SIP Cisco 7970?

[Matthew]

I got my LMCE switched back to 2-NICs, and I got a NetGear FS108P PoE ethernet switch (4 PoE ports + 4 non-PoE, $118 at J&R Computer World). So I tried to get my Cisco 7970 (SCCP, not SIP) up and running.

I ran through the instructions in the "Cisco 7970" article. I'd cleaned them up for readability before, but testing them with an actual phone and LMCE showed there were changes required. The biggest difference is that the new 7970's Device details page no longer takes a MAC range, or requires a decimalized MAC address, but the specific MAC of the phone (the Javascript validation code insists on a single :-separated hexadecimal MAC address, not a range).

I got through the "Preparation" section evidently intact, which isn't very surprising, since it's just ensuring the phone has DHCP enabled and getting the phone's MAC address into a new Device details page.

But then the actual "Installation" failed. The phone starts up, and displays a "Registering" message with a moving time wheel. The LMCE Orbiter does show messages about the 7970 being dealt with, even eventually saying it's done with the 7970. And the 7970 Services menu does have an "Orbiter" (and nothing else) in its menu. But choosing the 7970 Orbiter shows a splash screen with the LMCE logo, and the words "Linux MCE Orbiter" / "Loading, please wait", with the third softbutton from the left, below the screen, saying "Exit" above it on the screen, and the first softbutton saying "Next". That "Next" stays on for a few seconds, then disappears for about 2-3x as long (leaving a lighter background image patch), then reappears, and blinks like that. If I press the "Next" button, the button disappears for a while, then comes back, until after about 2-3 presses (with 10-20s intervals), after which it doesn't come back (the light background image patch remains). All the while, the "Registering" message with its moving time wheel displays, occasionally flashing.

In the SETTINGS > Status > Status Messages menu, the messages said that it couldn't find the SEP<MAC-addr>.cnf.xml file. The /tftpboot contained two identical files, SEP.cnf.xml and SEPDefault7970.cnf.xml . So I copied one into a file named SEP<MAC-addr>cnf.xml (completing it with the hexadecimal numeric-only MAC address). Now the "Registering" message briefly flashes "Updating CTL" for about 2s, then "Loading..." for about 2s, then the Status Messages say "No valid CAPF server" / "File Not Found: CTLFile.tlv" / "No CTL installed" / "SEP<MAC-addr>.cnf.xml", and the message quicky returns to "Registering" (with the moving time) wheel. The 7970 Orbiter behaves the same way ("Loading" splashscreen and taunting "Next" button). Every once in a while the LMCE Orbiter shows a message saying it's done with the 7970 phone (which seems sync'ed with the "Updating CTL" / "Loading..." message). But nothing new ever shows up in the LMCE Orbiter.

It seems the phone needs either a CTL file, or a config somewhere telling it that it doesn't need one. And maybe the Orbiter install is wedged somehow, or maybe choking on the CTL failure. And it seems very close to working.

Who knows how to make this work? Is there even a way to delete the 7970 Orbiter? And how do I get a proper CTL file, or remove the dependency on it?

[hari]

I ran through the instructions in the "Cisco 7970" article. I'd cleaned them up for readability before, but testing them with an actual phone and LMCE showed there were changes required. The biggest difference is that the new 7970's Device details page no longer takes a MAC range, or requires a decimalized MAC address, but the specific MAC of the phone (the Javascript validation code insists on a single :-separated hexadecimal MAC address, not a range).

The old wiki page gave instructions to extend the _DeviceTemplate_ with the mac range (calculated with e.g. mac_convert). I don't know why you deleted that information: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=Cisco_7970&diff=7833&oldid=6374

Who knows how to make this work? Is there even a way to delete the 7970 Orbiter? And how do I get a proper CTL file, or remove the dependency on it?

there is no need for a CTL file. It's some signature used to secure firmware loading.

Please repair the wiki page and try the following:
* extend the DeviceTemplate but there is a typo in the example on the wiki (00:16:78:FF:FF:FF instead of 00:14:69:FF:FF:FF)
* quick reload the router
* plug the cisco
* answer the questions on any orbiter (room...)

if you use a sip firmware you need to do the following steps after:
* delete the link in /tftpboot from SEP<yourmac>... to the template
* add a sip extension with the amp
* put your SIP SEP<yourmac> config file in place

regards, hari

[Matthew]

I ran through the instructions in the "Cisco 7970" article. I'd cleaned them up for readability before, but testing them with an actual phone and LMCE showed there were changes required. The biggest difference is that the new 7970's Device details page no longer takes a MAC range, or requires a decimalized MAC address, but the specific MAC of the phone (the Javascript validation code insists on a single :-separated hexadecimal MAC address, not a range).

The old wiki page gave instructions to extend the _DeviceTemplate_ with the mac range (calculated with e.g. mac_convert). I don't know why you deleted that information: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=Cisco_7970&diff=7833&oldid=6374

The Device Template form rejects ranges, rejects decimalized (with no ":"s) MAC addresses. The Javascript in the form's validator ( /pluto-admin/scripts/formValidation.js::validateMAC() ) says:

Code: [Select]

// allow empty string as valid too
function validateMAC(mac,strError) {
if(mac==''){
return true;
}
var ismac = [b]mac.match("^([0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]:){5}([0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F])$");[/b]
if(ismac == null){
alert(strError);
return false;
}else{
return true;
}
}That field takes a XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX MAC address string, not a range. That's why I revised the wiki.

And when I define the device with the phone's specific MAC address, that parameter seems to work. I get Orbiter messages about the 7970 while it's configuring. I'd prefer a range, because that would let me make a template that works with any number of devices. It's not really "plug & play" if I have to create a device for each phone I plug into the LAN. But a single MAC addr is what that form currently takes.

Who knows how to make this work? Is there even a way to delete the 7970 Orbiter? And how do I get a proper CTL file, or remove the dependency on it?

there is no need for a CTL file. It's some signature used to secure firmware loading.

OK, but without a CTL file I get status messages on the phone complaining that CTLFile.tlv is not found. Including an empty CTL<MAC>.tlv (MAC with no ":" chars) gives me onky "CTL update failed", instead of "File Not Found: CTLFile.tlv" and "No CTL installed" with no file available for tftp. No success either way.

Please repair the wiki page and try the following:
* extend the DeviceTemplate but there is a typo in the example on the wiki (00:16:78:FF:FF:FF instead of 00:14:69:FF:FF:FF)
* quick reload the router
* plug the cisco
* answer the questions on any orbiter (room...)

I still think I'm very close, but not because of the range. Thanks for helping out.

if you use a sip firmware you need to do the following steps after:
* delete the link in /tftpboot from SEP<yourmac>... to the template
* add a sip extension with the amp
* put your SIP SEP<yourmac> config file in place

I was hoping to use SCCP to start, partly because I heard that LMCE supports SCCP better than it does SIP. Maybe upgrading the phone to SIP will work better, or produce more detailed failure results. I have a Cisco account through which I bought the SIP firmware upgrade. But I don't have concise directions for upgrading to SIP first.

[Zaerc]

Don't you think it would be better to get something to work before "improving" the instructions?  And correct me if I'm wrong, but those instructions seemed to work fine for others as far as I know.

[hari]

That field takes a XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX MAC address string, not a range. That's why I revised the wiki.

thats the wrong form.

And when I define the device with the phone's specific MAC address, that parameter seems to work. I get Orbiter messages about the 7970 while it's configuring. I'd prefer a range, because that would let me make a template that works with any number of devices. It's not really "plug & play" if I have to create a device for each phone I plug into the LAN. But a single MAC addr is what that form currently takes.

again, its the wrong form. You are not editing the device template (the ranges go in the table DHCPDevice:

Code: [Select]

mysql> describe DHCPDevice;
[...]
| Mac_Range_Low      | bigint(20)  | NO   |     | 0       |                |
| Mac_Range_High     | bigint(20)  | NO   |     | 0       |                |
[...]
)

OK, but without a CTL file I get status messages on the phone complaining that CTLFile.tlv is not found.

whats the problem with that?

Including an empty CTL<MAC>.tlv (MAC with no ":" chars) gives me onky "CTL update failed", instead of "File Not Found: CTLFile.tlv" and "No CTL installed" with no file available for tftp. No success either way.

if you don't want to believe me that this file is not needed you can further try submitting random files to your selsius ethernet phone (wonder where that SEP comes from?).

I still think I'm very close, but not because of the range. Thanks for helping out.

that may be fine for you but you destroyed correct information. The old page was sufficient to extend the device template. Please repair it (you have touched the 7970 Orbiter, too).

I was hoping to use SCCP to start, partly because I heard that LMCE supports SCCP better than it does SIP. Maybe upgrading the phone to SIP will work better, or produce more detailed failure results. I have a Cisco account through which I bought the SIP firmware upgrade. But I don't have concise directions for upgrading to SIP first.

sccp works fine. I simply prefer the sip image to have other lines provisioned outside lmce/asterisk.

hari

[hari]

there is no need for a CTL file. It's some signature used to secure firmware loading.

to be exact it's also used for secure connection and authentication with a cisco callmanager (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/sw/voicesw/ps556/products_administration_guide_chapter09186a00802e470b_4container_ccmigration_09186a0080255f67.html#wp1028826)

hari

[Matthew]

I reverted the wiki article to the version with the instructions before I changed them, though I kept the formatting and other non-info cleanup. And your NeedsToBeFixed category.

That field takes a XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX MAC address string, not a range. That's why I revised the wiki.

thats the wrong form.

And when I define the device with the phone's specific MAC address, that parameter seems to work. I get Orbiter messages about the 7970 while it's configuring. I'd prefer a range, because that would let me make a template that works with any number of devices. It's not really "plug & play" if I have to create a device for each phone I plug into the LAN. But a single MAC addr is what that form currently takes.

again, its the wrong form. You are not editing the device template (the ranges go in the table DHCPDevice:

Code: [Select]

mysql> describe DHCPDevice;
[...]
| Mac_Range_Low      | bigint(20)  | NO   |     | 0       |                |
| Mac_Range_High     | bigint(20)  | NO   |     | 0       |                |
[...]
)

I'm going back through the old instructions and the LMCE pages now looking for it, but which is the correct form to use?

OK, but without a CTL file I get status messages on the phone complaining that CTLFile.tlv is not found.

whats the problem with that?

Including an empty CTL<MAC>.tlv (MAC with no ":" chars) gives me onky "CTL update failed", instead of "File Not Found: CTLFile.tlv" and "No CTL installed" with no file available for tftp. No success either way.

if you don't want to believe me that this file is not needed you can further try submitting random files to your selsius ethernet phone (wonder where that SEP comes from?).

I believe you, but the continuing failure messages don't seem like a stable installation state to me. I received some advice on an Asterisk list that the file should be named CTLSEP<MAC>.tlv, and could be empty, to satisfy the phone's requirement for one even if its data is null (and its security features therefore unavailable). Which gave a better state, but not really "clean". Since the status messages seem to be a ring buffer, I guess it doesn't really matter. But since I had some other (unknown) problems leaving the phone not working, stuck in a stage where it's trying to download a config file it's not satisfied with, I thought the messages and the nonfunctionality could be related.

I'm not trying to challenge you; I'm just trying to understand how to proceed to success from the clues I've got.

I still think I'm very close, but not because of the range. Thanks for helping out.

that may be fine for you but you destroyed correct information. The old page was sufficient to extend the device template. Please repair it (you have touched the 7970 Orbiter, too).

I didn't realize the problem was that I was working with the wrong form. There were other errors (and ambiguities) that I tested through OK enough to revise. I thought that the revised instructions brought me close, which of course I thought would be true for everyone.

I was hoping to use SCCP to start, partly because I heard that LMCE supports SCCP better than it does SIP. Maybe upgrading the phone to SIP will work better, or produce more detailed failure results. I have a Cisco account through which I bought the SIP firmware upgrade. But I don't have concise directions for upgrading to SIP first.

sccp works fine. I simply prefer the sip image to have other lines provisioned outside lmce/asterisk.

Thanks again for helping me clear this up. The SIP support by Asterisk is superior to Asterisk's SCCP support, so I'll probably want to do that as soon as SCCP->SIP is a single variable I'm changing, from a working SCCP installation.

[Matthew]

I reverted to the even older version, with instructions reported to work, when I found where they significantly diverge from the revisions I'd made.

That field takes a XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX MAC address string, not a range. That's why I revised the wiki.

thats the wrong form.

And when I define the device with the phone's specific MAC address, that parameter seems to work. I get Orbiter messages about the 7970 while it's configuring. I'd prefer a range, because that would let me make a template that works with any number of devices. It's not really "plug & play" if I have to create a device for each phone I plug into the LAN. But a single MAC addr is what that form currently takes.

again, its the wrong form. You are not editing the device template (the ranges go in the table DHCPDevice:

Code: [Select]

mysql> describe DHCPDevice;
[...]
| Mac_Range_Low      | bigint(20)  | NO   |     | 0       |                |
| Mac_Range_High     | bigint(20)  | NO   |     | 0       |                |
[...]
)

I'm going back through the old instructions and the LMCE pages now looking for it, but which is the correct form to use?

I think I worked it out. Here's my procedure, which is something of a scratchpad for making a clearer wiki page.


Here's the critical point where the old instructions were different from the revised ones I made:

1. Go to Advanced --> Configuration --> Device Template. 2. Chose manufacture CISCO. You should see in the right list at least two models: 7079 and 7076. 3. Press the button 'Show model'. 4. On the opened window check 'Range MAC addresses'.

It seems the GUI has changed since those instructions were current. Here's what I get from Advanced > Configuration > Device Templates:


No "right list", but in the "Device Template" dropdown list I see the 2 models (when I filter on Phones < Peripherals). The model#s are wrong all over the original wiki article, but no matter. There's no "Show model" button, but the "Pick Device Template" button opens a window defining 7970 phones:


with ranges of MAC addresses ("Range of MAC" / "From" / "To").

So I enter the decimalized From/To ranges of my phone's MAC address in the bottom form of "Plug & Play", set "PNP Protocol" to "DHCP", and click the "Add" button. The page refreshes, returns with the new phone range added, and the word "Saved!" at the top. I click the "Close" button at the bottom of the page.

I powered up the phone, then got some messages while I watched:

Code: [Select]

Orbiter:
"You connected a Cisco 7970(Cisco / Hard Phones).
Shall I use it?"
I clicked OK

Code: [Select]

16976 Options Cisco 7970
16976 Adding Cisco 7970
Done
A screen asking to which room to assign the phone, which I answered.

Code: [Select]

Finished installing. Reload router.
OK

(reloads)

Orbiter: quick message about 7970, mentioned in new devices waiting to become ready.

I power cycle the phone, and the Services menu has an "Orbiter" entry. Which delivers an Orbiter when I start it.

The orbiter works, but the mapping of phone buttons (keypad only) to screen buttons seems arbitrary.

However, the "Registering" message with moving time wheel stays on screen, and the SEP<MAC>.cnf.xml and CTLFile.tlv status messages keep showing. Those messages are probably related, and indicate at least some instability in the installation.

And I don't get a dialtone, but I don't have a TSP configured in the LMCE Asterisk.

[hari]

I'm going back through the old instructions and the LMCE pages now looking for it, but which is the correct form to use?

The Device Template form in the Advanced menu (i see in your other post that you found that already)

I'm not trying to challenge you; I'm just trying to understand how to proceed to success from the clues I've got.

i assume that the phone doesn't find it's configuration. It loops and first tries to look for that tlv file. If it is not found it continues with trying to fetch a "SEP<MAC>.cnf.xml" file from the server.

Thanks again for helping me clear this up. The SIP support by Asterisk is superior to Asterisk's SCCP support, so I'll probably want to do that as soon as SCCP->SIP is a single variable I'm changing, from a working SCCP installation.

no prob. When we sorted out some pending tasks i will try to extend the device template for sip. But there is one problem: the chan_sccp module configures the phone via skinny. No need for a SEP<xx>.cnf file with username, password and such. With sip we have to generate that file.

[hari]

The model#s are wrong all over the original wiki article, but no matter. There's no "Show model" button, but the "Pick Device Template" button opens a window defining 7970 phones:

you are right with that. Thank you for pointing that out.

with ranges of MAC addresses ("Range of MAC" / "From" / "To").

yeah, thats the right form.

However, the "Registering" message with moving time wheel stays on screen, and the SEP<MAC>.cnf.xml and CTLFile.tlv status messages keep showing. Those messages are probably related, and indicate at least some instability in the installation.

it bitches about the cnf.xml? Hmm, please tell me the firmware type and version from the phones menu.
I have to get some christmas presents now but we can step throught that in the evening.
After checking the version we can debug it via the asterisk command line.

best regards,
Hari

[Matthew]

However, the "Registering" message with moving time wheel stays on screen, and the SEP<MAC>.cnf.xml and CTLFile.tlv status messages keep showing. Those messages are probably related, and indicate at least some instability in the installation.

it bitches about the cnf.xml? Hmm, please tell me the firmware type and version from the phones menu.
I have to get some christmas presents now but we can step throught that in the evening.
After checking the version we can debug it via the asterisk command line.

SCCP firmware
Load File: TERM70.7-0-1-0s
App Load ID: Jar70.2-9-0-117.sbn
JVM Load ID: CVM70.2-0-0-112.sbn
OS Load ID: cnu70.2-7-4-134.sbn
Boot Load ID: 7970_64060118.bin

Christmas presents? Are you referring to LMCE 0710 ? Tell Santa I want to upgrade from  Asterisk v1.2.9.1-BRIstuffed-0.3.0-PRE-1q to a v1.4.x .

There's a lot going on around here. I'm going to unplug starting Sunday night myself. Again, thanks for all the help.

[hari]

Christmas presents? Are you referring to LMCE 0710 ? Tell Santa I want to upgrade from  Asterisk v1.2.9.1-BRIstuffed-0.3.0-PRE-1q to a v1.4.x .

no, shopping in real life but if you count the beta as present:
http://vt100.at/kubuntu-linuxmce-0710-i386-beta-2.iso.torrent

[hari]

so any 803.af injector should work ok. not sure why my prestandard cisco injector didnt.

oh, i hope they work with the old 7905 phones.. i will post my results,

Hari

so i tried the PWR-INJ3 from the Cisco Aironet Series (very cheap, "dumb" injector) with the 7905. Worked like a charm. When I am back in Berlin i will try with the 7970, too.

best regards,
Hari