Install v17 with ISO Distro

Released in February 2025 and currently in BETA, the v17 ISO is based on Debian 12 ISO and should help automate the process for install FreePBX 17 as outlined in this freepbx.org blog post.

Also released as open source is the Ansible role to generate your own FreePBX installation ISOs - see the sngfd12 repo in the FreePBX GitHub!

Video of the big reveal of the 17 ISO

AstriCon 2025 featured a session that covered the new FreePBX v17 ISO and discussed some of the options you will encounter during installation (starting at 19m28s below):

Step by Step instructions

On-Prem

1. Download the ISO.

2. Write the ISO to a USB stick.

   1. Use a USB smaller than 100G.

   2. Careful with the ddtool on GNU/Linux and BSDs so that you don’t write to the wrong disk!

3. Confirm DHCP is working on your network.

   1. Assign an IPv4 reservation for the MAC address of your PBX’s connected Ethernet interface.

4. Prepare your target machine.

   1. Only connect the primary Ethernet interface.

   2. Multiple hard disks will turn into a RAID.

   3. Make sure there’s nothing on the disks that you care about saving.

   4. Insert the USB stick into the target.

5. Boot your target and immediately enter the BIOS. Usually this is by pressing a key eg. Delete, F1, Escape, etc.

   1. Switch your system to UEFI boot from the USB. This will vary by motherboard.

   2. Save and exit the BIOS.

6. The GRUB/ISOLINUX installation screens should look something like Figure I below.

   1. Say “Howdy!” to Tango the FreePBX mascot and Kit the Asterisk mascot.

   2. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate the menu. Or, use the single-key shortcuts in bold eg. press h for Help tips.

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Figure I: Main Menu of the bootloader installation.

7. Refer to the FreePBX.org blog post for details about what “spice level” options to choose, or if you are in a hurry, consider these suggestions:

   1. If you have Sangoma appliances larger than the UC40, choose Advanced → UPG.

   2. If you have custom hardware with physical DAHDI interfaces such as Digium or Sangoma T1/E1/FXO/FXS cards, choose Basic → PUB.

   3. If you do not have any physical telephony hardware and never plan to, you might try Basic → FOG instead.

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Figure II: Some of the various Help tips of the bootloader installation (older ISOLINUX version).

8. Choose your language, locale and keymap, if applicable.

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Figure III: Language selection.

9. Installation of Debian packages will continue. Lots of things will flash on your screen.

10. After about 5-10 minutes, a prompt may appear (depending on your “spice level” selection in Step #6) showing the automatically generated password for the sangoma user (as shown in Figure IV.)

    1. Copy your generated password to a safe location.

    2. You can change the password if you like - follow the instructions shown on screen.

       1. Press CTRL+ALT+F2 to enter a terminal window.

       2. Type: chroot /target

       3. passwd sangoma

       4. Enter a new password.

       5. Press CTRL+ALT+F1 to return to this dialog.

    3. Press Enter to continue and the system should reboot in a minute or two.

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Figure IV: Generated password for the sangoma user as shown for some of the installation spice levels.

11. Installation should automatically reboot a couple of times and continue downloading and installing packages over the next appx. 30 minutes.

12. When complete, access the FreePBX web GUI in your browser at the IP address you reserved previously in Step #3.

13. Setup secure usernames and passwords for web access (similar to FreePBX versions before 17.)

Cloud

Generally the same as above for On-Prem, except the method to get the ISO attached to your cloud will differ eg. probably not USB in the cloud.

Also, choose the FOG spice level at the GRUB/ISOLINUX installation prompt in Step #6.

Hybrid

Follow both the On-Prem and Cloud instructions, on two separate systems, one local and one remote. Then, use the FreePBX Advanced Recovery module to link the systems together.