You will need a matching kernel source tree and a working Linux build system. Some of the programs require some additional libraries.

The script install_prereq should help you install the required packages. To see what it suggests, run:

You can either copy/paste that code to a terminal to run it, or just run:

If you build a custom kernel, note the following configuration items:

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.

Some libraries are needed for extra utilities that are provided with Zaptel

You need the following non-kernel-related packages:

If the following command produces an error, you need to install the kernel devel package:

The right one depends on your kernel version. If the following command produces output you have an SMP kernel:

and thus need to run:

If that command produced no output, you have a non-SMP kernel:

At this point you should probably reboot to get the new kernel in effect.

Note: If using sudo to build/install, you may need to add /sbin to your PATH.

You can select the modules and utilities you wish to build and firmwares you wish to download by running make menuselect . The selection of modules that you build (or rather: not build) is saved in the file menuselect.makeopts.

To build extra modules / modules directory not included in the Zaptel distribution, use the optional variables MODULES_EXTRA and SUBDIRS_EXTRA:

Note that those names are not guaranteed to continue to work on newer versions. Hopefully there will be no need for such extra configuration.

There are some make targets that are provided to build or install just parts of Zaptel:

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 th real system.

This can be useful for any partial install target of the above (e.g: install-modules or install-programs).

the targetdir must be an absolute path, at least if you install the modules. To install to a relative path you can use something like:

The install target might fail if run as a user to a DESTDIR when attempting to generate device files. In that case, try:

If you need to test a version of Zaptel without touching the version installed on your system, you can use the script live_zap . Note, however, that it may take some extra configuration to be used right.

Basic usage:

Everything is installed under the subdirectory live/ . You will probably need to adjust MODULES . Generally you should not edit the script itself, but , rather, edit live/live.conf . Please let me know if you needed to change anything in the script beyond changing live.conf so I can include useful fixes.

Testing on a different machine:

live_zap also has a command called "exec" to execute commands from the installed environment. e.g.:

This sets PATH, PERL5LIB (for the Zaptel-perl modules) and some other settings.

For Xorcom Astribank you may need to load a different version of firmware from that installed on the system. In this case, start with editing the real system's /etc/default/zaptel (on Debian) or /etc/sysconfig/zaptel (on RedHat/SUSE) and set:

and then run:

The configure script various several tests and based on them generates some files ( build_tools/menuselect-deps and makeopts). You can pass it —with options and variable settings, for instance:

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

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

The main method to configure Zaptel devices is using the utility ztcfg. ztcfg reads data from the configuration file /etc/zaptel.conf , figures out what configuration to send to channels, and send it.

A sample annotated zaptel.conf is included in this directory and installed by default to /etc/zaptel.conf . Edit it to suit your configuration. Alternatively use the script genzaptelconf to generate one that should work with your system.

The configuration file of the zaptel init.d script is either /etc/default/zaptel (Debian systems) or /etc/sysconfig/zaptel (most others). That file is used to override defaults that are set at the beginning of the init.d script.

For instance, to define for the init.d script to load the modules wctdm and xpp_usb (in that order) add the following line to that file:

Currently that file must set "TELEPHONY=yes" for the zaptel init.d to work.

The kernel modules can be configured through module parameters. Module parameters can optionally be set at load time. They are normally set (if needed) by a line in a file under /etc/modprobe.d/ or in the file /etc/modprobe.conf (Or /etc/modules.conf in kernel 2.4).

Example line:

The module parameters can normally be modified at runtime through sysfs:

Viewing and setting parameters that way is possible as of kernel 2.6 . In kernels older than 2.6.10, the sysfs "files" for the parameters reside directly under /sys/module/module_name .

Useful module parameters:

To get a list of parameters supported by a module, use

Or, for a module you have just built:

For the xpp modules this will also include the description and default value of the module. You can find a list of useful xpp module parameters in README.Astribank .

Zaptel Configuration File

This file is parsed by the Zaptel Configurator, ztcfg

First come the span definitions, in the format

All T1/E1 spans generate a clock signal on their transmit side. The <timing source> parameter determines whether the clock signal from the far end of the T1/E1 is used as the master source of clock timing. If it is, our own clock will synchronise to it. T1/E1's connected directly or indirectly to a PSTN provider (telco) should generally be the first choice to sync to. The PSTN will never be a slave to you. You must be a slave to it.

Choose 1 to make the equipment at the far end of the E1/T1 link the preferred source of the master clock. Choose 2 to make it the second choice for the master clock, if the first choice port fails (the far end dies, a cable breaks, or whatever). Choose 3 to make a port the third choice, and so on. If you have, say, 2 ports connected to the PSTN, mark those as 1 and 2. The number used for each port should be different.

If you choose 0, the port will never be used as a source of timing. This is appropriate when you know the far end should always be a slave to you. If the port is connected to a channel bank, for example, you should always be its master. Any number of ports can be marked as 0.

Incorrect timing sync may cause clicks/noise in the audio, poor quality or failed faxes, unreliable modem operation, and is a general all round bad thing.

The line build-out (or LBO) is an integer, from the following table:

Next come the dynamic span definitions, in the form:

Where <driver> is the name of the driver (e.g. eth), <address> is the driver specific address (like a MAC for eth), <numchans> is the number of channels, and <timing> is a timing priority, like for a normal span. use "0" to not use this as a timing source, or prioritize them as primary, secondard, etc. Note that you MUST have a REAL zaptel device if you are not using external timing.

If a non-zero timing value is used, as above, only the last span should have the non-zero value.

Next come the definitions for using the channels. The format is: <device>=<channel list>

Valid devices are:

The channel list is a comma-separated list of channels or ranges, for example:

So, some complete examples are:

Finally, you can preload some tone zones, to prevent them from getting overwritten by other users (if you allow non-root users to open /dev/zap/* interfaces anyway. Also this means they won't have to be loaded at runtime. The format is "loadzone=<zone>" where the zone is a two letter country code.

You may also specify a default zone with "defaultzone=<zone>" where zone is a two letter country code.

An up-to-date list of the zones can be found in the file zaptel/zonedata.c

(see http://www.zapatatelephony.org/app_rpt.html)

The PCI Radio Interface card interfaces up to 4 two-way radios (either a base/mobile radio or repeater system) to Zaptel channels. The driver may work either independent of an application, or with it, through the driver;s ioctl() interface. This file gives you access to specify load-time parameters for Radio channels, so that the driver may run by itself, and just act like a generic Zaptel radio interface.

Unlike the rest of this file, you specify a block of parameters, and then the channel(s) to which they apply. CTCSS is specified as a frequency in tenths of hertz, for example 131.8 HZ is specified as 1318. DCS for receive is specified as the code directly, for example 223. DCS for transmit is specified as D and then the code, for example D223.

The hardware supports a "community" CTCSS decoder system that has arbitrary transmit CTCSS or DCS codes associated with them, unlike traditional "community" systems that encode the same tone they decode.

this example is a single tone DCS transmit and receive

specify the transmit tone (in DCS mode this stays constant):

specify the receive DCS code:

this example is a "community" CTCSS (if you only want a single tone, then only specify 1 in the ctcss list)

specify the default transmit tone (when not receiving):

Specify the receive freq, the tag (use 0 if none), and the transmit code. The tag may be used by applications to determine classification of tones. The tones are to be specified in order of presedence, most important first. Currently, 15 tones may be specified..

The following parameters may be omitted if their default value is acceptible

Set the receive debounce time in milliseconds:

set the transmit quiet dropoff burst time in milliseconds:

set the COR level threshold (specified in tenths of millivolts) valid values are {3125,6250,9375,12500,15625,18750,21875,25000}

Invert COR signal {y,n}

Set the external tone mode; yes, no, internal {y,n,i}

Now apply the configuration to the specified channels:

We are all done with our channel parameters, so now we specify what channels they apply to

Usually the channel driver sets the encoding of the PCM for the channel (mulaw / alaw. That is: g711u or g711a). However there are some cases where you would like to override that. mulaw and alaw set different such encoding. Use them for channels you have already defined with e.g. bchan or fxoks.

deflaw is similar, but resets the encoding to the channel driver's default. It must be useful for something, I guess.

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

The directory xpp/utils has, in addition to helper utilities for the Xorcom Astribank, a collection of perl modules to provide information related to Zaptel. The perl modules themselves are under xpp/utils/zconf . In xpp/utils there are several utilities that use those modules: - xpp-specific: zt_registration, xpp_sync, xpp_blink . - General: lszaptel, zapconf, zaptel_hardware

The zaptel perl modules will currently only be automatically installed if you happen to isntall the xpp module. This should be the defualt, but you can also initiate it manually by running:

Those utilities require the perl modules to be installed, however they will also look for them in the directory zconf, and thus can be run directly from the zaptel source tree. For example:

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

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

Userspace programs will usually interact with Zaptel through device files under the /dev/zap directory (pedantically: characted device files with major number 196) . Those device files can be generated statically or dynamically through the udev system.

A PBX system should generally have a single clock. If you are connected to a telephony provider via a digital interface (e.g: E1, T1) you should also typically use the provider's clock (as you get through the interface). Hence one important job of Asterisk is to provide timing to the PBX.

Zaptel "ticks" once per millisecond (1000 times per second). On each tick every active zaptel channel reads and 8 bytes of data. Asterisk also uses this for timing, through a zaptel pseudo channel it opens.

However, not all PBX systems are connected to a telephony provider via a T1 or similar connection. With an analog connection you are not synced to the other party. And some systems don't have Zaptel hardware at all. Even a digital card may be used for other uses or is simply not connected to a provider. Zaptel cards are also capable of providing timing from a clock on card. Cheap x100P clone cards are sometimes used for that pupose.

If all the above fail, you can use the module ztdummy to provide timing alone without needing any zaptel hardware. It will work with most systems and kernels.

You can check the zaptel timing source with zttest, which is a small utility that is included with zaptel. It runs in cycles. In each such cycle it tries to read 8192 bytes, and sees how long it takes. If zaptel is not loaded or you don't have the device files, it will fail immedietly. If you lack a timing device it will hang forever in the first cycle. Eitherwise it will just give you in each cycle the percent of how close it was. Also try running it with the option -v for a verbose output.

To check the clock source that is built into ztdummy, you can either look at title of its span in /proc/zaptel file for a "source:" in the description. Or even run:

Zaptel provides telephony channels to the userspace applications. Those channels are channels are incoreperated into logical units called spans.

With digital telephony adapters (e.g: E1 or T1), a span normally represents a single port. With analog telephony a span typically represents a PCI adapter or a similar logical unit.

Both channels and spans are identified by enumerating numbers (beginning with 1). The number of the channel is the lowest unused one when it is generated, and ditto for spans.

See also the span configuration directive.

A simple way to get the current list of spans and channels each span contains is the files under /proc/zaptel . /proc/zaptel is generated by zaptel as it loads. As each span registers to Zaptel, a file under /proc/zaptel is created for it. The name of that file is the number of that span.

Each file has a 1-line title for the span followed by an empty line and then a line for each channel of the span.

The title line shows the number of the span, its name and title, and (potentially) the alarms in which it is.

The title shows the span number and name, followed by any allarms the span may have: For example, here is the first span in my system (with no alarms):

The channel line for each channel shows its channel number, name and the actual signalling assigned to it through ztcfg. Before being configured by ztcfg: This is Zaptel channel 2, whose name is XPP_FXS/0/0/1.

After being configured by ztcfg: the signalling FXOLS was added. FXS channels have FXO signalling and vice versa:

If the channel is in use (typically opened by Asterisk) then you will see an extra (In use):

Like any other kernel code, Zaptel strives to maintain a stable interface to userspace programs. The API of Zaptel to userspace programs, zaptel.h, has remained backword-compatible for a long time and is expected to remain so in the future. With the ABI (the bits themselves) things are slightly trickier.

Zaptel's interface to userspace is mostly ioctl(3) calls. Ioctl calls are identified by a number that stems from various things, one of which is the size of the data structure passed between the kernel and userspace.

Many of the Zaptel ioctl-s use some sepcific structs to pass information between kernel and userspace. In some cases the need arose to pass a few more data members in each call. Simply adding a new member to the struct would have meant a new number for the ioctl, as its number depends on the size of the data passed.

Thus we would add a new ioctl with the same base number and with the original struct.

So suppose we had the following ioctl:

And we want to add the field int onemore, we won't just add it to the struct. We will do something that is more complex:

We actually have here two different ioctls: the old ZT_EXAMPLE would be 0xC0044A3E . ZT_EXAMPLE_V1 would have the same value. But the new value of ZT_EXAMPLE would be 0xC0084A3E .

Programs built with the original zaptel.h (before the change) use the original ioctl, whether or not the kerenl code is actually of the newer version. Thus in most cases there are no compatibility issues.

When can we have compatibility issues? if we have code built with the new zaptel.h, but the loaded kernel code (modules) are of the older version. Thus the userspace program will try to use the newer ZT_EXAMPLE (0xC0084A3E). But the kernel code has no handler for that ioctl. The result: the error 25, ENOTTY, which means "Inappropriate ioctl for device".

As a by-product of that method, for each interface change a new #define is added. That definition is for the old version and thus it might appear slightly confusing in the code, but it is useful for writing code that works with both versions of Zaptel.

ZT_SPANINFO_V1 was originally called (up to zaptel 1.4.8) "ZT_SPANINFO_COMPAT".

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

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 Zaptel 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.

Please report bug and patches to the Asterisk.org bug tracker at http://bugs.digium.com in the "Zaptel" category.

Yes, the Asterisk Open Source PBX does. http://www.asterisk.org