[bf8c11f] | 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> |
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" |
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| 3 | "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [ |
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| 4 | <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent"> |
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| 5 | %general-entities; |
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| 6 | ]> |
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| 7 | |
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| 8 | <sect1 id="ch-intro-askforhelp"> |
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| 9 | <?dbhtml filename="askforhelp.html"?> |
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| 10 | |
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| 11 | <title>Help</title> |
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| 12 | |
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| 13 | <para>If an issue or a question is encountered while working through |
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| 14 | this book, check the FAQ page at <ulink url="&faq-root;#generalfaq"/>. |
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| 15 | Questions are often already answered there. If your question is not |
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| 16 | answered on this page, try to find the source of the problem. The |
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| 17 | following hint will give you some guidance for troubleshooting: |
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| 18 | <ulink url="&hints-root;errors.txt"/>.</para> |
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| 19 | |
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| 20 | <para>If you cannot find your problem listed in the FAQ, search the mailing |
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| 21 | lists at <ulink url="&lfs-root;search.html"/>.</para> |
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| 22 | |
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| 23 | <para>We also have a wonderful LFS community that is willing to offer |
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| 24 | assistance through the mailing lists and IRC (see the <xref |
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| 25 | linkend="ch-intro-resources"/> section of this book). However, we |
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| 26 | get several support questions everyday and many of them can be easily |
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| 27 | answered by going to the FAQ and by searching the mailing lists first. |
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| 28 | So for us to offer the best assistance possible, you need to do some |
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| 29 | research on your own first. That allows us to focus on the more unusual |
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| 30 | support needs. If your searches do not produce a solution, please include |
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| 31 | all relevant information (mentioned below) in your request for help.</para> |
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| 32 | |
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| 33 | <sect2> |
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| 34 | <title>Things to Mention</title> |
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| 35 | |
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| 36 | <para>Apart from a brief explanation of the problem being experienced, |
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| 37 | the essential things to include in any request for help are:</para> |
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| 38 | |
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| 39 | <itemizedlist> |
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| 40 | <listitem> |
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| 41 | <para>The version of the book being used (in this case |
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| 42 | &version;)</para> |
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| 43 | </listitem> |
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| 44 | <listitem> |
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| 45 | <para>The host distribution and version being used to |
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| 46 | create LFS</para> |
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| 47 | </listitem> |
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| 48 | <listitem> |
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| 49 | <para>The package or section the problem was encountered in</para> |
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| 50 | </listitem> |
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| 51 | <listitem> |
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| 52 | <para>The exact error message or symptom being received</para> |
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| 53 | </listitem> |
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| 54 | <listitem> |
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| 55 | <para>Note whether you have deviated from the book at all </para> |
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| 56 | </listitem> |
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| 57 | </itemizedlist> |
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| 58 | |
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| 59 | <note> |
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| 60 | <para>Deviating from this book does <emphasis>not</emphasis> |
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[d6bbc965] | 61 | mean that we will not help you. After all, the LFS project is |
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| 62 | about personal preference. Being upfront about any changes to |
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| 63 | the established procedure helps us evaluate and determine |
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| 64 | possible causes of your problem.</para> |
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[bf8c11f] | 65 | </note> |
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| 66 | |
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| 67 | </sect2> |
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| 68 | |
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| 69 | <sect2> |
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| 70 | <title>Configure Script Problems</title> |
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| 71 | |
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| 72 | <para>If something goes wrong while running the <command>configure</command> |
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| 73 | script, review the <filename>config.log</filename> file. This file may |
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| 74 | contain errors encountered during <command>configure</command> which were |
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| 75 | not printed to the screen. Include the <emphasis>relevant</emphasis> |
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| 76 | lines if you need to ask for help.</para> |
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| 77 | |
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| 78 | </sect2> |
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| 79 | |
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| 80 | <sect2> |
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| 81 | <title>Compilation Problems</title> |
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| 82 | |
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| 83 | <para>Both the screen output and the contents of various files are |
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| 84 | useful in determining the cause of compilation problems. The screen output |
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| 85 | from the <command>configure</command> script and the |
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| 86 | <command>make</command> run can be helpful. It is not necessary to |
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| 87 | include the entire output, but do include enough of the relevant |
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| 88 | information. Below is an example of the type of information to include |
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| 89 | from the screen output from <command>make</command>:</para> |
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| 90 | |
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| 91 | <screen><computeroutput>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\" |
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| 92 | -DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\" |
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| 93 | -DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\" |
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| 94 | -DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. |
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| 95 | -g -O2 -c getopt1.c |
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| 96 | gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o |
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| 97 | expand.o file.o function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o |
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| 98 | misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o signame.o variable.o vpath.o |
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| 99 | default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o |
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| 100 | -lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high': |
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| 101 | /lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference |
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| 102 | to `getloadavg' |
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| 103 | collect2: ld returned 1 exit status |
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| 104 | make[2]: *** [make] Error 1 |
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| 105 | make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1' |
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| 106 | make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 |
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| 107 | make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1' |
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| 108 | make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</computeroutput></screen> |
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| 109 | |
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| 110 | <para>In this case, many people would just include the bottom |
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| 111 | section:</para> |
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| 112 | |
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| 113 | <screen><computeroutput>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</computeroutput></screen> |
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| 114 | |
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| 115 | <para>This is not enough information to properly diagnose the problem |
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| 116 | because it only notes that something went wrong, not |
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| 117 | <emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong. The entire section, as in the |
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| 118 | example above, is what should be saved because it includes the command |
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| 119 | that was executed and the associated error message(s).</para> |
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| 120 | |
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| 121 | <para>An excellent article about asking for help on the Internet is |
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| 122 | available online at <ulink |
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| 123 | url="http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>. Read and |
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| 124 | follow the hints in this document to increase the likelihood of getting |
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| 125 | the help you need.</para> |
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| 126 | |
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| 127 | </sect2> |
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| 128 | |
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| 129 | </sect1> |
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