Kickstart Command Line Options/Arguments

Here are a bunch of handy arguments taken from this page:


Redhat Documentation

So, typically I interrupt a Redhat boot and choose the following:


(appended to the normal boot line)

ksdevice=eth0 ip=10.2.3.4 netmask=255.255.254.0 gateway=10.2.3.1 dns=10.10.10.2,10.10.10.4 ks=http://url/to/my/kickstart.cfg

Converting a Cisco 1141N Lightweight Access Point to Autonomous Mode

The biggest challenge in performing this operation is that the config terminal mode is not readily available.

To enable it:

debug capwap console cli

After that, let the ethernet interface (gi0) obtain an address over dhcp

1. archive tar /xtract tftp://myserver/myiosimage.tar flash:

2. After that finishes, wipe the config:

erase startup-config

3. conf t

4. boot system flash:/nameOfYourIOSIMAGE/imagefile

(i.e., boot system flash:/c1140-k9w7-tar.152-4.JB5.tar/c1140-k9w7-tar.152-4.JB5)

5. reload

6. After a successful boot, you can delete the old IOS image with something like:

delete /recursive /force flash:/name_of_old_ios_image

FreePBX Distro's Commercial Endpoint Manager and Polycom VVX Phones

A few pointers:

• To enable onetouch voicemail (i.e., press the voice mail button and have it connect automatically) - go to the endpoint manager, go to advanced, basefile edit and select the template you created for the given model of phone (i.e., vvx410.) Click "SIP-interop.cfg." Look for a line stating:

oneTouchVoiceMail      0

And set it to 0.

Now, go back to "Extension Mapping" - select your extension and select "rebuild config." After this, reboot your phone.

Acme SBC & ASC - Two Legged Call Issues

I recently ran into a strange problem using Oracle's (formerly Acme Packet) SBC. In this situation, the SBC gets authorization from calls by querying the ASC (Application Session Controller) - which, in turn, queries an application server. If the person calling is acceptable or the person being called is acceptable (in the case of inbound.)

This is useful in a couple of scenarios:

• You're presenting a virtual number. For instance, you want customers to be able to call a sales rep, but you don't want to give out the direct DID/number for the salesperson. In this case, the SBC accepts the inbound call, matches on the destination DID in the LRT (provided you are using an LRT) and sends the call to the ASC. The ASC either rejects the call (if the number is not authorized) or accepts the call. If it's the latter, it will open a second call (using the SBC) to the "real" number (which the ASC obtains from the application server) and then bridges the two calls together. Thus, a two-legged call. In this case, the ASC leaves the from field the same and changes the to field and the number on the invite to be the "real" number."
• You want to do some sort of processing/reporting on the call from a call manager. In this scenario, the call is routed to the SBC from another SBC or PBX. The SBC accepts the call based on the "FROM" key in the LRT. The SBC sends the call over to the ASC. If the ASC is okay with the call, it creates the second leg and bridges the call. It's possible to even send the call back to the originating call manager or SBC.

I ran into a strange problem  in the second scenario. I had restricted the codecs on the SBC for a given session-agent. The first leg was established with no issue. The call was forwarded over to the ASC. However, the second leg was the problem. The ASC opened the second leg, but the TO and FROM fields were reversed, breaking the call.

After investigating the issue (the logs from the ASC were not helpful,) I realized that the ASC was missing the appropriate codec (in this case, G729) and, I believe, was trying to send back an error message from the sender.

The fix, of course, was to enable the codec on the ASC.

Sangoma A101 Shows Up as Wrong Device On FreePBX Distro

After installing a Sangoma TDM card (the A101DE, a 1 port pci-e PRI card) on a FreePBX Distro system, I noticed that the system was detecting the wrong card... 

lspci showed something like:

02:04.0 Network controller: Sangoma Technologies Corp. A200/Remora FXO/FXS Analog AFT card

 
After looking around for quite a while, I decided that I wanted to run this card through DAHDI and not through the standalone system that I've used for years with Asterisk. The goal was to make this card managed as much as possible using the GUI.

Here are the steps I had to take:


1. Update the drivers in the OS:

sudo yum update dahdi*

sudo yum update kmod-dahdi-linux

sudo yum install wanpipe

2. Configure the card:

sudo depmod -a

3. which requires a reboot 

sudo shutdown -r now

 4. Now, get wanrouter to load the right kernel module

sudo wanrouter hwprobe

5. configure the card:

sudo wancfg_dahdi      

Your configuration here will vary. Make sure it lists the card you have. This script really just ends up calling the setup-sangoma script. You'll have to choose what's appropriate for your system. Note: I selected the option at the end to simply save the config files and not restart the modules, as I found that the option to restart the modules failed.

You'll want to make wanrouter/wanpipe start on boot (yet another script question.)

6. reboot, again

sudo shutdown -r now 

7. Go into the GUI to settings -> dahdi config -> sangoma and enable DAHDI management of Sangoma

8. reboot the system

sudo shutdown -r now

Now, you should see the right card in the DADHI section of the GUI.

 

Problems Joining OS X Mavericks to an Active Directory Domain

When joining a mac to an Active Directory domain, you might see this error:

Unable to add server. Node name wasn't found. (2000)

 One of the things that confuses people is that it asks for a clientid. This should be the computer name you want to use on the domain for the mac. Don't try to use your username or "domain admins" or anything like that.



 The other is the "server" field. If you were using LDAP for directory service, you would put in one of the LDAP servers. If you're using Active Directoy, put in the fully qualified domain name of your AD domain.

In this case, the time was too far out of sync on the Mac. Because AD uses Kerberos, the client machine's time must be within a few minutes of the same time as the domain controllers. By default in AD, this is five minutes. The time requirement is necessary as kerberos uses it as an anti-replay control.

Lenovo Thinkpad Laptops Failing to Connect to Wifi

I ran into a recent problem where a Windows 7 Thinkpad would not connect to wifi access points properly. It would connect to the Thinkvantage wifi profile, but networking was unavailable. Wired access worked fine, as did everything else. The problem ended up being the Thinkvantage tools.The advanced wifi settings of the network profile showed a power savings setting of maximum savings. Switching that to medium savings enabled networking. I suspect the laptop would have worked if the WAP was only a few feet away, but this user was over 30 feet away.