TUTORIAL HylaFAX / AvantFax for PIAF! - Parts 1-4

tshif · Apr 10, 2009

cadman97 said:
tshif,

I know that this might be a long shot, but has anyone done a fax modem that can recieve color faxes? or does that cause all sorts of issues..

Thanks,

Mike

Well - I know that color fax machines DO exist. I can't recall ever actually seeing one work. I have sent color documents via print to fax, but the pdf files turn out in monochrome.

You should try the Hylafax Forum and see if there's any chatter about color over there. I don't know - there may be a switch in a config file someplace that will let us support color. Be sure and let us know if you find anything interesting!

tshif · Apr 10, 2009

markrmcs said:
Thanks for the quick reply and I, as well as others, I'm sure, certainly appreciate the hard work you have done. I will watch for updates and in the meantime since this is not a production box it will not be deployed. Thanks a million for what you have done!

Mark

Well thanks so much for the kind words. You should feel comfortable with deployment - we have the HylaFax / Avantfax solution deployed to great success and reliability.

I also wonder if update-fixes would resolve the permissions error, once it occurs. Has anyone tried that as a fix to the permissions problem?

Enjoy fax Nirvana!

tshif · Apr 10, 2009

cadman97 said:
I found 2 typo's as well so far, still having an issue but redoing the install right now.
Update initab
Using your favorite editor, modify the file /etc/initab.
shouldn't it be /etc/inittab ?
Create new IAX Modem
Next, we create the new iaxmodem in /etc/iaxmodems.We need to make a copy of one of the existing iaxmomdem-cfg.ttyIAX files,
I don't have an /etc/iaxmodems/ but I do have an /etc/iaxmodem.
then the existing file has an extra m in it..

Got it x 3. Thanks for pointing them out.
-tshif

markrmcs · Apr 10, 2009

tshif said:
Well thanks so much for the kind words. You should feel comfortable with deployment - we have the HylaFax / Avantfax solution deployed to great success and reliability.

I also wonder if update-fixes would resolve the permissions error, once it occurs. Has anyone tried that as a fix to the permissions problem?

Enjoy fax Nirvana!

I read the posts again a little more carefully and noticed that someone (jr@lcc) pointed out that it seems to be ownership of the folder that is causing the problem, rather than permissions.

I changed back the permissions to 0770 and changed the ownership from root:apache to asterisk:asterisk and all is as it should be.

Following this I ran update-scripts and update-fixes and noticed that patch #111 and patch #115 seem to address the permission/ownership issues in /var/lib/php/session. I read the log and saw that all of the permissions were set to 0776 and ownership was changed to asterisk:asterisk.

It appears that running the two scripts fixes the issue.

Hope this helps.

Mark

tshif · Apr 10, 2009

markrmcs said:
I read the posts again a little more carefully and noticed that someone (jr@lcc) pointed out that it seems to be ownership of the folder that is causing the problem, rather than permissions.
I changed back the permissions to 0770 and changed the ownership from root:apache to asterisk:asterisk and all is as it should be.
Following this I ran update-scripts and update-fixes and noticed that patch #111 and patch #115 seem to address the permission/ownership issues in /var/lib/php/session. I read the log and saw that all of the permissions were set to 0776 and ownership was changed to asterisk:asterisk.
It appears that running the two scripts fixes the issue.
Hope this helps.
Mark

Score! Mark that's exactly what Ive been looking for. This means anyone who is in this position can use the already existing update-fixes routine to fix this. Great news.

I think we still need to know how the ownership issue comes about in the first place. Then we can fix whatever is causing it - or at least publish the need to run update-fixes afterwards. So - the question is - after what?

Mark - thanks for ferreting this out!

cadman97 · Apr 10, 2009

color fax recieve.

Here is something I found on recieveing color faxes..

http://hylafax.sourceforge.net/howto/install.php

2.5 About JPEG (Color Fax) and JBIG compression support

The usage of JPEG and JBIG compression schemes are generally considered "advanced" fax features and may not be available to all fax machines. JPEG compression is most commonly used for sending and receiving color facsimile. JBIG compression is most commonly used for sending and receiving monochrome facsimile, but with a tighter compression (and thus faster send-times) than MMR. Both JPEG and JBIG facsimile compression require the usage of error-correction protocol (ECM).
JPEG
Currently JPEG support is only available in Class 1/1.0 receiving. JPEG send support is not yet available. The Class 2.1 specification does provide for JPEG support, but HylaFAX is not yet capable of sending or receiving JPEG facsimile in Class 2.1.
HylaFAX JPEG receive support is entirely dependent upon CIELAB JPEG support being available in libtiff, and libtiff gets some of its CIELAB JPEG support from libjpeg. Unfortunately, as of libjpeg version 6b released by the Independent JPEG Group (http://www.ijg.org/) libjpeg does not support CIELAB JPEG. This will require libjpeg to be patched, rebuilt, and reinstalled. The patch to libjpeg can be found here:
http://bugs.hylafax.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=224#c7
Then libtiff will need to be patched, rebuilt, and reinstalled. The libtiff patch can be found here:
http://bugzilla.remotesensing.org/show_bug.cgi?id=736
At this point, then, color fax reception support can be enabled in the modem config file by setting:
Class1ColorJPEGSupport: yes
Most TIFF viewers will not be capable of displaying the JPEG-compressed TIFF pages with the proper color scheme (they would need to support CIELAB JPEG, which is mostly specific to fax). So to view JPEG-compressed TIFF images, convert them first using tiff2ps and then ps2pdf (or the bin/tiff2pdf HylaFAX script, as libtiff's tiff2pdf doesn't seem to work the same right now), or convert them to another color-supporting TIFF compression. JBIG
HylaFAX supports both sending and receiving JBIG-compressed facsimile in Class 1/1.0. The Class 2.1 specification does not include JBIG, and so JBIG is not likely to be available with Class 2/2.0/2.1.
Like JPEG, HylaFAX JBIG receive support is entirely dependent upon JBIG support being available in libtiff. Most recent libtiff releases include the ability to write JBIG-compressed TIFF files. However, doing anything with the TIFF file from there will be difficult as TIFF viewers usually do not support JBIG compression. So usually the JBIG-compressed TIFF file requires conversion to PDF or a non-JBIG compression for viewing. This will require the installation of the JBIG-KIT library and libtiff to be patched, rebuilt, and reinstalled. The patch can be found here:
http://bugzilla.remotesensing.org/show_bug.cgi?id=896
At this point, then, JBIG fax reception support should be enabled by default but can be manipulated in the modem config file with Class1JBIGSupport.
HylaFAX JBIG send support utilizes the ModemSoftRTFCCModemSoftRTFCC be enabled (which is the default setting). If the JBIG-KIT libraries were found when HylaFAX was compiled then the ModemSoftRTFCC feature will also convert to JBIG when appropriate (and Class1JBIGSupport feature. Thus, sending JBIG-compressed facsimile requires that will also default to "yes"). JBIG send support does not require libtiff to be patched.
A word of caution about installing patched versions of libjpeg and libtiff: On most systems several other packages will likely have been built against libjpeg and perhaps to a lesser extent also libtiff. Problems may likely arise with those other packages due to the library (libjpeg and/or libtiff) being altered without rebuilding that package. In this case these packages that also depend upon the library will also need to be rebuilt. Yes, it's not fun.

so am I on the right track?

Thanks,

MIke

jack · Apr 11, 2009

Hi tshif:
May be here is a clue.
There are 12 Packages have been updated than before and some packages belong to CentOS 5.3 when I run ./piaf-hylafax.sh as of April 1.

Part of the installation as below:
Dependencies Resolved
=============================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
ImageMagick-devel i386 6.2.8.0-4.el5_1.1 base 75 k
expect i386 5.43.0-5.1 base 158 k
giflib i386 4.1.3-7.1.el5.1 base 39 k
netpbm-progs i386 10.35-6.1.el5_3.1 updates 2.0 M
php-pear-MDB2-Driver-mysql noarch 1.4.1-3.el5.centos extras 41 k
php-pear-Mail noarch 1.1.14-1.el5.centos extras 26 k
php-pear-Mail-Mime noarch 1.4.0-1.el5.centos extras 39 k
php-pecl-Fileinfo i386 1.0.4-3.el5.centos extras 11 k
Updating:
lcms i386 1.18-0.1.beta1.el5_3.2 updates 176 k
libpng i386 2:1.2.10-7.1.el5_3.2 updates 241 k
mesa-libGL i386 6.5.1-7.7.el5 base 9.7 M
php i386 5.1.6-23.2.el5_3 updates 1.1 M
php-cli i386 5.1.6-23.2.el5_3 updates 2.1 M
php-common i386 5.1.6-23.2.el5_3 updates 151 k
php-mbstring i386 5.1.6-23.2.el5_3 updates 994 k
php-mysql i386 5.1.6-23.2.el5_3 updates 85 k
sudo i386 1.6.9p17-3.el5_3.1 updates 217 k
vixie-cron i386 4:4.1-76.el5 base 78 k
Installing for dependencies:
ImageMagick i386 6.2.8.0-4.el5_1.1 base 3.3 M
bzip2-devel i386 1.0.3-4.el5_2 base 38 k
ghostscript-devel i386 8.15.2-9.4.el5_3.4 updates 40 k
lcms-devel i386 1.18-0.1.beta1.el5_3.2 updates 156 k
libICE-devel i386 1.0.1-2.1 base 13 k
libSM-devel i386 1.0.1-3.1 base 9.4 k
libX11-devel i386 1.0.3-9.el5 base 666 k
libXau-devel i386 1.0.1-3.1 base 11 k
libXdmcp-devel i386 1.0.1-2.1 base 7.5 k
libXext-devel i386 1.0.1-2.1 base 57 k
libXt-devel i386 1.0.2-3.1.fc6 base 332 k
libcroco i386 0.6.1-2.1 base 127 k
libgsf i386 1.14.1-6.1 base 116 k
libjpeg-devel i386 6b-37 base 105 k
librsvg2 i386 2.16.1-1.el5 base 178 k
libwmf i386 0.2.8.4-10.1 base 821 k
mesa-libGL-devel i386 6.5.1-7.7.el5 base 466 k
netpbm i386 10.35-6.1.el5_3.1 updates 141 k
php-pear-Auth-SASL noarch 1.0.2-4.el5.centos extras 11 k
php-pear-MDB2 noarch 2.4.1-2.el5.centos extras 132 k
php-pear-Net-SMTP noarch 1.2.10-1.el5.centos extras 18 k
php-pear-Net-Socket noarch 1.0.8-1.el5.centos extras 12 k
tcl i386 8.4.13-3.fc6 base 961 k
xorg-x11-proto-devel i386 7.1-9.el5.centos base 253 k
Updating for dependencies:
php-gd i386 5.1.6-23.2.el5_3 updates 116 k
php-pdo i386 5.1.6-23.2.el5_3 updates 64 k
Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install 32 Package(s)
Update 12 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 25 M
Downloading Packages: : libgsf-1.14.1-6. 100% |=========================| 116 kB 00:00
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Updating : libpng ####################### [ 1/56]
Updating : php-common ####################### [ 2/56]
Updating : lcms ####################### [ 3/56]
Updating : php-pdo ####################### [ 4/56]
Updating : mesa-libGL ####################### [ 5/56]
Installing: lcms-devel ####################### [ 6/56]
Updating : php-cli ####################### [ 7/56]
Updating : php ####################### [ 8/56]
Installing: php-pear-Auth-SASL ####################### [ 9/56]
Installing: libwmf ####################### [10/56]
Installing: ghostscript-devel ####################### [11/56]
Installing: libcroco ####################### [12/56]
Installing: tcl ####################### [13/56]
Installing: php-pear-Net-Socket ####################### [14/56]
Installing: php-pear-Net-SMTP ####################### [15/56]
Installing: netpbm ####################### [16/56]
Installing: libjpeg-devel ####################### [17/56]
Installing: libXau-devel ####################### [18/56]
Installing: php-pear-MDB2 ####################### [19/56]
Installing: bzip2-devel ####################### [20/56]
Installing: libgsf ####################### [21/56]
Installing: librsvg2 ####################### [22/56]
Installing: ImageMagick ####################### [23/56]
Installing: php-pear-MDB2-Driver-mysql ####################### [24/56]
Installing: netpbm-progs ####################### [25/56]
Installing: php-pear-Mail ####################### [26/56]
Installing: expect ####################### [27/56]
Updating : php-mysql ####################### [28/56]
Updating : php-mbstring ####################### [29/56]
Installing: php-pecl-Fileinfo ####################### [30/56]
Updating : php-gd ####################### [31/56]
Updating : vixie-cron ####################### [32/56]
Installing: php-pear-Mail-Mime ####################### [33/56]
Updating : sudo ####################### [34/56]
Installing: giflib ####################### [35/56]
Installing: xorg-x11-proto-devel ####################### [36/56]
Installing: libX11-devel ####################### [37/56]
Installing: libXext-devel ####################### [38/56]
Installing: libICE-devel ####################### [39/56]
Installing: libSM-devel ####################### [40/56]
Installing: libXt-devel ####################### [41/56]
Installing: libXdmcp-devel ####################### [42/56]
Installing: mesa-libGL-devel ####################### [43/56]
Installing: ImageMagick-devel ####################### [44/56]
Cleanup : php-mbstring ####################### [45/56]
Cleanup : php ####################### [46/56]
Cleanup : php-cli ####################### [47/56]
Cleanup : lcms ####################### [48/56]
Cleanup : php-common ####################### [49/56]
Cleanup : php-mysql ####################### [50/56]
Cleanup : php-pdo ####################### [51/56]
Cleanup : php-gd ####################### [52/56]
Cleanup : mesa-libGL ####################### [53/56]
Cleanup : libpng ####################### [54/56]
Cleanup : sudo ####################### [55/56]
Cleanup : vixie-cron ####################### [56/56]

Here's the fix from wardmundy http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/centos-5-3-updates-safe.3962/#post-24084
chown asterisk:asterisk /var/lib/php/session

Run darmock's update-fixes also do the trick.

For your information only.

tshif · Apr 11, 2009

Cadman -
Wow - you are GOOD. I think you found the info alright - and in record time.

This part worries me a little:

A word of caution about installing patched versions of libjpeg and libtiff: On most systems several other packages will likely have been built against libjpeg and perhaps to a lesser extent also libtiff. Problems may likely arise with those other packages due to the library (libjpeg and/or libtiff) being altered without rebuilding that package. In this case these packages that also depend upon the library will also need to be rebuilt. Yes, it's not fun.

Since this strikes at the heart of the Linux system, and has the potential to effect all parts of the system - its not to be undertaken lightly.

I have the thought that it *might* be possible - since we are all source based with PBXIAF - but I certainly dont know enough to say weather or not we would be "screwing-the-pooch" and disrupting other parts of the platform with such a change. The answer to that will have to come from one of the high IQ guys like Tom or Ward, or the spin-master himself, Joe Roper.

Also - I wonder what happens if you color enable your fax out capability... Will thatl sacrefice compatability with any fax machines? Another potential show stopper.

Does anyone have any other thoughts to share on this?

tshif · Apr 11, 2009

jack

I see a lot of references to PHP in the log you provided. It may not be a smoking gun, bit its enough to peak my interest for sure.

When yum updates php, ownership can change - so I dont see any reason to think that couldnt happen with these php related updates being applied for the Hylfax / Avantfax install.

I will update the main article here to include running update-fixes whenthe install completes. This should resolve the problem in every case - at least if I understand things correctly.

Jack - THANKS for bringing all the details together in one place. You have made a difference here today!
-Tony

kevinb · Apr 11, 2009

Problems with fax receiving

Hey all, followed the excellent tutorial at the beginning of the thread and have hyla/avant installed and semi working. Sending faxes seems fine, and receiving faxes works to the point of the system answers and receives the fax, but is unable to process it. It says it emailed the fax to me however im not getting it (which is probably a seperate issue), however the recvd fax cant be processed. Below is a log of the errors Im getting:

11.04.2009 18:16 faxrcvd> Failed to copy recvq/fax000000002.tif to /var/www/html/avantfax/faxes/recvd/2009/04/11/00000000001/000000002/fax.tif
11.04.2009 18:16 mkdirs> Error creating directory /var/www/html/avantfax/faxes/recvd
11.04.2009 18:16 faxrcvd> PROCESSING FAX from '00000000001' (4 pages) received '2009:04:11 18:15:06'
11.04.2009 18:16 faxrcvd> executing: recvq/fax000000002.tif ttyIAX0 '000000023' '' CIDNum: '00000000001' CIDName: '00000000001' DID: ''

Since it cant copy the files I cant see them in avant's inbox and since i dont get an email i never know if they arrived.

Any ideas greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Kevin

dad311 · Apr 12, 2009

I did a fresh install tonight using PBXiaf 1.4 AND the Orgasmatron installer script.

After completing the install I added the HylaFAX/AvantFax package. Everything installed correctly, but I cant seem to get DID/FAX sharing to work.

I performed all the steps located here without any issue, but after NVFax detects a incoming fax I get fast busy signal and the call fails. I can fax directly to the extension, so I know the fax modems are working.

This was not an issue with the standard 1.4 install and Im starting to wonder is the Orgasmatron script/configs maybe the issue.

Anyone else tried 1.4 w/Orgasmatron script + HylaFAX/AvantFax and DID/FAX sharing ??????

tshif · Apr 12, 2009

kevinb

I have no real clue - but it seems like it also couldn't create a directory - I wonder if you are having a permission issue?

Try running update-fixes - and let us know what happens.

dad311

- Were there any irregularities when you recompiled Asterisk to get nvdetect support?

Please show us your Fax Settings on the inbound DID route, as well as the extension configuration for the Virtual Fax involved. Hmmm. What else might be valuable. Oh - how about a CLI trace of the inbound fax event also. Maybe something will show up in there of interest. Running update-fixes could be a good thing for you too.
-Tony

dad311 · Apr 12, 2009

tshif said:
kevinb

I have no real clue - but it seems like it also couldn't create a directory - I wonder if you are having a permission issue?

Try running update-fixes - and let us know what happens.

dad311

- Were there any irregularities when you recompiled Asterisk to get nvdetect support?

Please show us your Fax Settings on the inbound DID route, as well as the extension configuration for the Virtual Fax involved. Hmmm. What else might be valuable. Oh - how about a CLI trace of the inbound fax event also. Maybe something will show up in there of interest. Running update-fixes could be a good thing for you too.
-Tony

Didnt think I needed to recompile Asterisk if I was using PBXiaf version 1.4 with fax support. Maybe this is the issue.

kevinb · Apr 12, 2009

tshif said:
kevinb

I have no real clue - but it seems like it also couldn't create a directory - I wonder if you are having a permission issue?

Try running update-fixes - and let us know what happens.

dad311

- Were there any irregularities when you recompiled Asterisk to get nvdetect support?

Please show us your Fax Settings on the inbound DID route, as well as the extension configuration for the Virtual Fax involved. Hmmm. What else might be valuable. Oh - how about a CLI trace of the inbound fax event also. Maybe something will show up in there of interest. Running update-fixes could be a good thing for you too.
-Tony

I'll give it a try and report back but I have my doubt's. I'm pretty sure I've run this recently. Thanks

dad311 · Apr 13, 2009

dad311 said:
Didnt think I needed to recompile Asterisk if I was using PBXiaf version 1.4 with fax support. Maybe this is the issue.

Resolved the issue. I loaded generic PBXiaf 1.4 only (no Orgasmatron Installer script), then HylaFAX/AvantFax using this thread. Everything seems to work. thx

jroper · Apr 16, 2009

Hi

There is a while until loop in the script, which loops 4 times. By inspection, you could increase to 16 times.

Joe

thunderheart · Apr 26, 2009

WinprintHylaFAX and Vista

Anybody have success with Winprint under Vista? When I attempt to add the port, the wizard stalls. There are some dialog boxes that are opened via "Windows Interactive Services" which indicate "Access Denied" doing the creation of the port. I haven't seen this kind of behavior in Vista before and the system indicates that these dialogs are being opened in an incompatible way. Like maybe some XP API methods that are deprecated in Vista?

Any ideas? I'm running as an Admin under Windows Vista Home.

Dallas

MageMinds · Apr 29, 2009

Wow awesome thread! This is exactly what I was looking for! We're planning to change our old (more than 20 years old) Norstar PABX for probably Asterisk (I still have to make my sales pitch to the adminitrators) and we'll be installing a T1/PRI for PSTN. I read that faxing from HylaFAX and Asterisk with T1/PRI is perfect.

Actually our fax solution is rock solid using a Brookthrout 4 port analog PCI controller on a Exchange server using GFI Faxmaker.

What we miss here is the tutorial to make faxmail to work. so I could send a PDF to [email protected]l I don't know if it's possible with HylaFAX but in GFI I can control the Fax Header and all the generated cover page using command in the email sent like ::coverpage=sales,priority=low,faxheader=corporationXYZ

Anyways this is again an awesome work!

MageMinds

tshif · Apr 29, 2009

MageMinds said:
What we miss here is the tutorial to make faxmail to work. so I could send a PDF to [email protected]l I don't know if it's possible with HylaFAX but in GFI I can control the Fax Header and all the generated cover page using command in the email sent like ::coverpage=sales,priority=low,faxheader=corporationXYZ

Anyways this is again an awesome work!

MageMinds

There is a mail to fax gateway in the installation - there are a couple of scripts to facilitate same. We have used it under test, and it does work. So far, we havn't published any info about it here for a couple of reasons.

There are potential security concerns with the way it works - there doesn't seem to be any easy way to restrict who the valid senders are.

There don't seem to be provisions to use the body of the email for the cover letter - as you described - which would be important to lots of folks.

It seems to only support pdf attachments.

That being said - if there is enough interest we may look into it again.

On the other hand - if anyone reading this has pursued the mail-to-fax function, and has any tips - PLEASE chime in with your experiences. We'd love to have a safe flexible way to get this done.

phinphan · Apr 29, 2009

Thunderheart, Winprint will not work correctly under Vista due to the way that Vista handles the print spooling function. I don't understand the technical function but it simply does not work without the weird dialogs and such. You can use the whfc program to print under Vista. There is also a new fax printer driver for vista coming out from the folks at ifax.com. They seem to indicate it will be out shortly. They have a very good printer driver for high quality faxing. The conversion by hylafax of graphics in pdf files is not very good and theirs is much better imho. http://www.ifax.com/content/view/36/88/. I sent them an email about Vista compatibility (this version is not) and they said a new version is coming soon that will work with Vista.

I have tried to get the Sambafax setup to work without any success so far.

In a later post, Tony talks about using the email to fax function which would be great. Lets hope they release it.

TUTORIAL HylaFAX / AvantFax for PIAF! - Parts 1-4

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