[asterisk-users] A stupid problem with Playback

[asterisk at phreaknet.org]

On 5/28/2023 11:51 AM, Steve Matzura wrote:
> On 5/28/2023 6:19 AM, asterisk at phreaknet.org wrote:
>>>
>>>> A great reason to avoid Asterisk packages and compile from source 
>>>> instead. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches.
>>>
>>> That's how I started, by trying to build version 18 from source. It 
>>> failed. Colossally. The compile of sources would run for a while, 
>>> then the machine would crash spectacularly--I mean, not just hang or 
>>> reboot. It actually turned itself off. I tried it several times, and 
>>> each time it failed in the same way, but at a different spot in the 
>>> compile process. If ever I could figure out a way to trace that one 
>>> down, I would. It was the strangest thing.
>>
>> This sounds like your machine is defective in some major way. 
>> Granted, compiling software is pretty intensive, but your machine 
>> shouldn't just crash. I would try to figure that out. Is this a VM / 
>> bare metal? Have you tried this on another machine?
>
> It's probably eight or nine years old now, an ASRock motherboard with 
> I don't even know what on it in the way of processor speed or power.
It's not a manufacturer with which I'm familiar, either.
8 or 9 years isn't really that old. I run Asterisk on OptiPlex towers 
that are 20 years old, and it works really well. I've actually had more 
issues with things that are more compact, like rack servers. What's 
important is to have a working, compatible machine in good condition.

Some general observations:
- The CPU doesn't need to great, but it should be sufficient. Any 
desktop CPU from the last 20 years should be perfectly adequate.
- Compiling can run into hitches if you don't have enough memory on your 
machine. On machines with 1 GB of RAM or less, for example, I've found 
that swap space is mandatory to compile very large files (e.g. 
chan_sip.c). Otherwise, gcc will just get killed by the kernel 
eventually. But you need far more memory when compiling than when 
Asterisk itself is running. You could allocate a bunch of swap and 
deallocate it after you're done.

> I should probably pick up another machine but I can't justify the 
> expense because it's only for play, FTP, and running this Asterisk 
> project, which is complete enough now that I don't have to mess with 
> it any more. Who knows--it might even wind up on a spare Raspberry Pi 
> 4, in which case this whole tower can just go away.
For just SIP stuff, lots of people have used Pis and it works great for 
them, so that might not be a bad idea.
You definitely don't need a new machine though. Any old PC lying around 
since ~2000 or so will probably do just fine. If you happen to have a 
spare handy, you could try it out.