RE: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
>From what I've found, if you modify the normal config files, then they will stay until the next time you update your server. When you update your server, they get restored back to the origional, packaged state. It's best to stick to the _custom files as much as possible. John McCollough LAN Network Connections, Inc (603)622-8557 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Time Bandit Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 2:14 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install" > I also include a consideration from mine: I would happily use Trixbox, > because I did FreePBX setup once and it was a real pain, but I'm very > frightened by a few issues: > > 1) Trixbox "Macho" installation that installs everything without > asking. I, for example, would like to use software RAID (maybe it's > wrong with Asterisk, but I want to do it!). I wouldn't like doing it > manually after Trixbox installation. I would like to have an installer > doing it for me. Centos (ex redhat) installer does it, so why Trixbox > choose to install everything without prompting? You can just install CentOS with RAID and whatever you want, then use the Trixbox tar package instead of the ISO. Still, why on earth did the Trixbox team didn't leave the option of doing a custom install with the ISO ? > 2) How easy it is to find Trixbox SRPMS? Is it possible to compile > new software (i.e. Asterisk or FreePBX, etc..) on Trixbox without > having to rewrite all the configuration files, changing all paths, all > permissions, and so on... You can update Asterisk/zaptel/whatever by just downloading the source and compiling it. My home system was installed with [EMAIL PROTECTED] on version 0.8 (if memory serves me right) and I upgraded Asterisk and Zaptel to version 1.0.10 by downloading and compiling. I know, this is a really old version and I should upgrade, but hey, it is doing everything I need and it is stable (uptime of 315 days). IMHO, Trixbox can me customized alot, but you need to know where and what to modify. I believe that if you know enough about how Asterisk work, you can get around Trixbox limitations. One thing to remember is that the files you can modify are the _custom.conf files. Never touch the _additional.conf files, they will get overwritten next time you click "Apply changes" in the GUI. The normal base files (sip.conf. iax.conf, etc) can be modified since the GUI doesn't touch them. But I also think that there is nothing that can beat a plain install as far as customization go. YMMV ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
You mean compiling raw tar.gz or SRPMS? And where do you download them from? Trixbox site or the original vendors' sites? I just download the tarball from asterisk.org and compile it. Trixbox is not a "special" version of Asterisk, it is just an easy way to install Asterisk, FreePBX, FOP and a bunch of other packages. hth ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
At 20.13 18/02/2007, you wrote: You can just install CentOS with RAID and whatever you want, then use the Trixbox tar package instead of the ISO. Very useful information. Thanks! Still, why on earth did the Trixbox team didn't leave the option of doing a custom install with the ISO ? I agree. There's probably a choice behind it, but it's obscure to me. 2) How easy it is to find Trixbox SRPMS? Is it possible to compile new software (i.e. Asterisk or FreePBX, etc..) on Trixbox without having to rewrite all the configuration files, changing all paths, all permissions, and so on... You can update Asterisk/zaptel/whatever by just downloading the source and compiling it. My home system was installed with [EMAIL PROTECTED] on version 0.8 (if memory serves me right) and I upgraded Asterisk and Zaptel to version 1.0.10 by downloading and compiling. I know, this is a really old version and I should upgrade, but hey, it is doing everything I need and it is stable (uptime of 315 days). You mean compiling raw tar.gz or SRPMS? And where do you download them from? Trixbox site or the original vendors' sites? Thanks Stefano ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
You can just install CentOS with RAID and whatever you want, then use the Trixbox tar package instead of the ISO. Still, why on earth did the Trixbox team didn't leave the option of doing a custom install with the ISO ? Please note that the recent (2.x) releases of trixbox allow you to select which modules to install, including raid. Really? I didn't find any information about ths feature... Could you tell me how to install on RAID with the 2.0 installer? Which option should I pass to the installer? Thanks Stefano ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Time Bandit Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 11:14 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install" > I also include a consideration from mine: I would happily use > Trixbox, because I did FreePBX setup once and it was a real pain, but > I'm very frightened by a few issues: > > 1) Trixbox "Macho" installation that installs everything without > asking. I, for example, would like to use software RAID (maybe it's > wrong with Asterisk, but I want to do it!). I wouldn't like doing it > manually after Trixbox installation. I would like to have an > installer doing it for me. Centos (ex redhat) installer does it, so > why Trixbox choose to install everything without prompting? You can just install CentOS with RAID and whatever you want, then use the Trixbox tar package instead of the ISO. Still, why on earth did the Trixbox team didn't leave the option of doing a custom install with the ISO ? Please note that the recent (2.x) releases of trixbox allow you to select which modules to install, including raid. This message is confidential. It may also be privileged or otherwise protected by work product immunity or other legal rules. If you have received it by mistake, please let us know by e-mail reply and delete it from your system; you may not copy this message or disclose its contents to anyone. Please send us by fax any message containing deadlines as incoming e-mails are not screened for response deadlines. The integrity and security of this message cannot be guaranteed on the Internet. ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
I also include a consideration from mine: I would happily use Trixbox, because I did FreePBX setup once and it was a real pain, but I'm very frightened by a few issues: 1) Trixbox "Macho" installation that installs everything without asking. I, for example, would like to use software RAID (maybe it's wrong with Asterisk, but I want to do it!). I wouldn't like doing it manually after Trixbox installation. I would like to have an installer doing it for me. Centos (ex redhat) installer does it, so why Trixbox choose to install everything without prompting? You can just install CentOS with RAID and whatever you want, then use the Trixbox tar package instead of the ISO. Still, why on earth did the Trixbox team didn't leave the option of doing a custom install with the ISO ? 2) How easy it is to find Trixbox SRPMS? Is it possible to compile new software (i.e. Asterisk or FreePBX, etc..) on Trixbox without having to rewrite all the configuration files, changing all paths, all permissions, and so on... You can update Asterisk/zaptel/whatever by just downloading the source and compiling it. My home system was installed with [EMAIL PROTECTED] on version 0.8 (if memory serves me right) and I upgraded Asterisk and Zaptel to version 1.0.10 by downloading and compiling. I know, this is a really old version and I should upgrade, but hey, it is doing everything I need and it is stable (uptime of 315 days). IMHO, Trixbox can me customized alot, but you need to know where and what to modify. I believe that if you know enough about how Asterisk work, you can get around Trixbox limitations. One thing to remember is that the files you can modify are the _custom.conf files. Never touch the _additional.conf files, they will get overwritten next time you click "Apply changes" in the GUI. The normal base files (sip.conf. iax.conf, etc) can be modified since the GUI doesn't touch them. But I also think that there is nothing that can beat a plain install as far as customization go. YMMV ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
Actually, there's a very easy way to install Trixbox with RAID right from the CD. All you have to do is edit one file on the root of the ISO, burn the image and boot from it. I have used it myself with great success, though I'm not sure if it has been tested on 2.0. The instructions are at http://dumbme.voipeye.com.au/trixbox/trixbox_without_tears.htm#_Toc15759 1311 John McCollough LAN Network Connections, Inc (603)622-8557 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom Rymes Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 11:57 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install" On Feb 15, 2007, at 7:01 PM, Stefano Corsi wrote: > Hello everybody. First of all thanks to all the people giving their > opinion on the subject I proposed: "Trixbox vs. custom install". > You've all been very helpful. [snip] > I also include a consideration from mine: I would happily use Trixbox, > because I did FreePBX setup once and it was a real pain, but I'm very > frightened by a few issues: > > 1) Trixbox "Macho" installation that installs everything without > asking. I, for example, would like to use software RAID (maybe it's > wrong with Asterisk, but I want to do it!). I wouldn't like doing it > manually after Trixbox installation. I would like to have an installer > doing it for me. Centos (ex redhat) installer does it, so why Trixbox > choose to install everything without prompting? Stefano, Great summary. As an aside here, it is possible to install Trixbox on top of an existing CentOS installation by using the tarball, not the ISO. This works very well, with one issue I ran into. A fresh install of CentOS updated via yum will not have the correct version of the kernel to match the zaptel-modules RPM shipped with Trixbox (because it is no longer in the repositories). You can fix this problem two ways: 1.) Manually install the kernel from the Trixbox CD, which will fix the problem, if you prefer to work just the way Trixbox normally does. You should configure yum to not upgrade the kernel in this case, because that would break zaptel. 2.) You can download and manually recompile zaptel on your own. Either you will have to recompile zaptel every time that the kernel is upgraded by yum, or you should configure yum to not upgrade the kernel. (This is true of any zaptel install, not just Trixbox.) See the bug i posted: http://www.trixbox.org/modules/xproject/ index.php?op=viewTicketMain&id=27 Another resolution would be to provide an SRPM for the zaptel-modules package, which you (or the tarball install script) could rpmbuild -- rebuild against your current kernel. Either way, this isn't a big problem so long as you know it's there. Worst case scenario, you just download and compile zaptel, which you would have had to do anyway for a non-trixbox install. Tom ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
On Feb 15, 2007, at 7:01 PM, Stefano Corsi wrote: Hello everybody. First of all thanks to all the people giving their opinion on the subject I proposed: "Trixbox vs. custom install". You've all been very helpful. [snip] I also include a consideration from mine: I would happily use Trixbox, because I did FreePBX setup once and it was a real pain, but I'm very frightened by a few issues: 1) Trixbox "Macho" installation that installs everything without asking. I, for example, would like to use software RAID (maybe it's wrong with Asterisk, but I want to do it!). I wouldn't like doing it manually after Trixbox installation. I would like to have an installer doing it for me. Centos (ex redhat) installer does it, so why Trixbox choose to install everything without prompting? Stefano, Great summary. As an aside here, it is possible to install Trixbox on top of an existing CentOS installation by using the tarball, not the ISO. This works very well, with one issue I ran into. A fresh install of CentOS updated via yum will not have the correct version of the kernel to match the zaptel-modules RPM shipped with Trixbox (because it is no longer in the repositories). You can fix this problem two ways: 1.) Manually install the kernel from the Trixbox CD, which will fix the problem, if you prefer to work just the way Trixbox normally does. You should configure yum to not upgrade the kernel in this case, because that would break zaptel. 2.) You can download and manually recompile zaptel on your own. Either you will have to recompile zaptel every time that the kernel is upgraded by yum, or you should configure yum to not upgrade the kernel. (This is true of any zaptel install, not just Trixbox.) See the bug i posted: http://www.trixbox.org/modules/xproject/ index.php?op=viewTicketMain&id=27 Another resolution would be to provide an SRPM for the zaptel-modules package, which you (or the tarball install script) could rpmbuild -- rebuild against your current kernel. Either way, this isn't a big problem so long as you know it's there. Worst case scenario, you just download and compile zaptel, which you would have had to do anyway for a non-trixbox install. Tom ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
Stefano Corsi wrote: > Hello everybody. First of all thanks to all the people giving their > opinion on the subject I proposed: "Trixbox vs. custom install". You've > all been very helpful. Very nice summary, Stefano. If you devote that kind of analysis to the question, you'll do fine, whatever you decide. -Stephen- ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
[asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"
Hello everybody. First of all thanks to all the people giving their opinion on the subject I proposed: "Trixbox vs. custom install". You've all been very helpful. I try to summarize what has emerged from the various messages. Forgive me if I miss or forget something or if I simplify too much some of your messages... - Elman Efendiyev says that you should install from sources if you need customized setup. He suggests using Slackware for Asterisk installations. - Lee Jenkins suggests using a GUI (like [EMAIL PROTECTED]), while admitting there are some problems with dialplan customization. He has also written his own Asterisk GUI to learn system internals, among other reasons. - Michael Collins suggests having two boxes two play with both Trixbox and a scratch install. Each method, he says, can teach a lot. He has still not decided which one to use in production. - Edward Halman suggests a step-by-step install. But he says also that if you just need Asterisk, FreePBX and A2Billing, Trixbox can be a good choice because setting up FreePPBX and A2Billing can be a little tricky. - Stephen Bosch writes: if you're only going to use Voip Trunks... use Trixbox. But if you're going to use PSTN hardware (like Digium or Sangoma cards), then a custom install is better. He had problems with Trixbox 2.0 and hardware, then replaced it with a custom install. He says also that the userbase of custom install is greater and has more advanced knowledge. - Shadowym states that if you're not able to set up Asterisk with a custom install, you should not use it in a production environment. - Mark Brooker says that both approaches are to be mastered. Anyway, you should be able to install from source to use Asterisk in a production environment. However, FreePBX is a great tool and should be used too. - Tom Rymes says that troubleshooting a GUI is much easier and Trixbox has no more problems with hardware than a custom install has. For example, on Sangoma site, there's a link to a customized Trixbox version targeted to Sangoma cards. Using Yum you can download new drivers an eventually install them. For what regarding the user base, Trixbox contains FreePBX and FreePBX has a huge user base, so that can also help. He concludes that if you want easy of use for you and your customers, you should use Trixbox. If you want complete control you should go for a custom install. - Tzafrir Cohen (in reply to Tom Rymes) reports problems with "Yum update" and says that abstraction can hide relevant details. For example, just to figure out if a FreePBX actually dialed, requires a trained Asterisk user examining the logs. - Stephen Bosch (in reply to Tom Rymes) says that he prefers not using binary distributions. About troubleshooting a GUI, he says that's not troubleshooting, it's more often debugging... Trixbox, furthermore, has little documentation. Furthermore, having to download drivers from various sites cancel the advantages of an "easy" Trixbox installation. And for what regarding the user base, he says that the messages regarding Trixbox are not answered so promptly within the Asterisk mailing list. He concludes: if you have at last to go back to pico/vim/emacs... better start with them. - Tzafrir Cohen (in reply to Stephen Bosch) suggests using SRPMS to rebuild packages from sources. - Tom Rymes (in reply to Tzafir Cohen) says he never had problems with Yum update. Of course you have to exclude the Kernel from the Yum updates. He reports installing Trixbox many times with Sangoma cards. He concludes that neither approaches, anyway, can be fine for everybody and you must choose the right approach according to your needs. I also include a consideration from mine: I would happily use Trixbox, because I did FreePBX setup once and it was a real pain, but I'm very frightened by a few issues: 1) Trixbox "Macho" installation that installs everything without asking. I, for example, would like to use software RAID (maybe it's wrong with Asterisk, but I want to do it!). I wouldn't like doing it manually after Trixbox installation. I would like to have an installer doing it for me. Centos (ex redhat) installer does it, so why Trixbox choose to install everything without prompting? 2) How easy it is to find Trixbox SRPMS? Is it possible to compile new software (i.e. Asterisk or FreePBX, etc..) on Trixbox without having to rewrite all the configuration files, changing all paths, all permissions, and so on... 3) Trixbox site and documentation are really SCARY. Someone should tell those guys. 4) How about updates? Are they published with a constant pace from the Trixbox team? Again (as for point 3) from the site and documentation I see, I don't expect me a very responsive development team. Thanks to everybody Stefano -- Stefano Corsi www.floo.it via della Fiera, 1 57029, Venturina - Campiglia Marittima (LI) Tel. 0565-836130 - Fax. 0565-836143 Ce
