source: introduction/common/askforhelp.xml@ cc07a72

Last change on this file since cc07a72 was bf8c11f, checked in by Jim Gifford <clfs@…>, 19 years ago

r627@server (orig r625): jim | 2005-10-31 12:59:34 -0800
Import of Cross-LFS Book

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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
46 create LFS</para>
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>
61 mean that we will not help you. After all, LFS is about personal
62 preference. Being upfront about any changes to the established
63 procedure helps us evaluate and determine possible causes of your
64 problem.</para>
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>
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