Asterisk Installation on Debian 7 (Wheezy)

Introduction

This paper provide installation instructions for Debian linux 7 & Asterisk on a new platform.

Components:

1. Debian Linux : latest version can be obtained from

(http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.1.0/amd64/iso-dvd/). There will be more than one
CD image on the website, only download the first CD the additional software on CD 2&3 can
be downloaded during installation from within linux if needed.
2. Asterisk : is an open free platform for building communication systems. Latest stable version
can be obtained from (http://www.asterisk.org/downloads/asterisk/all-asterisk-versions) and
then choose the suitable certified version or from the command line after setting up linux
and issue the below command line: (wget
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-11-current.tar.gz). Along with
Asterisk platform, an extra two packages need to be downloaded from Asterisk website:
a. DAHDI Library : used for managing communication interfaces (wget
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/dahdi-linux-complete/dahdi-linux-
complete-2.6.1+2.6.1.tar.gz)
b. LIBPRI Library: LIBPRI is an open source library that encapsulates the protocols used
to communicate over ISDN Primary Rate Interfaces (T1, E1, J1). LIBPRI is a
dependency for Asterisk and DAHDI if PRI signaling is used. (wget
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/libpri/libpri-1.4-current.tar.gz)

Linux Installation

1. Burn the downloaded ISO image of latest Linux platform to a DVD or a CD (depending on
the size), and insert it into the machine and make sure to boot from the CD drive.

2. After booting, you’ll be greeted with the installation splash screen as per the Figure 1-1
below, select first option “install”
 Fig 1-1 [first screen]

3. On the next screen “Language Screen” Select “English” and continue [Fig 1-2 Language
screen]

Fig 1-2
4. On the next screen “Select your location” choose the country you are in (Jordan);  or you
can leave it as US and fix it later from within the system.  Fig 1-3

Fig 1-4
5. On The next screen “system locale” select the keyboard defaults (same as on screen). Fig 1-
5

Fig 1-5
6. Configure the keyboard region by clicking enter Fig 1-6

Fig 1-6

7. Debian will begins installation, set back and wait for it to request the next action (Fig 1-7)

Fig 1-7
8. Next you’ll setup your network configuration (actual settings may differ from the figures
below) figure 1-8..1-11

Fig 1-8

Fig 1-9
 Fig 1-10

Fig 1-11

9. Next screen you’ll be prompted to enter the Root password, make sure you enter a complex
password. Fig 1-12
 Fig 1-12
10. Next screen will request to confirm the root password from previous screen.
11. Next will be prompted to add a normal user to the system and enter a password for this user
as per figure 1-13 and 1-14

Fig 1-13
 Fig 1-14
12. Next will be prompted to setup disk partition, choose “Guided,use entire disk” Fig 1-15

Fig 1-15
13. Click next on the following screens of the disk partition until system starts installation of files
14. System will start installation as per figure 1-16
 Fig 1-16
15. Next will be prompted to choose the package manager; the package manager will be
responsible to identify the APT that will be used to install any required software later on. Fig
1-17

Fig 1-17
16. Apt configuration will start immediately after previous screen as per Fig 1-18 below
 Fig 1-18
17. Click “NO” on the popularity-contest screen Fig 1-19

Fig 1-19
18. After setting up software repositories, you’ll be presented with additional software
installation options, make sure to only select “SSH” and “Standard System Utilities” as per
Fig 1-20
 Fig 1-20
19. In the final steps, you’ll be presented with the installation of the GRUB loader which is a
utility for Linux boot system, select “YES” and continue as per fig 1-21

Fig 1-21
20. Congratulations, you have successfully finished installing Debian 7. Click “Continue” to
reboot and logon to the system. Fig 1-22
 Fig 1-22
21. After system reboot enter your logon credentials to access the system, this can also be done
remotely using “putty” if you prefer to work remotely.

Installing Asterisk

In order to install Asterisk properly, there are some system libraries that need to be installed before
compiling asterisk.
Required system libraries:
1. C/C++ compiler
2. OpenSSL
3. Ncurses
4. Newt
5. Libxml2
6. Kernel Headers
7. Sql lite
8. Vim (file editor)
System Libraries installation:

1. Start with issuing the following command : apt-get install build-essential as in Fig 2-1
below this will install all pre build essentials such as C/C++ and gcc compiler

Fig 2-1
2. Next we’ll install : OpenSSL, Ncurses, Newt, LibXML2,vim and sqllite and Kernel Headers,
we’ll start off with the last one (Kernel Headers) by issuing the command: apt-get install
linux-headers-$(uname -r) but before that make sure the system is up to date by
issuing: apt-get update. Fig 2-2 below

Fig 2-2
3. Next we’ll install the rest of the system libraries mentioned in step 2 along with their
development libraries as well. To do so issue the following command: apt-get install
libxml2 libxml2-dev openssl libssl-dev libncurses5 libncurses5-dev libnewt0.52
libnewt-dev vim-nox libsqlite3-dev as per Fig 2-3

Fig 2-3
Now, we have completed installing all necessary libraries and support software. Reboot the system
and continue with the next steps to install Asterisk system.

Downloading and installing Asterisk packages:

Asterisk system has two support packages that need to be installed along with Asterisk
package: DAHDI & LIBPRI. DAHDI is a set of drivers and utilities for a number of analog and digital
telephony cards, such as those manufactured by Digium. And LIBPri is a library allows Asterisk to
communicate with ISDN connections.
We’ll kick off with downloading the tar files (zipped files) to our system and then extract
them and eventually install them. Downloading the tar files from the command line is done as
detailed in this document under “System Components” section. Download the packages to
/usr/local/src.
Process:
1. Download Asterisk, DAHDI and LibPri to /usr/local/src as per figure 3-1

Fig 3-1
2. Untar the above installed files to the same directory by issuing the following command
(make sure to change the package name accordingly) :tar -zxf [package_name].tar.gz see
fig 3-2

Fig 3-2

3. Now we’ll build DAHDI and LibPri by navigating to Asterisk folder and issue the next few
commands:
 a. DAHDI commands : make make install Fig 3-3.1

Fig 3-3.1
b. Issue: make config and you are done with DAHDI
4. Installing Libpri: first you’ll have to patch the current version of libpri if there was a patch
available, so you’ll download also libpri patch from the same location and issue the following
command : patch –p1 < /<<patch_name>> same as DAHDI issue the next commands :
apt-get install libpri1.4
5. Finally we will start building and installing Asterisk package, first we’ll navigate to the
Asterisk folder, after that we’ll start the following:
a. We’ll first need to issue the command: ./configure the end result will be as in Fig 3-
5.1

Fig 3-5.1
b. Next we’ll issue “make menuselect” to select mysql_cdr from the menu as per Fig 3-
5.2

Fig 3-5.2
c. Finally we’ll build and install the asterisk package by issuing the commands “make”
and “make install” and the final result will be as per the Fig 3-5.3 & Fig 3-5.4

Fig 3-5.3
 Fig 3-5.4

d. To install a set of sample configuration files for Asterisk, type: #make samples.

e. Now that you have Asterisk compiled and installed, the last step is to install the
initialization script, or initscript. This script starts Asterisk when your server starts,
and can be used to stop or restart Asterisk as well. To install the initscript, use
the make config command.
f. As your Asterisk system runs, it will generate logfiles. It is recommended to install
the logrotation script in order to compress and rotate those files, to save disk space
and to make searching them or cataloguing them easier. To do this, use the make
install-logrotate command.g. To check if Asterisk is running, you can use the
Asterisk initscript. Using command /etc/init.d/asterisk status or restart