Cisco 7970

LinuxMCE allows to use many devices as Orbiters. One of them is the Cisco 7970. You can use it to make calls and control your home as well. To add a new Cisco 7970 phone and Orbiter you should follow these simple instructions. Basically I got the information in the LinuxMCE support forum. But I think it's good to accumulate odd posts in one place. If you have some suggestions send me email - stepanov.michael [at] gmail [dot] com or leave a comment.

There is also some discussion of upgrading Cisco 7970 firmware for using SIP instead of SCCP. Complete info should be included in this wiki page.

Preparation

Cisco 7970 phone is plug-in-play device and LinuxMCE adds it automatically when it'll be plugged in the network. But to do it we have to make some preparations.

1. Run an Orbiter.
2. Be sure that no others tasks are pending ( Orbiter Home -> LinuxMCE:More -> Advanced Options -> Pending Tasks ) .
3. Check DHCP setting on your phone. It should be configured as something like: "get IP via DHCP if no alternative servers".
4. Check the range of MAC addresses LinuxMCE is configured to serve:
   1. Go to Admin website Home -> Advanced -> Configuration -> Device Template.
   2. Chose manufacture Cisco. You can filter the Device Template list by using a Device Category like "Hard Phones < Phones < Peripherals" (or a subset of that compound category). You should see in the Device Template list at least two models: 7960 and 7970.
   3. Press the button "Pick device template".
   4. On the opened window check 'Range MAC addresses'. The range contains two big decimal digits.
      1. To get correct range for your phone first see its MAC address.
      2. MAC address is six pairs of hexadecimal digits, separated by hyphens (-) or colon (:). The first three pairs identify a maker. You use them and fill the rest with three "00" or "FF" pairs as the start and end of the range. For example, if MAC is 00:16:78:CD:01:D8 its range will be 00:16:78:00:00:00 - 00:16:78:FF:FF:FF.
      3. Convert those two range delimiting values into LinuxMCE representation.
         1. Run the script /usr/pluto/bin/convert_mac, passing the hexadecimal values as parameters: /usr/pluto/bin/convert_mac 00:16:78:00:00:00 ; /usr/pluto/bin/convert_mac 00:16:78:FF:FF:FF
         2. You will get two big decimal numbers, one from each conversion of a hexadecimal MAC address.
         3. Add the decimal numbers to the phone template and store.

There is a possibility to have some problems with the phone installation related with its firmware. The firmware version should be the latest. I didn't have any problem with existing firmware on my Cisco 7970. But you should bear it in mind, as some more recent SIP firmware has failed to register with LinuxMCE's Asterisk subsystem. See Asterisk's own documentation (separate project) for details.

Installation

1. Plug in the phone power and network cable. Note if you have two network cards in your core's machine you should plug network cable in the "inside" ethernet segment.
2. During boot of the phone after 2-3 minutes you should see on the Orbiter a message about new device with your phone MAC address was detected. You should click by caption "Cisco 7970" below that.
3. After that the phone should be registered with LinuxMCE's Asterisk subsystem and you can see a normal Cisco screen.
4. However, it'll take another 2-3 minutes to generate a new Orbiter for the Cisco 7970.
5. When this operation finishes you'll see a message on the Orbiter screen. Run a quick reload of router (Wizard -> Reboot -> Quick Reload Router; If the Cisco 7970 Services menu doesn't contain "Orbiter", reboot the phone).
6. Now go to the Services menu on the Cisco 7970 and chose "Orbiter".

Troubleshooting

• Problem: Phone boots successfully but there isn't any message on the Orbiter's screen.

Solution: If the message doesn't appear check the LinuxMCE MAC addresses range to ensure the phone's correct MAC address is in the specified range

• next

Useful tips

1. To reset a Network configuration of Cisco 7970 go to Admin website menu "Home -> Advanced -> Network Settings" and press the following sequence of buttons on the phone: **#**
2. To check network communications between Cisco 7970 and CORE run tcpdump on the CORE: tcpdump -i eth1 <Cisco 7970 IP Address>
3. To see detailed packets information: tcpdump -i -vv eth1 <Cisco 7970 IP Address>

See also

Orbiter