I was under the impression that you wanted something that was not pre-canned. Steve's (W9SH) distro that uses EasyVoxBox on top of Centos is a wonderful option if you want something quick and easy. It will make your radio stuff work very nicely. God help you though if you want to use it as a phone switch also. It marrys you to using their very hard to follow gui poop for configuration, which I have a really hard time following. Honestly, I have, several times, not been able to help people solve very simple telephony-related problems because that whole gui thing made the config completely huge and impossible to follow (part of it was that I couldnt get to the gui, I only had ssh access). This is just my personal opinion and experiences. Im sure that people that know the gui would completely disagree with me. Im not sure Id blame them. Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:36:41 -0800 From: eric.fort@gmail.com To: app_rpt@lists.illiana.net Subject: Re: [App_rpt] distro preference? Jim, Justy curious, why Fedora or Centos? Is this just what you're most familiar with or do these (redhat derived) distros do something "better" than other distros that makes running */app_rpt easier to install, configure, and admin? I will be putting this node in a completly mobile setting so I will need to get the box up and running with a existing distro and get networking functional via usb serial first (it's enough bandwith...I've connected to allstar link over iax on this interface before.) Eric On Feb 16, 2008 11:32 PM, Jim Duuuude <telesistant@hotmail.com> wrote: personally, I like Fedora or Centos Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 23:11:48 -0800 From: eric.fort@gmail.com To: app_rpt@lists.illiana.net Subject: [App_rpt] distro preference? I'm putting app_rpt back up from scratch. Is there a prefered distro to run it on? I'm partial to debian because of it's package management and the ability to not have to install masses of unneeded additional bloat but I've also used RedHat derivitives such as OpenSuse, whitebox, centos, and fedora, along with Slackware, and linux from scratch. If I'm going to be compiling everything from source though rather than installing packages which seems to be the case with app_rpt then what's the best choice? Thanks, Eric AF6EP _______________________________________________ App_rpt mailing list App_rpt@lists.illiana.net http://lists.illiana.net/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt

Eric: My sense is that most main-line distros will support Asterisk and app_rpt. With the caveat that distro selection is also a somewhat personal choice: I have compiled Asterisk and the app_rpt, usbradio suite of programs successfully on Debian (Etch). I have found little value in an X windowing system with these programs, although I recognize that many GUI add-ons exist for Asterisk. It's just that they don't seem relevant in the context of radio linking. The nice things about Debian are: the apt package manager and the guarantee that security bug fixes will the only changes to the stable distribution. My experience with apt has been much more satisfying than with rpm/yum. Another advantage is that Debian adheres to the Linux File System (LFS) layout whereas Red Hat derivatives have some peculiarities. If you are dedicating a PC to Asterisk and radio linking, it seems like unnecessary overhead to use distros such as Ubuntu/Kubuntu/SuSe which primarily target the desktop user. Finally, and I don't want to raise any hackles here, the RH derivatives have had a rather chequered support history over the past few years. RH has gone primarily into the commercial market, Fedora has come and mostly gone, leaving CentOS as the best RH derivative choice presently. HTH & 73, Dave VE7MQ.

I agree with Steve W9SH!! His http://xelatec.com/asterisk/app_rpt_install_00_05.pdf takes a lot of pucker factor out of the equation! My personal opinion! Roger W4RFJ _____ From: app_rpt-bounces@lists.illiana.net [mailto:app_rpt-bounces@lists.illiana.net] On Behalf Of Steven Henke Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 10:20 AM To: Asterisk Repeater Controler Subject: Re: [App_rpt] distro preference? And also personally, I wouldn't think of anything other than the distro described at http://xelatec.com/asterisk/app_rpt_install_00_05.pdf Steve, W9SH On Feb 17, 2008 2:11 AM, Eric Fort <eric.fort@gmail.com> wrote: I'm putting app_rpt back up from scratch. Is there a prefered distro to run it on? I'm partial to debian because of it's package management and the ability to not have to install masses of unneeded additional bloat but I've also used RedHat derivitives such as OpenSuse, whitebox, centos, and fedora, along with Slackware, and linux from scratch. If I'm going to be compiling everything from source though rather than installing packages which seems to be the case with app_rpt then what's the best choice? Thanks, Eric AF6EP _______________________________________________ App_rpt mailing list App_rpt@lists.illiana.net http://lists.illiana.net/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt