empty:|$conf_empty[$i]| ";}
./AST_conf_update.pl: $COMMAND = "Action: Command\nCommand: Meetme list $PT_conf_extens[$i]\n\nAction: Ping\n\n";
./AST_conf_update.pl: if($DB){print "Meetme list $PT_conf_extens[$i]- Exten:|$PTextensions[$i]| Empty:|$conf_empty[$i]| ";}
./AST_send_action_child.pl:# 61004-1728 - Added ability to parse volume control and lookup meetme IDs
./AST_send_action_child.pl: # Command: meetme list 8600051
./AST_send_action_child.pl: my $meetme_command = "Action: Command\nCommand: meetme list $cmd_line_k\n\n";
./AST_send_action_child.pl: print nowDate() . "|$SYSLOG|\n$meetme_command";
./AST_send_action_child.pl: my @list_meetme = $tn->cmd(String => $meetme_command,
./AST_send_action_child.pl: foreach my $meetme (@list_meetme) {
./AST_send_action_child.pl: if ($meetme =~ /$cmd_line_j /i) {
./AST_send_action_child.pl: $meetme =~ s/User \#: //gi;
./AST_send_action_child.pl: my @participants = split(/ /, $meetme);
./AST_send_action_child.pl: # print "$participant|$cmd_line_j|$meetme";
./AST_conf_update_3way.pl: $COMMAND = "Action: Command\nCommand: Meetme list $PT_conf_extens[$i]\n\nAction: Ping\n\n";
./AST_conf_update_3way.pl: if($DB){print "Meetme list $PT_conf_extens[$i]- Exten:|$PTextensions[$i]| Empty:|$conf_empty[$i]| ";}
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl:# 90903-1626 - Added musiconhold and meetme conf file generation
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: ### format the remote server dialstring to get the call to the overflow agent meetme room
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: ##### BEGIN generate meetme entries for this server
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: $vc_meetme[$j] = $aryA[0];
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: $mm .= "conf => $vc_meetme[$j]\n";
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: $meetme[$j] = $aryA[0];
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: $mm .= "conf => $meetme[$j]\n";
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: ##### END generate meetme entries for this server
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: open(mm, ">/etc/asterisk/BUILDmeetme-vicidial.conf") || die "can't open /etc/asterisk/BUILDmeetme-vicidial.conf: $!\n";
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: if ( !-e ('/etc/asterisk/meetme-vicidial.conf'))
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: {`echo -e \"; END OF FILE\n\" > /etc/asterisk/meetme-vicidial.conf`;}
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: $mmCMP = compare("/etc/asterisk/BUILDmeetme-vicidial.conf","/etc/asterisk/meetme-vicidial.conf");
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: `cp -f /etc/asterisk/BUILDmeetme-vicidial.conf /etc/asterisk/meetme-vicidial.conf`;
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: `screen -XS asterisk eval 'stuff "reload app_meetme.so\015"'`;
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: if ($DB) {print "reload app_meetme.so\n";}
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: `cp -f /etc/asterisk/BUILDmeetme-vicidial.conf /etc/asterisk/meetme-vicidial.conf`;
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: `screen -XS asterisk eval 'stuff "module reload app_meetme.so\015"'`;
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: if ($DB) {print "module reload app_meetme.so\n";}
./ADMIN_keepalive_ALL.pl: `rm -f /etc/asterisk/BUILDmeetme-vicidial.conf`;
./AST_VDauto_dial.pl: ### use manager middleware-app to connect the next call to the meetme room
./AST_VDauto_dial_FILL.pl: ### use manager middleware-app to connect the next call to the meetme room


GoodLuck if you take on the task =D