'cat' and the MX-ONE licensing

Using a Linux based IP PBX is fairly common today. Retrieving the current license file and hardware ID is not a simple download when working in the command line. The following will be useful:

user>license_status | cat >> /home/user/license.txt

Mount a USB device and copy across.

BusinessPhone Date and Time

To program the date and time on the Aastra BusinessPhone via a digital terminal (Dialog 4223, 4224):

• Enter programming mode

• Enter password

• 6101 sets the month

• 6102 sets the weekday

• 6103 sets the hour/minute/seconds

• 6104 allows change between 12/24 hour clock format

Now there is no more need to start up the laptop for a simple time change!

MX-ONE TS Music-on-hold

This procedure is not very comprehensively covered in the PBX manual. Below are some basic facts:

1. The pair to use from the "Free fork connector" "D-type" cable is the BROWN-WHITE.

2. You need to initiate music-on-hold for each extension.

Therefore:

ASPAC:PARNUM=154,PARVAL=1;
(PARVAL may have a different value if you use more than one device).

ASPAC:PARNUM=116,PARVAL=63;
(This PARVAL allows all call-types to receive music-on-hold).

RACEI:DIR=xxxx,CONT=251; --Repeat for all extensions
(The 251 value indicates that Music-on-hold source 1 is being used,i.e. BROWN-WHITE).

Getting to Grips with GRUB

The fault was mine. I had resized my HDD with gparted and as a result my GRUB was no longer on /dev/sda8 but now on /dev/sda6. And to aggravate the problem I tried a lazy repair of the GRUB file which merely replaced the old file with a new empty one. Do I found myself staring at a screen proclaiming: "error:unknown file system" and "grub rescue>".

The minimal shell provided does not even have a help option. The following commands are possible:

set - to set a parameter
insmod - to activate a module

To manually boot your computer you need to gain access to the normal GRUB module.

grub rescue> set prefix=(hda,b)/boot/grub will tell the minimal bash shell to set it's current working directory to HDD a and partition b. So if your GRUB had been installed on your first hard drive and now existed in the sixth partition, then /dev/sda6 = (hd0,6) in GRUB speak.


grub rescue> insmod (hda,b)/boot/grub/linux.mod will activate the more well known grub shell.

Now that you find yourself in the standard GRUB shell, you can attempt to boot your OS.

rescue:grub> root=(hda,b) Here you specify the root partition of your OS

rescue:grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-xxx Here you specify the kernel you want to boot. Naturally the "/boot" directory is located on the partition you specified in the command just before. It is good to note that TAB-completion does work!

rescue:grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img-xx.xx This specifies the inital image necessary to go from GRUB to booting the kernel.

rescue:grub> boot Will attempt to boot the specified initrd and vmlinuz files.

Of course, all you have accomplished is to boot your OS. But you have NOT repaired it. Normally the OS installer will scan your hard drive and generate a menu.lst file automatically for the boot process. To have this process repeated:

grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/sda



This will probe your hard drive for existing operating systems and generate a menu.lst "/boot/grub" on the specified hard drive.

Most of this I have done from memory, so I may have left out a step. If you still battle to get your grub repaired, other avenues to consider is:

*Editing menu.lst
*Using grub in a terminal.

Ubuntu Netbook and Sony Ericsson

For those who live in Namibia, they may be experiencing the same handicaps as myself. Many default options do not include this country (which happens to be geographically four times larger than the United Kingdom) when setting up broadband connections. However, I decided to experiment and setup my Sony Ericsson W890i as a broadband device. And it worked. It is pretty simple and will probably work for other mobile phones as well.

1. When connecting the W890i via USB it prompts for the kind of connection. Select "Phone mode".

2. Ubuntu Netbook Release will prompt you to setup a broadband connection. Follow the wizard until you need to select the country.

3. Since Namibia is not present, I chose MTN of South Africa.

4. Finish the wizard and test.

Hope it works for you as well.

Fritz WLAN Fon 7270 Reset

I experienced a real sticky situation recently when configuring the Fritz 7270 router. I was battling to get the router to act as a wireless unit only - a link up onto the existing network. In the process I inserted an incorrect IP Route which locked me out of the box. The unit has no reset switch to default the unit.

To default the unit, I had to use the analog phone port and dial the following:

#991*15901590*

 In the end, the following configuration worked:

1. Under Network -> IP Settings -> IP Addresses leave WLAn and Network to be on the same network. (A tick enable/disable option).
2. Ensure the DHCP settings do not clash with your network. For Wireless to work best you need some DHCP addresses to be enabled.
3. Under the Internet access settings, tell the router to use an existing LAN connection with no authorisation. It will tell you to connect the LAN cable from LAN0 on the router to the network switch.
4. Now it should work.

Aastra and Nortel NPI-TON Terms

When doing H.323 linking between an Aastra (BusinessPhone) and Nortel (BCM50), both PABX's need to be setup for the same kind of Network Numbering Plan. The Nortel refers to the NPI/TON plans as the Alias. In the Aastra, it is setup on the Trunk Gateway as it's NPI Alias. Below is the corresponding table, Aastra in black and Nortel in blue:

Unknown/Unknown TEL
Public/Unknown PUB
Private/Unknown PRI
Private/Regional Level 1 UDP
Private/Regional Level 0 (local) CDP