Re: [hylafax-users] cu , access , usr 5686e , suse 9.1 AMD64

[GigaPyxl <gigapyxl@xxxxxxxxx>]

After talking to the guy who implemented the barcoding bits, it's a
two-part thing:

Write barcodes to outbound faxes: pdflib and a barcode font.
Read barcodes from inbound faxes: bardecode ( bardecode.com - price
has gone up a bit since we got our license, bummer)

faxrcvd && notify scripts modified to do the inbound fax barcode
checking, and dropping the resulting data into a db that the overall
faxing app uses, and so on.

It's actually a generalized faxing infrastructure designed so that any
app can use it over the network via xml-rpc - the infrastructure was
built, then two of our apps were extended a bit to tie into it to add
sending and receiving faxes to 'em.  It allows each individual user of
the apps to have their own send and receive que for faxes
(app-specific fax stuff) that doesn't require them to have email
accounts, and is centrally manageable and reportable and blahblahblah.


On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:14:13 -0500, Jeff Herring <jeffh@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Please tell us more about the:
> 
> "We did a bit of hylafax h4x0ring to do automatic inbound
> fax assignment/direction by using a great little
> command-line software package that writes
> barcodes to pdfs and reads 'em from pdfs/tiffs/etc."
> 
> -Jeff H.
> 
> 
> At 04:16 AM 11/30/2004, GigaPyxl wrote:
> >Hi folks,
> >
> >Just went through the process of getting a US Robotics ( USR ) 5686e
> >external faxmodem set up, both as a modem device and then through
> >hylafax.
> >
> >The slightly stilted writing style is because I'm trying to include
> >keywords in this email that google will pick up so others can find
> >this email easily.
> >
> >System details:
> >Suse 9.1 Pro AMD64 dist
> ># rpm -q uucp
> >uucp-1.07-196
> ># rpm -q hylafax
> >hylafax-4.1.8-24.2
> >
> >
> >Ok, various experiences with this:
> >
> >First, I used command cu -l ttyS0 to do the basic accessibility
> >testing.  I was able to access the modem just fine if I ran it as my
> >local non-root account, BUT if I ran it as root, I got the following
> >output:
> >
> >nexus:~ # cu -l /dev/modem
> >cu: creat (/var/lock/TMP0000002c91): Permission denied
> >cu: /dev/modem: Line in use
> >
> >Note that /dev/modem is an alias to /dev/ttyS0 - the same behavior is
> >evinced if /dev/ttyS0 is directly used.
> >
> >Muuuuch searching told me essentially nothing, other than possible
> >massive permissions weirdness: strace cu -l /dev/modem as my local
> >user and as root showed EXACTLY the same attempt to open a lockfile in
> >/var/lock, with success as local user and failure as root....and this
> >is coming from the kernel refusing to allow the file creation.
> >
> >What was the fix / solution ?  Noting that on my system, which cu emits:
> >
> >/usr/bin/cu
> >
> >I ran:
> >
> >chown uucp:uucp /usr/bin/cu
> >chmod ug+s /usr/bin/cu
> >
> >and voila!  It started working for root as well.  Hopefully someone
> >having this problem will find this email, 'cuz it'll save you 4 hours+
> >of searching futily.
> >
> >Next problem I ran into:  faxaddmodem was crapping out about halfway
> >through, as probemodem was running its way through the list of speeds,
> >then finally giving me a message (sorry, unable to reproduce message
> >text, didn't capture it at the time, and I *can't* reproduce it
> >anymore) that it was unable to communicate with the modem.  strace
> >told me nothing, other than, well, it was having problems talking to
> >the device - writes string, reads echo back....and nothing else.
> >
> >Eventually, I got the brainwave that perhaps it's because I hadn't
> >rebooted my system when I hooked up the external modem I was working
> >with ( usr 5686e noted above, nice device ) and the serial port was
> >choking on not having been powered up connected properly.  So, after
> >banging my head on this one for a couple hours, shutting down my
> >system, turning off then back on the modem, then booting my system
> >worked JUST FINE for fixing it.  After that, hylafax setup was a
> >breeze.  Argh.
> >
> >Final sort-of-problem, but not really:
> >Since my various past efforts at getting hylafax to recognize my
> >distinctive ring have been complete failures ( the distinctive ring I
> >have is two short rings, and the modem reports each ring segment as
> >RING no matter what the hell I do, and I've tried it with several
> >different modems ), and as I have a second distinctive ring phone
> >number to receive faxes to, and I have voicemail that picks up after 4
> >regular rings (8 distinctive rings), I just have hylafax answer on 5
> >rings.  Works like a charm.  ymmv.
> >
> >Anyways, loving hylafax, wanted to make someone else's life easier if
> >they're experiencing these weird problems.  Now if I can only get a
> >print-to-fax spool set up in the KDE print manager so I can print to a
> >fax spool, have a little "gimme fax info" window pop up, then send it
> >on its way...aaah, I can dream. :)  Suse 9.1 has this annoying thing
> >about not wanting to allow you to let X listen on any network
> >interfaces - YaST has a setting that alleges to allow this, but it
> >doesn't actually do squat.  I've done some tromping around in the
> >various shell scripts and config files that hold it all together, and
> >succeeded in finding a headache and quite a bit of frustration, and
> >not much else.  So, non-X-logged-in-user command-line tools can't open
> >an X window 'cuz X isn't listening, in a really thorough way.
> >
> >Oh, for what it's worth for a datapoint for benchmarking hylafax
> >usage:  I admin a multiserver hylafax solution at work using digi
> >acceleport RAS cards.  I've been VERY happy with the solution.  Digi's
> >tech support is hands-down fantastic, and the platform is rock-solid.
> >Several thousand faxes a month, inbound and outbound.  We did a bit of
> >hylafax h4x0ring to do automatic inbound fax assignment/direction by
> >using a great little command-line software package that writes
> >barcodes to pdfs and reads 'em from pdfs/tiffs/etc.  Overall, saved us
> >about $100k on costs over a Biscom solution.  Bosses happy about that,
> >customers too.
> >
> >Anyways, thanks folks.
> >
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> 
> --------------------------------------
> Jeff Herring  /  jeffh@xxxxxxxxx
> Seacoast Laboratory Data Systems, Inc.
> --------------------------------------
> 
>

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