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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
%general-entities;
]>
<sect1 id="ch-intro-askforhelp">
<?dbhtml filename="askforhelp.html"?>
<title>Help</title>
<para>If an issue or a question is encountered while working through
this book, please check the FAQ page at <ulink url="&faq-root;#generalfaq"/>.
Questions are often already answered there. If your question is not
answered on this page, try to find the source of the problem. The
following hint will give you some guidance for troubleshooting:
<ulink url="&hints-root;errors.txt"/>.</para>
<para>If you cannot find your problem listed in the FAQ, search the mailing
lists at <ulink url="&lfs-root;search.html"/>.</para>
<para>We also have a wonderful LFS community that is willing to offer
assistance through the mailing lists and IRC (see the <xref
linkend="ch-intro-resources"/> section of this book). However,
we get several support questions every day and many of them can be easily
answered by going to the FAQ and by searching the mailing lists first.
So, for us to offer the best assistance possible, you need to do some
research on your own first. That allows us to focus on the more unusual
support needs. If your searches do not produce a solution, please include
all relevant information (mentioned below) in your request for help.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Things to Mention</title>
<para>Apart from a brief explanation of the problem being experienced,
the essential things to include in any request for help are:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The version of the book being used (in this case &version;)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The host distribution and version being used to create LFS</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The output from the <xref linkend='version-check'/> script</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The package or section the problem was encountered in</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The exact error message or symptom being received</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Note whether you have deviated from the book at all </para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<note>
<para>Deviating from this book does <emphasis>not</emphasis> mean that
we will not help you. After all, LFS is about personal preference.
Being upfront about any changes to the established procedure helps us
evaluate and determine possible causes of your problem.</para>
</note>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Configure Script Problems</title>
<para>If something goes wrong while running the <command>configure</command>
script, review the <filename>config.log</filename> file. This file may
contain errors encountered during <command>configure</command> which were
not printed to the screen. Include the <emphasis>relevant</emphasis> lines
if you need to ask for help.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Compilation Problems</title>
<para>Both the screen output and the contents of various files are useful
in determining the cause of compilation problems. The screen output from
the <command>configure</command> script and the <command>make</command>
run can be helpful. It is not necessary to include the entire output, but
do include enough of the relevant information. Below is an example of the
type of information to include from the screen output from
<command>make</command>:</para>
<screen><computeroutput>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</computeroutput></screen>
<para>In this case, many people would just include the bottom
section:</para>
<screen><computeroutput>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</computeroutput></screen>
<para>This is not enough information to properly diagnose the problem
because it only notes that something went wrong, not
<emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong. The entire section, as in the
example above, is what should be saved because it includes the command
that was executed and the associated error message(s).</para>
<para>An excellent article about asking for help on the Internet is
available online at <ulink
url="http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>. Read and
follow the hints in this document to increase the likelihood of getting
the help you need.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
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