1. On the computer itself (as root)

debian:~# apt-get install ssh

You can now log in remotely (as root) and paste commands from this guide

2. First we'll want to add the source to backport from

debian:~# editor /etc/apt/sources.list

Add this line

deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ lenny main

Exit and save

debian:~# apt-get update

3. Download build tools

debian:~# apt-get install build-essential

Download OpenSER source package (currently 1.3.2 in testing/lenny tree)

debian:~# apt-get source openser

Install dependencies

debian:~# apt-get install debhelper dpatch fakeroot libmysqlclient15-dev libexpat1-dev libxml2-dev libpq-dev libradiusclient-ng-dev flex bison zlib1g-dev unixodbc-dev libxmlrpc-c3-dev libperl-dev libsnmp-dev libdb4.4-dev xsltproc libconfuse-dev libldap2-dev libcurl3-gnutls-dev

Move to source directory

debian:~# cd openser-1.3.2/

Replace default control files with debian-etch specific ones

debian:~/openser-1.3.2# mv debian debian-old
debian:~/openser-1.3.2# cp -R packaging/debian-etch debian
debian:~/openser-1.3.2# cp debian-old/changelog debian/

(the changelog in debian-etch directory hasn't been kept up to date, using the newer changelog is necessary for compiled packages to be versioned correctly)

Build

debian:~/openser-1.3.2# dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -tc -us -uc

After some time you'll have .deb packges in the parent directory

debian:~/openser-1.3.2# cd .. && ls

openser_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-berkeley-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-carrierroute-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-cpl-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-dbg_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-jabber-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-ldap-modules_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-mysql-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-perl-modules_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-postgres-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-presence-modules_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-radius-modules_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-snmpstats-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-unixodbc-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-xmlrpc-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
openser-xmpp-module_1.3.2-1_i386.deb

4. Install and configure

debian:~# dpkg -i openser_1.3.2-1_i386.deb
debian:~# editor /etc/default/openser

Make some changes

RUN_OPENSER=yes
MEMORY=128

Save and exit

Prevent downgrade of OpenSER package

debian:~# aptitude hold openser

5. Start the daemon

debian:~# /etc/init.d/openser start
debian:~# /etc/init.d/openser status
Status of openser: openser is running.

If you see the above, all is well. Otherwise try the following to see what went wrong

tail /var/log/syslog

Questions or comments to ted at pbxpal dot com.