[arm-allstar] Public Release V1.1 is out

[Doug Crompton]

I have added the public release image V1.1 to the web page. Below is the message that will go out to app_rpt and other places. The web page has changes so please be sure to reload before viewing. There is version information both on the web page and included in the zip file.

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Hello and welcome to the first public release of Allstar on the BeagleBone Black. This represents months of trial and error testing which first started with the Raspberry Pi back at the beginning of the year and was finally successful on the BBB platform. We have had several beta versions out now for over two months with many testers and we had very good reports. There is more to be done but this is a working system that will allow many to get rid of their energy consuming PC's with constantly running hard drives and have an Allstar system that fits in the palm of your hand. 

The web page I have created gives very detailed instructions on how to download, install, and configure your BBB for use with Allstar. The web page is:

hamvoip.org

There you will find a link to download the image and also to join the arm-allstar email list. Please try to address questions specific to the BBB and Allstar to the arm-allstar list and not the apt-rpt list.

While the code is the current Acid release there are many differences in how things are done on the BBB and the OS we are using, Arch Linux, is much different than Centos or Debian. Please refer to the web page for detailed info on some of the differences. We also recommend that you NOT use the nodesetup routine that is offered on the standard Acid release. In many ways this is faulty and often more trouble than it is worth. For that reason we have renamed nodesteup on the image and made it non-executable. Besides what is described on the web page there is a very detailed how-to describing first time setup of the config files. We encourage you to edit the existing config files rather than wholesale copying your existing configs on top of the examples. There is a little learning involved but in the long run it is good to know how things work by configuring the files on your own.

We also encourage you to make image backups once you have your system configured. This will avoid having to recreate your configuration should a failure of some kind occur. While we have not seen any problems with power failures and as far as we know not one SD card has ever failed running Allstar there is always a first time and better safe than sorry.

This release does not have the backup/restore scripts that we promised but they will be available soon. Basically what they will do is copy /etc/asterisk and all directories under it in entirety into a tar file and then you would use winscp or a similar file copy program to transfer the tar file to another computer. This would allow you to make updates of the image when new code is released in the future without losing your former configuration. For now you can do this manually. See the howto on the web page for instructions on doing image and directory backups. It is not hard to do and well worth the piece of mind.

Have fun and I hope you enjoy your new BBB Allstar node. There will be many more features and upgrades available in the future all of which will be announced on the arm-allstar email list. There are already plenty of experienced users on the list that can help you with any problems you might have.

73 Doug, WA3DSP

 		 	   		  
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