Avantfax works really well on Debian but it is not officially supported by Avantfax so the install script is lacking, i would like to improve that and any feedback would be appreciated.

The first time i installed Avantfax on Debian Etch there was only an install script for Red Hat and SuSe so everything needed to be done manually, i made some notes at the time here http://www.songshu.org/index.php/avantfax-on-debian

Since AvantFAX 3.1.0 there is a debian install script available that comes a long way but is not yet perfect and it requires some extra manual steps and tinkering, also an install script to set up mail2fax is missing for Debian.

This is an attempt to improve the following Debian scripts that can be found in AvantFAX 3.1.6

• http://www.songshu.org/index.php/old-avantfax-316-debian-install-script
• http://www.songshu.org/index.php/old-avantfax-316-debian-prefs
• http://www.songshu.org/index.php/old-avantfax-316-email2fax
• http://www.songshu.org/index.php/old-avantfax-316-setup-postfix

This script comes a long way accept that the apache virtual host is not set up correctly. and the specified directory /etc/apache2/logs does not exist so apache will refuse to start.

The following section needs improvement.

cat >> /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default << EOF

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot $INSTDIR
    ServerName avantfax
    ErrorLog logs/avantfax-error_log
    CustomLog logs/avantfax-access_log common
</VirtualHost>
EOF

What we see here is that the virtualhost is added below in the 000-default file, this does not work since the default will not be changed and a new virtual host is not added.
Also we could move the avantfax logs to the debian default log section /var/logs/
The suggestion is to have it add a separate new virtual host for the chosen domain name as specified in the debian-prefs.txt.

cat >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/$FAXDOMAIN << EOF

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot $INSTDIR
    ServerName $FAXDOMAIN
    ErrorLog /var/log/avantfax-error_log
    CustomLog /var/log/avantfax-access_log common
</VirtualHost>
EOF

After the new virtual host file is added to the sites-available we can add the following to have it added to the apache sites-enabled section.

a2ensite $FAXDOMAIN
/etc/init.d/apache2 reload
a2dissite 000-default
/etc/init.d/apache2 reload

This script is completely non-debian so i suggest to make ad a new debian-setup-postfix.sh script

The following section can be removed

# INSTALL REQUIRED APPS IF NOT ALREADY INSTALLED

echo “Installing required packages”

yast –install postfix

It mentions yast and that should be replaced with apt-get but AvantFax depends on a functioning hylafax and the installation of hylafax in its turn depends on an installed MTA so it will default to install exim4 if no other MTA is present, using this scripts means you want to use postfix as MTA so this should already be installed before Hylafax.

The following section is ment to stop postfix and alter the master.cf file

# CONFIGURE POSTFIX

/sbin/service postfix stop

echo “Configuring Email to FAX for domain ${FAXDOMAIN}”

cat >> /etc/postfix/master.cf << EOF
fax unix - n n - 1 pipe
flags= user=$FAXMAILUSER argv=/usr/bin/faxmail -d -n -NT ${user}

EOF

Debian uses init so this section should read as follows

# CONFIGURE POSTFIX
/etc/init.d/postfix stop

echo “Configuring Email to FAX for domain ${FAXDOMAIN}”

cat >> /etc/postfix/master.cf << EOF
fax unix - n n - 1 pipe
flags= user=$FAXMAILUSER argv=/usr/bin/faxmail -d -n -NT ${user}

EOF

Faxmail will start complaining it can not locate the fonts so we need to specify the ghostscript font directory to Hylafax

cat >> /etc/hylafax/hyla.conf << EOF
FontMap: /usr/share/ghostscript/8.62/lib/
EOF

The following section at the end of this script will start postfix after having it stopped at the beginning of the configuration, again we use init.

/sbin/chkconfig postfix on
/sbin/service postfix start

so we replace this with

/etc/init.d/postfix start

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The hylafax server receives and sends faxes and is accessible via Avantfax on http://192.168.1.10

newvserver --vsroot /VSERVERS --hostname fax --domain cipar.net --ip 192.168.1.10/24 --dist etch --mirror http://192.168.1.12:3142/debian.apt-get.eu/debian --interface dummy0

# cd /usr/local/sbin
# ./set-context.sh fax

vserver fax start
vserver fax enter
locale-gen

# nano /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://192.168.1.12:3142/security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
deb-src http://192.168.1.12:3142/security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
deb http://192.168.1.12:3142/debian.apt-get.eu/debian/ etch main contrib non-free

# apt-get update

http://manpages.songshu.org/manpages/lenny/en/man5/hylafax-server.5.html

http://www.howtoforge.com/build-a-hylafax-server-with-avantfax-on-debian-etch
http://www.lucasmanual.com/mywiki/FaxServer
http://www.avantfax.com/install.php

# apt-get install postfix

chhose No configuration

# nano /etc/aliases

and add the following

root:   randall@smydomain

# newaliases

# apt-get install hylafax-server

# exit
# cp -a /dev/ttyS0 /VSERVERS/fax/dev/ttyS0
# cp -aR /dev/null /VSERVERS/fax/var/spool/hylafax/dev
# vserver fax enter

# faxsetup
enter for the defaults until the country code

# Country code [1]? 31
# Area code [415]? 10
# Phone number of fax modem [+1.999.555.1212]? +31.10.1234567
# Local identification string (for TSI/CIG) ["NothingSetup"]? fax.cipar.net
# Long distance dialing prefix [1]? 0
# International dialing prefix [011]? 00
# Protection mode for received facsimile [0600]? 0644
# Protection mode for session logs [0600]? 0644
# Protection mode for ttyS0 [0600]? 0666

Allow users from our subnet access to the fax service:

# nano /etc/hylafax/hosts.hfaxd

on the bottom of the file

192\.168\.:::

# exit
# vserver fax restart
# vserver fax enter

faxstat -a -s

should show something like this

HylaFAX scheduler on fax.cipar.net: Running
Modem ttyS0 (+**.**.*******): Running and idle

Add a fax user. This will create a user named “user” with userID 101 and no password.

# faxadduser -u 100 user

Add an administrator. This will create a user named admin with admin password <password>:

# faxadduser -a <password> -p <password> -u 100 admin

Below seems largely to be not needed anymore!!!!!!! There is a debian-install.sh now that seems to do basically all below automatically, i have tried it and it worked, even the “rotate” option for the faxes work now without a problem.
The script was not perfect yet since some steps needed to be repeated after the script manually.
Manually repeat this steps from the script:

/usr/sbin/faxadduser -f newhosts -a pwd www-data
/usr/sbin/faxdeluser localhost
/usr/sbin/faxdeluser 127.0.0.1
echo 127.0.0.1 >> newhosts
cat /etc/hylafax/hosts.hfaxd >> newhosts
cat newhosts > /etc/hylafax/hosts.hfaxd
rm -f newhosts
reboot the server

first we install all the needed dependencies

# apt-get install apache2-mpm-prefork apache2-utils apache2.2-common libapache2-mod-php5 php5 php-pear php5-mysql php5-pgsql php5-cli php5-cgi mysql-server netpbm php5-imagick dh-make-php libmagic-dev libungif4g libpng3 sudo libtiff4-dev gs-gpl gsfonts expect php5-dev make php-pear psutils libnetpbm10-dev libungif-bin libungif4-dev php-db php-file php-http php-mail php-mail-mime php-net-smtp php-net-socket php-xml-parser wdiff

And the avantfax itself

# cd /usr/src
# wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/avantfax/avantfax-3.0.6.tgz
# tar zvxf avantfax-3.0.6.tgz
# cd avantfax-3.0.6

# pear channel-update pear.php.net
# pear upgrade-all
# pear install Mail Net_SMTP Mail_mime MDB2_driver_mysql MDB2_driver_pgsql
# pecl install fileinfo

# chmod 0770 avantfax/includes/templates/admin_theme/templates_c/ avantfax/includes/templates/admin_theme/cache/ avantfax/includes/templates/main_theme/templates_c/ avantfax/includes/templates/main_theme/cache/
# chown www-data:www-data avantfax/includes/templates/admin_theme/templates_c/ avantfax/includes/templates/admin_theme/cache/ avantfax/includes/templates/main_theme/templates_c/ avantfax/includes/templates/main_theme/cache/
# chmod 0755 avantfax/includes/faxcover.php avantfax/includes/faxrcvd.php avantfax/includes/notify.php avantfax/tools/update_contacts.php avantfax/tools/faxcover.php avantfax/includes/avantfaxcron.php

# cp avantfax/includes/local_config-example.php avantfax/includes/local_config.php

# nano avantfax/includes/local_config.php

Change the following defaults

$FAXRMPWD = "pwd";
define ('ADMIN_EMAIL', 'root@localhost');
$AVANTFAX_SERVERNAME = 'fax.cipar.net'; //

Make sure ”-a pwd” is the same as the “$FAXRMPWD = “pwd”;” as above

# /usr/sbin/faxadduser -f newhosts -a pwd www-data
# /usr/sbin/faxdeluser localhost
# /usr/sbin/faxdeluser 127.0.0.1

# echo 127.0.0.1 >> newhosts
# cat /var/spool/hylafax/etc/hosts.hfaxd >> newhosts
# cat newhosts > /var/spool/hylafax/etc/hosts.hfaxd
# rm -f newhosts

# echo 'JobFmt: "%-3j %3i %1a %15o %40M %-12.12e %5P %5D %7z %.25s"' >> /etc/hylafax/hyla.conf

# mv avantfax /var/www/avantfax

# chown -R www-data.www-data /var/www/avantfax
# chmod -R 777 /var/www/avantfax/tmp /var/www/avantfax/faxes

# nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default

NameVirtualHost *
 <VirtualHost *>
        DocumentRoot /var/www/avantfax
        ServerName avantfax
</virtualhost>

# /etc/init.d/mysql restart
# /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

# mysql --user=root -e "GRANT ALL ON avantfax.* TO avantfax@localhost IDENTIFIED BY \"d58fe49\"" mysql
# mysqladmin --default-character-set=utf8 --user=avantfax --password=d58fe49 create avantfax
# mysql --user=avantfax --password=d58fe49 avantfax < create_tables.sql
# mysqlshow --user=avantfax --password=d58fe49 avantfax

# ln -s /var/www/avantfax/includes/faxrcvd.php /var/spool/hylafax/bin/faxrcvd.php
# ln -s /var/www/avantfax/includes/notify.php  /var/spool/hylafax/bin/notify.php
# mv /usr/bin/faxcover /usr/bin/faxcover.old
# ln -s /var/www/avantfax/includes/faxcover.php /usr/bin/faxcover
# ln -s /usr/share/file/magic* /usr/share/misc/

# cat /etc/sudoers | grep -v requiretty > /tmp/sudoers
# echo "www-data ALL= NOPASSWD: /sbin/reboot, /sbin/halt, /usr/sbin/faxdeluser, /usr/sbin/faxadduser -u * -p * *" >> /tmp/sudoers
# mv /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.orig
# mv /tmp/sudoers /etc/sudoers
# chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers

# nano /var/spool/hylafax/etc/config

and add the following on at the bottom

#
## AvantFAX configuration
#
NotifyCmd:      bin/notify.php

# nano /var/spool/hylafax/etc/config.ttyS0

#
## AvantFAX configuration
#
FaxrcvdCmd:     bin/faxrcvd.php

# crontab -l > /tmp/tab
# echo -e "0 0 * * *\t/var/www/avantfax/includes/avantfaxcron.php -t 2" >> /tmp/tab
# crontab /tmp/tab
# rm -f /tmp/tab

# mv /var/spool/hylafax/etc/config /etc/hylafax/config
# mv /var/spool/hylafax/etc/hosts.hfaxd /etc/hylafax/hosts.hfaxd
# mv /var/spool/hylafax/etc/config.ttyS0 /etc/hylafax/config.ttyS0
# /etc/init.d/hylafax restart

# nano /etc/postfix/master.cf

At the top comment out:

#smtp      inet  n       -       -       -       -       smtpd

And att the bottom add

fax       unix  -       n       n       -       1       pipe
  flags= user=faxmail argv=/usr/bin/faxmail -d -n \${user}

# nano /etc/postfix/transport

and add

yourdomain.com       fax:localhost

# postmap /etc/postfix/transport

# nano /etc/hylafax/faxmail.conf

# nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

fax_destination_recipient_limit = 1

nano /etc/hylafax/faxmail.conf

AutoCoverPage: false
TextPointSize: 12pt
Headers: Message-id Date Subject From
MailUser: faxmail

# /etc/init.d postfix reload

Be carefull not to loose any sleep when doing this the first time, but if you do the result will look like this!

For the backup we need ssh and rsync

# apt-get install openssh-server
# apt-get install rsync

and make sure ssh only listens to the local address

ListenAddress 192.168.1.10

# /etc/init.d/ssh restart

newvserver --vsroot /VSERVERS --hostname fax --domain cipar.net --ip 192.168.1.10/24 --dist etch --mirror http://192.168.1.12:3142/debian.apt-get.eu/debian --interface dummy0

cd /usr/src

wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/avantfax/avantfax-3.1.3.tgz

tar zvxf avantfax-3.1.3.tgz

cd avantfax-3.1.3

 nano debian-prefs.txt

# DEFAULT INSTALL VALUES FOR Debian
#
# BEWARE: Only run the install script once or risk having duplicate
#         settings in your sendmail, sudo, and other configuration files
#
# The debian-install.sh script refers to this file
#

# The domain name for configuring email to fax
FAXDOMAIN=fax.cipar.net

# The installation directory for AvantFAX
INSTDIR=/var/www/avantfax

# The root directory where HylaFAX bin files are stored (typically, /usr or /usr/local)
HYLADIR=/usr

# HylaFAX $SPOOL directory (typically, /var/spool/hylafax or /var/spool/fax)
SPOOL=/var/spool/hylafax

# These are the database settings AvantFAX will create and use
USER=avantfax
PASS=d58fe49
DB=avantfax

# if the MySQL password for root is set, specify it here
ROOTMYSQLPWD=

# The user and group which Apache runs as (typically, apache, wwwrun, nobody, etc...)
HTTPDUSER=www-data
HTTPDGROUP=www-data

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