FOP2 Community Forum

Thanks for the report. You are using FreePBX 2.9, right?

Yes, latest everything.

CentOS 5.6 64bit (yum updated)
Asterisk 1.8.4.2
FreePBX 2.9.0.7
FOP2 2.2.1 beta
fop2admin 1.2.5

Installed fop2admin 1.2.5 along with fop2 2.2.1 beta. Extension and trunk names are not being populated when I go to Fop2 Buttons in the GUI. Pressing the Refresh Labels button does not change it.

I had to put them in manually.

Extension names are populated automatically as expected.

[quote]admin,
An idea until the next version is final...

Not final, but nearly completion. The beta is available for all platforms, also fop2admin is updated to take advantage of the new custom permissions. More information [url=http://www.fop2.com/forum/View Post 922:3eyoiujl]here[/url:3eyoiujl][/quote]

Thanks for the 64bit beta. FYI, your mention of the API delay as a possible cause of my problem got me thinking. There is an Elastix install procedure which describes the creation of a new manager API for FOP2 rather than using the default [admin] which is used by FreePBX.

Your instructions don't mention that. So perhaps by using the default api it was causing a delay and causing fop2 to stop responding. By creating a new api I don't seem to be having the problem except when I restart asterisk which I guess is a different problem that your new beta fixes.

[quote]
Whoa boy. So now I am the bad guy for not pointing out that Asterisk is NOT crashing. You have got to be kidding me. And now you are trying to accuse me of trolling. Look. I will give you the IP address and you can see for yourself. But the problem is you are not willing to listen.

Now the thing with AMI disconnecting. That is something new you have not mentioned before. This seems more plausible because fop2 stops responding constantly. This is a completely normal install. Oh, and since you say I am not giving you enough info. Asterisk is NOT crashing. FreePBX is NOT crashing. The internet is NOT crashing. The server is NOT crashing. Everything works......EXCEPT....fop2. How silly of me to not point out all those things in the past.

Is there a 64bit version of fop2 2.21 beta?

CentOS 5.6 64bit
FreePBX 2.9
Asterisk 1.8.4.1
FOP2 2.20

You have always been unpolite and rude, and you continue with that attitude. I will let it as an exercise to interested readers, they can search your posts and read them, and my replies, and then anyone can make up their minds and decide who is good or bad, who is the one that listen or not, or can read or not, or is interested on getting/providing help or not.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th posts talk about AMI disconnections and how to find out if that is what is bitting you. Just read the first 3 or 4 messages in this post. It is not new. It was mentioned in the very firsts messages. I may not listen, but you sure do not read. You never sent me an email (as far as I know, you are still anonymous here), you never requested live help.

If you have a problem, I will tell you how to narrow down the issue or what you need to help me pinpoint the issue so I can provide a solution, as I always do. I will provide links for both centos and debian, 32 and 64 bits, probably later today. I will post the links in in the Announcement forum.

You've never provided enough information, you do not collaborate. And you never read the posts or replies. You just complain on a rude tone. I say it again, are you a paid customer? I would like to offer you a refund as you are not happy with the software. Contact me via email and I will provide you with the refund. I do not need your ip, just your activation code, name and email address and I will send you a refund. But please send me that information via email or live help, not a public forum. If you do not provide that information, I will continue to believe that your task here is to bash,troll and spread fud.[/quote]

Once again you are STILL...still....still not listening. Instead of offering solutions you are calling me names. If I am rude it is because I like things to work. When they don't I am unhappy. If you are trying to offer a polished solution I am sorry to inform you that you are not anywhere near that point.

Now having said that, this new information of AMI disconnect combined with Elastix instructions suggesting I create a new AMI user/password gave me the idea. Perhaps it is because I am using the existing default user/password that FreePBX also uses? Your instructions don't say anything about using a new AMI user but perhaps whoever wrote the Elastix instructions are pointing out something you missed? You have not shown me the ability for you to admit fault in your instructions if it were the case. Also, would fop2admin FreePBX module have any effect? Your instructions don't point out anything about that either.

Now back to your annoying habit of playing the blame game and acting like the victim. Why would I want to intentionally smear your product? Is there some competing product out there that I am perhaps involved in? If so please point it out because I could sure use some other options the way this conversation is going.

And from what I can see this forum does not get much traffic so if I am intentionally trying to smear your product this place is not the best place to be doing that. I should be going onto PbxinaFlash or the Freepbx forums to do that. The truth is you are completely wrong on all counts. I am here because your product does not work. And it is YOUR attitude that is cause me to react the way I am. I have no tolerance for people selling faulty products that they blame on someone elses product. The fact you went off on this tangent about asterisk crashing when in fact there was no indication asterisk had anything to do with it speaks volumes.

I deal with this stuff all the time. I don't need a lecture on the problems asterisk and freepbx has. I am quite aware of their problems but that is NOT why I am here so that last thing I want to hear is someone trying to pretend it's not their problem using asterisk/freepbx as an excuse. You get no sympathy from me regarding the moving target of Asterisk 1.2, then 1.4, 1.60, 1.61, 1.62, and now 1.8. You are either on the bus or you are not.

[quote]
The suggestion of putting fop2 restart in the safe_asterisk restart script is a more practical solution assuming it is initiated everytime FreePBX is updated via the Apply changes GUI button (I'm not sure if it is).

The problem -that some fop2 clients stop responding after a while- does not happen if you reload asterisk. It only happens if asterisk is restarted or the ami connection is lost. I was very precise on the description. The safe_asterisk script will execute the commands only when asterisk crashes or is restarted via the asterisk cli

Again, I don't know why you are going off on a tangent trying to blame Asterisk. As I said repeatedly asterisk is NOT crashing. Asterisk is NOT crashing. Did I mention that asterisk is NOT crashing?

I am not going into any tangent, and I do not try to blame Asterisk. I make it perfectly clear that if asterisk crashes, you might experience the issue. Also if the AMI connection is lost. It does not happen if you reload asterisk, or if you apply changes in freepbx. If you are experience the issue, but your asterisk is stable, then check if the ami connection is stable too, you can do it by running fop2_server in debug mode ( -X 1) and let it run and look for manager disconnection messages. By the way, you NEVER said your asterisk did not crash before, on any of your posts. None of your posts is informative, they do not give information about your setup, your settings, your versions, anything. And you are not cooperating either as other users are doing. You are just spreading FUD.

You seem to have no concept of how people use this. Most use FreePBX and for those people your solution of "just restart fop2 service because it rarely happens" is ridiculous. FreePBX is constantly being used and the way FreePBX works is every change restarts asterisk which kills fop2. That does not seem to sink in with you for some reason. Also a lot of administrators like the ones I deal with do not know linux. They can use a browser and configure Asterisk via FreePBX but asking them to open a command line and restart the FOP2 service is a completely foreign concept to them. I may as well be asking them to fly to the moon.

Every change in FreePBX reloads asterisk, it does not restart it. A reload does not trigger the problem. And it does not kill fop2. Perhaps your problem is that AMI connections are breaking, if that is the case, you can increase the writetimeout in /etc/asterisk/manager.conf under the fop2 user.

Frankly, if you just said, "yea it's a problem, these things happen sometimes, I think I fixed it in the current beta which may be buggy right now" and then some sort of estimate on a stable version is a better answer.

I said it, but you seem to have a problem reading:

Anyways, the next fop2 version fixes this, as it is indeed a fop2 issue.

The beta is stable, you can use it safely right now.

You can also use fop 2.11 because I think the issue was introduced on 2.20.

In any case, I am talking about the issue that I have described here.. Perhaps there are other issues that have a similar symptom but a different cause. For example, in one case I was able to determine that Microsoft ISA server was having troubles with its nat tables and it was affecting fop2 , that stopped receiving updates but because ISA server was not keeping or was mixing connections to port 4445, but only for clients connecting via ISA server.

Look, I will stop responding to offensive or bashing posts. If you need support, please ask for it: provide information, and I will try to offer you a solution. A sane solution/suggestion or fix.

You never contacted me via email or live help (as far as I know), it is clear that your objective here is to spam the forum anonymously with FUD posts, trying to bash the software or myself. That does not help and it does not add up to the discussion. If you are a paid customer, and you are unhappy with the software, I can issue a refund. Please contact me via email or live help for that.[/quote]

Whoa boy. So now I am the bad guy for not pointing out that Asterisk is NOT crashing. You have got to be kidding me. And now you are trying to accuse me of trolling. Look. I will give you the IP address and you can see for yourself. But the problem is you are not willing to listen.

Now the thing with AMI disconnecting. That is something new you have not mentioned before. This seems more plausible because fop2 stops responding constantly. This is a completely normal install. Oh, and since you say I am not giving you enough info. Asterisk is NOT crashing. FreePBX is NOT crashing. The internet is NOT crashing. The server is NOT crashing. Everything works......EXCEPT....fop2. How silly of me to not point out all those things in the past.

Is there a 64bit version of fop2 2.21 beta?

CentOS 5.6 64bit
FreePBX 2.9
Asterisk 1.8.4.1
FOP2 2.20

Normal asterisk installs should not crash, nor asterisk restarted frequently. If you restart asterisk, you can also restart fop2. That was my suggestion.

A permanent solution could be to have a stable asterisk that does not crash. Or remember to restart fop2 when you restart asterisk. Or if your asterisk still crashes and you are fine with the safe_asterisk script bringing it up again, just add a line to the safe_asterisk script to do a service fop2 restart there too. Something like this (untested)

run_asterisk()
{
        while :; do 

                if test "x$TTY" != "x" ; then
                        cd /tmp
                        stty sane < /dev/${TTY}
                        nice -n $PRIORITY ${ASTSBINDIR}/asterisk -f ${CLIARGS} ${ASTARGS} > /dev/${TTY} 2>&1 < /dev/${TTY}
                else
                        cd /tmp
                        nice -n $PRIORITY ${ASTSBINDIR}/asterisk -f ${CLIARGS} ${ASTARGS}
                fi

                # Restart fop2 after asterisk dies or ends
                service fop2 restart

                EXITSTATUS=$?
                message "Asterisk ended with exit status $EXITSTATUS"
                if test "x$EXITSTATUS" = "x0" ; then
                        # Properly shutdown....

                        # Stop fop2 when asterisk is shutdown
                        service fop2 stop

                        message "Asterisk shutdown normally."
                        exit 0

Be creative. I tried to describe when the issue happens, so you know where to look for to address the problem. If you are unable to avoid asterisk crashes, then you might want to try updating the safe_asterisk script. However, I would not do this myself, I would rather fix asterisk or my asterisk configuration to avoid crashes or ami disconnections.

You know, if asterisk crashes, taking down all your active calls with it.... its much worst that than having some fop2 clients not updating after that crash, fop2 would be my last of concerns. I would try to get asterisk stabilized first. This only happens when you have a fop2 client connected to fop2 server, and then the AMI connection gets down or broken. It is not usual in normal circumstances. For me and for the majority of users this does not happen often or at all. It was very hard for me to reproduce the issue, fortunately I got help from users who let me look at their servers when the problem happened, and I was able to find the cause.

Anyways, the next fop2 version fixes this, as it is indeed a fop2 issue. You are welcome to try the beta if you want: http://www.fop2.com/downloads/fop2-2.21 ... 5-i386.tgz

You can also go back to FOP1 if it makes you feel more comfortable. Please excuse me, but I am still sensing a hostile attitude towards me and the software itself. It seems like you want to spread FUD more than anything else.

The suggestion of putting fop2 restart in the safe_asterisk restart script is a more practical solution assuming it is initiated everytime FreePBX is updated via the Apply changes GUI button (I'm not sure if it is). Again, I don't know why you are going off on a tangent trying to blame Asterisk. As I said repeatedly asterisk is NOT crashing. Asterisk is NOT crashing. Did I mention that asterisk is NOT crashing?

You seem to have no concept of how people use this. Most use FreePBX and for those people your solution of "just restart fop2 service because it rarely happens" is ridiculous. FreePBX is constantly being used and the way FreePBX works is every change restarts asterisk which kills fop2. That does not seem to sink in with you for some reason. Also a lot of administrators like the ones I deal with do not know linux. They can use a browser and configure Asterisk via FreePBX but asking them to open a command line and restart the FOP2 service is a completely foreign concept to them. I may as well be asking them to fly to the moon.

My attitude about it is irrelevant but welcome to the world of paid apps. I have never complained about FOP1 because it's completely free and has always worked well for me. FOP2 is intentionally limited to encourage people to buy a license and my expectations are much higher for a product like that. At a minimum I do NOT expect show stoppers like this. And in this case where there is a show stopper, I don't expect useless advice about how to get around it.

Frankly, if you just said, "yea it's a problem, these things happen sometimes, I think I fixed it in the current beta which may be buggy right now" and then some sort of estimate on a stable version is a better answer.

Hi mustardman,

Restarting fop2_server will fix the issue. The problem happens ONLY if asterisk is restarted while fop2_server is still running AND you have a flash client connected.

Imagine this scenario, you boot the machine:

asterisk starts
fop2 starts
some fop2 client connects via web

everything is fine and dandy

suddenly asterisk crashes

fop2_server is still running
fop2 client is still connected, and it will not see updates, as asterisk is GONE

safe_asterisk relaunches asterisk

at that point, your old connected flash client will not receive updates, but newer fop2 client connections will.

restarting fop2_server fixes the issue. It is a bug in the way fop2 handles asterisk disconnections, and the problem is addressed already in the beta, and will be rolled out on the next version. But it only occurs when asterisk is restarted or dies, without restarting fop2_server.

Try it, instead of hitting F5 in your browser when you notice the problem, just restart fop2 server

service fop2 restart

and the problem will be gone.

Best regards,

I hope you are not suggesting that requiring us to restart the service is your permanent solution. This happens quite often and your suggestion is a non-starter. You must not use FreePBX where Asterisk restarts happen every time you make a change via the GUI which happens all the time. What is the permanent solution and when can I expect it? Otherwise I may have to go back to FOP1

Hi,

[quote]What is the status of this? I'm having this problem too. It's basically a deal breaker if I can't get this working.

Is the beta stable enough? I'm not looking for half baked solutions.

There are lots of issues discussed in this post, so I am not sure what is the deal breaker for you. I am sorry if you think fop2 is a half baked solution. Asterisk has tons of nasty bugs too, and I do not think it is half baked either.

If you experience a flash client that stops updating, it is because asterisk crashes, not something else. If asterisk is stable, you will not experience the issue. If the connection with asterisk dies unexpectedly while you have flash clients connected into fop2, then you might experience the issue where some flash clients gets updates and some others do not get them. The problem is fixed if you restart fop2. If asterisk never crashes, or if you remember to restart fop2 server when you also restart asterisk, then there is no issue. Anyways, the beta fixes this, it "restarts itself" when asterisk crashes, and avoids the problem.

Now, if your deal breaker is something else, please let me know what it is so I can work on the fix.

Best regards,[/quote]

The problem is FOP2 is not updating. Has nothing to do with Asterisk which is running properly while this is happening. If I am on a call via a trunk FOP2 still shows the extension and trunk as free unless I refresh my browser. Then when the call ends I need to refresh the browser to have it update the status again. That's a deal breaker if I can't get that working properly.

But sometimes it works. So it's intermittent and not likely a configuration issue.

Ok thanks. I won't worry about it then.

What is the status of this? Is the fix in the latest version?

Does FOP2 officially support Asterisk 1.8. I am basically running the latest FPBX and Asterisk 1.8.

What is the status of this? I'm having this problem too. It's basically a deal breaker if I can't get this working.

Is the beta stable enough? I'm not looking for half baked solutions.

You are being condesending the way you say it. Like I am dumb for not understanding your instructions. I work with Linux all day every day and when I have problems I know there are many people who are having an even harder time with it. Rather than saying that perhaps, just maybe you could admit the instructions could be improved.

As I said, by ignoring the phonebook stuff it simplified the install and made things less confusing. By trying to shoe horn in this visual phonebook of yours (I'm assuming you realize FreePBX already has 2 or 3 different phonebook modules) you are confusing things. It wouldn't hurt to make a little MySQL config script for that phonebook application but that is neither here nor there.

Lastly, this cannot be fully integrated into FreePBX because the status page still shows FOP1 even with the apache alias. If I disable the FOP1 application it gives this constant warning. If I leave it on and change the port then I have an unnecessary application running. It's just an indicator but that was the very first thing the customer noticed. So while it many not seem like a big deal to us techies it is to end users. They don't like seeing warning messages with yellow indicators.

Of course I could just alter the FreePBX code but you know as well as I do that is a terrible solution. Eventually a FreePBX update will re-write it.

I'm feeling better about it today (now that I got things working after ignoring all the phonebook stuff) and was unexpectedly surprised when you approved my thread.

However, I'm feeling less cordial now that you have gotten defensive about it. Not once do you give any hint that perhaps, maybe...just maybe the instructions could be improved just a bit. The very first thing I read on your site was how you "get it" that good documentation is very important. I'm here to tell you that I don't think you do.

Then you downshifted to the standard argument that I am ungrateful because you are providing something free. Well I have used FOP1 for years and not once complained about it's shortcomings. FOP2 is clearly designed to encourage people to buy it. You clearly make a point that a big selling feature is good documentation. So I feel that constructive cristicism is appropriate for this product.

Anyways. Got it working by ignoring all the phonebook stuff. I don't need that. IMHO you should treat it as a totally separate product. Also, the instructions could be improved quite a bit. Granted, you are dealing with a moving target such as the new GUI settings in FreePBX. So it requires more effort.

So I think you need to decide if you really do "get it" how important good documentation is. Walk the talk or remove that statement.

The instructions on this board proclaim that they get it and know how important good instructions are. Then they go on to present some of the most confusing instructions I have ever seen.

First of all. What is free and what is not? First I read that 15 icons are free. Fair enough. Then I read that visual phonebook is not. So does that mean I should not install the phonebook sql database? Is phonebook the same as visual phonebook?

Going through the instructions I get step by step tarball installation. Great. Then something is cut and paste right in the middle saying if you need to install phonebook go here where it goes off on how to set up sql? Confusing instructions I might add. I get to the part where I have to edit /var/www/html/fop2/config.php

<?
// Database connection details
$DBHOST = 'localhost';
$DBNAME = 'fop2';
$DBUSER = 'fop2';
$DBPASS = 'myPassw0rd';

$language="en";

Problem is that on my file that was installed using THESE instructions. $DBUSER = 'root';

So do I change it to fop2 even though the instructions do not say so.

If you want to sell this thing you should take your own advice and provide decent instructions. Don't even get me started on the FreePBX integration instructions. They are no where to be found in the "How to install" area. Found them in the FAQ area and they are wrong. Server status Op Panel is not integrated and still shows a warning indicator after instructions.

And after all this frustration. I cannot get the FOP2 to work properly. Cannot log in and when I finally figured out how to get that working (on my own by installing fop2admin module for freepbx because the instructions do not explain how that is necessary to create accounts for logging in) so then I finally get the FOP2 page. Great. Just one problem. Doesn't work. Busy extension does not show up as busy and phonebook giving an error message.

This is nuts.