We have recently added a new feature to the FreePBX user interface to more easily handle custom firmware in Endpoint Manager. Before this change, uploading a custom firmware image meant that you had to manually copy the firmware file to the proper directory, and this was tricky to get right. Beginning in versions 15.0.27.7 (for FreePBX 15) and 14.0.43.6 (for FreePBX 14), the commercial EndPoint Manager module now has a better mechanism to install custom firmware from the web interface. (By “custom firmware”, we mean phone firmware that has been supplied by the end user, and not supplied directly by EPM.)
Please note: These new versions of the “endpoint” module are currently in the “edge” repository, and will be moving to the “release” repository after a bit more testing and community feedback.
How to test the new feature
To begin configuring your system for custom firmware, go to Endpoint Manager, click on “Firmware Management”, and then click the new “Custom Firmware Management” button in the right-hand pane. On the next page, a list of custom firmware will appear. Of course, this list will be empty if you haven’t yet uploaded customer firmware to your system. Click on the “Firmware Upload” button to begin the process of uploading a new firmware image. A popup will appear asking for the following information:
- Phone Brand - Select the brand of the phone from the drop down list of previously added brands.
- Phone Model - Enter phone model number. for example S705 for Sangoma phones or GXP 2160 for Grandstream, etc.
- Phone Firmware version - Enter the firmware version details of the custom firmware. for example 2.0.4.75 for Sangoma S705 or 1.0.11.3 for GS 2160 phones.
- Upload Firmware - Click this button to select and upload the firmware file.
The uploaded custom firmware will then appear in the list.
Next, go back to the “Firmware Management” option in Endpoint Manager and select the brand of phone for which you wish to configure custom firmware. Here, we have the option to configure the firmware version for a specific slot.
If you wish to map a custom firmware version as the EPM version to any of the available slots, simply enter version “0.0” in the text entry box that corresponds with that particular slot. Below the text entry box, the GUI will show you which custom firmware is available for that brand. This is exactly the same configuration as was done previously – as documented here.
For more information about the new UI work for managing custom firmware, including some frequently asked questions, please see this wiki page. We hope this improvement helps you to better manage your phones with Endpoint Manager.
Documentation
More documentation regarding firmware management in Endpoint Manager is available at https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FPG/EPM-Admin+User+Guide#EPM-AdminUserGuide-AdminUserGuide-firmwaremanagementFirmwareManagement
Feedback
Feel free to leave feedback on this topic about any issues or suggestions for improvement that may come up in your testing. Once this module has been released to the release repository, any support requests should go through Sangoma’s Support ticketing system.
FreePBX EPM Team
A big thanks goes out to multiple members of the FreePBX EPM team that helped develop and test the FreePBX EPM features.
- Mohit Mishra
- Ramarajan
- Kapil Gupta