[asterisk-users] Trixbox Documentation

[joea, j4computers]

Jay R. Ashworth<jra at baylink.com> Wrote on: 9/23/2006 3:02 PM:
> On Sat, Sep 23, 2006 at 08:49:32AM -0400, joea, j4computers wrote:
>> > simple. So if anybody knows about some good article(s) on trixbox, plz
>> > share. Thanx in advance.
>> 
>> My advice to you would be to download it and install it. Then relate
>> your experience in your own works.
>>
>> You might decide, as I did, to look elsewhere.
> 
> Would you care to expand, Joe? 
> (Or have you already, and I'll find it in the archives?)
> 
> Cheers,
> -- jra

Is this another gentle hint that I should be seeking some answers in the archives?  Sigh.  Self reliance.  What a concept.

I found Trixbox (1.2) to be quite a frustration.  Now, granted, I am quite green with asterisk, and only recently into Linux, but . . . it is billed as "up and running in 1 hour", etc.

I even sprang (not too easy at my age, ya know) for a new tdm400p card, with two FXO and two FXS
modules, to eliminate any hardware config/compatibility issues.  It is supposed to automatically fill in the blanks if using Digium hardware.  Or so I was told.

In any event, I found it did "install" but did not seem to function properly.  It did "see" the TDP400p, zttool (IIRC)  said it was OK.  But I'd had to manually fill in zaptel.conf.  Easy enough, having "the book" to refer to.

It did seem to work with SIP phones I was trying, which indicates that the asterisk part was working.  The webish stuff seemed to work as well, (perhaps that's obvious) as I could configure the SIP parts and some other items that escape memory at the moment.

It did not answer a PTSN incoming call, nor did it give any indication that it was aware of any activity. 

When I looked in logs, and rebooted, I could see that wcfxs was not loading, being missing in (in)action.  Seems to me, that should have been there.

Research (there's THAT word again) indicated I was going to have to compile zaptel stuff.  OK, fine.  Too bad the source was not there.  Downloaded that, and attempted the steps shown in various places, only to find I needed "linux source" (I think it was, memory fails, early senility).  

Fearing for brain, (and blood pressure), while getting no support from various places, Digium included (get "our" software installed, then we can talk), and not seeing any response to my whines on the Trixbox forum, decided to quite while behind and take another tack.

So, now I am struggling with a Suse SLES 9 install, that seems reluctant to co-operate.  (needed libnewt, which needed python 2.4, which now broke red carpet . . .)  But at least that's not billed as "for dummies".

joea