aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/chapter02/askforhelp.xml
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorGerard Beekmans <gerard@linuxfromscratch.org>2001-09-07 19:43:18 +0000
committerGerard Beekmans <gerard@linuxfromscratch.org>2001-09-07 19:43:18 +0000
commitddfe6034bdc49e0c83e59a4e4c1ef56d8d9540bb (patch)
treebf84ed205c3f9a45bdfb3e13d828722ae3464a83 /chapter02/askforhelp.xml
parent9726ae84c6e6b150cd943df825ef20b5af9885c6 (diff)
added chapter 2 -- how to ask for help
git-svn-id: http://svn.linuxfromscratch.org/LFS/trunk/BOOK@1194 4aa44e1e-78dd-0310-a6d2-fbcd4c07a689
Diffstat (limited to 'chapter02/askforhelp.xml')
-rw-r--r--chapter02/askforhelp.xml72
1 files changed, 72 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/chapter02/askforhelp.xml b/chapter02/askforhelp.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d71997bda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/chapter02/askforhelp.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+<sect1 id="ch02-askforhelp">
+<title>How to ask for help</title>
+
+<para>If you have a problem while using this book, you'll find that most
+of the people on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and the mailing lists will be
+willing to help you. You can find a list of the LFS mailing lists in
+<xref linkend="ch01-maillists"/>. To assist us in helping though, you should
+make sure that you have as much relevant information as you can
+available. This will assist in diagnosing and solving your problem.
+This part of the book will guide you as to which sort of information
+will be useful.</para>
+
+<sect2>
+<title>Basic Information</title>
+
+<para>First of all we need a brief explanation of the problem.
+Essential things to include are:</para>
+
+<itemizedlist>
+<listitem><para>The version of the book you are using, which is &version;</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>Which package or section you are having problems with</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>What the exact error message or symptom you are recieving is</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>If you have deviated from the book at all</para></listitem>
+</itemizedlist>
+
+<para>Note that saying that you've deviated from the book doesn't mean
+that we won't help you, after all, LFS is all about choice. It'll just
+help us to see the possible other causes of your problem.</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2>
+<title>Configure problems</title>
+
+<para>When something goes wrong during the stage where the configure
+script is run, look at the last lines of the
+<filename>config.log</filename>. This file contains possible errors
+encoutered during configure which aren't always printed to the screen.
+Include those relevant lines if you decide to ask for help.</para>
+
+<sect2>
+<title>Compile problems</title>
+
+<para>To help us find the cause of the problem, both screen output and
+the contents of various files are useful. The screen output from both
+the ./configure script and when make is run can be useful. Don't
+blindly include the whole thing but on the other hand, don't include too
+little. As an example, here is some screen output from make:</para>
+
+<screen>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\" -DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\" -DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\" -DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -g -O2 -c getopt1.c
+gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o expand.o file.o function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o signame.o variable.o vpath.o default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o -lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
+/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference to `getloadavg'
+collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
+make[2]: *** [make] Error 1
+make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
+make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
+make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
+make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</screen>
+
+<para>In this case, many people just include the bottom section where it
+says <screen>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</screen> and onwards. This
+isn't enough for us to diagnose the problem becuase it only tells us
+that <emphasis>something</emphasis> went wrong, not
+<emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong. The whole section as
+quoted above is what should be included to be helpful, because it
+includes the command that was executed and the command's error
+message(s).</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+</sect1>
+