Hylafax help/recommendations
 

I have a clean install of Slackware 14.1 64 bit that we intend to use as a fax server. I did an install of the slackbuilds hylafax package, 6.0.6. Install goes fine. Configuration goes without issue. Modem is identified. Modem verified to be working by using minicom to connect to external bbs. Install and config is completed with no apparent problems.

Time to test:

sendfax -n -d 27176 /tmp/faxtest1.tif
request id is 1 (group id 1) for host localhost (1 file)

Check fax queue:

faxstat -s
JID Pri S Owner Number Pages Dials TTS Status
1 127 W root 27176 0:0 0:12

And it just sits there and does nothing. And sits...and sits...and sits....

Fast forward a couple of hours. Sent faxes just sit in queue. There are no errors or messages in any logs that I can find. For reasons unknown to me, it just won't take the faxes in the queue and send them, and I can't find any place where it is telling me why.

So - where do you go from here?

Would I be better off using hylafax plus? Or, is there a different/better fax server package that anyone can recommend?

Update: Some kind soul pointed out that I needed to run faxgetty.... I'm sure this obscure little tidbit was in some documentation somewhere.... <sigh> ...

And having done so, it works.

I switched to hylafax plus, and that fixed the font problem when sending a text file (which is another issue entirely).

NOW I have yet another issue. On reboot, hfaxd does not start. rc.hylafax is chmodded to 755, and I can run it manually and it starts up fine, but on reboot it is not running and faxing is dead until I manually start it. So I don't get it. I have /etc/rc.d/rc.hylafax, chmodded to 755, running it manually starts hfaxd, but rebooting does not. what am I missing?

Did you add a line to /etc/rc.d/rc.local along the lines of
?

http://slackbuilds.org/slackbuilds/1...hylafax/README
http://slackbuilds.org/slackbuilds/1...ADME.SLACKWARE

I did not. I understand what that does, BUT: I can auto start mysql by setting rc.mysqld to chmod 755, I can auto start apache by setting rc.httpd to chmod 755. Why, then, can't I start hfaxd by setting rc.hylafax to chmod 755?

There is something about auto starting programs that I am not understanding. What am I missing?

You can start mysqld and apache because in /etc/rc.d/rc.M, the lines
and
occur. There is no general code that runs any of the rc.* scripts if they're executable, though that could be possible. The script rc.M is run at boot time by init.

THANK YOU!! That was the missing link in my understanding! Now it makes perfect (or at least better) sense.