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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Asterisk Brethren,</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>This has been a fantasy morphed into reality; albeit not
quite how I had it planned. Learning how to re-master KNOPPIX into my own
customization WAS a challenge but very educational. Once I learned the
process of re-mastering, installing Asterisk was a whole new challenge, but 47
hours, 32 pots of caffeine and a slice of Papa John’s later, whoa-la’.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I have 2 versions, one on a full KNOPPIX CD distro ~700M (works
fine, not great, but ok) and one compiled onto a Damn Small Linux distro ~50M
(this is untested, having some issues). This project if far from refinement
but does work as planned. I can boot the large CD and Asterisk comes up
and runs as a demon. I pre-configured sip.conf, extensions.conf. iax.conf
and voicemail.conf (no zaptel cards stuff yet) for basic operation to support
10 sip extensions and iax trunking into a PSTN gateway.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I solved the issue of writing new configurations, voicemail and
logging onto to the read-only medium so NVRAM will hold and maintain any
configuration changes (the swelling from head-butting the monitor are subsiding
nicely).</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The ultimate solution I’m attempting to create is an
Asterisk soft switch that is hardened onto an un-corruptible image so a quick
re-boot will restore the server to a pre-defined condition (kind of like firmware
for a dedicated hardware platform, router, switch, etc…). I would like
to move to a single USB device, like FLONIX KNOPPIX or DSL USB NOPPIX.
Also a USB memory stick will allow re-mastering new software releases and
upgrades without needing to burn a CDR every time. This would allow
servers to be built without the need for a hard drive, floppy or CDROM,
reducing the overall cost of the server.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Please understand and forgive me, but I’m not quite ready
to generally release the images just yet. I’m feeling pretty good
about what has been accomplished so far but I want to wait and release a
product that can be used with ease and satisfaction and not disappointment for having
downloaded and burned a piece of crap imaged that wasted your time.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I’m really divulging this work to let you all know
what’s coming but primarily, I’m looking for a few interested experts
for refinement and problem solving. The biggest road block to a stable
product is working with the Debian distro and compiling the latest Asterisk
package onto the smaller DSL. The smaller the distro, the smaller the RAM
and storage are needed, the cheaper the product and so on. Right now I’m
in dependency hell </span></font><font size=2 face=Wingdings><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Wingdings'>L</span></font><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> with Debian and
can’t seem to compile the latest CVS tree into the distribution.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>If there are any interested parties that would like to jump
in, please contact me by e-mail directly.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Thanks for your time.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>JR</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a href="mailto:Jr.richardson@cox.net">Jr.richardson@cox.net</a></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
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