If you haven’t done so already, you may wanna upgrade your ubuntu to hardy (although I don’t know if this is a requirement). Next, install the required asterisk packages:

sudo apt-get install asterisk asterisk-config asterisk-mp3 asterisk-prompt-de asterisk-sounds-extra asterisk-sounds-main

You may exchange the asterisk-prompt-de for your local language pack or skip it altogether….this is just the way I did it. Also the asterisk-mp3 package is only mandatory, if you want to play MP3s to your callers.
Next, open the file /etc/asterisk/sip.conf and put the following line into the OUTBOUND SIP REGISTRATIONS section:

register => SIP_ID:SIP_PASSWORD@sipgate.de

(Note the “:” in-between SIP_ID and SIP_PASSWORD) Replace SIP_ID and SIP_PASSWORD with the infos from your sipgate account page. Afterward, you may wanna restart your asterisk with:

sudo /etc/init.d/asterisk restart

Wait a little while and look at your sipgate settings page. It should now list your VPS as a registered device. On the same page, click on the fourth tab (called “Telefonie” in german….probably something like “phone” in english), which should list the local phone number, under which your asterisk setup should be accessible now.

Dial it and be happy you made it so far. It’s your server talking on the other end of the line:-)

I’ll write about setting up the actual IVR soon.

So I guess I won’t risk it

• just in case anything goes wrong, you might wanna do a full backup via the Virtuozzo panel
• do a full apt-get update, apt-get upgrade, apt-get dist-upgrade
• edit the /etc/apt/sources.list (after backupping the file) and change everything from “dapper” to “hardy”, so that e.g. “deb ftp://ftp.hosteurope.de/mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ dapper main multiverse universe” becomes “deb ftp://ftp.hosteurope.de/mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ hardy main multiverse universe”
• Now do another apt-get update, hold your breath and type apt-get dist-upgrade
• This should run you through the upgrade process. I did not care too much about new .conf files, which is why I answered (I think) all questions about keeping or installing new files with “No”
• That’s almost it

During the installation procedure you might encounter a line where the system tries to restart the kernel log daemon (klogd) and fails in doing so. This may very well be the reason (and I’m not betting any money on this) why many people report they were unable to reboot their servers after doing the update and in the end had to re-install the system. To enable klogd to start, go to /etc/default/klogd and remove the # from the following line: #KLOGD="-P /var/run/klogd/kmsg -x" (Thanks to Anreas for the hint!)

Now you should be able to reboot your system.

A week ago I upgraded the Ubuntu system on my server from 6.10 to 7.04. I was a little worried since the last system upgrade I did messed up my whole Debian installation and finally made me re-install the entire system. At that point I switched to Ubuntu…

On a first glimpse the upgrade process went smoothly. Because my server is in a closet and I don’t have a monitor or a keyboard directly hooked up to it, I have to access it via SSH and (Tight-) VNC; and that’s where the fun started. While SSH access made no trouble, the keyboard layout was all scrambled. Typing “asdf” comes out to “abfh” and so on….After searching several forums I was happy to learn that I am not alone out there. Apparently it is a glitch in the updated Gnome version that causes trouble for the VNC client.

There is however an ugly fix out there, but I’m still a little shy…and patient:-)

vnc4server -extension XFIXES

seems to fix the problem.