[Asterisk-doc] preliminary notes/docs for quicknet hardware

[Scott Edwards]

> My target audiance is from the asterisk-doc's itself. (eg, reading from the docs)
> Enjoy. (needs proofing etc...)

This set of documentation is prepared in part, by Scott Edwards. 

If at any time you feel this documentation is insufficent, or lacking in 
some area, you are free to update us.  Remarks about "there's nothing here" 
will go unanswered because we'd rather spend time writing it. 

I've spent countless hours to get the ixj driver working with the Quicknet 
Internet Phone Jack.  I only have the ISA version at this time. 

The summary for getting this card to work with asterisk is as follows: 

First, the card must work with the telephony API layer for the Linux kernel. 
Without this level of support, you still have hardware or driver issues. 
(again, that's not an asterisk problem!)  I'm using Debian, and may have 
done some things the 'Debian' way. 

First, let's start with the bad news.  The 2.4.26 kernel.org ixj driver does 
not appear to work.  (feel free to correct me, with some documentation to 
back it up if I'm wrong) 

This will result in syslog entries like:
May 22 18:44:03 bell kernel: preparing failed -16 

Also, asterisk will throw these errors: (with the correct phone.conf)
[chan_phone.so] => (Linux Telephony API Support)
WARNING[1024]: File chan_phone.c, Line 907 (mkif): Unable to open 
'/dev/phone0'
ERROR[1024]: File chan_phone.c, Line 1040 (load_module): Unable to register 
channel '/dev/phone0'
WARNING[1024]: File loader.c, Line 269 (ast_load_resource): chan_phone.so: 
load_module failed, returning -1
WARNING[1024]: File loader.c, Line 363 (load_modules): Loading module 
chan_phone.so failed! 

Lets compare procinfo stats on the ixj node from different versions: 

kernel.org ixj driver:
bell:~# cat /proc/ixj
$Id: ixj.c,v 4.7 2001/08/13 06:19:33 craigs Exp $
$Id: ixj.h,v 4.1 2001/08/04 14:49:27 craigs Exp $
$Id: ixjuser.h,v 4.1 2001/08/05 00:17:37 craigs Exp $
Driver version 1.0.1
sizeof IXJ struct 21156 bytes
sizeof DAA struct 642 bytes
Using old telephony API
Debug Level 0
bell:~# 

Notice how there is only 8 lines?  There should be more. (many more if you 
have multiple cards)  I was able to prove there was a big issue, after 
taking the card from the machine, and trying to replicate it.  Yes, this 
(possibly both) ixj driver will appear to load if the card is not present.  
The results above are identical with and without the card using the 
kernel.org ixj driver. (pay close attention to the cvs version, date, and 
commiter here soon) 

Before you rush off and grab the CVS release from www.openh323.org, lets 
make sure you have the prerequisites for compiling this driver (this now 
being openh323 relase). 

Compile a kernel with: 

isapnp support as a module
versioned kernel module symbols (required for modversions.h to be created)
telephony support (I always used it as a module)
NO support for ANY ixj (because it's kernel.org, and it will possibly 
conflict with the openh323.org CVS release) 

Also, I decided to rename my /etc/isapnp.conf out of the way prior to the 
following steps. 

Make, install and boot the kernel as usual. Prefibly (lazy sp) off the 
machine you are going to use it on.  Use uname -a to confirm you're running 
the new kernel. 

On Debian, you should check /etc/modutils/ and below for any references to 
ixj.  Ignore aliases, as they are ok.  Also, if you're running Debian, check 
with these docs when the next steps says 'run modprobe ixj' on the command 
line. 

Now you'll want to grab the CVS driver from www.openh323.org at 
http://www.openh323.org/driver/cvs.html 

Debian users may run update-modutils BEFORE modprobe ixj. 

Hopefully, after following their guide, you've just ran modprobe ixj, and 
you're waiting for more. 

Notice in the next block of /proc/ixj, how the version numbers are smaller, 
however a different commiter for ixj.c is present, and the dates are 
actually NEWER then kernel.org. (this is clearly a result of a source fork. 
one for kernel.org, and the other for openh323) 

$Id: ixj.c,v 4.19 2002/09/10 09:10:57 rogerh Exp $
$Id: ixj.h,v 4.2 2001/09/27 04:52:04 craigs Exp $
$Id: ixjuser.h,v 4.2 2001/08/29 12:55:20 craigs Exp $
Driver version 1.2.2
sizeof IXJ struct 21160 bytes
sizeof DAA struct 642 bytes
Using old telephony API
Debug Level 0 

Card Num 0
DSP Base Address 0x0300
DSP Type 8020
DSP Version 01.12
Serial Number 00a0c0de
Card Type = Internet PhoneJACK
Readers 1
Writers 1
Capabilities 11
Caller ID data not sent
Play CODEC 16 bit Linear
Record CODEC 16 bit Linear
AEC Off
Rec volume 0x100
Play volume 0x100
DTMF prescale 0x40
Hook state 0
Port POTS
Base Frame 00.00
CID Base Frame  0
Timer Checks 3335470
RX Ready Checks 4146184
TX Ready Checks 3869362
Frames Read 2243
Frames Written 894
Dry Buffer 3283
Read Waits 0
Write Waits 3
Status Waits 8221844
Status Wait Fails 0
PControl Waits 0
PControl Wait Fails 0
Is Control Ready Checks 0
Is Control Ready Check failures 0 

Ok, now we have a nice looking proc status showing the card was found.
Now it's time for asterisk to take over.  as a quick note, the kernel 
telephony API access is handled in asterisk via phone.conf.  asterisk by 
default won't have it enabled, check the last lines of the conf for more 
info. You can also check the phone.conf entries in this documentation. 

I hope this was helpfull! I will be reinstalling from scratch soon while 
trying these docs to see what else I need to add.  In the meantime, I wish 
you luck! 

Thanks again, 


Scott Edwards
Daxal Communications - http://www.daxal.com/