Updating asterisk

[jades]

I officially switched over from trixbox to PBX in a flash (1.4 with asterisk 1.6). I had been using trixbox for approximately 3 years and had enough of their buggy software. I wish I made the switch earlier.

Did some research on this but found nothing.
I realize that PBX in a flash does not have its own repo. This means that yum update asterisk, yum update dahdi and some other commands are useless.
The question is, is there a way to update asterisk and applications connected with it (dahdi) in one step instead of updating from source? If the answer is "no", can I connect to elastix's or trixbox's repo and safely perform updates that way?

(Being that I am using asterisk 1.6 I know that there is nothing to update right now, but I like to plan for the future ahead of time)

 

[wardmundy]

update-scripts
update-source
update-fixes

Done.

 

[jades]

update-fixes, update-source
These do not exist with the PIAF version I am using. To prove my point:

root@pbx:~ $ locate update-
/sbin/update-pciids
/usr/bin/gtk-update-icon-cache
/usr/bin/update-desktop-database
/usr/bin/update-gdk-pixbuf-loaders
/usr/bin/update-gtk-immodules
/usr/bin/update-mime-database
/usr/local/sbin/update-scripts16
/usr/sbin/update-alternatives
/usr/sbin/update-reader.conf
/usr/share/gtk-doc/html/gtk/gtk-update-icon-cache.html
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/16x16/apps/icon-update-applet.png
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/16x16/ooo/stock_update-data.png
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/16x16/ooo/stock_update-fields.png
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/24x24/apps/icon-update-applet.png
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/24x24/ooo/stock_update-data.png
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/24x24/ooo/stock_update-fields.png
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/32x32/apps/icon-update-applet.png
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/36x36/apps/icon-update-applet.png
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/48x48/apps/icon-update-applet.png
/usr/share/man/man1/gtk-update-icon-cache.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/update-mime-database.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/update-alternatives.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/update-pciids.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/update-reader.conf.8.gz

I guess the package has not yet been added to your asterisk 1.6 version. Maybe I can download the file and save it to /usr/local/sbin? If so please link it to me.

 

[darmock]

Because you are using 1.6 there is no update-source at the moment. There is however update-scripts and update-fixes available for PBS in a Flash 1.4 using the Asterisk 1.6 engine. You simply have to install update-scripts by typing it in the CLI. Once you agree to the license you will then be able to run update-fixes.

Because of the earlier beta status of 1.6 we withdrew the update-source from circulation for the 1.6 tree. This is set to change with the release of PBX in a Flash 1.5 which is still in beta. Be patient.

As for updating using yum from another distros repo "good luck with that"

I suspect it would cause some very interesting problems of which would not be supportable. Why do you feel the burning need to update 1.6 at all? Is PIAF V 1.4 - Asterisk 1.6 broken somehow?

At the moment to get the latest version of 1.6 you have to do a new install. If you want to wait a while (definition: an unknown amount of time) you will be able to go merrily on your way and always update with the very latest.

I have seen your name about so I know you are not a linux newbie and no I am not picking on you.


Tom

 

[jades]

I suspect it would cause some very interesting problems of which would not be supportable. Why do you feel the burning need to update 1.6 at all? Is PIAF V 1.4 - Asterisk 1.6 broken somehow?

No, I am just planning for the future. I know that asterisk 1.4 was not heavily used on production systems until about 1.4.17.

At the moment to get the latest version of 1.6 you have to do a new install

What about upgrading asterisk directly from the source? Will that cause any issues?

I have seen your name about so I know you are not a linux newbie and no I am not picking on you.

Nope, I didn't think you were picking on me.

I suspect that there won't be an upgrade path from PIAF 1.4 to 1.5 stable since 1.5 is based on CentOS 5.3? Correct me if I am wrong.
When 1.5 is stable and you once again have the update-source script available, will this also work on my PIAF version? I did not clearly understand.

 

[darmock]

Sigh confusing I know Sorry

There is no update path between Asterisk 1.4 and Asterisk 1.6 That works reliably.

The centos component is different. If you run update-source on PIAF 1.4 - Asterisk 1.6 (when it is available) you will be able to choose yum update (which is the preferred method of running yum update - only from within update-source) and you will be upgraded to Centos 5.3. The only difference at the moment between the PIAF 1.4 and PIAF 1.5 ISO is that centos 5.2 is installed in PIAF 1.4 and Centos 5.3 is installed in PIAF 1.5. The asterisk source is the same.

There are some planned upgrades to the installer program which will provide you with 3 choices gold, silver, bronze version of PIAF( this translates to PIAF with asterisk/zaptel 1.4, Asterisk/dahdi 1.4, Asterisk/dahdi 1.6) Plus we are adding some redundancy for the downloads. Of course this will be different in the 1.5 ISO

The only planned changes for the load files are to separate them out as outlined above. There is also some minor upgrades in the load files due to go out but these will also be put in update-fixes so you will have the latest patches/fixes.

Of course the ultimate question is will the status program show Version 1.5 after I run update-source on a PIAF 1.4 installation. The answer is a definite maybe! The version number that is displayed in status is simply a plaintext file that contains the version number.


to summarize (I hope)

1. You will be able to run update-source on your PIAF 1.4 - Asterisk 1.6 installation. If you choose to do a yum update from within update-source you will automagically have a stable 1.5 version of PIAF. I also hope to have the version displayed within the status program fixed and accurate.

2. When 1.5 stable is released it will be Centos 5.3 based. You may need to run update-source and within that yum update in order to catch any packages that have been updated since the final release of PIAF 1.5.

3. You can compile from source if you like works just fine however generally if there are any wrinkles with a particular version of Asterisk we tend to incorporate the patches required within update-source.

4. I believe we shall continue to be a source based distro, for asterisk, as this seems to have less problems than an rpm based one. NO FLAMES PLEASE!!!! I also personally believe it provides a more stable distro. We may start hosting the source files on our own servers to keep consistency and prevent what I call wiggly fingers on the source. The team is still tossing that one around however.

5. Our current PIAF 1.4 - Asterisk 1.4 is the last stable version that worked with Zaptel. We call this the gold standard as it "just works" out of the box. Since Asterisk 1.4 with Dahdi is "starting" to behave somewhat the dev team thought it would be good to bring it out as separate load files.

6. Asterisk 1.6/Dahdi is the future (I run it as my office PBX) and we are starting to devote more and more time to it.

Does this answer your questions somewhat?

Best regards

Tom

 

[jades]

You answered it perfectly and straight to the point. Thanks for your time.