[asterisk-users] USB phone with Asterisk under Linux

[Gordon Henderson]

On Wed, 15 Jul 2009, Marco Sambo wrote:

> Hi all,
> I want to try to use a USB phone with Ekiga under Linux (Debian Lenny). It
> works: I can receive and make calls. But some buttons of USB phone don't
> work properly. In particular, button *, #, and hangup have wrong key
> mapping.
> Someone have tried a USB phone ????

I've tried a few. They're not well supported. Best I found was Yealink 
branded ones, even then, not all the keys worked and I looked into hacking 
the kernel USB HID driver to make it work. Biggest hassle I found was that 
the phone basically looked like an additional keyboard to the system, so 
it needed focus on the application I was using (idefisk/zoiper) - and if 
you already had focus by moving the mouse, you might as well use it to 
click on the dialpad...

Personally, I'd just use the USB phone as an audio device and use the 
on-screen keypad with mouse and/or keyboard to type in a number.

I also found ekiga to be .. "sub optimal". A bit bloaty and clunky, but 
it's about the only true OSS softphone in a usable state that I'm aware 
of. I always point clients to Zoiper now - mostly because it's cross 
platform.

Gordon