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>5. Usenet Newsgroup Archives</H1
><P
>&#13;
The ability to search for and retrieve information from archived posts
to the Linux-related (Usenet) newsgroups represents a powerful means of
troubleshooting in Linux.
</P
><P
>&#13;
Search engines permit one to search the archives by stipulating the
forum, keywords, authors, dates, language and combinations thereof.
Because the number of Linux-related newsgroups is large, the likelihood
of finding useful information is high.
</P
><P
>&#13;
The main web site that currently provides access to Usenet archives
using a search engine is <A
HREF="http://groups.google.com"
TARGET="_top"
>http://groups.google.com</A
>. The
most effective way to do a search is to use its <A
HREF="http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search"
TARGET="_top"
>Advanced Groups
Search page</A
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;
I would like to relate a brief anecdote to demonstrate the efficacy of
this approach. The first time I attempted to build a kernel, I was
presented with this error message when I invoked a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"make"</SPAN
>
command:
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>&#13;make[1]: as86: Command not found
make[1]: *** [bootsect.o] Error 127
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot'
make: *** [zImage]
Error 2
</PRE
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><P
>&#13;
I had no idea what <TT
CLASS="literal"
>as86</TT
> was, but I entered it as the
keyword in the <EM
>Subject</EM
> field of the Advanced Groups
Search page at groups.google.com, and was presented with a large number
of posts from folks who had encountered the same problem. Respondents
had provided the reason and solution: I did not have an assembler/linker
necessary to create machine code, and the <I
CLASS="medialabel"
>bin86</I
>
package provided it. I downloaded and installed a RPM package of the
latter and was on my way. This entire process took about 10 minutes!
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