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FreePBX Open Source - Step By Step Debian 12 Installation

FreePBX Open Source - Step By Step Debian 12 Installation

Table of Contents

The FreePBX v17 ISO makes this much easier by preseeding reasonable defaults automatically. Once the Rufus step is complete with the v17 ISO burned to your USB stick, then the rest of the steps outlined on this page are (mostly) no longer necessary.

Introduction

Below is the step by step guide to make the Debian 12 USB drive and install Debian 12 on the server. Once Debian 12 is installed then FreePBX 17 can be installed using the steps up at FreePBX Open Source - FreePBX 17 Installation

Making the Debian 12 Bootable USB

  1. Download the latest netinstall version of Debian 12 up at Debian -- Debian “bookworm” Installation Information .

  2. Download Rufus from Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way to make the bootable USB drive from the Debian 12 ISO. Use the options as shown below. This will delete everything on the USB drive

    Rufus-20240709-050552.png

     

Installation Debian 12 from USB

  1. Boot from Debian USB drive. Once the installer boots select the Graphic Install option.

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  2. Next, select your Language from the list.

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  3. Next, select your country from the list.

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  4. Next, select your keyboard layout from the list

    4-20240709-050552.png

  5. Enter a hostname for your system. In this example we will use FreePBX17.

    5-20240709-050552.png

  6. Enter a root password for the system (optional). Or, don’t enter one, if you want to use ‘sudo’ with the default/primary user account that you will setup in the next step. Our support team typically uses root logins to provide advanced support services, but we are moving towards non-root logins in accordance with changing industry security standards.

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  7. Enter the full name for the user account. This is required on Debian 12

    7-20240709-050552.png

  8. Enter the username for the user account you would like to setup. This is required for Debian 12.

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  9. Enter the password for the user account.

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  10. Select the server's timezone. This is based on the country selection done previously.

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    9-20240709-050551.png

  11. Select the “Guided- use entire disk” option in most cases. An LVM can be used as well if you would like a more advanced setup.

    1. To configure software RAID, follow the steps at FreePBX Open Source - Debian OS Installation with Software RAID

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  12. Select the disk to install Debian 12 onto.

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  13. Select the “All files in one partition” option unless of course you would like a more advanced setup.

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  14. Select the “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk” option and continue.

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  15. Select “yes” to confirm you want to write changes to the disk.

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  16. Select “no” to scanning more media.

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  17. Select a Country close to where the server is installed. If you are using the netinstall version of Debian 12 packages will be downloaded during the installation.

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  18. Select the mirror you prefer in the country you’ve selected.

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  19. Enter a HTTP proxy if one is required in your network. Leave this blank in most cases.

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  20. Select YES or NO depending on if you want to report system stats back to Debian developers.

    20-20240709-050552.png

  21. Only leave “SSH Server” and “Standard System Utilities” selected. If you would like a Desktop you can install these options, but in most cases the PBX will be managed via the webUI and SSH. There is no need to have a Desktop installed on the PBX.

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  22. Select YES to install the GRUB boot loader.

    22-20240709-050552.png

  23. Select your hard drive. This is where GRUB will be installed.

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  24. Installation complete. Remove the USB key and press continue to reboot.

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  25. Once the system boots up, login as root.

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  26. Once logged in, run the commands below. This has to be done to enable ROOT ssh access (your choice - but should you need support, our support team often requests this as it has been customary procedure for many years.)
    Commands:

    echo "PermitRootLogin yes" >> /etc/ssh/sshd_config service ssh restart ip addr

Its recommended to configure the "su -" command or the "sudo" package for your newly created user then enabling root user ssh directly.

This step is mainly for advanced user.

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  1. Once you get the systems IP from “ip addr” SSH into the Debian system as root.

  2. Once you are logged in via SSH you can run the command below to install packages that typically were preinstalled on FreePBX 16 and lower. These are OPTIONAL packages.

    apt-get -y install net-tools htop screen tshark vim sngrep

  3. At this point proceed to FreePBX Open Source - FreePBX 17 Installation to start the FreePBX17 Installation.