TIPS Incredible PBX 13 on Intel NUC

[NatGarrison]

I've built and Intel NUC DN2820FYKH with 4 GB of 1600 MHZ DDR3 RAM and an Intel 80 GB DC S3500 SSD and I am trying to turn it into an Incredible PBX Server. I've used a couple Windows utilities to move the new PBX 13 iso to a 8 GB USB memory stick and also copied the image within Linux using the dd command. The USB memory stick will not boot. I have successfully used the dd command to create a CentOS 7 install memory stick and install that on the NUC.

I burned the PBX 13 iso to a DVD and used an external USB DVD drive and can get it to boot, but after about 5 minutes I get a dialog box up stating that: "The Scientific Linux disc was not found in any of your CDROM drives. Please insert the Scientific Linux disc and press OK to retry." Then I burned the 32-bit version of Scientific Linux 6.7 to three DVD's, SL-6.7-i386-DVD.iso, SL-6.7-i386-DVD1.iso, and SL-6.7-i386-DVD2.iso. None of these three disks will get me past the above mentioned dialog box. After I press <Enter> after changing the DVD and a small amount of time passes, the dialog box comes back.

I'm thinking that because I'm using an external USB DVD drive the install program can't find it because it is looking on the wrong device port.

Is is normal for the PBX 13 iso to be needing another DVD with Scientific Linux on it? Is there a workable way to put the PBX 13 iso on a USB memory stick?

 

[wardmundy]

NatGarrison Homemade servers tend to have issues. If you have an industry-standard driver for your DVD drive, there shouldn't be a problem, but it sounds like you don't. We've had good success with HP DVD drives. YMMV! And, if you think there are compatibility issues with DVDs, flash drives and USB setups on homemade systems can be pain. But you knew that already. Sorry. Wish I had a magic want, but...

Plan B: Try switching to Ubuntu 14 platform and use the Incredible PBX installer for that platform once you get it running.

 

[TirsoJRP]

Try with Rufus https://rufus.akeo.ie/

 

[GomezAddams]

Wild guess, but:
1. Upgrade the firmware on your NUC
2. Play around with the BIOS settings for legacy USB support and boot from USB. IIRC, the NUC has a ton of settings in the BIOS.
3. Try a different memory stick.

If all else fails, move your SSD to another computer, do the install there, then move it back to the NUC.

I've had that same NUC running my media center (KODI) for about a year. I love it!

 

[wardmundy]

Got one on order. Stay tuned...

By Peter Haas on June 28, 2014
Units are shipped with BIOS 0013 (older stock) or BIOS 0015 (newer stock).

At 0013 and possibly 0015, MOST PC3L RAM sticks are recognized as having zero GB (0 GB) capacity. You MAY have the best luck with a small stick which is marked PC3L-12800S or PC3L-10660S or PC3L-6400S.

These early BIOSes (0013 and 0015) WILL NOT recognize Legacy booting, only UEFI booting, and even UEFI booting is problematic, as is recognition of most BIOS function key controls.

Once you have the machine recognizing the RAM, the next challenge is to update to BIOS 0034.

The best way (and possibly the only way, at this point) is to download the 0034 image (extension is .BIO) from Intel's web site, write it to the root of a small USB stick, and then attempt to use F7 (FLASH BIOS) to force updating of the BIOS. F7 usually works even if F2 and F10 doesn't.

If successful, in about 5 minutes you will be at BIOS 0034, and all problems will have been fixed. Namely, the BIOS function keys (F2, F7, F10, etcetera) will now work, and Legacy as well as UEFI booting is also supported, as is support for MOST low voltage DDR3 SO-DIMM sticks.

Ubuntu and other OSes will now install on the machine, and it is indeed a quite capable machine.

However, the build quality is quite variable, and "infant mortality" is a big problem. Run it continuously for about a day, at least. IF it lasts at least five days, you very likely have a good unit. IF not, then return it to the seller for a replacement.

At BIOS 0034 and Ubuntu 14 with all maintenance installed, the machine is very good, and is more than adequate for most functions, including web surfing, YouTube video viewing and downloading, etcetera ... just what one would expect from a desktop PC, except in this case the N2820 NUC's cost is dramatically less, and it burns almost no power.

Note: Since I wrote the above, BIOS 0039 is now available from Intel!

The Intel WiFi card which is included with the N2820 NUC is quite good, as is the built-in WiFi antennae. If you MUST change the WiFi card, a good alternate choice is an "import" Dell DW1502 or DW1702.

For best results with Unbutu, turn off SLEEP and the requirement to enter your password, otherwise you will very likely have issues coexisting with other machines on a KVM-A switch. IF SLEEP and password is enabled, which is the default, the machine may not fully wakeup when the USB keyboard is switched back to the NUC from, say, another desktop PC, as the machine will not recognize a USB device, such as the keyboard and mouse, disappearing and then reappearing.

Once you get past the BIOS issues and the "infant mortality" issues, you can have a lot of fun with the N2820 NUC, certainly including most of the functions you might normally assign to a more expensive PC.

I run my N2820 NUC on a 1900 x 1080 LED backlit monitor (previously on a 1900 x 1200 conventional backlit monitor) with an Apple "Pro" keyboard and a Gear Head wireless mouse (the Apple "Pro" wired mouse also works), and the N2820 NUC coexists quite well with Core i3 NUCs (running MacOS X Mavericks and Unbutu), as well as Core i5 Hackintoshes and Xeon LGA 1366 Hackintoshes (running MacOS X Snow Leopard).

The N2820 is known to be compatible with XBMC software, and the built-in IR receiver is said to be compatible with XBMC remotes, but I didn't test either of these.

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

This NUC uses, for the first time in a NUC, a 12 volt "wall wart" power adapter.

Previous NUCs used a 19 volt power supply and a detachable "Mickey Mouse" power cord.

Alas, both the 12 volt NUC and the earlier 19 volt NUCs use the VERY SAME 5.5x2.5mm power connector on the NUC itself, so it is IMPERATIVE that the 12 volt and 19 volt power cables not be confused. A Chromebox also uses 19 volts and a 5.5x2.5mm power connector, so the 12 volt NUC is really the "odd ball", here.

Intel really should have used a smaller diameter pin on the 12 volt NUC.

LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS! LATE NEWS!

The apparent instability of the N2820 chip's USB system, seen during "wake up", has FINALLY been acknowledged by Intel, and the N2820 chip (Revision B3) very likely will soon be replaced by the N2830 chip (Revision C0). I would also expect the N2820 NUC to soon be upgraded to an N2830 NUC.

Hopefully, Intel will take this opportunity to "refresh" the basic chassis to include a second RAM slot and an mSATA SSD slot, without dramatically increasing the price of the putative N2830 NUC.

And, hopefully Intel will also take this opportunity to change the 12 volt power plug for one which cannot be confused with the 5.5x2.5mm plug used on most 19 volt Intel and competitive products. 5.5x2.1mm is but one option.

We'll see.

In the mean time, an N2820 with BIOS 0039 is probably the best this particular platform can be.

 

[wardmundy]

Note that CentOS/RedHat is NOT in the list of supported operating systems for this device, but Ubuntu is... so my original Plan B advice above is probably the way to go. But we'll give SL 6.7 a try with Incredible PBX 13 ISO anyway once we get the hardware up and running. Would be nice to have a stable, under $200 platform again.

 

[wardmundy]

NatGarrison: Good news! Looks like it's gonna work for me using the Incredible PBX 13 ISO with an HP DVD drive. You will first need to update the BIOS on the NUC using the F7 method. Download the FY0051.BIO file from here. Copy it to a DOS-formatted USB Flash drive. Insert the USB stick into the NUC and turn it on. Press F7 during the bootup procedure and choose your USB drive from the list. Once the firmware is updated (about 10 minutes), the NUC will reboot. Go into the BIOS (F2) and be sure to enable legacy boot procedure NOT UEFI and enable booting from USB drives and optical drives. Save settings with F10. Plug in your DVD drive with the Incredible PBX image. Reboot and press F10 for the boot menu. Choose the DVD drive as the boot device. Should be smooth sailing after that.

Very cool little machine! Takes about 20 minutes to load the base SL 6.7 OS. That's about half the time to do the same thing on an Acer Revo Atom machine.

 

[wardmundy]

 

[wardmundy]

Wireless LAN setup coming shortly. It's built into the box. Works like a champ. Now I just need to figure out what I did.

 

[wardmundy]

Comparison with Raspberry Pi 2 (price and performance) coming soon.

HINT: Raspberry Pi 2 BogoMIPS per processor: 57 vs. NUC BogoMIPS per processor: 4266

 

[NatGarrison]

I successfully created a boot USB memory stick using Rufus as TrisoJRP suggested for Ubuntu 14.04 Platform and I now have Incredible PBX running. But I can't get it to register with Simon Telephonics account. I'm wondering if this may be the problem:

my LAN port is named p2p1 instead of eth0 and I get all of these errors in my Asterisk log file:

ERROR[6506] chan_sip.c: Serious Network Trouble; __sip_xmit returns error for pkt data
NOTICE[6506] chan_sip.c: -- Registration for '[email protected]' timed out, trying again (Attempt #229)
ERROR[6506] chan_sip.c: Serious Network Trouble; __sip_xmit returns error for pkt data
NOTICE[6506] chan_sip.c: -- Registration for '[email protected]' timed out, trying again (Attempt #230)
ERROR[6506] chan_sip.c: Serious Network Trouble; __sip_xmit returns error for pkt data
NOTICE[6506] chan_sip.c: -- Registration for '[email protected]' timed out, trying again (Attempt #231)
ERROR[6506] chan_sip.c: Serious Network Trouble; __sip_xmit returns error for pkt data
NOTICE[6506] chan_sip.c: -- Registration for '[email protected]' timed out, trying again (Attempt #232)
ERROR[6506] chan_sip.c: Serious Network Trouble; __sip_xmit returns error for pkt data
NOTICE[6506] chan_sip.c: -- Registration for '[email protected]' timed out, trying again (Attempt #233)
ERROR[6506] chan_sip.c: Serious Network Trouble; __sip_xmit returns error for pkt data
NOTICE[6506] chan_sip.c: -- Registration for '[email protected]' timed out, trying again (Attempt #234)

I like the little NUC and the VESA mount will be great to wall mount the device in a wiring closet

 

[NatGarrison]

Missing from above post

 

[NatGarrison]

I also forgot to mention. I removed the wireless card from the NUC.

 

[wardmundy]

NatGarrison: Nerd Vittles tutorial coming out next week. If you'd like an early copy to start over, I'd be happy to send it to you. Just send me your email address.

 

[NatGarrison]

I have tried using my Plextor USB CD/DVD drive and it works for a while and then it pops out the DVD and wants me to install the Scientific Linux one. I make DVD's of all three 32-bit install DVD's (SL-6.7-i386-DVD.iso, SL-6.7-i386-DVD1.iso, and SL-6.7-i386-DVD2.iso) and none of them will work. I release that that really wasn't a good solution to try, the Scientific Linux is included in the IncrediblePBX13.iso. I used Rufus and created a boot memory stick with a 2 GB one. That works for a while until it gets to the following screen:


I have undated the NUC's BIOS and set it to Legacy Boot only. I can "Cancel" on the above screen and it will install all of the packages and if I leave the memory stick in the USB port it will boot to Scientific Linux and let me log in. But there isn't any PBX stuff there. On the above screen, I have tried all kinds paths where "cdrom:" is. Like: /dev/sdb1, sdb, /sdb, /dev/sdb, etc. Isn't there a way to create a bootable USB memory stick that will work? I tried using the dd command in Linux and that stick doesn't work either. I'm so close, but so far away.

 

[wardmundy]

Are you saying this DVD problem happens with the SL 6.7 DVDs AND the Incredible PBX 13 ISO? Did you make a DVD of the Incredible PBX 13 ISO?? If so and it failed, then you'd need to scratch around for a better driver for your Plextor. As I've said, the HP DVD Writer works fine with the Incredible PBX 13 ISO.

Can't offer any help on the USB flash drive. We couldn't get it to work either. If you've got a base install of SL 6.7, then you can use the regular Incredible PBX 13-12 installer to continue. Tutorial here.

 

[rjaiswal]

Whenever I use nuc's, I usually use one of these to mount iso's

http://www.lantronix.com/products/lantronix-spider/

I can install any Windows iso from technet, or any Linux iso. Keep one in my backpack at all time.

 

[vic555]

Lantronix Spider (USB)

$356.00

SLS200USB0-01
1 Port Remote KVM-ove

buy a dozen, give away to friends

 

[rjaiswal]

buy a dozen, give away to friends

Lol!

I got mine in eBay. Paid around $150 the last time I needed one.

 

[NatGarrison]

I used Rufus as suggested by TirsoJRP above and created a boot USB memory stick of the IncrediblePBX13 ISO and use it to install Scientific Linux 6.7. This gets to a screen that wants the location of the ks.cfg kickstart file that it can't find. I finally figured out the correct location: "hd:/dev/sdb1:/ks.cfg", but a little further along the wired network card driver couldn't be found. So I tried installing by clicking "Cancel" when it's trying to find the kickstart file and this will install Scientific Linux and will load 195 packages. But nothing else is installed and it will not re-boot unless the USB memory stick in left plugged into the NUC. This was a Grub bootloader problem that I tried to resolve without any success.

So I created a new boot USB memory stick with the 32-bit Scientific Linux 6.7 ISO (the 3.8 GB one) and after that installs it boots correctly without the memory stick left in the USB slot. During that install I had more options and was able to pick that I wanted the bootloader installed on the internal hard disk drive. The network wasn't automatically starting, so I modified the "ifcfg-eth0" file in the "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts" folder by changing "ONBOOT=no" to "ONBOOT=yes". After re-booting and confirming the IP address, I shut the NUC down and removed the keyboard, mouse, and video cables and re-started it. Now by using WinSCP/PuTTY I was able to connect to the linux device and finish the installation of Incredible PBX from these instructions: http://nerdvittles.com/?p=14208. One thing that I left out were the two commands related to grub since it was booting OK and the network interface was eth0.