PIONEERS Incredible PBX for Pogoplug 4

wardmundy

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The Debian Train is leaving the station... with special thanks to Qui Hong:
Code:
root@debian:~# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs          3.6G  339M  3.1G  10% /
udev            10M    0  10M  0% /dev
tmpfs            12M  84K  12M  1% /run
/dev/mmcblk0p1  3.6G  339M  3.1G  10% /
tmpfs          5.0M    0  5.0M  0% /run/lock
tmpfs            24M    0  24M  0% /run/shm
tmpfs            60M    0  60M  0% /tmp
 

Jay Deal

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Impressive specs for $20.

Some specs from ArchLinuxArm: http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5/pogoplug-series-4

Here is info on the chip that drives it:

The 88F6192 offers unparalleled integration that makes system design simple and cost efficient. The SoC integrates:
• High-performance single-issue CPU
• 800 Mhz operating speed
• 16KB-Instruction and 16KB-Data 4-way, set-associative L1 cache
• 256KB unified 4-way, set-associative L2 cache
• 16-bit DDR2 memory interface (up to 400 MHz data rate)
• Two Gigabit Ethernet MACs with interface options
• Precise Timing Protocol and Audio Video Bridging
• Single PCI-Express port
• Single USB 2.0 port with integrated PHY
• Two SATA 2.0 ports with integrated PHYs
• Network security engine with various encryption algorithm support
• Audio and MPEG Transport Stream Interface
• Two TDM Channels, SDIO, NAND flash, SPI, TWSI, and Two UART interfaces
The innovative, on-chip crossbar architecture with any-to-any connectivity enables concurrent transactions among multiple
units that results in high system throughput allowing system designers to create high-performance scalable systems.
Tightly integrated CPU and memory controller significantly improves application performance.
http://www.marvell.com/embedded-processors/kirkwood/assets/88F6192-003_ver1.pdf

Cool.
 

wardmundy

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Not sure we can make everything work with only 128MB RAM, but we'll get Asterisk running anyway. You can always build up a system on a standard Incredible PBX machine and then copy over some pieces to get what you need.
 

Jay Deal

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Edit: Incorrect info....

2nd Edit: If you can find the "E02" version of this model (http://www.amazon.com/Media-sharing-device-black-POGO-P22/dp/B005IULTI4/ref=pd_bxgy_p_text_z) you might be better off as it has a faster processor and at least as much RAM as the original Raspberry Pi. It's limitations are it only has USB 2.0 and no SD card, SATA connectors or USB 3.0. However, from reading up on the newer models CPU, it evidently limit's any gains from the faster I/O ports so the older model might be a better candidate for Incredible PBX.
 

lowno

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You guys are CRAZY!



Crazy for asterisk that is.
 

zhando

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You guys are a little touched.. Just so happens..

I have a model # POGO-V4-A3-01.. Used it for 18 months or so as a file server. Had an expensive Monster USB 3.0 cable snaked to a server case housing an HD with a clip-on USB3 interface.. There's a SATA interface on the top of the Pogoplug where I plunked a Seagate Goflex unit. There's also a USB 2.0 interface where I put a thumb drive with the OS - Arch Linux. If memory serves you can only boot off the SATA interface or that USB 2.. Not the USB 3.

Almost forgot - it also has an SD card port - spring loaded even! Served up family pictures through that to my XBMC unit which was an Intel NUC at that time.

I eventually replaced the Pogoplug with the 2 core Cubox-i that is now my household pbx. Now that my cubox-i is a pbx, all my file service chores are done with the x86 box that used to run piaf

Maybe it was just me or a flaky box but the thing couldn't keep its boot software between power cycles. It was a pain to restore it but doable. Soft resets were ok for the longest time. YMMV.

$20? I think I paid a little over twice that beginning of 2013. At that price it's a very affordable toy if you've got the time on your hands. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with mine now.
 

zhando

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According to the Arch Linux ARM site, only the top two ports, the SATA and the USB 2.0 can be used to host the rootfs.

So the sd card appears to be out. Oops, not according to Qui Hong. Interesting.
 

Jay Deal

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41QSmYoBJyL.jpg


I think this one (the older one) would make a cool looking IncrediblePBX mini-server. Buy the unit, a fast 16GB thumb drive to boot and run the OS / PBX from and buy a reasonable cost 64GB thumb drive to store your backup images on. Total cost would probably be about $50.00. Without the backup thumb drive, this would be cheaper than a Raspberry Pi once you figure in a case, power supply and SD card.

And if you prefer pink, they got you covered there as well LOL...........

311xbTOUF4L.jpg
 

zhando

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Just tried Qui Hong's instructions on a piece of 8 GB class 10 SD:

Code:
[root@alarm ~]# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root      7.2G  470M  6.4G  7% /
devtmpfs        60M    0  60M  0% /dev
tmpfs            60M    0  60M  0% /dev/shm
tmpfs            60M  296K  60M  1% /run
tmpfs            60M    0  60M  0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs            60M    0  60M  0% /tmp
tmpfs            12M    0  12M  0% /run/user/0
[root@alarm ~]#
[root@alarm ~]# uname -a
Linux alarm 3.15.8-1-ARCH #1 PREEMPT Wed Aug 6 03:20:19 MDT 2014 armv5tel GNU/Linux
[root@alarm ~]#

Arch Linux this time. Solid as granite. The test for me was powering it off and bringing it back up.. Looks very good so far..

This box has lots of hw interfaces, more than a few possibilities.
 

Jay Deal

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zhando, do you think you could run a bogomips test on your PogoPlug? That would give a good baseline to say the Cubox whose test was displayed in the main Ubuntu on Cubox-i thread.
 

zhando

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Jay Deal

On bootup I see 795.44 BogoMIPS..

I tried the script from Sam Caldwell that Ward posted and I got a meaningless result: 0

Tried the same script on my 2 core cubox-i and I get: 2185.92

Tried the same script on my 4 core cubox-i and I get: 4970.725

/proc/cpuinfo must be returning gibberish on the pogoplug. Could be the fault of the Arch Linux kernel.

Ward might have a better result with the Debian kernel.
 

wardmundy

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Some processors return "bogomips" and others "BogoMIPS." Edit the script so it matches what your processor returns. Looks like the PogoPlug doesn't return anything in /proc/cpuinfo.
 

wardmundy

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Steady progress... :balloon:

Code:
Asterisk 11.12.0, Copyright (C) 1999 - 2013 Digium, Inc. and others.
Created by Mark Spencer <[email protected]>
Asterisk comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; type 'core show warranty' for details.
This is free software, with components licensed under the GNU General Public
License version 2 and other licenses; you are welcome to redistribute it under
certain conditions. Type 'core show license' for details.
=========================================================================
Connected to Asterisk 11.12.0 currently running on debian (pid = 22810)
 

wardmundy

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BwrwBdsIcAALcEJ.jpg:large


There's always a gotcha when you're hanging out on the Bleeding Edge. :death:

In the case of the Pogoplug 4, there are several gotcha's...

1. While everything works (sorta), the FreePBX GUI is excruciatingly slow. Most would find it unusable. We do. This need not be a deal breaker because you can build any Incredible PBX setup you need on any of the other Ubuntu platforms including the CuBox, make an Incredible Backup, and then restore it to your Pogoplug 4. That avoids having to use the FreePBX GUI directly EVER. In fact, that's the way we build all Incredible PBX systems. Once FreePBX and Asterisk are running, you should be able to make phone calls and use the Incredible PBX apps with little noticeable degradation. What more do you want for $20?

2. MySQL likes about 40MB of RAM as a minimum. When you only have 128MB, that can be problematic. Apache likes boatloads of RAM. Asterisk appears happy at 20MB when nothing much is happening. We avoided RAM exhaustion by setting up a 256MB swap file, but that can be a problem, too, since you're operating with an SDcard. Possible solutions: (1) Don't install FreePBX which eliminates the need for MySQL, Apache, and PHP... but what fun is that. (2) Build the image you want to use with step #1 above and never use a browser to open FreePBX. This keeps Apache usage to a minimum just handling FreePBX's operational requirements for managing calls. In this setup, the Yahoo News app runs without a hiccup, and it's a memory hog: sox and mpg123 easily consume 98% of the RAM resources just processing the text-to-speech for the call. But only 192 bytes of swap file were required to process everything without any noticeable degradation.

3. There are some more issues. First, apt-get goes out to lunch and can no longer process the package list once you load MySQL. Moral: Load MySQL after you install everything else. Second, without a swap file, the whole house of cards collapsed when attempting to load MySQL. We resolved that by creating the swap file before installing MySQL.

4. Fail2Ban is a log scanner which would bring an SDcard and the overall system to its knees so we don't plan to implement that.

5. WebMin is a memory hog, and we see little utility to be gained in adding it either.

But there's plenty to like for $20...

1. SSH works just fine.

2. IPtables with the Travelin' Man WhiteList is rock solid so your Pogoplug is secure.

3. Call quality with Incredible PBX text-to-speech apps is fine.

4. SMS Message Blasting with Google Voice works fine with the standard Incredible PBX script.

5. Asterisk-based ODBC apps work great using any MySQL database you'd like.

6. While apt-get appears to be broken, aptitude works fine and does the same thing.

7. SAMBA works great for Windows networking on your LAN.

8. Lenny is alive and well.

9. We suspect (but haven't yet tested) that Google Voice will be fine to make and receive free phones calls as long as you set it up using the Gotcha #1 procedure. This means you could put one of these devices and a cheap SIP phone in a rental unit or vacation home and have free phone service with nothing more than an Internet connection. We plan to do just that.

more to come including downloadable image...
 

wardmundy

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PIONEER ALERT

A preview Incredible PBX for Pogoplug 4 image is now available on SourceForge.

Here are the steps to get things humming along...

1. Follow Qui Hong's excellent tutorial to get your Pogoplug 4 converted to Debian (only!) and enable SDcard boot as outlined.

2. Once you can successfully boot Debian 7 with an SDcard on your Pogoplug 4, shut it down and remove the card.

3. Download the latest Incredible PBX tarball from SourceForge.

4. Turn to the Nerd Vittles tutorial for the CuBox. Follow the steps outlined there to get your image burned to your SDcard. Install scripts for Mac and Linux machines are included in the tarball. Windoze takes a little extra effort and is outlined on Nerd Vittles.

5. Insert the SDcard into the Pogoplug 4 and apply power. When the green light appears, check on your router to see what IP address was assigned to the device. This works as well with your appropriate IP subnet:
Code:
nmap -v -sP 192.168.0.0/24

6. After the solid green light has been on for about a minute, you should be able to log in with SSH. User: root Password: pogoplug

7. Follow along in the CuBox tutorial to complete the setup and secure your server.

8. Lots of utilities in /root folder. Don't forget to resize-partition to match your SDcard.

Feedback welcomed! Yes, we know FreePBX GUI is painfully slow. Buy a CuBox rocketship if this is a concern.
 

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