source: BOOK/introduction/common/askforhelp.xml @ fb40919

clfs-1.2clfs-2.1clfs-3.0.0-systemdclfs-3.0.0-sysvinitsystemdsysvinit
Last change on this file since fb40919 was fb40919, checked in by Chris Staub <chris@…>, 18 years ago

Changed many 'LFS' references to 'CLFS'

  • Property mode set to 100644
File size: 5.2 KB
RevLine 
[3f8be484]1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
2<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
3  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
4  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
5  %general-entities;
6]>
7
8<sect1 id="ch-intro-askforhelp">
9  <?dbhtml filename="askforhelp.html"?>
10
11  <title>Help</title>
12
13  <para>If an issue or a question is encountered while working through
14  this book, check the FAQ page at <ulink url="&faq-root;#generalfaq"/>.
15  Questions are often already answered there. If your question is not
16  answered on this page, try to find the source of the problem. The
17  following hint will give you some guidance for troubleshooting:
18  <ulink url="&hints-root;errors.txt"/>.</para>
19
20  <para>If you cannot find your problem listed in the FAQ, search the mailing
21  lists at <ulink url="&lfs-root;search.html"/>.</para>
22
23  <para>We also have a wonderful LFS community that is willing to offer
24  assistance through the mailing lists and IRC (see the <xref
25  linkend="ch-intro-resources"/> section of this book). However, we
26  get several support questions everyday and many of them can be easily
27  answered by going to the FAQ and by searching the mailing lists first.
28  So for us to offer the best assistance possible, you need to do some
29  research on your own first. That allows us to focus on the more unusual
30  support needs. If your searches do not produce a solution, please include
31  all relevant information (mentioned below) in your request for help.</para>
32
33  <sect2>
34    <title>Things to Mention</title>
35
36    <para>Apart from a brief explanation of the problem being experienced,
37    the essential things to include in any request for help are:</para>
38
39    <itemizedlist>
40      <listitem>
41        <para>The version of the book being used (in this case
42        &version;)</para>
43      </listitem>
44      <listitem>
45        <para>The host distribution and version being used to
[fb40919]46        create CLFS</para>
[3f8be484]47      </listitem>
48      <listitem>
49        <para>The package or section the problem was encountered in</para>
50      </listitem>
51      <listitem>
52        <para>The exact error message or symptom being received</para>
53      </listitem>
54      <listitem>
55        <para>Note whether you have deviated from the book at all </para>
56      </listitem>
57    </itemizedlist>
58
59    <note>
60      <para>Deviating from this book does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
[e97d7d3]61      mean that we will not help you. After all, the LFS project is
62      about personal preference. Being upfront about any changes to
63      the established procedure helps us evaluate and determine
64      possible causes of your problem.</para>
[3f8be484]65    </note>
66
67  </sect2>
68
69  <sect2>
70    <title>Configure Script Problems</title>
71
72    <para>If something goes wrong while running the <command>configure</command>
73    script, review the <filename>config.log</filename> file. This file may
74    contain errors encountered during <command>configure</command> which were
75    not printed to the screen. Include the <emphasis>relevant</emphasis>
76    lines if you need to ask for help.</para>
77
78  </sect2>
79
80  <sect2>
81    <title>Compilation Problems</title>
82
83    <para>Both the screen output and the contents of various files are
84    useful in determining the cause of compilation problems. The screen output
85    from the <command>configure</command> script and the
86    <command>make</command> run can be helpful. It is not necessary to
87    include the entire output, but do include enough of the relevant
88    information. Below is an example of the type of information to include
89    from the screen output from <command>make</command>:</para>
90
91<screen><computeroutput>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\"
92-DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\"
93-DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\"
94-DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.
95-g -O2 -c getopt1.c
96gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o
97expand.o file.o function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o
98misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o signame.o variable.o vpath.o
99default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o
100-lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
101/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference
102to `getloadavg'
103collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
104make[2]: *** [make] Error 1
105make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
106make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
107make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
108make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</computeroutput></screen>
109
110    <para>In this case, many people would just include the bottom
111    section:</para>
112
113<screen><computeroutput>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</computeroutput></screen>
114
115    <para>This is not enough information to properly diagnose the problem
116    because it only notes that something went wrong, not
117    <emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong.  The entire section, as in the
118    example above, is what should be saved because it includes the command
119    that was executed and the associated error message(s).</para>
120
121    <para>An excellent article about asking for help on the Internet is
122    available online at <ulink
123    url="http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>.  Read and
124    follow the hints in this document to increase the likelihood of getting
125    the help you need.</para>
126
127  </sect2>
128
129</sect1>
Note: See TracBrowser for help on using the repository browser.