[asterisk-users] Best Linux distribution to use in Asterisk server

[Drew Gibson]

Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
> On Fri, May 09, 2008 at 11:50:59AM -0400, Drew Gibson wrote:
>   
>> equis software wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi, I allways use Gentoo y my Asterisk servers and work well, but what 
>>> do you think about to use Ubuntu or another distibution??
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>       
>> I have run Asterisk on several Fedora versions, Debian, Unslung (on the 
>> NSLU2 or "Slug") and recently Ubuntu. My most critical servers are on 
>> Debian and new ones will be on Ubuntu LTS.
>>
>> I have had very few OS specific issues. I have always built from source 
>> except on the Slug but I noticed that Ubuntu has it in the apt 
>> repository which would be a great convenience if you are new to Linux or 
>> manage a lot of servers.
>>     
>
> Now that you mention it, are packages of that distribution really
> maintained?
>
> The recent volnurability of AST-2008-006 is a good test case for that.
> If affects both 1.2 and 1.4 .
>
> The annoncement by Digium:
>
>   http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asa/AST-2008-006.html
>
> As with the previous ones, the text is quite clear about the fix.
> "backporting" that patch to a slightly older version is not that tricky
> (and it is something that a distribution package maintainer is used to
> doing anyway).
>
> So what about updates?
>
>   

The optware feed for Unslung (on the NSLU2) is up-to-date on Asterisk 
1.4 with 1.4.19.1 but a rev or two behind on 1.2 with 1.2.24

> The LWN page for this advisory only lists Fedora and Debian:
>
>   http://lwn.net/Articles/280318/
>
> Response ime in both was quite reasonable.
>
> LWN also tracks adsisories from various other distributions. You can see
> the list in http://lwn.net/Alerts/ . The following other distributions
> have 'asterisk' packages:
>
>  * Gentoo
>  * Mandriva (??? - probably only in contrib and is unsupported)
>  * rPath (Not sure. See below about AstriskNOW)
>  * SUSE
>  * Ubuntu (the package is in 'universe', and not officially supported)
>
> The issue is listed as corrected in AsteriskNOW 1.0.3, but the latest
> version available for download is 1.0.2 .
> If I read rpath's repository page correctly, then the most recently
> released version of Asterisk is 1.4.17-2 , from Feb-2008 and thus does
> not contain this fix.
>
> To see the versions of packages i Ubuntu:
>
>   http://packages.ubuntu.com/asterisk
>
> As you can see, both Hardy and the development distribution (Interpid)
> include the same version of the package. As you can see from following
> the changelog link:
> http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/changelogs/pool/universe/a/asterisk/asterisk_1.4.17~dfsg-2ubuntu1/changelog
>
> The security issues of 1.4.18.1 were backported to that 1.4.17 package.
> But nothing about the recent advisory.
>
>
> The Gentoo port is basically where the Ubuntu package is: missing only
> the last one:
>
>   http://packages.gentoo.org/package/asterisk
>
>
> The FreeBSD port has not been updated yet. It is still at 1.4.18, and no
> sign of backported fixes:
>
>   http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/net/asterisk/
>
>
> OpenBSD port was updated pretty fast (by upgrading to asterisk 1.4.19.1)
>
>   http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/telephony/asterisk/
>
>
> I don't know where to look for in other distributions.
>
>   


-- 
Drew Gibson

Systems Administrator
OANDA Corporation
www.oanda.com