Changing vm-login file from "Comedian Mail, Mailbox" to "Mailbox"

General Help
1

I have read a few post about changing the vm-login file to remove the “Comedian Mail” from the login of your mailbox. The issue that i’m hitting is that the file that looks to be active is the vm-login.ulaw located /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/en/

I was able to download a new file without the “Comedian Mail” intro from an earlier post

When I used that .wav file to convert to a .ulaw using the below Adobe forum post. https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1058708 I get a bad Buzz at the end of the recording when played back through my phone system.

Any Ideas or can someone send me a good .ulaw version to use

2

I think you should be able to just edit a wav file, then upload it using the System Recordings menu and select ULAW at the bottom. Then move it to where you want.

Or you can use this, it works pretty good. There’s a trial version that will functionally allow you to do what you need.

3

Thanks for the idea. It worked perfectly using the system recordings and then moving the file and renaming it using Cyberduck.

4

Never used cyberduck…WinSCP has been the go to for me for that kind of work for years and years. I’ll give it a try.

5

Test it, dial *98 in the PBX.
Get a copy of the vm-login.sln16 file from the directory (/var/lib/asterisk/sounds/en/vm-login.sln16).
Then using WinSCP (https://winscp.net/eng/download.php) We were using AWS so I logged a certificate in Pageant which is in the PuTTY suite (https://www.putty.org/). I was able to log in.
After getting a copy of that file I had to modify it.
I used Audacity (https://www.audacityteam.org/download/) to modify the existing file. (/var/lib/asterisk/sounds/en/vm-login.sln16).
Import it using RAW data, you have to change the Sample rate to 16000. I cut off the comedian portion and saved it in a .wav file format.
Change directory permissions and ownership if needed (use the id command in linux to find your group (mine was ec2-user).
These were the commands i used for permissions and ownership of the directory:
sudo chgrp ec2-user /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/en/
sudo chmod 775 /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/en
sudo chown ec2-user /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/en

Using WinSCP backup all of the vm-login.* files to your machine just in case!
I found out we currently only use the vm-login.ulaw file.
Execute this command: sox vm-login.wav --rate 8000 --channels 1 --type ul vm-login_new.ulaw lowpass 3400 highpass 300
Backup the current file: cp vm-login.ulaw vm-login_old.ulaw
Delete it: rm vm-login.ulaw
Copy the new one: cp vm-login_new.ulaw vm-login.ulaw
Done! Dial *98 to test it.
Then cleanup your temp file: rm vm-login_new.ulaw

6

these steps will work! People never make it clear!

8

It used to be that you could just download the replacement file and use scp or winscp to copy it over.

I fell in love with the Pat Fleet voice prompts many years ago. I grew up listening to her whenever I called time or dialed a wrong number. The prompts take care of the “Comedian Mail” issue, which I cannot believe is still a thing with Asterisk today.

Regrettably, there are now some new files (mostly added by FreePBX) that you’ll hear Allison’s voice on, but it’s rare.

You can download the Pat Fleet files here:

9

another solution using what’s already available

cp   vm-login,wav vm-login-saved.wav
sox vm-login-saved,.wav vm-login.wav trim 1.2

you can then use asterisk’s built in

file convert   en/vm-login.wav en/vm-login.gsm (g722 etc.)

for the other formats needed