Well, I haven’t got it all figured out yet, but here is what I know:

1. It’s not hard to compile asterisk for the amd64, but…
2. You need to be careful compiling the ztdummy kernel module: in particular, you must define USE_RTC when compiling, because the sourcefile incorrectly only checks for USE_RTC if __i386__ is defined, which is not the case for 64 bit machines.
3. Getting mpg123 to compile seems hopeless on the amd64.
4. You can get a phone number for $11/month, with unlimited incoming calls and about $.02 a minute for outgoing calls to the United States via VoicePulse Connect!.
5. I can, with a minimum of effort, create a simple dialplan that allows incoming calls from that number to be forwarded to some phones attached to my hacked Linksys PAP2 adaptor.
6. BestBuy has a nice 5.8 ghz phone on sale for $25 with a $10 rebate.
7. I can make calls from my Linux console (using a headset) to those phones.

What I don’t know:

1. While the phones attached to the PAP2 can receive calls, I haven’t figured out how originate calls from them.  There is obviously something stupid about configuring them that I don’t understand.
2. Sometimes the voice quality from the console seems bad, which I suspect is some kind of codec mismatch.

Ultimately, I’d like to make a simple “dialplan compiler” that allows you to enter some basic information, (account numbers, logins and the like) and generates the necessary asterisk configuration files.  I’ll probably write it in Python…

Hopefully, I’ll have this up and ready for human testing in the next week or so.  Then, I’ll unveil the deeper purpose!  Stay tuned.

[tags]Asterisk,VOIP[/tags]