MESSAGE
| DATE | 2006-03-09 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] GNU Fax and Answering Machine
|
Setting up a SuSE Linux 10 PC as an answering and fax machine.
Novell Cool Solutions: AppNote
By Peter Van den Wildenbergh
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Posted: 27 Feb 2006
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License and Disclaimer
See http://www.opencontent.org/opl.shtml for the full software and
documentation license. Basically, you can copy, redistribute, or modify
this "how to," provided that modified versions, if redistributed, are
also covered by the OpenContent License. Please e-mail a copy of your
modified document to pvdw <-at-> criticalcontrol <.> com. Use this document
at your own risk; it comes with no warranty. See the OpenContent License
mentioned above.
Goal
Setting up a SuSE Linux 10 PC as an answering and fax machine.
Many small businesses and startups don't have the resources that the big
companies have, like a dedicated receptionist or a 24/7 call centre. But
with the help of some technology and good taste you can get a long way
to help your (potential) customers when you are out of the office.
The good taste comes into play when you put messages on an answering
machine and that is entirely up to you, the technology involved, is
explained below.
There are a couple of solutions that work perfectly, you can even set-up
an answering machine via YaST - that is, the basic set-up is done in
YaST, it still requires some tweaking outside YaST to get it going -
When you google for a solution you most likely come across
http://tkvoice.netfirms.com/index.html for voice messages and
http://tkvoice.netfirms.com/tkfaxspool or http://www.hylafax.org for
faxing.
The solution I installed is less known, and I have to say it looks like
the project haven't been maintained/updated for quite some while now but
it works great as it is. Take a peek at http://www.vocpsystem.com . It
does look sexy, doesn't it?
To get it to work I combined the documentation from the project's
website with notes found on the vocp mailing list
(http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=vocp-users) and the
work from Tom Marble that can be found at http://info9.net/vocp/
Set-Up
I purchased a MT5634ZPX-PCI-U modem and installed it in a no brand PIII
800Mhz PC with 512MB ram and 80 GB harddisk. After that I went through a
basic SuSE 10 installation with blackbox as the GUI (yes, you need a
GUI) When installing SuSE 10 I made sure that mgetty was NOT installed
because I would need a slightly older version. In case it is there you
can easily remove it outside YaST by executing:
rpm -qa | grep mgetty*
rpm -e mgetty...
as root.
During the install or before you plan on installing VOCP check and
install if needed with YaST the following packages:
* minicom
* gzip
* tar
* unzip
* make
* lynx
* wget
* ncftp
* ftp
* gpg
Run in a superuser console the lspci command to see if the modem gets
recognized.
lspci -v
01:09.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems Venus Modem (V90, 56KFlex)
Subsystem: Agere Systems: Unknown device 5656
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at ff8ffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
I/O ports at d400 [size=256]
I/O ports at dff0 [size=8]
Capabilities: [f8] Power Management version 2
You can also use yast hardware info to take a peek. If you don't want to
traverse through the YaST menus type
yast hwinfo
In the modem section of the output you will see something like:
Modem
AT Modem
Bus: Serial
Class (spec): Modem
Class: Modem
Device Identifier: 262145
Device Name: /dev/ttyS2
Device: AT Modem
Model: AT Modem
Old Unique Key: O+Dv.KM1shMXflFC
Resources
baud
speed: 115200
init_strings
init1: ATZ
init2: AT Q0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Unique Key: 9J65.KM1shMXflFC
Vendor Identifier: 270336
Vendor: Unknown
bus_hwcfg: serial
dev_names
/dev/ttyS2
This tells us that the modem is on /dev/ttyS2, now make a symbolic link
from /dev/modem to /dev/ttyS2.
ln -s /dev/ttyS2 /dev/modem
Don't leave the console yet... time for good old minicom, let's talk to
the modem. Start minicom with the -s option.
minicom -s
This allows you to configure minicom, check the serial port setup and
change the Init string in Modem and dialing
Serial port setup
A - Serial Device : /dev/modem
B - Lockfile Location : /var/lock
C - Callin Program :
D - Callout Program :
E - Bps/Par/Bits : 115200 8N1
F - Hardware Flow Control : No
G - Software Flow Control : No
Modem and dialing
A - Init string ......... ~^M~AT Q0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2
+FCLASS=8^M
When done Save setup as dfl (default) and exit (not quitting minicom).
Now query the modem with a couple basic AT commands:
AT+FCLASS?
8
AT+vsm=?
128,"8-BIT LINEAR",(7200,8000,11025)
129,"16-BIT LINEAR",(7200,8000,11025)
130,"8-BIT ALAW",(8000)
131,"8-BIT ULAW",(8000)
132,"IMA ADPCM",(7200,8000,11025)
There are other AT commands you can launch to query your modem, this is
documented on the VOCP website.
Time to get some sources and patches.
cd /usr/local/src
wget ftp://alpha.greenie.net/pub/mgetty/source/1.1/mgetty1.1.31-Jul24.tar.gz
wget http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/vocp/VOCP-0.9.3.tar.gz
wget http://info9.net/vocp/vocpweb_mime.patch
wget http://info9.net/vocp/force_detect.patch
wget http://info9.net/vocp/Multitech_5634ZPX_PCI.patch
Extract the packages:
tar -zxvf VOCP-0.9.3.tar.gz
tar -zxvf mgetty1.1.31-Jul24.tar.gz
and prepare VOCP by applying some patches from Tom Marble.
cd vocp-0.9.3/
patch -p1 < ../vocpweb_mime.patch
patching file vocpweb/vocpweb.cgi
Over to mgetty
cd ../mgetty-1.1.31
patch -p1 < ../force_detect.patch
patching file voice/contrib/Pat_Deegan/README
patching file voice/contrib/Pat_Deegan/vgetty-test.pl
patching file voice/include/default.h
patching file voice/include/version.h
patching file voice/libvoice/detect.c
Hunk #2 succeeded at 162 (offset 11 lines).
Hunk #3 succeeded at 280 (offset 11 lines).
patching file voice/voice.conf-dist
Do the necessary reading...
less README.1st
less voice/doc/Readme.Beginners
Compiling mgetty is next.
cp policy.h-dist policy.h
make
gcc -O2 -Wall -pipe -DVARRUNDIR=\"/var/run\" -c mgetty.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -pipe -c -o logfile.o logfile.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -pipe -c -o do_chat.o do_chat.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -pipe -c -o locks.o locks.c
locks.c: In function 'do_makelock':
...
nroff -man mgetty.8 >mgetty.man
../sedscript callback.8
nroff -man callback.8 >callback.man
../sedscript faxrunqd.8
nroff -man faxrunqd.8 >faxrunqd.man
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31/doc'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31/doc'
We need to make a user and group for mgetty.
groupadd -g 69 -r fax
useradd -c "Fax user" -d /var/spool/fax -g 69 -m -u 50 -r -s /bin/bash fax
Time to compile the voice part, vgetty.
cd voice (That puts you in /usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31/voice)
make
cd ..; make vgetty
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31'
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31'
make[2]: `mgetty' is up to date.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31'
cd voice; make CFLAGS="-O2 -Wall -pipe" CC="gcc" LDFLAGS="" \
LN="ln" MV="mv" RM="rm" \
LIBS="" \
FAX_SPOOL_IN="/var/spool/fax/incoming" CONFDIR="/usr/local/etc/mgetty+sendfax" \
VARRUNDIR="/var/run" \
SHELL="/bin/sh" vgetty-all
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31/voice'
...
../libutil/libutil.a(logfile.o): In function `lprintf':
logfile.c:(.text+0x23d): warning: `sys_errlist' is deprecated; use `strerror' or `strerror_r' instead
logfile.c:(.text+0x234): warning: `sys_nerr' is deprecated; use `strerror' or `strerror_r' instead
make[3]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31/voice/vm'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31/voice'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31'
The make should end without errors, time to install the compiled
package:
make install
cd ..; make vgetty-install
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31'
cd voice; make CFLAGS="-O2 -Wall -pipe" CC="gcc" LDFLAGS="" \
BINDIR="/usr/local/bin" SBINDIR="/usr/local/sbin" LIBDIR="/usr/local/lib/mgetty+sendfax" \
CONFDIR="/usr/local/etc/mgetty+sendfax" MAN1DIR="/usr/local/man/man1" MAN8DIR="/usr/local/man/man8" INSTALL="install -c -o bin -g bin" \
PHONE_GROUP="phone" PHONE_PERMS="770" \
LN="ln" MV="mv" RM="rm" \
LIBS="" vgetty-install
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31/voice'
...
cd /usr/local/man/man1; \
for i in pvfamp pvfcut pvfecho pvffile pvffilter pvffft pvfmix pvfnoise pvfreverse pvfsine pvfspeed pvftormd rmdtopvf rmdfile pvftovoc voctopvf pvftolin lintopvf pvftobasic basictopvf pvftoau autopvf pvftowav wavtopvf; \
do \
rm -f $i.1; ln -s pvf.1 $i.1; \
done
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31/voice'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/mgetty-1.1.31'
Now it is time to adjust the configuration files.
cp voice.conf-dist /usr/local/etc/mgetty+sendfax/voice.conf
cd /usr/local/etc/mgetty+sendfax
vi faxheader
*** Change to your needs
vi faxrunq.config
Change
#fax-devices ttyS0:ttyS1
into
fax-devices ttyS2
vi mgetty.config
Change
# set the local fax station id
fax-id +1 555 555 5555
into something meaningful.
Change
# access the modem(s) with 38400 bps
speed 38400
into
speed 115200
Change
#fax-group uucp
into
fax-group vocp
Cleanup all the port-specific examples and put in a directive for ttyS2
# ----- port specific section -----
#
# Here you can put things that are valid only for one line, not the others
#
port ttyS2
post-init-chat "" AT+VCID=1 OK
debug 8
modem-type c2.1
Sendfax.config is the next one to alter.
vi sendfax.config
Change
# which devices to use for outgoing faxes
fax-devices tty4c:tty4d
# which fax number to transmit to the receiving station
fax-id 49 115 xxxxxxxx
into
# which devices to use for outgoing faxes
fax-devices ttyS2
# which fax number to transmit to the receiving station
fax-id +1 555 555 5555
The last getty config file:
vi voice.conf
Find the line with:
voice_shell
and set it to:
voice_shell /usr/bin/perl
port_speed 115200
rec_compression 132
rec_speed 8000
rec_max_len 600
answer_mode voice:fax
call_program /usr/local/vocp/bin/vocp.pl
port ttyS2
force_detect mt_5634_pci
This is an example of 1 line with 2 distinctive rings, one for voice one
for fax
#ring_type virtual
ring_type ring
rings 4
answer_mode voice
ring_type ring1
rings 2
answer_mode fax
To make sure vgetty starts automagically alter /etc/inittab by adding a
line near the end.
And cleanup some unused lines.
vi /etc/inittab
Clear:
# modem getty.
# mo:235:respawn:/usr/sbin/mgetty -s 38400 modem
# fax getty (hylafax)
# mo:35:respawn:/usr/lib/fax/faxgetty /dev/modem
# vbox (voice box) getty
# I6:35:respawn:/usr/sbin/vboxgetty -d /dev/ttyI6
# I7:35:respawn:/usr/sbin/vboxgetty -d /dev/ttyI7
Add :
# :::
S2:35:respawn:/usr/local/sbin/vgetty -s 115200 ttyS2
Restart "init" so the new inittab becomes active
telinit q
check to see vgetty is running now.
ps -ef | grep ttyS2
root 6366 1 0 07:11 ? 00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/vgetty -s 115200 ttyS2
Time to sharpen those PERL skills (no worries if you don't have those
skills, neither do I...)
perl -MCPAN -e 'install Modem::Vgetty'
If this is the first time you do a CPAN install the system will ask you
a whole bunch of questions. IT should be fine to [Enter] on all of them
if you have installed all the software (lynx, wget etc) mentioned in
step 1.
I changed the CPAN build and cache directory to /home/.cpan
Near the end of the process you see:
Trying with "/usr/bin/lynx -source" to get
ftp://cpan.sunsite.ualberta.ca/pub/CPAN/authors/id/Y/YE/YENYA/CHECKSUMS
Checksum for /home/.cpan/sources/authors/id/Y/YE/YENYA/Modem-Vgetty-0.03.tar.gz ok
Scanning cache /home/.cpan/build for sizes
Modem-Vgetty-0.03/
Modem-Vgetty-0.03/Makefile.PL
Modem-Vgetty-0.03/ChangeLog
Modem-Vgetty-0.03/examples/
Modem-Vgetty-0.03/examples/answering_machine.pl
Modem-Vgetty-0.03/examples/callme.pl
Modem-Vgetty-0.03/Vgetty.pm
Modem-Vgetty-0.03/README
Modem-Vgetty-0.03/MANIFEST
CPAN.pm: Going to build Y/YE/YENYA/Modem-Vgetty-0.03.tar.gz
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for Modem::Vgetty
cp Vgetty.pm blib/lib/Modem/Vgetty.pm
Manifying blib/man3/Modem::Vgetty.3pm
/usr/bin/make -- OK
Running make test
No tests defined for Modem::Vgetty extension.
/usr/bin/make test -- OK
Running make install
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7/Modem/Vgetty.pm
Installing /usr/share/man/man3/Modem::Vgetty.3pm
Writing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7/i586-linux-thread-multi/auto/Modem/Vgetty/.packlist
Appending installation info to /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.7/i586-linux-thread-multi/perllocal.pod
/usr/bin/make install -- OK
When everything is installed add a few more (7) modules:
perl -MCPAN -e 'install XML::Mini'
perl -MCPAN -e 'install Audio::DSP'
Note: To make sure that all the Tk test succeed log in as root in an X
environment and launch the command from a xterm. In case you are not
right at the machine you may want to take a peek at
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/16247.html. Installing the
Latest (As of Oct 2005) FreeNX Server on Novell Linux products. Make
sure you have some coffee ready, the next one may take a while...
Sometimes I wish I had a dual AMD64 with 8G ram.
perl -MCPAN -e 'install Tk'
perl -MCPAN -e 'install Tk::JPEG'
perl -MCPAN -e 'install Crypt::CBC'
perl -MCPAN -e 'install Crypt::Blowfish'
perl -MCPAN -e 'install MIME::Parser'
Finally time to install VOCP itself.
cd /usr/local/src/vocp-0.9.3
First we convert the system messages to an rmd format that the modem can
handle.
./install_vocp.pl
Accept the license and pick number 3 from the menu
1 for full vocp install,
2 if you are upgrading a previous version of VOCP (read doc/upgrading.txt!),
3 if you only wish to convert the sound files to rmd format
[1]: 3
Where is the pvftormd executable (included with mgetty) installed on your system
[/usr/local/bin]:
Default is fine, just hit
/usr/local/bin/pvftormd experimental test release 0.9.34 / 23Dec04
supported raw modem data formats:
- Digi 4 G.711u PCM
- Digi 5 G.711A PCM
- Elsa 2, 3, 4 2/3/4-bit Rockwell ADPCM
- ISDN4Linux 2, 3, 4 2/3/4-bit ZyXEL ADPCM
- ISDN4Linux 5 G.711A PCM
- ISDN4Linux 6 G.711u PCM
- Lucent 1 8 bit linear PCM
- Lucent 2 16 bit linear PCM
- Lucent 3 G.711A PCM
- Lucent 4 G.711u PCM
- Lucent 5 4 bit IMA ADPCM
- MT_2834 4 4 bit IMA ADPCM
- MT_5634 4 4 bit IMA ADPCM
- Rockwell 2, 3, 4 2/3/4-bit Rockwell ADPCM
- Rockwell 8 8-bit Rockwell PCM
- UMC 4 G.721 ADPCM
- US_Robotics 1 USR-GSM
- US_Robotics 4 G.721 ADPCM
- V253modem 2, 4 2/4-bit Rockwell ADPCM
- V253modem 5 4-bit IMA ADPCM
- V253modem 6 G.711u PCM
- V253modem 7 G.711A PCM
- V253modem 8 8-bit linear unsigned PCM
- V253modem 9 8-bit linear signed PCM
- V253modem 12 16-bit linear signed PCM Intel Order
- ZyXEL_1496 2, 3, 4 2/3/4-bit ZyXEL ADPCM
- ZyXEL_2864 2, 3, 4 2/3/4-bit ZyXEL ADPCM
- ZyXEL_2864 81 8-bit Rockwell PCM
- ZyXEL_Omni56K 4 4-bit Digispeech ADPCM (?)
example:
/usr/local/bin/pvftormd Rockwell 4 infile.pvf outfile.rmd
Listed above are the supported modems and compression types. You should already know which of these apply to your modem (if not see the documentation included on vgetty or the website). Please enter the options that apply to your modem, for example, Lucent 5
[Lucent 5]: MT_5634 4
Change the default to
MT_5634 4
And press enter, a few seconds later the program quits after converting
the system sound files.
Restart the installation script.
./install_vocp.pl
You understand that the VOCP system, it's source code and all supporting documents and resources are
Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Patrick Deegan, Psychogenic INC
and subject to the terms and conditions described in the accompanying LICENSE file. You have read the LICENSE and agree to comply with the terms and conditions described therein? [n]: y
Enter:
1 for full vocp install,
2 if you are upgrading a previous version of VOCP (read doc/upgrading.txt!),
3 if you only wish to convert the sound files to rmd format
[1]:
Accept the default "1" and step through the installation process:
Where is the pvftormd executable (included with mgetty) installed on your system
[/usr/local/bin]:
/usr/local/bin/pvftormd experimental test release 0.9.34 / 23Dec04
...
Listed above are the supported modems and compression types. You should already know which of these apply to your modem (if not see the documentation included on vgetty or the website). Please enter the options that apply to your modem, for example, Lucent 5
[Lucent 5]: MT_5634
...
Do you wish to use Text-to-speech (to hear emails, etc.) AND do you have the Festival TTS engine installed [n]: n
...
What should the name of the new group be?
[vocp]:
Creating group and setting permissions on boxes.conf and messages.pl...
Done.
VOCP should now be fully installed!
Be sure to read the documentation to set it up or check out the web site at http://www.VOCPsystem.com (latest) or in /usr/local/vocp/doc. Be sure to read thevocpweb/README file if you wish to use the web interface!
When the script is done check the rmd settings in /etc/vocp/vocp.conf
Edit the file to make sure the following entries have the correct value
(for this particular modem.)
rmdformat MT_5634
rmdcompression 132
rmdsample 8000
At this point the VOCP system should pick up your calls. Test it out, it
should answer with a "Welcome to the VOCP system" message.
Time to think about how to answer the phone. In this example we have a
general message that welcomes the caller and asks to make a choice by
pressing 1 or 2.
Launch Krecord, and go to the menu Options, select the Sound Options...
item.
Set the audio format to 16bit pcm, # of channels to mono and the sample
rate to 8000, press Apply and Ok.
Experiment a couple times with recordings and playbacks.
I recorded the following message:
"Thank you for calling, press 1 if you want to speek to the male
geek of the house, press 2 for the female geek."
and labelled it welcome.wav
The message can be recorded on another PC but the following conversions
are best done on the VOCP system.
wavtopvf -16 welcome.wav welcome.pvf
pvftormd MT_5634 4 welcome.pvf welcome.rmd
Put the rmd file(s) in /var/spool/voice/messages.
I repeated the recording and the conversion for a personal greeting by
the male and female geek, those rmd files where labelled 1.rmd and 2.rmd
Time to launch (as root) /usr/local/vocp/bin/boxconf.pl
Delete all the sample boxes and put 3 new boxes in place.
First box with number 001, type, name and owner are "none" the message
is "welcome.rmd" the branch item should read "1=011,2=012" This last
item redirects the caller to box 011 when he/she presses 1, when 2 is
pressed the call gets forwarded to box 012"
Boxes 011 and 012 are simular, make sure the numer is filled out
correctly, type is mail, name = geek1 and so is the owner (geek1 and
geek2 needs to be valid linux users, both member of the vocp group)
message is 1.rmd, branch remains blank.
Time to test! Call your VOCP system.
There is a lot more you can do with VOCP like FAX back by request or
executing scripts and much more. I think it is an awesome package that
needs some attention to iron out some minor bugs. Give it a try.
Additional resources:
* http://www.VOCPsystem.com
* http://info9.net/vocp
* http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=vocp-users
About the author
Peter Van den Wildenbergh is a Senior Linux Administrator and a long
time Linux advocate. He specializes in integrating Linux solution in
existing environments and can be reached at: pvdw <-at-> criticalcontrol
<.> com.
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