FreePBX Installation

Unlike conventional hosted PBX systems, open-source IP PBXs like FreePBX provide more scalability, decreased expenses, and customization options.

The FreePBX Ecosystem creates robust communication solutions that are simple to maintain and execute.

IP PBX is software-based rather than hardware-based.  Allows for an infinite number of extensions per user and it uses a single network for the transmission of voice, video, data, and other types of information.

Let’s start with How to Install FreePBX on Ubuntu 22.04 / 23.04.

Importantly, FreePBX is an open-source IP PBX administration tool developed by Sangoma Technologies. It provides customers with a wide variety of options for tailoring their corporate phone system, both in terms of pre-installed functionality and additional modules.

It has certain standard functions already implemented, but its main appeal is that it is customizable to meet your business’s precise requirements.

Features of FreePBX

• With FreePBX, it is easy to restore backups.
• Check out your phone logs by using the ARI in Asterisk. 
• The recorded chats are saved for later listening.
• FreePBX allows users to add their own music while on hold.
• The calls may be redirected depending on time of day or other criteria.
• There is also the option to use a call queue.
• Compatible with all trunk technologies currently supported by Asterisk.
• Notifications of available security updates provide continued safety in the face of evolving threats
• Add famous features like high availability, call center packages, IP phones, and a lot more by just signing in to the store and selecting the item.
• The full-featured web GUI makes it much easier to use tools like a calendar interface, IVRs, restore and backup, user rights, extension creation, time conditions, and a firewall. The web user interface may also be used to do updates.
• Users customize the endpoint device’s local language support to their own needs. Set up as many individual extensions, users, queues, and interactive voice response systems (IVRs).
• The code is freely available to anybody which facilitates communication between businesses.
• Changing or adding plugins is very easy and quick.
• Interactive digital menus for the front desk are made using this tool.

How to Install FreePBX on Ubuntu 22.04 / 23.04

Prerequisites

• A Ubuntu 22.04 / 23.04 server is installed on your system.
• A root user or a user with sudo privileges.

Install Required Dependencies

apt update -y
apt upgrade -y

Once all the packages are upgraded, you must install some dependencies required for Asterisk. Install all those dependencies using the following command.

apt-get install unzip git gnupg2 curl libedit-dev libnewt-dev libssl-dev libncurses5-dev subversion libsqlite3-dev build-essential libjansson-dev libxml2-dev uuid-dev subversion -y

Once all the dependencies are installed, proceed to the next step.

Install Asterisk Server

wget https://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-18-current.tar.gz

Once the Asterisk is downloaded, extract the downloaded file with the following command.

tar -xvzf asterisk-18-current.tar.gz

Next, navigate inside the Asterisk directory.

Use the following commands.

cd asterisk-18*/
contrib/scripts/get_mp3_source.sh
contrib/scripts/install_prereq install

Next, configure the Asterisk server with the following command.

./configure

Once the asterisk is configured, you get the following screen.

Next, run the following command to install additional modules.

make menuselect

You should see the addon selection screen.

Then, again use the Arrow key to select and enable the music on hold module.

Next, use the Arrow to select and enable the extra sound module as shown below.

Once you are done, click on the Save & Exit button to apply the changes. Then, run the following command to build the Asterisk server.

make -j2

Finally, install the Asterisk with the following command.

make install

This installs the Asterisk server on your system as shown below.

You also need to run the following commands to install samples and configuration files.

make samples
make config
ldconfig

Configure Asterisk Server

First, create a dedicated user and group for Asterisk using the following command.

groupadd asterisk
useradd -r -d /var/lib/asterisk -g asterisk asterisk

Next, add the Asterisk user to the audio and dial-out group.

usermod -aG audio,dialout asterisk

Then, set the required permission on Asterisk directories.

chown -R asterisk.asterisk /etc/asterisk
chown -R asterisk.asterisk /var/{lib,log,spool}/asterisk
chown -R asterisk.asterisk /usr/lib/asterisk

Next, edit the Asterisk configuration file with the following command.

nano /etc/default/asterisk

Change the following line to match your Asterisk user and group.

AST_USER="asterisk"
AST_GROUP="asterisk"

Save and close the file then edit the Asterisk main configuration file.

nano /etc/asterisk/asterisk.conf

Change the following lines.

runuser = asterisk ; The user to run as.
rungroup = asterisk ; The group to run as.

Save and close the file and then restart the Asterisk service to implement the changes.

systemctl restart asterisk

To check the Asterisk status, run the following command.

systemctl status asterisk

You should see the following output.

● asterisk.service - LSB: Asterisk PBX
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/asterisk; generated)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-05-22 08:39:29 UTC; 6s ago
       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
    Process: 52048 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/asterisk start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Tasks: 74 (limit: 4579)
     Memory: 37.4M
        CPU: 989ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/asterisk.service
             └─52064 /usr/sbin/asterisk -U asterisk -G asterisk

May 22 08:39:28 ubuntu2204 systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Asterisk PBX...
May 22 08:39:29 ubuntu2204 asterisk[52048]:  * Starting Asterisk PBX: asterisk
May 22 08:39:29 ubuntu2204 asterisk[52048]:    ...done.
May 22 08:39:29 ubuntu2204 systemd[1]: Started LSB: Asterisk PBX.

At this point, the Asterisk server is installed and configured on your server. Now, it’s time to verify it. Run the following command to connect to the Asterisk console.

asterisk -rvv

If everything is fine, you will get into the Asterisk console as shown below.

Run the following command to exit from the Asterisk console.

exit

Install LAMP Server

Next, you need to install Apache, MariaDB, and PHP on your server. First, add the PHP repository with the following command.

apt install software-properties-common
add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then, install the Apache, MariaDB, PHP, and other required packages with the following command.

apt install apache2 mariadb-server libapache2-mod-php7.4 php7.4 php-pear php7.4-cgi php7.4-common php7.4-curl php7.4-mbstring php7.4-gd php7.4-mysql php7.4-bcmath php7.4-zip php7.4-xml php7.4-imap php7.4-json php7.4-snmp

Once all the packages are installed, start and enable the Apache and MariaDB services using the following command.

systemctl start apache2 mariadb
systemctl enable apache2 mariadb

Goto home

cd ~

Install FreePBX Server

First, visit the FreePBX official website, pick the latest version of FreePBX then download it using the wget command as shown below.

wget http://mirror.freepbx.org/modules/packages/freepbx/freepbx-16.0-latest.tgz

Once the FreePBX is downloaded, extract it using the following command.

tar -xvzf freepbx-16.0-latest.tgz

Next, navigate to the extracted directory and install Node.js, and NPM with the following command.

cd freepbx
apt-get install nodejs npm -y

Then, run the following command to set the required permissions.

./install -n

If you get some PHP Error while running ./install -n

./install -n
PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function FreePBX\Install\simplexml_load_file() in /root/freepbx/install:19
Stack trace:
#0 {main}
  thrown in /root/freepbx/install on line 19

Run

sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/php7.4 /usr/bin/php

and again the above command

./install -n

After that, install the PM2 module with the following command.

fwconsole ma install pm2

Next, change the Apache configuration file with the following command.

sed -i 's/^\(User\|Group\).*/\1 asterisk/' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
sed -i 's/AllowOverride None/AllowOverride All/' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Then, set the max upload file size limit in PHP with the following command.

sed -i 's/\(^upload_max_filesize = \).*/\120M/' /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini
sed -i 's/\(^upload_max_filesize = \).*/\120M/' /etc/php/7.4/cli/php.ini

Next, enable the Apache rewrite module using the following command.

a2enmod rewrite

Finally, restart the Apache service to implement the configuration changes.

systemctl restart apache2

Access FreePBX Web Interface

At this point, FreePBX is installed and configured on your server. Now, open your web browser and access the FreePBX web interface using the URL http://freepbx-server-ip/admin. See the FreePBX initial setup screen.

Define your username, password, email, and other configuration then click on the Setup System. See the following screen.

Click on the FreePBX Administration. You are redirected to the FreePBX login screen:

Type your administrator username, and password then click Continue. After the successful login, you should see the FreePBX dashboard on the following screen.

Troubleshooting Common FreePBX Errors

Unable to locate the FreePBX BMO Class ‘Core’A required module might be disabled or uninstalled. Recommended steps (run from the CLI): 1) fwconsole ma install core 2) fwconsole ma enable core

Run the following command to solve the above error:

fwconsole ma install core 2 -f

Forgot FreePBX Admin Password:

Go to http:yourserverip/admin/config.php Select CTRL + A, and you will find a session ID like 3oove3b41u5gs3q538mpkknjaj(will be different for you) select this and SSH to the server and run

fwconsole unlock session-id

Note: Replace <session-id> with your own session id

Conclusion

In this post, we learned, how to install FreePBX and Asterisk PBX on Ubuntu 22.04/23.04.