Why no FreePBX package for ubuntu?

Hi Barry,

I am the original poster. This topic is certainly still very appropriate.
I have since manually configured a robust installation of Asterisk without the Freepbx part on Ubuntu and have been administering in production since last August. At this point, I’ve got our installation all configured and running without the gui and thus it is not critical for us anymore but certainly a nice to have. However, from the perspective of gaining a wider Asterisk userbase on Ubuntu, this is still very relevant and important for us. The wider the base, the greater the amount of bug fixes, enhancements, additional related packages, etc. on Ubuntu and thus better for everyone.
I therefore certainly hope that you are successful in locating resource(s) to solve this issue for the Ubuntu and Asterisk/Freepbx community.

Hi,
I am willing to pay for the development of the package, and/or talk to someone about helping me (sorry, my company) maintain a Ubuntu Asterisk/FreePBX set of packages.

I have only found this thread today, so I’m sorry I’m late.

The are lots of reasons that one might choose a specific distro, and I dont accept the Centos centris view above.

With VOIP, telephony become routing data and that data is important across a business. We have been running integrated PBX, CRM and other mamagement servers on one physical platform for years.

But, I am tired of waiting for a more ‘standard’ install on ubuntu (sans GUI, btw - it comes as a server as well).

Thanks for starting this thread, I hope I’m not too late to contribute.

Stay well,
Barry

My main issue with FreePBX is with running the webserver as the asterisk user, which is a non starter on many servers.

It is a simple matter of running a parallel webserver on a different port as the asterisk user, or with suexec, mpm-peruser, cgi or all the other options out there.

I understand that FreePBX is designed as a standalone PBX. With dedicated hardware on board hardware understandable but if running as pure SIP on a non dedicated or VPS some more flexibility is required.

This can’t be that hard?

The biggest reason for using distros other than CentOS is that CentOS is always the 1988 Chevy Cavalier in the room full of brand new Lamborghinis and Ducati crotch rockets. If you have modern hardware, the FreePBX-on-a-CD ISO is not an option; CentOS 5.5 Net-distro won’t install on a late-2010 or newer computer. The kernel lacks drivers for current NIC chips and RAID controllers. So, one has to install CentOS manually (if it’s even possible), and proceed to find or build this millenium’s versions of everything that other distros (Fedora, Ubuntu, etc) include just because “new version” should not be just pretty words.

As for server GUIs: if running a GUI console might cause resource conflicts, then odds are good that your server can be replaced with a better one from the GoodWill store for < $50. Seriously.

I’ll admit I’m irritated. I just completed a proof-of-concept using the FreePBX-CD distro on a VMware virtual machine. It’s pretty solid. So I built a high-end server for roll-out without first checking how ancient the hardware had to be for CentOS to work. Doh! Now I have extra work, and I’m back to square one with testing.

Keep in mind that my irritation is with CentOS, and not FreePBX. FreePBX and I are just victims.

I think I remember reading that the Spanish Inquisition used CentOS… Coincidence?

Historically telco hardware has been horrifically behind technology, stability is the goal. You really don’t need that barn burner system to run a PBX.

This is also why the packages are delivered as source and tarball’s. Distro’s are for lowest common denominator. If you are serious about it you build your own.

I can tell you the distro works fine on a dual core Atom system with and Intel or a Supermicro motherboard. The Supermicro Atom’s we user our powerful enough to run 99.9% of the deployments.

And that brings me around to point A, if you are large enough to need that powerful of a system your PBX is mission critical and you should know how to build from source.

Just my 2 cents.

I understand that, but a move to VOIP is not just a different Bakelite phone.

My end users want all of the glitter; video, clear audio, full recording capability, ACD, and all the custom desktop apps such capabilities imply. For Mac, for Windows, for Linux, for Android, and for iOS.

There’s just me. Every package I have to build/debug/maintain adds a layer of complexity that takes time away from other tasks. Sure, I get a more robust solution that, should need arise, I can debug/patch on my own. But I also wind up with a more painful maintenance model, and no viable excuse for putting off bug fixes like “Hey, I submitted that to launchpad last week. Chill, ferchrissakes.”

With all the crap these guys want, an Atom will be barely adequate. In six months, I’d be looking at HW reqs and migration plans. With a beast like this, I won’t have to worry about resources for years, and I can add any feature my users decide they want without having to push back.

CentOS 5.7 works fine with the Intel Z8 chipset, BTW.

Perhaps the FreePBX distro will move to 5.7 soon so I can stop whining.

Based on the above criteria you should be installing from the tarball not from and ISO. That is the only way you are going to integrate all of the features you listed above.

I don’t understand your environment, sounds to me like a few users are out of control. I have quite a bit of Asterisk in the Enterprise experience and I have found that Enterprise users tend to be more deliberate on feature introductions. Is this a small business with a few users driving the show?

I am curious about the environment. You mention many features that don’t have complete support sets. I am trying to envision an environment where point to point video is a relevant application. What endpoints are you using for the video? Do you have a third party MCU? What system are you using to administer video resources and to reserve/schedule video calls? How are users chosen that have video ability?

Clear audio, what does this have to do with the CPU?

Recording capability - How many concurrent recorded calls?

ACD - No relevant system load

What custom desktop applications are you using and how do they impact the server?

What is an intel Z8 chipset? I googled it and had no hits. Is this a desktop Chipset? If so why are you not using server class hardware?

The latest Beta ISO is Centos 5.7 based. That should help on newer hardware issues.

Once I get my business running, I will devote more time on this.

The real difference in the various LINUX distros is in the GUI

I’d argue the biggest difference are the repos backing them, and that CENTOS can have some of the worst (without EPEL).

Though I’d also agree that those repos shouldn’t matter much in the context of FreePBX: your running just a phone server and that is all it should be doing.

Tadpole,
I would like to contribute to this cause! I think there plenty of people out there that would like to see FreePBX in the Ubuntu Repositories. If I can kick in a few bucks for the bounty, than that would be great.

I own a small business myself so I can understand how tough it can be to find the extra time. The other servers that I have are Ubuntu and it would really help me out to keep it consistent. I do the majority of my own IT and simply do not have the time to learn other distros. I have tried in the past and always come back to Ubuntu.

Please let us all know when you are ready to get started.

Hi, all

I like to have a FreePBX on Ubuntu as well. The statement “that a PBX server shoud be standalone” sounds a little silly to me. Machines get more and more powerfull and they are able to perform mulitple tasks.

I’m a user of the ubuntu platform for many years now. I’m running currently a Ubuntu server thats hosts mail, ftp, webpages and svn. I don’t want to setup a new machine just to run FreePBX, thats a waste of money (the power company would like this), my electric bill is high enough as it is.

Currently i’m running FreePBX distro in virtualbox on my desktop machine, and this works just great. But using virtualbox is just a work-a-round, due i’m not able to install it under Ubuntu. And running it virtual on the server thats just wasting CPU power.

As i said i’m a user, i dont want to fiddle around with someone elses software to get it working on Ubuntu, For my server i use the standard server 11.10 release with webmin to maintain it. The machine has no video card at all, only a serial interface for when something realy when’t wrong, futher i use SSH for some minor maintenance tasks.

FreePBX has a real good web maintenance interface, therefore i like the FreePBX distro, but then under Ubuntu would be great. FreePBX is easy to understand and maintain. So i hope that in the near future FreePBX becomes available on Ubuntu as well.

mbertens

100 people, 100 opions, Mine is always the best :-))

I wish that FreePBX was in the Ubuntu repositories. I have FreePBX deployed as my production phone system in a small manufacturing company. I use the FreeOBX distro based on CentOS. We use Ubuntu as our desktop OS on all our machines, and it would be nice to be standardized on one type of distro. It just makes things easier, especially when applying updates and trouble shooting. I am just more comfortable using Ubuntu, since I have used it for so long. I know and understand apt-get and the repositories There is nothing inherently wrong with RPM. It’s a great way to install packages. But every software and system has it’s intricacies. I know the intricacies of Ubuntu well, which means that I know Debian based distro’s well. It’s just a comfort level, knowing and understanding the distro so well, especially with something as mission critical as phones.

I definitely agree about having asterisk run on a stand alone box. I don’t want it running concurrently on any of the desktop machines. That being said, the other reason it would be nice to have running in Ubuntu: It would be nice to have the install completed on one or two of the desktop machines, but have the install be inactive. Then if the PBX box went down for some reason, I could “flip a switch” and have the phone system back up running on a desktop machine temporarily. Then I can calmly asses the standalone PBX box and get it up and running in an deliberate manner. Rather then scrambling to get the phones back up. I could install the FreePBX distro in Virtual Box on one of the desktop Ubuntu Machines. That just adds another layer. It might get me through a hardware failure, but I would rather having Asterisk run on the host OS, rather then in VM. Even if it’s for a short while.

I tried to install FreePBX on Ubuntu (11.10) a couple times and was unsuccessful. I could probably get it up if I keep trying, but it has shaken my confidence in the system and myself. I am sticking with the FreePBX distro based on CentOS for now.

I will re-iterate. There is nothing wrong with CentOS. I just prefer Ubuntu. No real practical reason other then that is what I chose many years ago, and Ubuntu has not given me any reason to stray from it. It would be nice to have a simple way to get it up and running on Ubuntu or another Debian based distro. Until then, I will make every best effort to re-program my brain to type the appropriate commands for the RPM based distro. SSH’ing into the machine as root instead of as a user, and not having to type sudo in front of every other command!

I have one out-dated box… centOS 5 running our PBX because that’s all we’ve been able to get.

We run Ubuntu server, but would like to upgrade our PBX to it as well.

I am presently working furiously to get FreePBX running on an Ubuntu server. I have had Asterisk running on this machine for a year or so, but I am tired of editing .conf files to make changes. I am a great believer in Ubuntu over CentOS ever since the first time I had someone buy a new computer to install a new Trixbox on. The CentOS was so ancient that it would not run the ethernet port or the disk controller. Made me look like a real fool, having to buy old controllers and disks to run a new computer. Also, I maintain my servers using Landscape, so I actually keep them patched up-to-date. I will be following this thread and help as I am able.

Even when trixbox was active it used an ancient version of FreePBX. Not reasonable to judge CentOS based on that junk. I used to joke arount that just running a trixbox proved you had no clue what you were doing.

FreePBX also puts out a distro and it is on Current CentOS 5. The team is working oonusing 6 as soon as some things are nailed down.

I know some folks have gotten FreePBX to run on Ubuntu, what exactly is your challenge?

Check out this link to the Ubuntu forums, It gives a script to install FreePBX on Ubuntu

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1986217

This is great! Does anyone know if there’s an updated version floating around, anywhere?

-Pablo

You can find updated information on installation on various OS’s here: http://wiki.freepbx.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1048598