Asterisk, the VoIP Server on DD-WRT

I'm a big fan of Asterisk on router -- imho, it's the perfect platform for anyone want to try Asterisk at home -- 24x7, fanless and even the cheapest router can handle at least 2-3 concurrent conversation. Before this WZR-HP-G300NH, I had Asterisk running on a WRT54G-TM for over a year with lots of fun.

Installing Asterisk on the router is easier now as current OpenWrt trunk build(the one we use) includes prebuilt Asterisk binaries. As always, since OpenWrt is designed to work with / not /opt, some adjustment is required to get Asterisk working properly.

1. Install Asterisk 1.6
   Believe it or not, DD-WRT MEGA also has Asterisk included -- it's an old ver1.4 and some important files are missing -- I have no idea why DD-WRT decided to do so, too much flash ROM? Anyway, to install Asterisk 1.6 on our opkg enabled router, run
   opkg install asterisk16
   
   You may also want to install some additional modules like:
   opkg install asterisk16-res-agi
   opkg install asterisk16-res-musiconhold
   
   To view a full list of Asterisk packages(lots of them!), run
   opkg list | grep asterisk16
   
   
2. The configuration file: asterisk.conf
   With our installation, the asterisk.conf is in /opt/etc/asterisk/asterisk.conf. Change it to the contents below:
   
   [directories] ; remove the (!) to enable this
   astetcdir => /opt/etc/asterisk
   astmoddir => /opt/usr/lib/asterisk/modules
   astvarlibdir => /opt/usr/lib/asterisk
   astdbdir => /opt/usr/lib/asterisk
   astkeydir => /opt/usr/lib/asterisk
   astdatadir => /opt/usr/lib/asterisk
   astagidir => /opt/usr/lib/asterisk/agi-bin
   astspooldir => /var/spool/asterisk
   astrundir => /var/run/asterisk
   astlogdir => /var/log/asterisk

[compat]
pbx_realtime=1.6
res_agi=1.6
app_set=1.6

As you can see, by modifying this file, we tell Asterisk to look for files at /opt/etc/asterisk and /opt/usr/lib/asterisk instead of default locations, which fits our installation.

Now try to launch asterisk by running:
asterisk -vvvvvc
Exit by pressing ctrl+c



3. Asterisk configuration
   By default, asterisk loads lots of modules, you can change the settings to fit your needs and reduce memory usage.
   
   Below is a sample of /opt/etc/asterisk/modules.conf with reduced modules:
   
   [modules]
   autoload=no                ; only load explicitly declared modules
   load => app_dial.so
   load => app_echo.so
   load => app_macro.so
   load => app_playback.so
   load => chan_sip.so
   load => codec_ulaw.so
   load => pbx_config.so
   load => format_pcm.so
   load => format_wav.so
   load => func_callerid.so
   load => func_strings.so
   load => res_musiconhold.so
   load => res_agi.so
   
   For SIP users, other important files including /opt/etc/asterisk/extensions.conf and /opt/etc/asterisk/sip.conf. These are not covered here, please refer to website about Asterisk like asteriskguru and voip-info.org. Also, here is a must-read  ebook: Asterisk: The Future of Telephony Second Edition(download the PDF book)
   
   
4. Run it as service
   Create file /opt/etc/init.d/asterisk with below(delete previous contents if its not empty)
   
   source /mnt/root/.profile
   mkdir -p /var/run/asterisk
   mkdir -p /var/spool/asterisk
   mkdir -p /var/log/asterisk/cdr-csv
   /opt/usr/sbin/asterisk -C /opt/etc/asterisk/asterisk.conf
   
   And run
   chmod a+x /opt/etc/init.d/asterisk
   ln -s /opt/etc/init.d/asterisk /opt/etc/init.d/S95asterisk
   

That's all. Enjoy Asterisk and happy VoIP!

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Lighttpd and php on DD-WRT

Busybox httpd is good for simple static pages, now here is a tutorial for installing lighttpd and php with fastcgi support in the router. Here I choose lighttpd over Apache for its light cpu usage and small memory footprint.

Since all our software are based in /opt folder, some modification must be done to get everything working:

1. Install php5 and lighttpd
   To install php5 with fastcgi support, run
   opkg install libsqlite3
   opkg install php5-fastcgi
   opkg install php5-modgd
    
   Along with php5, the popular libgd module is also installed. Copy php.ini to its default location.
   cp /opt/etc/php.ini /etc/php.ini
   
   After that, test php installation by running:
   php-cgi -v
   
   You should see the version info and no warning/error message.
   
   Install lighttpd and some modules
   opkg install lighttpd
   opkg install lighttpd-mod-fastcgi
   opkg install lighttpd-mod-simple-vhost
   
   
2. Modify php.ini
   Edit /etc/php.ini
   Find doc_root = "/www"(or whatever) and change it to doc_root = "/opt/www"
   Find extension_dir = "/usr/lib/php" and change it to extension_dir = "/opt/usr/lib/php"
   Find ;extension=gd.so and remove the leading semicolon, i.e., change it to extension=gd.so
   Find ;date.timezone= , remove the leading semicolon and change it to
   date.timezone = "America/New_York"
   Replace the red part with yours, a full list is available here.
   
   
3. Modify lighttpd.conf
   With our installation, the configuration file for lighttpd is located at /opt/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf. Edit this file:
   
   First, enable mod_fastcgi and mod_simple_vhost:
   
   
   Then
   find server.document-root  and change its value to "/opt/www"
   
   find #server.port = 81 and change it to server.port = 81
   This will set lighttpd server to listen port 81. If you want to use port 80, make sure to move the DD-WRT's web admin to another port, details here, step 1.
   
   add following at the end of the file:

   fastcgi.server = ( ".php" => ((
                        "bin-path" => "/opt/usr/bin/php-cgi",
                        "socket" => "/tmp/php.socket"
                    )))
   
   

4. Lighttpd startup script
   Create or edit file /opt/etc/init.d/lighttpd with below. Remove any previous contents if its not empty.
   
   

   #!/bin/sh

   source /mnt/root/.profile

   
   BIN=lighttpd
   LOG_D=/var/log/$BIN
   RUN_D=/var/run
   PID_F=$RUN_D/$BIN.pid

   COND=$1
   [ $# -eq 0 ] && COND="start"

   case $COND in
   stop)
     killall lighttpd
     killall php-cgi
     ;;
   start)
     mkdir -p $LOG_D
     mkdir -p $RUN_D
     $BIN -f /opt/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf -m /opt/usr/lib/lighttpd
     ;;
   *)
     exit 1
   esac

   
   Set it as a service
   chmod a+x /opt/etc/init.d/lighttpd
   ln -s /opt/etc/init.d/lighttpd  /opt/etc/init.d/S80lighttpd
   

5. Test lighttpd server
   First create the home folder
   mkdir /opt/www
   
   Then the test file /opt/www/phpinfo.php with contents below:
   
   <?php
   phpinfo();
   ?>
   
   After that, launch lighttpd
   /opt/etc/init.d/lighttpd
   #to stop the lighttpd server, run /opt/etc/init.d/lighttpd stop
   
   Open browser and navigate to http://router_ip:81/phpinfo.php to check the output.
   

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Simple busybox http server on DD-WRT

By default DD-WRT runs its own http server(/usr/sbin/httpd), providing web management interface to configure the router. The server is highly integrated and hard to reuse for our own contents. If you just want to host some web pages without CGI support, the httpd server in busybox is a good alternative.

1. (Optional)Move DD-WRT's web admin to another port
   The best way to do so is changing a nvram value as described here.
   So login the router and run
   nvram set http_lanport=88
   nvram commit
   
   Then after rebooting, the new port will be 88 and you can access the web admin at http://router_ip:88/. Everything should work just as before including firmware upgrade.
   
   
2. Configure busybox httpd
   The OpenWrt's busybox is installed if you followed the previous post. This busybox provides more features than the DD-WRT one, including a small web server. To launch it, run

/opt/usr/sbin/httpd -p 80 -c /opt/etc/httpd.conf -h /opt/www

the server(/opt/usr/sbin/httpd) will listen port 80(-p 80) with configuration file /opt/etc/httpd.conf(-c /opt/etc/httpd.conf) and use /opt/www as home folder(-h /opt/www).

Everything looks good, except, both our http server and dd-wrt's are called httpd. This will be a problem as DD-WRT will kill and restart the httpd service when applying some settings. If that ever happens, our httpd service will be terminated unexpectedly. So let's change the service name.

Here is (another) dirty hack but works for me. Log in PuTTY and run:

cp /opt/bin/busybox /opt/bin/busybox.orig
cp /opt/bin/busybox /tmp/busybox
sed -i 's/httpd$/httpe/g' /tmp/busybox
cp /tmp/busybox /opt/bin/busybox
ln -s /opt/bin/busybox /opt/usr/sbin/httpe

So now we have changed the name of busybox's http server from httpd to httpe. If it's messed up, restore the old busybox:
/bin/cp /opt/bin/busybox.orig /opt/bin/busybox


3. Run it as service
   Create file /opt/etc/init.d/httpd
   
   source /mnt/root/.profile
   /opt/usr/sbin/httpe -p 80 -c /opt/etc/httpd.conf -h /opt/www
   
   And run
   chmod a+x /opt/etc/init.d/httpd
   ln -sf /opt/etc/init.d/httpd /opt/etc/init.d/S20httpd

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Upgrade DD-WRT and Keep Installed Applications

The DD-WRT support for these new 11N Gigabit routers are still in early stage with new builds rolling out every one to two weeks. The old good "if its not broken then don't fix it" rule might not apply here and I suggest to stay with latest release if you have the time(and guts).

Upgrading a DD-WRT firmware with loaded software is pretty easy, considering the extra work we've done. Take the trouble not to mess with important system folders like /lib /usr and /bin and now its the reward time.

1. Stop installed software
   Log in the router, rename the /mnt/optware.enable
   mv /mnt/optware.enable /mnt/optware.disable
   
   Then reboot the router. After rebooting, the router is back to standard DD-WRT with no extra load and ready for flashing.
   
   
2. Upgrade firmware
   Get the new DD-WRT build, the name should be wzr-hp-g300nh-dd-wrt-webupgrade-MULTI.bin. Some suggests a hard reset before and after upgrading but I usually just select "Reset to Default Settings" during flash.
   
   After flashing, all settings will be erased and then you have to start over again.
   
   
3. Set the router
   Set the router as usual. Here is a quick list for additional setup, all are covered in other posts, I just put these together for easy reference.
   
   Enable SSH and USB Support. Details here, Step 2.
   Customized startup script. Details here, Step 10.
   Disable DD-WRT's NTP Client if you're about to use local time. Details here, Step 1.
   Disable built-in FTP server(should be off by default). Details here, Step 1.
   
   Then some nvram variables:
   
   #use local time. details here, step 3. Change it accordingly
   nvram set time_zone=PST8PDT,M3.2.0,M11.1.0
   #move dd-wrt's web admin to another port. Details here, step 1
   nvram set http_lanport=88
   nvram commit
   
   After that, reboot the router.
   
   
4. Update writable /etc and re-enable installed apps
   After reboot, login the router and run:
   
   cp -a /etc/* /mnt/etc/
   mv /mnt/optware.disable  /mnt/optware.enable
   
   The first line is very important. It's for synchronizing our the customized /etc folder with the new firmware's /etc folder. Forget to do so will break the web management interface!
   
   Somewhat modified, the files in /etc folder are only added(like /etc/TZ) or dynamically updated(the adduser script), so it's safe to overwrite the /etc folder with new contents and all our work is kept intact. After that, reboot the router, and you should have a new DD-WRT with all previously installed software running.
   
   
5. Fix the broken web interface
   You'll get this error ONLY if you forget to update the /etc folder, see Step 4 above. If this ever happens:
   SSH or telnet login the router, run
   
   mv /mnt/optware.enable /mnt/optware.disable
   reboot
   
   the web interface should be back after rebooting, then follow Step 4.
   
   If the web interface is messed and you can't login from PuTTY, unplug the USB disk and power cycle the router. Then manually mount the USB disk(details here, step 2 and 6) and update /etc folder following Step 4.

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Workaround for Stuck Beacon Problem

Stuck beacon is a notorious problem on madwifi (the wireless driver DD-WRT used for Atheros routers).  If you never experienced any wireless interruptions with DD-WRT then just ignore this article. However, if you're annoyed by this stuck beacon problem with constantly dropping wireless connection, then I hope this can be of help.

I personally prefer the open source ath9k driver which doesn't suffer from this, but some important feature like WDS is missing from ath9k. So to each its own, DD-WRT has the perfect reason to stick with madwifi and I don't expect the switch to ath9k anytime soon. And, seems that the problem only happens under certain circumstance. In my case, the connection drops with an Atheros wireless N card -- same card works great with stock firmware -- but works fine with another Intel WiFI 1000 11N card. So if a stable wireless connection is very important, the best solution might be flashing back to stock firmware or just try another card.

Below is a quick hack, not a completely fix but would make life a little easier. The idea is to watch the output of dmesg and when the "stuck beacon" error messages flood, reset the wireless interface to bring it back to life.

1. The watchdog script
   When wireless connection is dropeed, a typical out from dmesg would like this
   
   ath_bstuck_tasklet : Entering
   Resetting; Code: 01
   ath_bstuck_tasklet : Entering
   Resetting; Code: 01
   ath_bstuck_tasklet : Entering
   Resetting; Code: 01
   ath_bstuck_tasklet : Entering
   Resetting; Code: 01
   ath_bstuck_tasklet : Entering
   Resetting; Code: 01
   ath_bstuck_tasklet : Entering
   Resetting; Code: 01
   
   the same error message will keep repeating and flood the kernel log. So we can use this as a trigger and reset wireless interface when the error occurs.
   
   Below is the /opt/usr/local/bin/wifi-watchdog.sh script
   
   #!/bin/sh

   dmesg | tail -n 5 | grep -q ath_bstuck_tasklet || exit

   echo fixing...
   #a log file
   echo `date` >> /tmp/wifi-wathdog.log
   
   ifconfig ath0 down
   #for VAP, bring additional interface(s) down
   #ifconfig ath0.1 down
   sleep 2
   ifconfig ath0 up
   #bring it back
   #ifconfig ath0.1 up
   
   Set permissions
   chmod a+x /opt/usr/local/bin/wifi-watchdog.sh
   

2. Set cron job
   With the watchdog script ready, we can use cron to set it run every one minute.
   Add a new job:

   * * * * * /opt/usr/local/bin/wifi-watchdog.sh
   
   

   and it's done. Again, its not a completely fix just save the trouble of resetting the router each time.
   

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Wireless Scheduler with Cron Job

Cron is a time-based job scheduler in Linux systems which enables users to schedule jobs (commands or shell scripts) to run periodically at certain times or dates. In this example, we'll use cron to control the wireless signal, set it to turn on only at given time.

DD-WRT is shipped with cron support but again we'll use our own cron daemon as it's easier for future update and will save some flash wearing.

1. Disable DD-WRT's Cron
   From the web interface, Administration->Management, find "Cron" and disable it, then click "Apply Settings"
   
   
   
2. Install cron(busybox) service
   The cron is provided by busybox and should've been installed. If not, run
   opkg install busybox
   
   and create the scheduling file folder:
   mkdir /etc/crontabs
   
   Set it to run on startup by creating /opt/etc/init.d/crond with following:
   
   source /mnt/root/.profile
   kill -9 $(pidof crond)
   /opt/usr/sbin/crond
   
   Then:
   chmod a+x /opt/etc/init.d/crond
   ln -s /opt/etc/init.d/crond /opt/etc/init.d/S80crond
   
   
3. The script to switch wireless
   Now create a file /opt/usr/sbin/wireless-off.sh
   
   #!/bin/sh
   /sbin/ifconfig ath0 down
   
   another one: /opt/usr/sbin/wireless-on.sh
   
   #!/bin/sh
   /sbin/ifconfig ath0 up
   
   On VAP enabled routers, additional interfaces like ath0.1, ath0.2...etc. also need to be taken care of:
   /sbin/ifconfig ath0.1 down
   and
   /sbin/ifconfig ath0.1 up
   The full list of wireless interfaces can be found by running /sbin/ifconfig
   
   Don't forget the permission:
   chmod a+x /opt/usr/sbin/wireless-on.sh /opt/usr/sbin/wireless-off.sh
   
   
4. Edit Cron Scheduler
   DD-WRT's wireless scheduling is available only for Broadcom routers(see picture below) but missing from Atheros builds.
    
   However, its not hard to implement this on Atheros routers with the help of cron and the scripts above.
   For example, to turn on wireless only from 5pm to 11pm, run
   crontab -e
   which will bring you the cron job editor. Add two lines like that
   
   0 17 * * *   /opt/usr/sbin/wireless-on.sh
   0 23,0-16 * * *   /opt/usr/sbin/wireless-off.sh
   
   Save. The wireless-on script will runs only once at 5PM(17:00) but the wireless-off script runs every hour(23:00, 0:00 ... 16:00) to ensure the wireless can still be turned off in case the router is rebooted halfway.
   
   Now how about turning off wireless only on weekdays?
   
   0 17 * * *   /opt/usr/sbin/wireless-on.sh
   0 23,0-16 * * 1-4   /opt/usr/sbin/wireless-off.sh
   0 0-16 * * 5   /opt/usr/sbin/wireless-off.sh
   
   
   Refer here for the full instruction about cron.

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BitTorrent Client: Transmission on DD-WRT

If you've followed the previous guides to set the opkg system, then installing transmission on the USB enabled DD-WRT system is a no-brainer. Only one little thing needs to be taken care of...

1. Install transmission
   To do so, Use PuTTY to log in and run the command below:
   opkg install transmission-web
   
   This will install libevent(required library) transmission-daemon(the actual program) and transmission-web(the web interface).
   
   
2. Setup transmission
   Run
   transmission-daemon
   wait for 10 seconds then stop it:
   killall transmission-daemon
   
   This will create default configuration file for transmission, the file is located at /mnt/root/.config/transmission-daemon/settings.json
   Edit this file with following(delete all previous contents)
   
   {
   "blocklist-enabled": 1,
   "download-dir": "\/mnt\/share\/torrents",
   "download-limit": 100,
   "download-limit-enabled": 1,
   "encryption": 2,
   "max-peers-global": 35,
   "peer-port": 25000,
   "pex-enabled": 1,
   "port-forwarding-enabled": 1,
   "rpc-authentication-required": 0,
   "rpc-password": "",
   "rpc-port": 9091,
   "rpc-username": "",
   "rpc-whitelist": "192.168.1.*",
   "upload-limit": 200,
   "upload-limit-enabled": 1
   }
   
   Above is taken from DD-WRT wiki with some modification. Also create the download folder
   mkdir -m 777 /mnt/share/torrents
   
   So now all configure files for transmission are in /mnt/root/.config(or /tmp/root/.config, its the same). Downloaded files will be in /mnt/share/torrents
   
   
3. Set transmission for web access
   This is usually not a problem, however, in our setup, the web pages is are in non-standard location. So we must let transmission aware of the change.
   
   To do so, a variable must be set for transmission. Run the command lines below:
   export TRANSMISSION_WEB_HOME='/opt/usr/share/transmission/web/'
   transmission-daemon
   
   Now access transmission web manage interface at http://ip_of_the_router:9091/
   If everything works out, move to next step.
   
   
4. Run it as service
   To do so, add the following line to /mnt/root/.profile
   
   export TRANSMISSION_WEB_HOME='/opt/usr/share/transmission/web/'
   
   Then create the startup script /opt/etc/init.d/transmission(delete all previous contents if its not empty)
   
   source /mnt/root/.profile
   killall transmission-daemon
   sleep 2
   transmission-daemon -g /mnt/root/.config/transmission-daemon/
   
   Set it to run as service:
   chmod a+x /opt/etc/init.d/transmission
   ln -s /opt/etc/init.d/transmission /opt/etc/init.d/S60transmission
   

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