New installation: config errors showing up under FreePBX

Asterisk v11.2.1, current as of 2013-09-25
FreePBX v2.11.00.6, current as of 2013-09-25

I downloaded the Asterisk full 64-bit installer from the Asterisk website, and installed it on a VirtualBox virtual machine. Did a full Yum update, it found and installed a number of updates to Asterisk and a number of other things.

I set a static IP address, changed date listing in Bash to full ISO-8601 format, and then updated things further from within the web admin interface (Admin->Module Admin). Yes, even after doing a Yum update, there were still modules that were not fully updated.

My problem arises from the notices on the System Status page.

In particular, I have a full compliment of contradictory error messages. My first three are,

File /etc/dahdi/modules is not owned by root
Please run 'amportal chown'
Added 17 minutes ago
(dahdiconfig.etcdahdimodules)

File /etc/dahdi/system.conf is not owned by root
Please run 'amportal chown'
Added 17 minutes ago
(dahdiconfig.etcdahdisystem.conf)

File /etc/modprobe.d/dahdi.conf is not owned by root
Please run 'amportal chown'
Added 17 minutes ago
(dahdiconfig.etcmodprobe.ddahdi.conf)

When I check out the documentation, these three files are not supposed to be owned by root in the first place! And when I jaunt over to those directories, they are indeed owned by both the Asterisk user and Asterisk group; just as the docs say they should be. Running that command (amportal chown) does nothing to correct the error, and doing a chown root:root * on the appropriate files does change them to root, but the error persists. Running the amportal chown command then changes it back to the Asterisk user:group as per the docs.

So what is going on with those entries? Why say it should be one way, when even the docs say it should be another? And why throw the error message even though they’re set the correct way to begin with?

My second set of error messages involves the symlinks. Now this is an even stranger beast, as the symlink in question tends to change unpredictably. At first it was logger.conf, but now it is rtp.conf.

The problem is that it gives a very scary error message that would frighten the short hairs off of my boss (and give him doubts as to my skills) were he ever to see it:

retrieve_conf failed to sym link:
   /etc/asterisk/rtp.conf from core/etc (Already exists, not a link)
This can result in FATAL failures to your PBX. If the target file exists and not identical, the symlink will not occur and you should rename the target file to allow the automatic sym link to occur and remove this error, unless this is an intentional customization.
Added 9 minutes ago
(retrieve_conf.SYMLINK)

And doing the following to either file:

rm -rf /etc/asterisk/logger.conf
ln -s /var/www/html/admin/modules/core/etc/logger.conf /etc/asterisk/logger.conf
amportal reload

does nothing (example is logger.conf on purpose). The error message continues to persist even after a full reboot, and a ls -l provides me with this:

lrwxrwxrwx   1 asterisk asterisk 52 2013-09-25 14.37 logger.conf -> /var/www/html/admin/modules/logfiles/etc/logger.conf

which tells me that the symlink is correct in the first place!! The system is bitching about a symlink which it thinks is incorrect, but really isn’t! WTF?

I am a long-term I.T. person (15+ years), so please don’t hesitate to use higher-level terms and instructions with me, but I am a bit of a n00b when it comes to VoIP (just being brutally honest here). I know my way decently around Linux, and most definitely know how to Google anything I am not sure of, but most Google results for the issues above are either dead ends or the solutions don’t work for me.

Thanks for the reports.

First off the ownership issues were fixed way back in May (http://issues.freepbx.org/browse/FREEPBX-6580). I suggest you try to install the most updated version of Dahdi Configuration module, although you did say you have the most current version of FreePBX I dont think you have the most current version of that module.

Secondly You must not create the symlinks yourself. The error message never said to do that. You just need to remove the conflicting file from /etc/asterisk. If you set the symlinks yourself you are most-likely doing it as root and that just causes more issues. So remove those file completely.

Finally after you’ve done both go to the GUI and click ‘apply changes’ (red button, get it to show up by making changes in the gui). Then amportal chown. Then go back and click ‘apply changes’ (red button, get it to show up by making changes in the gui) [Yes again].

Then when you see the dashboard just clear those messages by clicking the red(x) next to them. You should be good to go after that.

My installed version of Dahdi is 2.11.26

This is what I read off of the Module Administration page.

Did you try to clear the errors and they are still coming up?

Edit: For that matter did you do anything I suggested?

For some reason, I must have selected to remove the DAHDI module in the module admin. After reinstalling it, i’m getting an error:

File is not owned by asterisk
Delete thisIgnore this
Please run 'amportal chown’
Added 1 hour, 56 minutes ago
(dahdiconfig.)

I try the amportal chown command and try to clear the error but it keeps showing up after a refresh. Tried a reboot and still nothing.

Kind of annoying. Everything seems to be working okay though.

I find solution for this problem.

  1. U have to install (again) DAHDi config module
  2. Run ‘amportal chown’
  3. Delete notification (‘Please run …’)
  4. Wait until module checks permissions and remove notification record from DB
  5. Uninstall DAHDi module

For advanced users - just remove notification from DB (DELETE FROM notifications;)