How To Install FreePBX 16 on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04/16.04

7 min readNov 3, 2022

This article is designed to help you install FreePBX 16 on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04/16.04 and manage it with FreePBX 16 GUI for administering Asterisk. Asterisk is an open source complete PBX system with features of most commercially available PBXes, for example, Conference calling, Direct Inward System Access, Call Parking, and Call Queues and many other features.

Install Asterisk 18 LTS on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04/16.04 (Optional)

We’ve provided Asterisk installation steps for reference

As we start the installation, it is good practice to ensure all your system packages are latest to avoid any dependency issues:

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade

[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f

Step 1: Install Asterisk 18 PBX dependencies

Once the system is online, proceed to install dependency packages for Asterisk PBX.

sudo apt install git curl wget libnewt-dev libssl-dev libncurses5-dev subversion libsqlite3-dev build-essential libjansson-dev libxml2-dev  uuid-dev

If you get an error for subversion package on Ubuntu like below:

E: Package 'subversion' has no installation candidate

Then add universe repository and install subversion from it:

sudo add-apt-repository universe

sudo apt update

sudo apt install subversion

Step 2: Download Asterisk 18 source and install dependencies

Since Asterisk 18 LTS is not available from Ubuntu upstream repositories, the installation will be done from source.

$ sudo apt policy asterisk

asterisk:

  Installed: (none)

  Candidate: 1:13.14.1~dfsg-2+deb9u3

  Version table:

     1:13.14.1~dfsg-2+deb9u3 500

...



$ sudo apt policy asterisk

asterisk:

  Installed: (none)

  Candidate: 1:13.18.3~dfsg-1ubuntu4

Download the latest release of Asterisk to your local system for installation.

sudo su -

cd /usr/src/

curl -O http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-18-current.tar.gz

Then extract the file:

tar xvf asterisk-18-current.tar.gz

cd asterisk-18*/

.Run the following command to download the mp3 decoder library into the source tree.

$ sudo contrib/scripts/get_mp3_source.sh

A addons/mp3/decode_ntom.c

A addons/mp3/interface.c

A addons/mp3/MPGLIB_README

A addons/mp3/common.c

A addons/mp3/huffman.h

A addons/mp3/tabinit.c

A addons/mp3/Makefile

A addons/mp3/README

A addons/mp3/decode_i386.c

A addons/mp3/dct64_i386.c

A addons/mp3/MPGLIB_TODO

A addons/mp3/mpg123.h

A addons/mp3/layer3.c

A addons/mp3/mpglib.h

Exported revision 202.

Ensure all dependencies are resolved:

sudo contrib/scripts/install_prereq install

This may take some time depending on your internet speed. Make sure you get a success message at the end:

#############################################

## install completed successfully

#############################################

Step 3: Build and Install Asterisk from source

When all dependency packages are installed, we are ready to build asterisk PBX system from source code.

You need to first run the configure script which is responsible for making sure all of the dependencies the build and install process is available. It also finds out what uses those dependencies.

./configure

A success should have an output like below:

configure: Menuselect build configuration successfully completed



               .$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$=..      

            .$7$7..          .7$$7:.    

          .$$:.                 ,$7.7   

        .$7.     7$$$$           .$$77  

     ..$$.       $$$$$            .$$$7 

    ..7$   .?.   $$$$$   .?.       7$$$.

   $.$.   .$$$7. $$$$7 .7$$$.      .$$$.

 .777.   .$$$$$$77$$$77$$$$$7.      $$$,

 $$$~      .7$$$$$$$$$$$$$7.       .$$$.

.$$7          .7$$$$$$$7:          ?$$$.

$$$          ?7$$$$$$$$$$I        .$$$7 

$$$       .7$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$      :$$$. 

$$$       $$$$$$7$$$$$$$$$$$$    .$$$.  

$$$        $$$   7$$$7  .$$$    .$$$.   

$$$$             $$$$7         .$$$.    

7$$$7            7$$$$        7$$$      

 $$$$$                        $$$       

  $$$$7.                       $$  (TM)     

   $$$$$$$.           .7$$$$$$  $$      

     $$$$$$$$$$$$7$$$$$$$$$.$$$$$$      

       $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.                



configure: Package configured for: 

configure: OS type  : linux-gnu

configure: Host CPU : x86_64

configure: build-cpu:vendor:os: x86_64 : pc : linux-gnu :

configure: host-cpu:vendor:os: x86_64 : pc : linux-gnu :

Setup menu options by running the following command:

make menuselect

Use arrow keys to navigate, and Enter key to select.

On Add-ons select chan_ooh323 and format_mp3 as shown below

install-asterisk-ubuntu-18.04-01-min (2)

On Core Sound Packages, select the formats of Audio packets like below

install-asterisk-ubuntu-18.04-02-min (2)

For Music On Hold, select the following minimal modules

install-asterisk-ubuntu-18.04-03-min (2)

On Extra Sound Packages select as shown below:

install-asterisk-ubuntu-18.04-04-min (2)

You can change other configurations you see fit. When done, save and exit then install Asterisk with selected modules:

make

make install

make samples

make config

ldconfig

The make command output:

Building Documentation For: third-party channels pbx apps codecs formats cdr cel bridges funcs tests main res addons 

 +--------- Asterisk Build Complete ---------+

 + Asterisk has successfully been built, and +

 + can be installed by running:              +

 +                                           +

 +                make install               +

 +-------------------------------------------+

Successful make install output:

find rest-api -name "*.json" | while read x; do \

	/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 $x "/var/lib/asterisk/rest-api" ; \

done

 +---- Asterisk Installation Complete -------+

 +                                           +

 +    YOU MUST READ THE SECURITY DOCUMENT    +

 +                                           +

 + Asterisk has successfully been installed. +

 + If you would like to install the sample   +

 + configuration files (overwriting any      +

 + existing config files), run:              +

 +                                           +

 + For generic reference documentation:      +

 +    make samples                           +

 +                                           +

 + For a sample basic PBX:                   +

 +    make basic-pbx                         +

 +                                           +

 +                                           +

 +-----------------  or ---------------------+

 +                                           +

 + You can go ahead and install the asterisk +

 + program documentation now or later run:   +

 +                                           +

 +               make progdocs               +

 +                                           +

 + **Note** This requires that you have      +

 + doxygen installed on your local system    +

 +-------------------------------------------+

Create separate user and group to run asterisk services, and assign correct permissions:

cd

sudo groupadd asterisk

sudo useradd -r -d /var/lib/asterisk -g asterisk asterisk

sudo usermod -aG audio,dialout asterisk

sudo chown -R asterisk.asterisk /etc/asterisk

sudo chown -R asterisk.asterisk /var/lib,log,spool/asterisk

sudo chown -R asterisk.asterisk /usr/lib/asterisk

Set Asterisk default user to asterisk:

$ sudo vim /etc/default/asterisk

AST_USER="asterisk"

AST_GROUP="asterisk"



$ sudo vim /etc/asterisk/asterisk.conf

runuser = asterisk ; The user to run as.

rungroup = asterisk ; The group to run as.

Restart asterisk service after making the changes:

sudo systemctl restart asterisk

Enable service to start on boot:

$ sudo systemctl enable asterisk

Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable asterisk

Service should return status of running.

$ systemctl status asterisk.service 

● asterisk.service - LSB: Asterisk PBX

     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/asterisk; generated)

     Active: active (running) since Wed 2022-04-14 17:15:14 UTC; 2min 44s ago

       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)

      Tasks: 69 (limit: 2344)

     Memory: 44.5M

     CGroup: /system.slice/asterisk.service

             └─47094 /usr/sbin/asterisk -U asterisk -G asterisk



Apr 29 17:15:14 ubuntu20 systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Asterisk PBX...

Apr 29 17:15:14 ubuntu20 asterisk[47066]:  * Starting Asterisk PBX: asterisk

Apr 29 17:15:14 ubuntu20 asterisk[47066]:    ...done.

Apr 29 17:15:14 ubuntu20 systemd[1]: Started LSB: Asterisk PBX.

Test to see if you can connect to Asterisk CLI:

$ sudo asterisk -rvv

Asterisk 18.12.1, Copyright (C) 1999 - 2021, Sangoma Technologies Corporation and others.

Created by Mark Spencer 

Asterisk comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; type 'core show warranty' for details.

This is free software, with components licensed under the GNU General Public

License version 2 and other licenses; you are welcome to redistribute it under

certain conditions. Type 'core show license' for details.

=========================================================================

Running as user 'asterisk'

Running under group 'asterisk'

Connected to Asterisk 18.12.1 currently running on ubuntu-20-04-02 (pid = 43531)



ubuntu-20-04-02*CLI> exit

Asterisk cleanly ending (0).

Executing last minute cleanups

Install FreePBX 16 on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04/16.04

FreePBX is a web-based open source GUI (graphical user interface) that controls and manages Asterisk (PBX). Now that we have Asterisk running happily, let’s install FreePBX.

1) Install MariaDB database server:

sudo apt install mariadb-server

2) Install and configure Apache

Install apache2 package from apt:

sudo apt install apache2

Then set options below:

sudo cp /etc/apache2/apache2.conf /etc/apache2/apache2.conf_orig

sudo sed -i 's/^\(User\|Group\).*/\1 asterisk/' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

sudo sed -i 's/AllowOverride None/AllowOverride All/' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Remove default index.html page

sudo rm -f /var/www/html/index.html

sudo unlink  /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

3) Install PHP

Add APT repository configuration dependencies:

sudo apt install -y lsb-release ca-certificates apt-transport-https software-properties-common gnupg2

Add the PHP packages APT repository to your Debian server.

echo "deb https://packages.sury.org/php/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sury-php.list

Import repository key:

wget -qO - https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

Remove any current version of PHP installed:

sudo apt remove php*

FreePBX is dependent on PHP, run the following commands to install php and required extensions.

sudo apt install php7.4 php7.4-mysql,cli,common,imap,ldap,xml,fpm,curl,mbstring,zip,gd,gettext,xml,json,snmp

Install PHP Apache module:

sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php7.4

4) Change PHP maximum file upload size:

sudo sed -i 's/\(^upload_max_filesize = \).*/\120M/' /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/\(^upload_max_filesize = \).*/\120M/' /etc/php/7.4/cli/php.ini

sed -i 's/\(^memory_limit = \).*/\1256M/' /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

5) Download and Install FreePBX

Use wget to download the latest version of FreePBX 16 as of this writing:

cd ~/

wget http://mirror.freepbx.org/modules/packages/freepbx/7.4/freepbx-16.0-latest.tgz

sudo tar xfz freepbx-16.0-latest.tgz

sudo rm -f freepbx-16.0-latest.tgz

cd freepbx

sudo systemctl stop asterisk

sudo ./start_asterisk start

sudo apt install nodejs npm

sudo ./install -n

Sample output:

Done. All modules installed.

Updating Hooks...Done

Done installing modules

Taking too long? Customize the chown command, See http://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FOP/FreePBX+Chown+Conf

Setting Permissions...

Setting base permissions...Done

Setting specific permissions...

32451 [============================]

Finished setting permissions

Generating default configurations...

Finished generating default configurations

You have successfully installed FreePBX

Install all Freepbx modules

sudo fwconsole ma disablerepo commercial

sudo fwconsole ma installall

sudo fwconsole ma delete firewall

sudo fwconsole reload

sudo fwconsole restart

Enable Apache Rewrite engine and restart apache2.

sudo a2enmod rewrite

sudo systemctl restart apache2

If you have an active ufw firewall, open http ports and ports 5060,5061

sudo ufw enable

sudo ufw allow 5060

sudo ufw allow 5061

That’s it!. You have a ready Asterisk 18 with FreePBX 16 on your Ubuntu server. Open up your web browser and connect to the ip_address_or_hostname/admin of your new FreePBX server.