HELP: PIAF 1.4 Testers Needed

[wardmundy]

Still need a few more folks to test out the latest build.

PIAF 1.4 is now in place on the beta download site. In order to use this beta, you'll need a password.

If you'd like to try it out, please send me a note and I will forward the password along. Comments and suggestions still are welcomed!

DO NOT RUN UPDATE-SOURCE WITH THIS RELEASE. IT HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED TO SUPPORT IT YET SO YOU MIGHT GET A BIG MESS!

 

[darmock]

Well Gee without the participation of the beta testers I can only assume that it works great or no one cares 8^( Hopefully a few of the beta guys have tried it and can report that it is working.......


Tom

 

[jwells]

I sent my request in to Ward for the password the day after it was posted and never got a response. I checked my postini spam filter a few times as well

 

[thunderheart]

Hey Tom,

I figured you guys had tons of requests to test the load so I didn't even bother asking. I'd love to give 'er a whang. I'll PM Ward now to see if I can get the password.

Dallas

 

[krzykat]

Same here. I used the initial Beta and had no issues on any of my servers. I thought there would be plenty of people that were testing. I'll send a PM as well.

 

[wardmundy]

I sent my request in to Ward for the password the day after it was posted and never got a response. I checked my postini spam filter a few times as well

I've responded to every mail message that was received. Sorry.

 

[darmock]

Perhaps a little clarification is in order

The ISO's were tested in the first round. This included updates to centos. In the second round the ISO's have been updated further with the latest Centos and Webmin. Along with a new downloader installer that has a beta choice on it. This beta choice downloads and installs the latest payload files from a beta install folder. Frankly I do not forsee any problems with the ISO and it should be released shortly.

The load files are the files that actually contain the very latest PIAF distro version 1.4 and these are now available once you download the latest PIAF Version 1.4 ISO


We decided to release the PBX in a Flash 1.4 load files as a beta before we copy them over to general release. Unless there are problems the current beta load files are actually the new Release load files which will be copied over to the standard download site after testing. Thus if you install the beta and it works then just keep it no reason to upgrade to the "official" release of PIAF 1.4. Also for the beta testers it does not show BETA TEST anywhere so do not ask! If you chose to install the beta then you are using the bleeding edge stuff which should shortly be the final release.

If there are big problems then we will correct the problems with the load files and then reissue the beta load files till we get it right.

Also along the way in future I will be rolling new addon programs along with any changes into this beta paradigm so we can test it out on "willing volunteers" prior to the general masses using it. Thus the beta load files can be updated for testing without effecting our Final releases. We hope that this new paradigm will keep future releases of the ISO down to once a year while the guts can be updated and tested as needed

While some may not be happy about password protecting the beta it helps us to keep track and keep the flame wars in our forums to a minimum. This also helps to weed out some "newbies" who might not be able to deal easily with problems that occur in linux. So far our tester group is comprised of "senior" members of the forum which has worked well.

When the next version of PIAF (1.5) comes out (Sometime next year I hope!) it will undergo the same beta ISO then Beta Load file testing as we are currently doing. Once we have time to look at the alternatives to asterisk and get it out the door it will follow the same model.



I hope this clarifies things and helps to move the beta testing forward.


Tom

 

[jwells]

I've responded to every mail message that was received. Sorry.

Ward I just filled in your form again

Jim

 

[wardmundy]

You're correct about having to manually eject the CD. But I just installed the latest 1.4 on one of our T100's and it recognized the embedded NIC in the T100 without a problem. Are you sure you don't have a DHCP issue? Nothing has changed in the drivers from the initial beta, and it works for me.

 

[jwells]

Ward I removed my post it was a mistake on my part forgot I had 2 nics in the machine for another test setup. I have it up and running right now still testing things out.

 

[The Deacon]

I'm sorry I missed the previous post about networking, as I had an issue that was a little frustrating, but was able to resolve it...

After initial installation (via dhcp) everything was fine - was able to download the package and do the installation without issue. After re-configuring the networking (converting from dhcp to static IP via netconfig) everything seemed to be fine until I rebooted; after reboot, the machine could see the network (the firewall, the SIP phones, the wireless router, the printer, etc), but not the Internet...

Checked all the network configs/settings and everything looked right, still no joy. Re-ran netconfig, restarted network services and things are back to normal.

 

[darmock]

Netconfig is still not the best package and Joe rants about not using it and using webmin etc. I find that if you do the following on systems that are having problems with networking it works flawlessly.

1. Configure networking using netconfig and save it

2. service network restart

3. Redo the networking using the same settings as before with netconfig and save it

4. test it you can ping out.


This has always worked for me 100% of the time


Tom

 

[The Deacon]

Hi Tom:

I installed the 64 bit version on a Dell Inspiron 530 with 2GB RAM and 320GB drive and used the onboard NIC (Dell says it's a Gigabit NIC, but the hardware listing (lshw) says differently). I've included the output from an lshw on the box in case you're curious.

Overall, the install (aside from the network issue I mentioned earlier) was flawless. It just worked!

In puttering around, there were a few things that I found:

1. When logging into the PBX via the portal, on the main page (before logging into the Admin pages), on the left side bar, it still says PBX in a Flash 1.3
2. The modules are out of date - most of the modules installed had a new version.
3. After I installed munin, I couldn't see it from the Admin frame; got a 404 and this message:

   The requested URL /maint/munin/index.html was not found on this server.

   But I could see the munin pages by doing an http://<ip.address>/munin
4. The Cisco 7940/60 directories are missing (mentioned here: http://www.pbxinaflash.com/forum/showpost.php?p=19287&postcount=6

Other than that, it looks pretty solid! I only had a couple of quirky issues (that were my fault, not the install) to deal with.

After playing with it for a few hours, I migrated my home PBX from the initial 1.4 beta (32 bit version) to the latest and greatest (64 bit version), so if I run into any issues, I'll let you know. But again, it appears pretty solid!

Thanks again for all your hard work in getting this image out!

-Rick

 

[jwells]

Today I have installed 1.4 beta 2 on my Dell T100 no issues with the install (except my own mistakes) everything seems to be working fine with my Bandwidth.com SIP trunk I tested with I have not tried any analog or T1 adapters yet but so far no problems I have come up against.

 

[darmock]

Hi Tom:



In puttering around, there were a few things that I found:

1. When logging into the PBX via the portal, on the main page (before logging into the Admin pages), on the left side bar, it still says PBX in a Flash 1.3
   
   hehe always something will correct that
   
2. The modules are out of date - most of the modules installed had a new version.
   
   r u talking about the freepbx modules? or the other asterisk modules? The beta version is actually the same as is on our unreleased disk 2 which allows for local installs. Thus it does contain most of the freepbx modules. I have not updated the freepbx modules in a while because there was some instability in them for a while which has now passed. The actual release version of the load files will only contain the barebones freepbx and you will have to download the latest modules from them.
   
3. After I installed munin, I couldn't see it from the Admin frame; got a 404 and this message:

   The requested URL /maint/munin/index.html was not found on this server.

   But I could see the munin pages by doing an http://<ip.address>/munin
   
   
   Will look into this one thanks
   
   
4. The Cisco 7940/60 directories are missing (mentioned here: http://www.pbxinaflash.com/forum/showpost.php?p=19287&postcount=6

Other than that, it looks pretty solid! I only had a couple of quirky issues (that were my fault, not the install) to deal with.


Yep I have been thinking on releasing an updated cisco folder along with it's XML services but it is low on the priority list.


After playing with it for a few hours, I migrated my home PBX from the initial 1.4 beta (32 bit version) to the latest and greatest (64 bit version), so if I run into any issues, I'll let you know. But again, it appears pretty solid!

Thanks again for all your hard work in getting this image out!

-Rick

Thanks Rick

Tom

 

[darmock]

Today I have installed 1.4 beta 2 on my Dell T100 no issues with the install (except my own mistakes) everything seems to be working fine with my Bandwidth.com SIP trunk I tested with I have not tried any analog or T1 adapters yet but so far no problems I have come up against.

Thanks for the report


Tom

 

[thunderheart]

Hey Ward,

Did you get an email from me on the 19th requesting the Beta Password? I sent it via the link provided.

Dallas

 

[wardmundy]

Beam the request again. If you don't hear from me within a day, I didn't get it. Sorry. Kinda reminds you of the Postal Service, doesn't it.

 

[tomsyr]

1.4 in a VM enviroment

Ward mentioned in another thread a VM solution to check out at:
http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Main_Page .
I had 1.3 of PiaF setup and running without any issues. I installed the beta 1.4, and everything is work just like 1.3 – I have a very simple setup with 3 IAX providers. After upgrading all the FreePBX modules, I backed up the 1.3 config, and then restored it to the new 1.4 without any problems. I tested this out on the 32 bit platform.
A couple of things I did notice though – I didn’t need a password for the Beta - not sure where that comes into play – Install in the VM comes from pointing at the ISO, so no disk is made. The install is much like the 1.3.
The clock was off by 5 hours, but I probably made a mistake in the initial setup.
Rather than install Webmin from the help-pbx, it is already part of 1.4 distribution. It’s installed, but I can’t access it with the username/password for root. I tried resetting the root pw, but that didn’t fix it. I also did a restart and tried again with no luck.

A little off topic …
I bought the Dell T105 – 64 bit system with 2 gig of memory. I have a need to make a testing environment, and gave a couple of VM solutions a whirl. It turns out that you can’t run VMware on the T105, it’s not compatible at this point - at least that’s what I found out on the VMWare forums. That’s when I tried Proxmox. This VM system is drop dead EASY. If you have a 64 bit system lying around and want to test it out, it may be worth your while – and as Ward says – you can’t beat the price.
Once I found out how great this system was going to be as a platform for what I want to do, I upgraded the system memory to 8 gig for only $140 including shipping – Check out this vendor:
http://www.oempcworld.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=2.0G-PC2-6400E&AttributeCode[1]=Computer&AttributeValue[1]=PowerEdge+T105
I just sent back my original 2 gig that came with the system, so I will be getting a few $$$ back from this vendor…
As for my system, I'm now running PiaF, Windows 7, and Unbuntu Server for developing a Plone based content management system - small personal plug for a book I co-authored.
Tom

 

[openSorcerer]

I've installed 1.4 Beta is everything is all good. Using vitelity for inbound and Gafachi for outbound.