asterisk users - Mar 2005 - Voicetronix OpenSwitch12 chan_vpb problem

Hello all,

I hope this is not off-topic, if it is please let me know.

I'm currently playing with an Asterisk at home, in order to get to know
it's ins and outs. Very very impressive indeed. I've got it hooked up to
my home phone line via a Wildcard clone board (Intel modem with Ambient
chipset), and it works like a charm. Zaptel picks up the card as a
generic clone, and works with it without any problems. The versions of
Asterisk I'm playing with ranges from stable 1.0.5 to the latest CVS
versions of asterisk, libpri and zaptel.

I've got a Voicetronix OpenSwitch12 card on loan, and I'm trying to get
it to work with Asterisk. No matter how I try, it seems that I've got a
bit of a lemon. Here's the problem so far, maybe somebody has stumbled
across something similar and knows of a workaround or fix:

The Voicetronix driver (version 2.4.0) compiles perfectly, and Asterisk
links against it nicely too, resulting in the chan_vpb.o being built.
All the test software that comes with the Voicetronix driver sees the
card properly, and I can even use the little test PBX program that comes
with it's troubleshooting toolbox (I forget the name, it's a tiny little
C++ program) to get the card working as a very primitive PBX. In other
words, the card works nicely. Btw, this works perfectly with my wildcard
in place and the zaptel/wcfxo modules loaded, only Asterisk has not been
started.

Over to Asterisk, when I try to initialise this card with chan_vpb, my
computer locks up solidly (with me ending up having to do a hardware
reset). Asterisk starts up beautifully until it reaches chan_vpb, and
then it simply hangs. Here is a short snip of what it looks like when I
start up Asterisk:

---start---
 [chan_mgcp.so] => (Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP))
  == Parsing '/etc/asterisk/mgcp.conf': Not found (No such file or
directory)
  == MGCP Listening on 0.0.0.0:2727
  == Using TOS bits 0
  == Registered channel type 'MGCP' (Media Gateway Control Protocol
(MGCP))
 [chan_iax2.so] => (Inter Asterisk eXchange (Ver 2))
  == Registered application 'IAX2Provision'
  == Manager registered action IAXpeers
  == Parsing '/etc/asterisk/iax.conf': Found
  == Parsing '/etc/asterisk/iax_additional.conf': Not found (No such
file or directory)
  == Using TOS bits 0
  == Binding IAX2 to '0.0.0.0:4569'
  == Registered channel type 'IAX2' (Inter Asterisk eXchange Driver (Ver
2))
  == IAX Ready and Listening on 0.0.0.0 port 4569
  == Loaded firmware 'iaxy.bin'
  == Parsing '/etc/asterisk/iaxprov.conf': Found
    -- Loaded provisioning template 'default'
 [chan_local.so] => (Local Proxy Channel)
  == Registered channel type 'Local' (Local Proxy Channel Driver)
 [chan_skinny.so] => (Skinny Client Control Protocol (Skinny))
  == Parsing '/etc/asterisk/skinny.conf': Not found (No such file or
directory)
  == Registered channel type 'Skinny' (Skinny Client Control Protocol
(Skinny))
 [chan_features.so] => (Feature Proxy Channel)
  == Registered channel type 'Feature' (Feature Proxy Channel Driver)
 [skipping chan_oss.so]
 [chan_modem_i4l.so] => (ISDN4Linux Emulated Modem Driver)
 [chan_phone.so] => (Linux Telephony API Support)
  == Parsing '/etc/asterisk/phone.conf': Found
  == Registered channel type 'Phone' (Standard Linux Telephony API
Driver)
 [chan_vpb.so] => (VoiceTronix V6PCI/V12PCI/V4PCI  API Support)
  == Parsing '/etc/asterisk/vpb.conf': Found
Starting host DSP![1]
---end---

Weird... The last line is also present with you use vpbconf to look for
Voicetronix card configuration, the only difference being that the
computer doesn't lock up:

---start---
#/usr/sbin/vpbconf
Starting host DSP![1]

Cards detected:1

BOARD 1
vpb_pconf[0][0] = 1
vpb_pconf[0][1] = 1
vpb_pconf[0][2] = 1
vpb_pconf[0][3] = 1
vpb_pconf[0][4] = 1
vpb_pconf[0][5] = 1
vpb_pconf[0][6] = 1
vpb_pconf[0][7] = 1
vpb_pconf[0][8] = 0
vpb_pconf[0][9] = 0
vpb_pconf[0][10] = 0
vpb_pconf[0][11] = 0
MODEL         : V12PCI
DATE          : 27/11/2003
REVISION      : 02.11
SERIAL NUMBER : 34800061
STATIONS[1]: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
TRUNKS[1]: 8 9 10 11
---end---

Looking in /proc/interrupts shows up both my wildcard clone and the
V12PCI card on different IRQ's, so it seems that there are not any
clashing between the two. The only thing I can think of is that it's
quite an old card (see the date and revision above), which might be an
issue. Has anybody stumbled across something like this? If not, do you
know who I can contact for help? This particular Asterisk installation
is not a production machine at all, merely a "getting-to-know-you"
exercise. However, it would be nice to know wether Voicetronix products
are on the trusted list or not.

Thanks in advance!

-- 
Regards,
Jan Henkins

On Tue, March 29, 2005 3:48 am, Jan Henkins said:
> it would be nice to know wether Voicetronix products are on the
> trusted list or not.
I've got an OpenSwitch6 working in a development (soon to be production,
fingers crossed, box); never had such a lockup.  Have you sent any queries
to support@voicetronix.com?  Ben's been very helpful when I've had
troubles.  He's pointed out my self-inflicted troubles very gently and was
quick to address those in his court.

Paul

-- 
Paul A. Dugas                    Dugas Enterprises, LLC
paul@dugasenterprises.com        1711 Indian Ridge Drive
p:404-932-1355  f:770-516-4841   Woodstock, GA 30189-6856 USA