dahdi-tools/README

DAHDI Telephony Interface Driver
=================================
Asterisk Development Team <asteriskteam@digium.com>
$Revision$, $Date$

DAHDI stands for Digium Asterisk Hardware Device Interface. This
package contains the user-space tools to configure the kernel modules
included in the package dahdi-linux.

Build Requirements
------------------
This package needs the headers from dahdi-linux. Thus you should install
dahdi-linux before building dahdi-tools.

Build System
~~~~~~~~~~~~
GCC and friends. Generally you will need to install the package gcc.
There may be cases where you will need a specific version of gcc to build
kernel modules.


Extra Libraries
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some libraries are needed for extra utilities that are provided with
DAHDI.

- libusb is needed for building fpga_load, needed for firmware loading of
  the Xorcom Astribank.
- libnewt is needed to build the optional but useful utility dahdi_tool.


Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: If using `sudo` to build/install, you may need to add /sbin to your PATH.
----------------------------------
./configure
make
make install
# To install init scripts and config files:
#make config
----------------------------------


Build Tweaks
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Partial Build/Install
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There are some make targets that are provided to build or install just
parts of DAHDI:

. Build targets:
  - make: Build DAHDI user-space programs and libraries. partial
    targets of it:
    * make 'utilname': builds 'utilname' alone (e.g: `make dahdi_diag`)
    * make utils: Build just the programs.
    * make libs: Build libtonezone.
    * make tests: Build testing binaries.
. Install targets:
  - make install: Install everything. Sub-targets of it:
    * make install-utils: Installs most things.
    * make install-libs: Installs libtonezone.
  - make config: install configuration files (overriding existing ones).
  - make install-test: Install testing binaries.


Installation to a Subtree
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following may be useful when testing the package or when preparing a
package for a binary distribution (such as an rpm package) installing
onto a subtree rather than on the real system.

  make install DESTDIR=targetdir

This can be useful for any partial install target from the list above.


Options For ./configure
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The configure script executes various tests and based on them generates
makeopts. You can pass it --with options and variable settings, for
instance:

  ./configure --without-ncurses CC="gcc-4.10"

If you just want to recreate the same files without a full detection
run, use:

  ./config.status

To re-run ./configure with the same parameters it was run with last
time, use:

  ./config.status --recheck


Configuration
-------------
Configuration for DAHDI resides under /etc/dahdi . 

/etc/dahdi/system.conf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The main method to configure DAHDI devices is using the utility
*dahdi_cfg*. dahdi_cfg reads data from the configuration file 
/etc/dahdi/system.conf , figures out what configuration to send to 
channels, and send it to the kernel.

A sample annotated system.conf is included in this directory and
installed by default. Edit it to suit your configuration. Alternatively 
use the script dahdi_genconf to generate one that should work with your 
system. Note that while dahdi_genconf will generate a working configuration,
it will not automatically detect hardware echo cancellation modules.  These
will have to be enabled manually in system.conf.

/etc/dahdi/init.conf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The configuration file of the dahdi init.d script is
/etc/dahdi/init.conf . That file is used to override defaults that are 
set at the beginning of the init.d script.

Reference Configuration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sample system.conf
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
include::system.conf.asciidoc[]


Sample init.conf
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
include::init.conf.asciidoc[]


Sample genconf_parameters
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FIXME: still not properly formatted.

include::genconf_parameters.asciidoc[]


Sample assigned-spans.conf
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
include::assigned-spans.conf.asciidoc[]


Sample span-types.conf
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
include::span-types.conf.asciidoc[]


Tonezones
~~~~~~~~~
The file zonedata.c contains the information about the tone zones used
in libtonezone (and hence also in dahdi_cfg). Here is a list of those zones:

include::tonezones.txt[]


DAHDI PERL modules
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The directory xpp has, in addition to helper utilities for the
Xorcom Astribank, a collection of PERL modules to provide information
related to DAHDI. The PERL modules themselves are under xpp/perl_modules/ .
In xpp/ there are several utilities that use those modules:
- xpp-specific: dahdi_registration, xpp_sync, xpp_blink .
- General: lsdahdi, dahdi_genconf, dahdi_hardware, dahdi_drivers

The DAHDI PERL modules will currently only be automatically installed if you
happen to install the xpp directory. Those utilities require the PERL modules
to be installed, however they will also look for them in the directory 
perl_modules, and thus can be run directly from the DAHDI source tree. For 
example:

  ./xpp/dahdi_hardware -v

To get usage information on a program, you can also use perldoc
(sometimes provided in a package separate from perl itself). For
instance:

  perldoc ./xpp/lsdahdi

Some of them are specific for the Xorcom Astribank and described in its
documentation. the others are:

lsdahdi:: 
  A somewhat glorified `cat /proc/dahdi/*`.
dahdi_genconf::
  Generates configuration based on the existing DAHDI channels and on
  /etc/dahdi/genconf_parameters (replaces genzaptelconf as well).
dahdi_drivers::
  A two-liner script (not installed by default) that simply returns the
  modules that should be modprobe-d on this system.
dahdi_hardware:: 
  Uses the information from SysFS and its own knowledge to show
  what PCI/USB DAHDI hardware is connected and if it is currently used
  by a driver. Shows also some more information for Astribanks from
  /proc/xpp .


PPP Support
~~~~~~~~~~~
DAHDI digital cards can provide data channels through PPP as
point-to-point connections. This requires a plug-in to the PPP daemon
that is included in the ppp/ subdirectory. To install it:

1. Make sure you have the PPP source / headers installed. On Debian:

   apt-get install ppp-dev

2. Run 'make' on the ppp subdirectory:

   make -C ppp 
   make -C ppp install

3. Make sure your kernel has support for both PPP (which is common is
   distribution kernels and for HDLC (much less common) - CONFIG_PPP and
   CONFIG_HDLC .


Initialization
--------------
This section documents the start up sequence of the DAHDI modules.

There are generally two options: explicit (using an init script) and
implicit (run from UDEV hook scripts).

Explicit
~~~~~~~~
The dahdi init scripts does the following tasks:

* Loading the module dahdi and any other module listed in
  /etc/dahdi/modules.
* For xpp (Astribanks) - some specific initializations. See
  README.Astribank.
* Runs link:doc/dahdi_cfg.8.html[dahdi_cfg] after all modules were
  loaded.
* A number of other tools may need to be run:
** link:doc/fxotune.8.html[fxotune]
** dahdihpec_enable

Only at this point Asterisk (or any other user of DAHDI) can be run.


Implicit
~~~~~~~~
(Also known as "hot-plug" or "pinned-spans". This requires:

* dahdi >= 2.8.0
* Setting the module parameter auto_assign_spans of dahdi to 0
* (Recommended) Asterisk >= 12 - which supports "dahdi create channels".

When a device driver of a DAHDI device finishes initialization, it
creates a dahdi_device kernel object. A dahdi_device represents a single
DAHDI device (such as a PCI card) and may have several spans. If the
value of auto_assign_spans is 1 when dahdi_device is created, spans are
assigned automatically - each new span gets the first available span
number and range of channels. However if it is set to 0, spans will not
get assigned, and user space programs need to assign them. The
low-level interface for doing so is explained in the section "Span
Assignment" in the README of DAHDI-Linux.

New Devices
^^^^^^^^^^^
When a kernel object is created or destroyed, the kernel sends an event
to user space. Those events are normally handled by udevd. Configurations
for udevd ("udev rules") may be placed in /etc/udev/rules.d or
/lib/udev/rules.d. This package installs rules that instruct udevd to
run the script `/usr/share/dahdi/dahdi_handle_device` on each new
device. This script will:

* If `/etc/dahdi/span-types.conf` exists, apply it to the device. It is
 used for E1/T1/J1 settings. See
 <<_sample_span_types_conf,sample span-types.conf>>.

* If `/etc/dahdi/assigned-spans.conf` exists, assign the span according
 to it (if it is not specified there: don't assign it).
 used for E1/T1/J1 settings. See
 <<_sample_assigned_spans_conf,sample assigned-spans.conf>>.

* But if that file does not exist, assign the span to the first
  available place.

This script mainly uses the commands
link:doc/dahdi_span_types.8.html[dahdi_span_types] and
link:doc/dahdi_span_assignments.8.html[dahdi_span_assignments].

DAHDI devices are listed under `/sys/bus/dahdi_devices/devices`.

If you want to disable running this script, add the following line to
`/etc/dahdi/init.conf`:
.............................
DAHDI_UDEV_DISABLE_DEVICES=yes
.............................


New Spans
^^^^^^^^^
Once a span is assigned, a kernel object will appear for it. It will be
listed under its device. As a new kernel object was created, an event is
sent to udev.

The standard DAHDI udev rules instruct udevd to run the script
`/usr/share/dahdi/dahdi_span_config`. This script configures the new
span:

* If system.conf does not exist, generates a temporary configuration
  for the span using link:doc/dahdi_genconf.8.html[dahdi_genconf
  system].
* Runs link:doc/dahdi_cfg.8.html[dahdi_cfg] on the new span (using `-S`
  and -C`).

* Runs `asterisk -rx 'dahdi create channels'` to add the new channels
  and spans to Asterisk (if they were configured in advance).

If you want to disable running this script, add the following line to
`/etc/dahdi/init.conf`:
.............................
DAHDI_UDEV_DISABLE_SPANS=yes
.............................


New Channels
^^^^^^^^^^^^
DAHDI channels have their own representation in the kernel. The standard
udev rules that dahdi-tools includes for them, however, don't run a
script for each device. Each DAHDI channel creates a block device file
at /dev/dahdi/chan/'span'/'rel-chan', where 'span' and 'rel-chan' are
each three-digit numbers (e.g: 035). 'span' is the span number and
'rel-chan' is the channel number relative to the span.

The udev rules generate the following extra symlinks under /dev/dahdi:

* /dev/dahdi/'num' - the channel number. As it was originally (but
  continues beyond 250).
* /dev/dahdi/devices/'hardware_id'/'rel-span'/'rel-chan' - if the DAHDI
  device has a hardware ID field, provide listing of the device's span
  and channels.
* /dev/dahdi/devices/@'hardware_id'/'rel-span'/'rel-chan' - likewise for
  the connector field. It has a "@" prefix.


include::UPGRADE.txt[]


License
-------
This package is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
Version 2, except for some components which are distributed under the terms of
the GNU Lesser General Public License Version 2.1. Both licenses are included
in this directory, and each file is clearly marked as to which license applies.

If you wish to use the DAHDI drivers in an application for which the license
terms are not appropriate (e.g. a proprietary embedded system), licenses under
more flexible terms can be readily obtained through Digium, Inc. at reasonable
cost.


Reporting Bugs
--------------
Please report bug and patches to the Asterisk bug tracker at
http://bugs.digium.com/[] in the "DAHDI" category.


Links
-----
- http://asterisk.org/[] - The Asterisk PBX
- http://voip-info.org/[]
- http://voip-info.org/wiki/view/DAHDI[]
- http://docs.tzafrir.org.il/dahdi-tools/README.html[Up-to-date HTML version
  of this file]