How do I convert Cisco 6941 phones from Call Manager to FreePBX?

FreePBX Endpoints
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I’ve got a potential customer with nearly 80 Cisco CP-6941 phones running on Cisco Call Manager. I purchased one 6941 phone to see if I could work out a procedure for converting it to FreePBX. Looks like I may have to load SIP firmware on it since it apparently runs “Skinny” firmware for CCM. But I’m not sure of anything other than Google seems to indicate they will work with FreePBX.

What I really need and would appreciate immensely is a step-by-step process for getting these working, including where to find the firmware files when I do not have a Cisco Login. Not trying to be lazy, just not making much progress so far.

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Your potential customer should, if they still have any support left with Cisco. If you want to load the SIP firmware you’ll need them to get it for you.

Alternatively you can use the phones with their existing SCCP firmware via the “chan-sccp” project which is actively developed and has thorough documentation: GitHub - chan-sccp/chan-sccp: Replacement for the SCCP channel driver in Asterisk. Extended features include Shared Lines, Presence / BLF, customizable Feature Buttons, and Custom Device State. Visit our discussion mailing list for help and join us as a developer if you like.

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I kept at it and was finally able to get a login and download the files. Now if I can just figure out how to install them since the web interface on the 6941 is, well, lacking.

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Not only do I agree with @billsimon about SCCP, I strongly recommend taking that path, because the SIP firmware for these old turkeys is really lame. You can make and receive calls, but that’s about it. Even simple stuff like 3-way calling or a BLF key is difficult to impossible.

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It’s just a different concept. Cisco intends for you to manage the phones through a more “enterprise” scheme, provisioning through Call Manager. They are not intended for individual deployment and manual configuration. Whether you use SIP or SCCP you will have to set up some services that Cisco phones require, namely DHCP (to deliver option 150 to the phones on the network) and TFTP or HTTP (I think the 69xx phones can pull their provisioning by HTTP).

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Of course, you could skip all of the drama and just install Chan-SCCP-B driver and SCCP Manager from GitHub and get a “Cisco style” management interface that works with the phones in Skinny mode. This also avoids the “SIP Crippling” features that Cisco adds to the SIP Software to make sure that your SIP experience sucks and you’ll come back to them with a new-found appreciation for their abuse.

My latest instructions are included below.

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