asterisk users - Apr 2005 - Problems trying to compile H323 from CVS-STABLE

I'm trying to compile channels/h323 and chan_h323 from CVS-STABLE, on
Fedora Core 3.

Firstly, despite the warnings in h323/README, I decided to try using
the distro-specific versions of openh323 and pwlib. Of course, the
Makefiles in channels and channels/h323 assume that openh323 and pwlib
have been specially compiled in $HOME, so I modified the Makefiles to
look for headers and libraries in the places where the distro put them.

The distro versions are openh323 1.13.4 and pwlib 1.6.5.

Amazingly, it all compiled with NO UNDEFINED SYMBOLS!

I did this on two boxes, and then attempted to get them to talk H.323
to each other:

exten => _9.,1,Dial(H323/${EXTEN:1}@192.168.0.xxx/${CALLERIDNUM})

(each box has a SIP phone registered to it)

Dialling 9 followed by the extension of the other box's phone successfully
rang the destination phone, and I could successfully pick up the call.

However, NO AUDIO was passed in either direction. A tcpdump trace showed
no RTP traffic being generated between the two boxes.

Call hangup was correctly passed between the boxes.

While the call was in progress, h.323 show tokens gave no output, although
h.323 debug told me what the call token was, and h.323 hangup <token>
worked successfully.

h.323 show codecs also gave no output.

======
OK, I thought, lets try it the official way. The README file in h323 of
STABLE says to use openh323 1.12.2 and pwlib 1.5.2. However, these are so
old that www.voxgratia.org doesn't have them any more! The earliest
versions available are 1.12.3 and 1.5.3 respectively.

Well those are only a minor point newer, so I tried them. Unfortunately,
that version of pwlib won't even compile on FC3. It gets warnings all
the way through the compilation, and at the end the make fails with
a linker error. :-(

So that approach was rather abortive.

======
Has anyone managed to get H323 (not OH323) working in the STABLE branch,
using a recent distro of Linux such as FC3? If so, what versions of
openh323 and pwlib did you use?

It seems to me that I was ALMOST there using the FC3 libraries, but how
can I find out why no RTP is being generated?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Cheers
Tony
-- 
Tony Mountifield
Work: tony@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk
Play: tony@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org

Yesterday I wrote:
> I'm trying to compile channels/h323 and chan_h323 from CVS-STABLE, on
> Fedora Core 3.
> 
> [... snip ...]
Well I gave up with chan_h323, which is a pity, because it should be the
solution that is better integrated with Asterisk. I would still like to
hear from anybody that has any ideas (please see my original post).

Instead, I downloaded asterisk-oh323-0.6.5 from InAccessNetworks, along
with Janus-patch4 of PWlib (1.6.6.3) and OpenH323 (1.13.5.3). Following
the instructions exactly, installation went smoothly, and worked first
time.

When testing the ability of dual 3GHz Xeons to handle many simultaneous
OH323 calls (G.711 so no heavy transcoding), I discovered that chan_oh323
is EXTREMELY profligate with file descriptors! Each open oh323 channel
uses 21 fds, yes TWENTY-ONE!

In order to handle upwards of 120 simultaneous calls I needed to increase
the per-process file descriptor limit from the default of 1024, using
the technique described at:
http://www.xenoclast.org/doc/benchmark/HTTP-benchmarking-HOWTO/node7.html

I then added "ulimit -n 8192" to /usr/sbin/safe_asterisk.

It seems to be working ok now, but I'd still like to get chan_h323 working
sometime, as I have a feeling it will be much less hungry for file
descriptors!

Comments, anyone?

Cheers
Tony
-- 
Tony Mountifield
Work: tony@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk
Play: tony@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org

Tony, I have managed to compile both versions (on separate servers, 
obviously), and have them working. My question is specifically related 
to "which one do I choose?".

To get the "internal" version working, I used the oldest versions of
the
libraries that I could find. Specifically, the 28th Aug 2003 builds from 
voxgratia.org (PWLib 1.5.3 and OpenH323 1.12.3)

When I first loaded it, I DID get output from "h.323 show codecs"... 
now, strangely, it's empty. Also, "h.323 show tokens" reveals
nothing.
Call establishment, audio, call teardown all seem OK, but all calls seem 
to be in ULAW, no matter what I specify.

The oh-323 channel seems OK, but doesn't like to play with certain 
codecs. I'm also concerned with the file handle situation you described. 
How can I debug this to see what is happening? (I'm not a programmer, so 
be gentle!)


-- 
=========================================Rod Bacon - VOIP Systems Engineer
Empowered Communications
Ground Floor, 102 York St. South Melbourne
Victoria, Australia. 3205
Phone: +613 99401600    Fax: +613 99401650
==========================================