Installing FreeSWITCH from Source<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nCompiling FreeSWITCH from source takes longer than the binary method, but it gives you full control over which modules are built, lets you pin a specific version, and avoids the SignalWire token requirement entirely. This is the right approach if you want to customize the build, run a version that isn’t in the binary repo, or simply prefer building critical infrastructure from source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This guide targets Debian 12 and Ubuntu 22.04 \/ 24.04. We’ll build FreeSWITCH v1.10.12, but you can swap in any tagged version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u26a0\ufe0f Compiling takes time. On a modest VM, expect 20\u201340 minutes for the full build. On a beefier box with lots of cores, expect closer to 10 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 1 \u2014 Become root<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAll the build steps require root privileges. Open a root shell:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo -i<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 2 \u2014 Set up your build variables<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are few variables used throughout the guide. Setting them once keeps the commands clean:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FS_VERSION=v1.10.12\nBUILD_DIR=\/usr\/src\nPREFIX=\/usr\/local\/freeswitch\nJOBS=$(nproc)<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n\n- FS_VERSION is the FreeSWITCH git tag to build. v1.10.12 is the current stable release at the time of writing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- BUILD_DIR is where source trees will live.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- PREFIX is where the compiled FreeSWITCH will be installed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- JOBS tells make how many parallel build jobs to run. $(nproc) uses all available CPU cores.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 3 \u2014 Install build dependencies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFreeSWITCH has a long list of build-time dependencies \u2014 compilers, autotools, and the development headers for every codec and library it can link against. Install them all in one shot:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive\napt-get update\napt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \\\n git build-essential cmake automake autoconf libtool libtool-bin pkg-config \\\n ca-certificates wget unzip uuid-dev \\\n libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libdb-dev libsqlite3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev \\\n libpcre3-dev libspeex-dev libspeexdsp-dev libldns-dev libedit-dev \\\n libtiff-dev libjpeg-dev libopus-dev libsndfile1-dev libavformat-dev \\\n libswscale-dev libswresample-dev libpq-dev liblua5.2-dev \\\n yasm nasm<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThis pulls in roughly 300 MB of packages, so give it a minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 4 \u2014 Build libks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nlibks is a SignalWire-maintained foundational library that FreeSWITCH depends on. Clone it, build it, and install it into \/usr so the rest of the build can find it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cd \"$BUILD_DIR\"\ngit clone https:\/\/github.com\/signalwire\/libks.git || true\ncd libks\ngit pull --ff-only\ncmake . -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=\/usr\nmake -j\"$JOBS\"\nmake install<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThe || true<\/code> on the clone lets you re-run the script safely if the directory already exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 5 \u2014 Build sofia-sip<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nsofia-sip is the SIP stack FreeSWITCH uses for all SIP signaling. Build it the same way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cd \"$BUILD_DIR\"\ngit clone https:\/\/github.com\/freeswitch\/sofia-sip.git || true\ncd sofia-sip\ngit pull --ff-only\n.\/bootstrap.sh\n.\/configure --prefix=\/usr\nmake -j\"$JOBS\"\nmake install<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 6 \u2014 Build spandsp (pinned)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nspandsp handles DSP tasks like fax, DTMF, and tone generation. There’s a catch here: in June 2023, spandsp’s upstream renamed some V18 mode constants and changed the v18_init() function signature. FreeSWITCH 1.10.12’s mod_spandsp was written against the older API and won’t compile against newer spandsp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fix is to pin spandsp to the commit immediately before that breaking change:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cd \"$BUILD_DIR\"\ngit clone https:\/\/github.com\/freeswitch\/spandsp.git || true\ncd spandsp\ngit fetch --all --tags\ngit checkout d9681c3747ff4f56b1876557b9f6d894b7e6c18d~1\n.\/bootstrap.sh\n.\/configure --prefix=\/usr\nmake -j\"$JOBS\"\nmake install\nldconfig<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThe ~1<\/code> suffix tells git to check out the parent of that commit \u2014 in other words, the last commit before the API-breaking change landed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 7 \u2014 Clone FreeSWITCH and check out your version<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nNow for the main event. Clone FreeSWITCH itself and check out the tag you want to build:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cd \"$BUILD_DIR\"\ngit clone https:\/\/github.com\/signalwire\/freeswitch.git || true\ncd freeswitch\ngit fetch --tags\ngit checkout \"$FS_VERSION\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 8 \u2014 Disable mod_signalwire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBefore building, disable mod_signalwire. This module connects FreeSWITCH to SignalWire’s cloud platform and requires the proprietary signalwire-client-c library, which is only available from SignalWire’s token-gated repo. If you’re compiling from source, you almost certainly don’t want this module \u2014 comment it out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
.\/bootstrap.sh -j\nsed -i 's|^applications\/mod_signalwire|#applications\/mod_signalwire|' modules.conf<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThe .\/bootstrap.sh -j<\/code> generates modules.conf (and the rest of the build system), so you need to run it before editing the file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 9 \u2014 Configure and build FreeSWITCH<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nConfigure the build with your chosen prefix and PostgreSQL support, then compile:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
.\/configure --prefix=\"$PREFIX\" \\\n --enable-core-pgsql-support \\\n --disable-dependency-tracking\nmake -j\"$JOBS\"\nmake install<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThis is the long step. Grab a coffee, go for a walk, or just watch the compiler output scroll by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 10 \u2014 Install default sounds and music-on-hold<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFreeSWITCH ships with a large library of prompts and hold music. Install the default 8 kHz sounds (good enough for most telephony use) and the default music-on-hold tracks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
make cd-sounds-install cd-moh-install\nldconfig<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nIf you want higher-quality 16 kHz, 32 kHz, or 48 kHz sound packs, you can run make hd-sounds-install<\/code>, make uhd-sounds-install<\/code>, or make cd-sounds-install<\/code> variants with different rates \u2014 but 8 kHz is the safe default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 11 \u2014 Create the freeswitch user and fix ownership<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRunning FreeSWITCH as root is a bad idea. Create a dedicated system user and hand over ownership of the install directory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
id -u freeswitch >\/dev\/null 2>&1 || useradd --system --home \"$PREFIX\" --shell \/sbin\/nologin freeswitch\nchown -R freeswitch:freeswitch \"$PREFIX\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThe id<\/code> check makes this safe to re-run \u2014 it won’t fail if the user already exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 12 \u2014 Create a systemd service<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe source install doesn’t ship a systemd unit, so we’ll create one. This unit runs FreeSWITCH as the freeswitch user with the ulimits it expects (large file descriptor limits, unlimited core dumps, real-time scheduling):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cat >\/etc\/systemd\/system\/freeswitch.service <<EOF\n[Unit]\nDescription=FreeSWITCH Telephony Platform\nAfter=network-online.target\nWants=network-online.target\n\n[Service]\nType=forking\nUser=freeswitch\nGroup=freeswitch\nLimitCORE=infinity\nLimitNOFILE=100000\nLimitNPROC=60000\nLimitSTACK=250000\nLimitRTPRIO=infinity\nLimitRTTIME=7000000\nExecStart=${PREFIX}\/bin\/freeswitch -ncwait -nonat\nExecReload=${PREFIX}\/bin\/fs_cli -x reloadxml\nRestart=on-failure\nRestartSec=5\n\n[Install]\nWantedBy=multi-user.target\nEOF<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nReload systemd, then enable and start the service:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
systemctl daemon-reload\nsystemctl enable --now freeswitch<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 13 \u2014 Add convenience symlinks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBecause FreeSWITCH is installed under \/usr\/local\/freeswitch\/bin, those binaries aren’t on your PATH by default. Link them into \/usr\/local\/bin so you can run freeswitch and fs_cli from anywhere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ln -sf \"$PREFIX\/bin\/freeswitch\" \/usr\/local\/bin\/freeswitch\nln -sf \"$PREFIX\/bin\/fs_cli\" \/usr\/local\/bin\/fs_cli<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStep 14 \u2014 Verify the installation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nCheck the service is running:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
systemctl status freeswitch<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nOpen the FreeSWITCH CLI:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
fs_cli<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nInside fs_cli, run:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
status<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nYou should see the FreeSWITCH version, uptime, and session counts. To exit, type \/exit or press Ctrl+D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nUseful Information<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/phonesstillexist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/freeswitch-header-1600x840-1-1024x538.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n