Topic: Silentra Asterisk/SAIL on VIA C3 systems

[RayG]

Earlier in the SME 7 development process there was some discussion and a test build for people running SME and Asterisk/SAIL on VIA C3 hardware. I'm about to upgrade my home system (EPIA 800)  from SME 6 to SME 7 and was wondering about the current compatibility between the C3 processor and the SAIL package.

I was also wondering how well the package runs without zap cards in the system. I would be using softphones and an SPA-3000 instead of zap cards.

[SARK devs]

Hi Ray

SAIL runs fine on C3 but our asterisk rpms don't.  Only option right now is to download and compile asterisk sources (about an hour's work if you are familiar with C code compilation).  Sorry but we simply don't have the bandwidth to support another set of rpms just for the i586 C3.  This situation may change when we go over to the atrpm offerings (which claim to be i386) but in order to do that we have to wait for SME Server to come up to kernel 42.0.2 which may be a month or two.

Asterisk and SAIL run just fine without Zap cards - we have several large installations which run through carrier-class TDM Gateways and have no zap.

Kind Regards

Selintra

[RayG]

Thanks for the quick responce. The high quality of support is definately one of the key features that sets SAIL apart from the rest.

I certainly understand focusing your efforts on the majority of the available hardware. As I'm a hardware guy with absolutely no programming/compiling skill, my time would probably be better spent reducing the noise level and power consumption of a more mainstream motherboard.

I worded my second question poorly. I have read about, and experienced first hand with AAH/Trixbox, problems with studdering/jittery audio in music on hold and conferences when no zap card was available as a timing source. Is this still the case ?

[SARK devs]

have read about, and experienced first hand with AAH/Trixbox, problems with studdering/jittery audio in music on hold and conferences

This can happen if you don't load ztdummy as a timing source when no zap cards are present.  With SAIL,  when you do the scan to find zap cards, if it doesn't find any it automatically mods itself to load ztdummy at startup.  That way you get no jitter or stutter and you can use the conference facility (which won't work if no timer is present).

Kind Regards

Selintra