HFC PCI-A 2BDS0 ISDN card isn't recognized

[osa2]

Hi, I have installed askozia on a regular PC (intel D201GLY2) harddisk 1,2GB ide
I have a PCI HFC-ISDN card installed in the pci slot but askozia doesn't seem te see the card. What can be done/checked.
The card is working because I have tested the card with FreePBX and there it can work. So, It should work with askozia aswell.

Please inform me on what I can check??

[Michael]

AskoziaPBX takes a different approach to ISDN support than FreePBX. We're going to support everything with the DAHDI driver set instead of mISDN. DAHDI does not yet have all of the device IDs present for those HFC cards so we need to add them as reports come in.

Could you submit a hardware report through the Integrator Panel (press ESC in the GUI)? That will get a report on record so I can add that ID once I have time.

[osa2]

Did you found anything that can be helpfull? Or should I send other information as well??

[Michael]

I think what I'm going to do is just spend an afternoon merging all of the mISDN and ISDN4BSD device and vendor code sets into DAHDI. To make a new patch every time is what has made me delay doing it so far. If I can cover all of the mISDN and ISDN4BSD devices, that's a huge step forward.

I will hopefully do this before the weekend. It will be in for rc2. Right now I'm focusing on writing some basic documentation for newcomers. Since there isn't any at all this is a top priority.

[giovanni.v]

If I can cover all of the mISDN and ISDN4BSD devices, that's a huge step forward.

I think some of the hardware supported by isdn4bsd can't be ported to dahdi simply adding their id's. Unfortunately some cards like avm fritz! and also others based on ipac/isac/winbond chips will require rewriting drivers at low level.

Back to something near to dahdi... however the HFC-S single BRI card  (although end-of-line for most producers) is quite popular so some efforts must be done to support it even thru patching/adding code for.
Corious enough, really confusing me, somewhere the code claims this cards supported (http://svnview.digium.com/svn/dahdi/tools/trunk/xpp/perl_modules/Dahdi/Hardware/PCI.pm?view=markup&pathrev=6822) but people continue to open issues and make work on:
https://issues.asterisk.org/view.php?id=15736
http://code.google.com/p/zaphfc/

[Michael]

I probably should have phrased that differently!

"If I can cover all of the HFC based mISDN and ISDN4BSD devices..."

I realize those other devices will, unfortunately, not be supported. But, since Digium is now officially supporting more ISDN cards in their DAHDI drivers, this can only improve. The next point release of DAHDI (not yet in Askozia) contains card ids and the logic to officially support other cards. Before it was just a mixture of patches on issues.asterisk.

Odicha is a busy fellow! That dual-licensing used by Digium really messes things up for fixes like this...

Once I merge those device IDs, let's see how things stand. A next step would be to merge the things Digium cannot officially due to licensing.

[giovanni.v]

That dual-licensing used by Digium really messes things up for fixes like this...

Strongly agree!

A next step would be to merge the things Digium cannot officially due to licensing.

Good to hear, after all you are not Digium  and most/all of the code already solving that issue is gpl.

[NMaas]

I think what I'm going to do is just spend an afternoon merging all of the mISDN and ISDN4BSD device and vendor code sets into DAHDI. To make a new patch every time is what has made me delay doing it so far. If I can cover all of the mISDN and ISDN4BSD devices, that's a huge step forward.

I will hopefully do this before the weekend. It will be in for rc2. Right now I'm focusing on writing some basic documentation for newcomers. Since there isn't any at all this is a top priority.

Good infos so far,
I wrote some basic stuff on Voip ( http://www.nico-maas.de.vu/?p=392 ) and on Askozia 1.0.3 with Snom 360 Phones ( http://www.nico-maas.de.vu/?p=395 ).
If that would help you, you're free to use that stuff ^^.


Greetings,

Nico

[giovanni.v]

As I have said elsewhere starting from r1390 single port bri isdn cards using HFC-S cologhe chips now are recognized by askozia and configured as it's should; so far I have not had time to try, today I did but no good news.

The card was tested using r1390, BRI port connected to an isdn simulator and also an isdn analyzer. First times in ptmp configuration and later switched also to ptp.
Unfortunately, despite the zaphfc kernel module loaded and asterisk/dahdi seem able to use the bri channels, this is just an illusion because the card simply don't work at all.

(Hardware info)
/root # /offload/rootfs/usr/sbin/lspci -k -nn
00:09.0 Class [0280]: Device [1397:2bd0] (rev 02)
  Subsystem: Device [1397:2bd0]
  Kernel driver in use: vzaphfc
  Kernel modules: zaphfc
00:0b.0 Class [0280]: Device [e159:0001]
  Subsystem: Device [b100:0001]
  Kernel driver in use: wctdm
  Kernel modules: wctdm

(asterisk loading messages)
Feb 27 10:11:13 asterisk[1313]: VERBOSE[1300]: -- Registered channel 1, FXS Kewlstart signalling
Feb 27 10:11:13 asterisk[1313]: VERBOSE[1300]: -- Registered channel 5, ISDN BRI Point to MultiPoint signalling
Feb 27 10:11:13 asterisk[1313]: VERBOSE[1300]: -- Registered channel 6, ISDN BRI Point to MultiPoint signalling
Feb 27 10:11:13 asterisk[1313]: VERBOSE[1300]: -- Automatically generated pseudo channel
Feb 27 10:11:13 asterisk[1313]: VERBOSE[1300]: == Starting D-Channel on span 2
Feb 27 10:11:13 asterisk[1313]: VERBOSE[1300]: == Registered channel type 'DAHDI' (DAHDI Telephony Driver w/PRI)

Something must have gone wrong here:
AskoziaPBX*CLI> pri show spans
PRI span 2/0: Provisioned, Down, Active

Dahdi did those channels up:
AskoziaPBX*CLI> dahdi show channels
   Chan Extension  Context         Language   MOH Interpret        Blocked    State
 pseudo            default                    default                         In Service
      1            ANALOG-PROVIDER en-us      default                         In Service
      5            ISDN-PROVIDER-2 en-us      default                         In Service
      6            ISDN-PROVIDER-2 en-us      default                         In Service

dahdi_scan reports that card is ok:
...
[2]
active=yes
alarms=OK
description=HFC-S PCI A ISDN card 0 [TE]
name=ZTHFC1
manufacturer=Cologne Chips
devicetype=HFC-S PCI-A ISDN
location=PCI Bus 00 Slot 10
basechan=5
totchans=3
irq=17
type=digital-TE
syncsrc=0
lbo=0 db (CSU)/0-133 feet (DSX-1)
coding_opts=AMI
framing_opts=CCS
coding=AMI
framing=CCS

Because the span is down obviously we can't make nor get any incoming call.
The ISDN analyzer shows exists only frames from the simulator to the askozia BRI port but nothing the other way. Also switching on "pri intense debug" shows there is almost no activity on the D channel... nothing seen on the analyzer reaches asterisk and the only activity we can see is the broadcast message asking for TEI in ptmp mode but even this does not reach the outside world (I don't see those frames on the analyzer).

I spent some time finding that problem but there are not enough debug info to catch it, sounds like the ISDN layer 1 and layer 2 are completely detached.
Finding a confirmation that this behavior is or is not due an askozia issue i tried the elastix 2 beta because it also use the dahdi+zaphfc: same hardware configuration, the same dahdi version, exactly the same issue.
I also found some discussion on a German forum, unfortunately I do not understand a single word of this language ... but I feel that the problem is the same (http://www.ippf.eu/showthread.php?t=176656).

I would say that's enough to stop for me!
Now let me vent about... this is a long story, zaptel has never had a decent support for these cards, and despite the efforts of some volunteers the new dahdi confirms this trend.
I think the next few minutes of spare time will try to compile misdn for askozia instead of chasing smoke.  

[carlofrc]

I think the next few minutes of spare time will try to compile misdn for askozia instead of chasing smoke.  

honour where honour is due!  ;-)

[osa2]

So, it will not work.
No problem. But what hardware PCI card can I buy to work togheter with askozia?
I have the openvox B200m minipci wich makes my askozia drop connection with asterisk everyother day. And I need to reboot the whole thing.

I'm planning on buying a patton ISDN gateway 4552 2 bri port isdn. Does this work? Or are there better options to look for?

Because now I cannot use my askozia professional. Every day reboot is not working correct.
Please advise me on what to buy. I need to have either ISDN Bri card or ISDN gateway.
I'm looking for the isdn gateway because If I don't get it working with askozia I will try other software.
I have a Fritz fax isdn card but this has aslo a hfc chip and doesn't work. I have seen on the forum a user having it work with 1.0.3 but I can't get it working.

[giovanni.v]

I have the openvox B200m minipci wich makes my askozia drop connection with asterisk everyother day. And I need to reboot the whole thing.

Sure you had not other hardware/irq issues on your platform?
I never used isdn minipci cards (too expensive) but the B200 it's built around a Cologne HFC-4S chip with additionals passive components to implement only 2 ports instead of the four available in the silicon.
I have a lab box using askozia rc and a junghans 4 BRI card working from a week without any issue... that card use also the HFC-4S chip.
The same card was moved from my production pbx using 1.0.3... about two years continuous runtime, no problems at all.

I'm planning on buying a patton ISDN gateway 4552 2 bri port isdn. Does this work?

Should work, confirmed. You are speaking about 2 BRI ports... keep in mind that the SN4552 can handle only 2 channels at a time not four.

Or are there better options to look for?

Take also a look at Audiocodes.

I have a Fritz fax isdn card but this has aslo a hfc chip and doesn't work. I have seen on the forum a user having it work with 1.0.3 but I can't get it working.

Some different fritz! card revision exists but never seen one using hfc... however consumers cheap hfc pci cards works very well in 1.0.3, stable and no echo thanks to the osclec EC.

[panachoi]

I've got a DrayTek USB MiniVigor that works more or less fine with 1.0.3:

Code:

kernel: ihfc0: <Winbond 128K USB ISDN adapter>

However, this device doesn't seem to be recognized at all in 2.0rc2, as the gui says:

Code:

No compatible isdn ports were detected.

I'm new to 2.0 (run 1.0 for years!), but I imagine that I'm not the only one with this problem. I'm running Embedded on ALIX, but I dont think that matters....

Any help appreciated

[Michael]

Unfortunately, your card uses a chipset which is unsupported in 2.0. It will probably remain unsupported until someone adds code to the underlying drivers for that class of cards.

[panachoi]

Unfortunately, your card uses a chipset which is unsupported in 2.0. It will probably remain unsupported until someone adds code to the underlying drivers for that class of cards.

Sorry to hear that. I remember when I first set up askozia looking for a USB ISDN TA that worked, but they seem to be few and far between. I've now managed to acquire 3 Draytek devices, all of which have Winbond and not HFC chipsets. If only one could identify HFC-based adapters by looking at them, instead of having to buy them :-}

I imagine that us embedded folks are not going to migrate anytime soon b/c of this, unless we have a HFC based adapter.

Thanks anyway.