Sending and receiving Fax messages with antiX

[Member Robin]

Since I had tons of documents to transport to people and firms widespread over the country in the last days and these documents had to be sent legaly binding which at least in our country can be achieved by sending them per fax, I had to install a fax software on this antiX notebook. This is better than printing, folding, enveloping and sending all that stuff by snailmail. Also I like the thought to reduce the amount of paper I am to use, so this little effort saves a tree or two maybe in Brazil or in Norway from getting cut down. An Email would be not an adequate replacement for a real letter.
For privat people a software soulution is absolutely sufficient when only once in a while there are some faxes to be sent, an extra fax-machine doesn’t make any sense for me.
Luckily this is absolutly easyly to be done in antiX, but there are some pitfalls again, so what I had to do in order to make it work I’ll describe here. Other users may profit from my efforts to blaze a trail.

First: You really don’t need hylafax, even if it is described in many places as best suited; this program turned out to be so difficult to set up (since it is meant for really great business and has lots of choices and settings which all have to be adjusted correctly before it will start working, so I looked around to find a smaller and easyer fax-software). As long as you don’t run a great business, you’ll probably do not need hylafax, really!
I don’t want to badmouth it, and if you are able to set it up let us know in a comment; I hadn’t the time for figuring out all the really overwhelming abilities provided. I have chosen lightwight “efax” instead, which can be found in debian repos.

Since this notebook has a built-in phone-connector (you can use it for data, voice and fax transmissions theoretically, given you have the software needed, which is normally available for MS-Windows only), just plug it to your phone-line. Make sure to plug the cabel to the correct connector, since the Ethernet-plug using exactly the same type of jack sits straight next to it, they are to be interchanged accidentally very easily.
You may adapt this draft to your needs when using an usb-dongle for fax as well. If buying an extra device, make sure you have read before somewhere that it will flawlessly run on linux.

Next important thing you should know: You will have to accept nonfree packages since the modem driver utilised is in debian non-free. From man sl-modem-daemon:

” Why is sl-modem-daemon in non-free?
Because one part of the source is not available. Instead, a precompiled binary
object is provided (probably to protect the Intellectual Property of the
vendor). If you don’t like it, feel free to buy a conventional external modem.”

So you have to add the debian non-free repository to one of your sources.list files if not present already. (You should use antiX control center for this if not experienced to handle it.)

Now, open a console window (from antiX menu)

	sudo apt-get update
	sudo apt-get install sl-modem-daemon
	sudo apt-get install efax efax-gtk

This will install the soft-modem driver for this notebook (intel sound chip set) as well as a really lean but also comfortable fax software efax and its frontend efax-gtk.
Watch out for any errors occuring while installing an sort them out.

Let’s do some checking:
lsmod command should show you at least these sound modules loaded, which have proven here to make the fax work on this very notebook (RIM2000). It should work with slight modifications on all notebooks with similar specs.
You should know at this point that actually your onboard soundchip is used to create and receive the signals a fax message is transferred with on this notebook. (External fax dongles might do all this on their own dedicated hardware.)
If one or the other of them is missing, you should try to modprobe them. I can’t tell you whether some of them are not really needed for the fax. This is what I found to be installed on this notebook using antiX 17.4.1 with all the updates from “apt-get upgrade” until today installed.

	$ sudo lsmod 
		snd_hda_intel
		snd_hda_codec
		snd_hda_codec_generic
		snd_hda_codec_si3054  # this one refers to the modem section of the chipset
		snd_hda_codec_realtek
		snd_hda_core
		snd_hwdep
		snd_timer
		snd_pcm
		snd
		soundcore
		saa7134_alsa  # this one is probably not needed, since I believe it is for S-Video sound only.

	$ sudo cat /proc/asound/pcm| grep -i Modem
		00-06: Si3054 Modem : Si3054 Modem : playback 1 : capture 1

	$ aplay -l
		Karte 0: Intel [HDA Intel], Gerät 6: Si3054 Modem [Si3054 Modem]
		Sub-Geräte: 0/1
		Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0

The output above shows: The modem kernel module has been properly loaded, providing an interface for the softmodem driver. Also alsa shows the device correctly (alsa refers to the modem as “hw:0,6” here).

Now make sure “cups” service is started:

	$ sudo service cups status
	[ ok ] cupsd is running.

If not running, make it run using the command “$ sudo service cups start” (or install it first if not present at all, apt-get, or antiX control center, you know already.)

Add your user to the groups “fax”, “dialout” and “Slmodemd”, “lp” and “lpadmin”. You can use antiX Control Center providing easy access for this in case you dont prefere the shortcut via command line.
After modifying the group membership you are to log off from and on to desktop session once. There is no reasonable way around this to my knowledge. (A complete reboot does the same job, but don’t forget to save persistence when engaged).

Next edit the file: /etc/default/sl-modem-daemon, look for the lines (only the part left of the equal sign is significant):

		SLMODEMD_DEVICE=slamr0
		SLMODEMD_COUNTRY=ALGERIA
		OPTS=""

and change them to

		SLMODEMD_DEVICE=auto
		SLMODEMD_COUNTRY=GERMANY
		OPTS="-r"

using a simple(!) text editor (e.g. geany from antiX menu); save and exit. You will need root privileges to write the file back to disk after editing.
Wherein you may replace ALGERIA or GERMANY with USA or whatever country you come from and which is supported by sl-modem-daemon. (enter “slmodemd –countrylist” into terminal window in order to get an idea what you might want to write into there.)
The “-r” in the line OPTS= allows the modem to answer a call from outside in order to receive a fax message (precisely: this makes it “hear” the ringtone). Some other modem types don’t need this to be set.

Let’s start the driver daemon:

$ sudo service sl-modem-daemon status

should answer something like “not started”

$ sudo service sl-modem-daemon start
        Starting SmartLink Modem driver for: hw:0,6.
        Creating /dev/modem symlink, pointing to: /dev/ttySL0.

starts actully the modem. If you want to use it frequently make sure to activate it in antiX control center, section “startup services” so it will be loaded on every boot.
(If there are any error messages or another ending of the first line than hw:0,6 in the output then you could try to modify the line in the file above to
SLMODEMD_DEVICE=hw:0,6
save file again and “$ sudo service sl-modem-daemon restart”.) which is only true if you use exactly this type of notebook. Again, adapt this to your needs.

Next step: Open your (internet)-browser, enter the URL: http://localhost:631 (you don’t need to be connected to internet for this, since you start the local printer configuration this way. I prefere this way, since for some reason the button for adding a new printer in antiX control center was constantly greyed out, so no printer could be added).

printer-administration--> add printer.
       Network printer (ipp)    =Internet Printing Protocol
       Name:   <whatever-you-like>
       URI:    socket://localhost:9900 (we'll check efax config later to make sure the same port is set there.).
       Driver(Manufacturer): RAW(en)
       Settings: don't care.

If you’d like to have the fax machine icon always visible in the tray for easy access, edit the file “~/.icewm/startup”, add the line

                efax-gtk -s &

save and exit text editor (geany). Icon will appear after next logon to desktop.

And yet we are ready to start fax program itself. Chose “efax-gtk” icon from taskbar or from antiX menu (submenu: programs or any of its sub-submenus). It comes up with a single dialog window for normal operation, which is absolutely sufficient.
But open “Settings” from efaxgtk file-menu first. Enter into the fields on the following tabs:

- Identity:  replace "Joe Bloggs" (otherwise this will be sent as the header of every outgoing fax from you), phone number and so on.
- Modem:     Serial device:  ttySL0
             Capabilities:   1,5,0,0,0,0,0,1  (refer to "man efax", section capabilities. You can adjust this when transmission errors occur. standard would run 1,5,0,2,0,0,0,0) 
             Class				1
             Dial mode	(this is up to your phone provider, we could use both here, but "tone" is the better choice probably.)
- Params:    Don't touch anything in this cryptic settings string. It should run "Z &FE&D2S7=120 &C0 M1L0" which works fine on this notebook. It is the initialisation string for your modem, if you use another type, refer to its manual if this string doesn't work. These are so called "AT"-Commands.
             Reset Parms = Z   (also an AT-command)
- Print:     Make sure to check box "Use GTK+ print system" for lpr mode will produce very poor results and needs some aditional settings.
- Viewing:   enter "evince" as postscript and pdf vierwer, since this one is installed in antiX
- Socket:    check "Run socket server",
             check "Pop up dialog when fax is received via socket" (this will present a dialog to enter phone number of the recipient imediately after printing the page(s) form e.g.libreoffice or simplescan.)
             "Port" has to be the same as entered while creating the cups printer above: "9900".
- Send:      resolution: fine (this makes things readable on remote fax copy even with small fonts and fine scanned structures -- as long as the remote machine is equipped correspondingly. Otherwise resolution will be reduced automatically on transmission.
            Dial Prefix:Only necessery if you have to predial an aditional number before you can phone to the outer world (so its meant for people with private branche exchange installations (like "Fritz!Box") only.

Close settings menue, we are done with installing and setup now, and going to try sending the first fax message.

There are some modes of operation efax-gtk is capable to handle:

Receiving:
– pressing the button “Standby state” it waits for incomming faxes afterwards. Ask a friend to send you a fax message for testing, before you really need it urgently some day. Some industries also will happily bump their fax spam on you if you ask 😉
– If you want your machine not to receive anything press “stop” button. This cancels also a before started sending-process.
– Since after connection to remote fax station is established efax-gtk asks remote station whether it has documents to transfer you can poll fax messages simply by dialling a fax poll service number and wait for fax getting transfered to you.

Sending:
– chosing the Radio button “file” will allow you to chose one or more files (pdf or ps) which may contain one or more pages each from one of your folders on your system.
– chosing the Radio button “socket” will allow you to print directly from any program to fax chosing the newly created fax-printer. So you could directly send a just typed page from any word processing program (libreoffice e.g.)
A dialog will then open to enter the fax number.

Since the program “simplescan” is preinstalled in antiX if I’m not mistaken (I’ve installed a couple of standard tools some months ago, so I’m not sure whether it was really present in fresh install already), you can send sheet documents when you have connected a scanning device via SCSI, parallel port, old school Serial Port, Firewire, USB or whatever, simply by printing something directly from “simple scan” to the fax-printer we have just created.
(When using a SCSI scanner it will not get detected automatically when powering on this device after system is booted alrady. Most people don’t know they won’t have to restart their computer in this situation (like they don’t need to do so while using usb devices). Just run (in terminal window) “sudo rescan-scsi-bus” after once you have installed scsi-tools: “sudo apt get update && sudo apt-get install scsi-tools” or use antiX control center.)
This notebook doesn not have a SCSI jack, so in my case a SCSI scanner is connected to a second “docking” PC (running also on antiX), which is used as an adtitional file storage also. The connection is esteblished using sane via ethernet, but this is a very special use case, I don’t get into in detail right here. Maybe some other time.

So for now:
Happy Fax sending and receiving!

P.S.: There is a little drawback when you need a dial-prefix containing a “#” sharp sign: This will actually not work (at least I did not find a way to make efax-gtk to accept it). Only workaround for me was to re-enter the prefix for each and every fax message as part of the phone number again. Reason for this displeasing behaviour probably is the fact that the sharp sign represents in linux config files always a comment.

But as a whole thing, this solution is that convenient for daily usage in privat (personal) sector that no commercial solution could ever top it. Even a fax protocol gets created and all outgoing and incoming fax messages are stored with date and time in correspondent subfolders in home directory of the user.
Great thing, working perfectly, Thank you very mutch, Chris Vine! (and to all the other people providing and maintaining the programs which this one is relying upon.)

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Member Xecure]

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Thanks for the guide, Robin. I had this problem a few years ago and never found out a way.
This was a very good guide. I hope I don’t need to use any fax in the future, but if needed, I will certainly benefit from your effort.

Regards

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member Robin]

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Xecure wrote:

had this problem a few years ago and never found out a way

Well, I’m not surprised about hearing that, since there was a nasty bug whithin one of the drivers some years ago which had stopped my efforts at that time also, and I then used a virtualised “windows” as a workaround. I was able to isolate the problem to a wrong presumption the driver had made: It tried to access the hardware using 48kHz sample frequence whereas the soundchip uses for the modem section 32kHz only. I was encouraged to notice this bug has been mended out meanwhile, so I gave the thing a new try now having been in need of it.

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

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