mirror of https://github.com/tLDP/LDP
107 lines
4.3 KiB
XML
107 lines
4.3 KiB
XML
<sect1 id="ch02-askforhelp">
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<title>How to ask for help</title>
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<?dbhtml filename="askforhelp.html" dir="chapter02"?>
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<para>If you encounter a problem while using this book, and your problem
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is not listed in the FAQ (<ulink
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url="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq"/>), you will find that most
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of the people on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and
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on the mailing lists are willing to help you. An
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overview of the LFS mailing lists can be found in
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<xref linkend="ch01-maillists"/>. To assist us in diagnosing and solving
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your problem, include as much relevant information as possible in your
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request for help.</para>
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<sect2>
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<title>Things to mention</title>
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<para>Apart from a brief explanation of the problem you're having, the
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essential things to include in your request are:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>the version of the book you are using (being &version;),</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>the host distribution and version you are using to create
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LFS from,</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>the package or section giving you problems,</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>the exact error message or symptom you are receiving,</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>whether you have deviated from the book at all.</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>(Note that saying that you've deviated from the book doesn't mean
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that we won't help you. After all, LFS is about choice. It'll just
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help us to see other possible causes of your problem.)</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>Configure problems</title>
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<para>When something goes wrong during the stage where the configure script
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is run, look through the <filename>config.log</filename> file. This file
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may contain errors encountered during configure which weren't printed to
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the screen. Include those relevant lines if you decide to ask for
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help.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>Compile problems</title>
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<para>To help us find the cause of the problem, both screen output and
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the contents of various files are useful. The screen output from both
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the ./configure script and the make run can be useful. Don't blindly
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include the whole thing but on the other hand, don't include too little.
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As an example, here is some screen output from make:</para>
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<screen>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\"
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-DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\" -DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\"
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-DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.
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-g -O2 -c getopt1.c
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gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o expand.o file.o
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function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o
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signame.o variable.o vpath.o default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o
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-lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
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/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference to `getloadavg'
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collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
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make[2]: *** [make] Error 1
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make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
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make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</screen>
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<para>In this case, many people just include the bottom section where it
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says:</para>
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<screen>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</screen>
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<para>and onwards. This isn't enough for us to diagnose the problem because it
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only tells us that <emphasis>something</emphasis> went wrong, not
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<emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong. The whole section, as in the example
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above, is what should be included to be helpful, because it includes the
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command that was executed and the command's error message(s).</para>
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<para>An excellent article on asking for help on the Internet in general
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has been written by Eric S. Raymond. It is available online at <ulink
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url="http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>.
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Read and follow the hints in that document and you are much more likely
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to get a response to start with and also to get the help you actually
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need.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>Test suite problems</title>
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<para>Many packages provide a test suite which, depending on the importance
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of the package, we may encourage you to run. Sometimes packages will
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generate false or expected failures. If you encounter these, you can check
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the LFS Wiki page at <ulink url="http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/"/> to see
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whether we have already investigated and noted them. If we already know
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about them, then usually there is no need to be concerned.</para>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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