Problem solved:
So that no other 7970 users will have to endure what I had to in order to get this working, here is the simple solution that our friend from Orange County either refused to divulge or simply did not know the answer to:
Linuxmce automatically sets up the Cisco 7970 but apparently there are bugs that prevent it from completing this setup occasionally. In my case,everything worked except that you could not call the phone from an internal extension. What you need to do to get this to work:
1) In the web admin got to Wizard\Devices\phones and then scroll down to where the Cisco 7970 is listed in the description column. The bolded number to the left is the pluto device number that has been assigned by the setup script copy that as well as the info in the phone type and phone number boxes.
2) Go to Advanced\Configuration\Phones setup in the column. Under the FreePBX logo you will see "Extensions" click on that. On the right side of that page will be the list of extensions. If you do not see an extension with with the phone number you copied in step 1, you will need to add it.
3) In the drop-down box next to the word "Device" choose, Other (custom) Device, and hit submit. This will take you to a screen that will allow you to fill in various fields. For the
Display Name put whatever you want --I put Cisco 7970
Outbound CID put something like "pl_142" <210> where 142=the pluto id number from step 1 and 210=the phone number from step 1. The formatting with " and <> needs to be included.
Under Device Options next to Dial put SCCP/210 where SCCP=phone type from step 1 and 210=phone number (this is the secret sauce to getting asterisk to recognize that it is a sccp extension it is dialing.
Under voice mail and directory you will need to select "enable" from the drop down box as there is an apparent bug--at least in my version of FreePBX which is too much trouble to fix.
All the other fields can be left blank or default.
Now hit submit. It will register you SCCP extension and you will see it on the right side of the page.
Click on it. Go back and disable the Voicemail in FreePBX so that you use the linuxmce voicemail instead.
Hit submit again--this time it will accept it without balking that you do not have voicemail.
Now at the top of the page you will see an orange box on a blue background "apply configuration changes" click on that and apply the changes in the next screen.
Go to another extension and call your SCCP Cisco 7970 phone. It should be working now.
Please note, this is the quick and dirty fix using SCCP based on my particular problem. From everything I have read, SCCP is fraught with problems and SIP is the way to go with asterisk--but requires that you either buy a license for the firmware or order the phone with SIP. Perhaps the next release of linuxmce will support SIP configurations of this phone as well.
Happy dialing
