| 1 | <sect1 id="intro-welcome-askhelp">
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| 2 | <?dbhtml filename="askhelp.html"?>
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| 3 | <title>Asking for help and the <acronym>FAQ</acronym></title>
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| 4 |
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| 5 | <para>If you encounter a problem while using this book, and your problem
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| 6 | is not listed in the <acronym>FAQ</acronym> (<ulink
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| 7 | url="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq"/>), you will find that most of the
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| 8 | people on Internet Relay Chat (<acronym>IRC</acronym>) and on the mailing lists
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| 9 | are willing to help you. An overview of the <acronym>LFS</acronym> mailing
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| 10 | lists can be found in <xref linkend="intro-welcome-maillists"/>. To assist us
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| 11 | in diagnosing and solving your problem, include as much relevant information as
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| 12 | possible in your request for help.</para>
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| 13 |
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| 14 | <sect2>
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| 15 | <title>Things to check prior to asking</title>
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| 16 |
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| 17 | <para>Before asking for help, you should review the following
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| 18 | items:</para>
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| 19 |
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| 20 | <itemizedlist>
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| 21 | <listitem><para>Is the hardware support compiled into the kernel or
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| 22 | available as a module to the kernel? If it is a module, is it configured
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| 23 | properly in <filename>modules.conf</filename> and has it been loaded? You
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| 24 | should use <command>lsmod</command> as root to see if it's loaded. Check the
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| 25 | <filename>sys.log</filename> or run <command>modprobe <driver>
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| 26 | </command> to review any error message. If it loads properly, you may need
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| 27 | to add the <command>modprobe</command> to your boot scripts.</para></listitem>
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| 28 |
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| 29 | <listitem><para>Are your permissions properly set, especially for
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| 30 | devices? <acronym>LFS</acronym> uses groups to make these settings easier, but
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| 31 | it also adds the step of adding users to groups to allow access. A simple
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| 32 | <command>moduser -G audio <user></command> may be all that's necessary
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| 33 | for that user to have access to the sound system. Any question that starts
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| 34 | out with "It works as root, but not as ..." requires a thorough review
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| 35 | of permissions prior to asking.</para></listitem>
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| 36 |
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| 37 | <listitem><para><acronym>BLFS</acronym> liberally uses <filename>
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| 38 | /opt/<package></filename>. The main objection to this centers around the
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| 39 | need to expand your environment variables for each package placed there (e.g.
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| 40 | PATH=$PATH:/opt/kde/bin). In some cases, the package will walk you
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| 41 | through the changes, but some will not. The section called "<ulink
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| 42 | url="beyond.html">Going Beyond BLFS</ulink>" is available to help you check.</para></listitem>
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| 43 | </itemizedlist></sect2>
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| 44 |
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| 45 | <sect2>
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| 46 | <title>Things to mention</title>
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| 47 |
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| 48 | <para>Apart from a brief explanation of the problem you're having, the
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| 49 | essential things to include in your request are:</para>
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| 50 |
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| 51 | <itemizedlist>
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| 52 | <listitem><para>the version of the book you are using (being
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| 53 | &version;),</para></listitem>
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| 54 | <listitem><para>the package or section giving you
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| 55 | problems,</para></listitem>
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| 56 | <listitem><para>the exact error message or symptom you are
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| 57 | receiving,</para></listitem>
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| 58 | <listitem><para>whether you have deviated from the book or
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| 59 | <acronym>LFS</acronym> at all.</para></listitem>
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| 60 | </itemizedlist>
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| 61 |
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| 62 | <para>(Note that saying that you've deviated from the book doesn't mean
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| 63 | that we won't help you. It'll just help us to see other possible causes of your problem.)</para>
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| 64 |
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| 65 | <para>Expect guidance instead of specific instructions. If you are
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| 66 | instructed to read something, please do so, it generally implies that
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| 67 | the answer was way too obvious and that the question would not have been asked
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| 68 | if a little research was done prior to asking. The volunteers in the mailing
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| 69 | list prefer not to be used as an alternative to doing reasonable research on
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| 70 | your end. In addition, the quality of your experience with <acronym>BLFS
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| 71 | </acronym> is also greatly enhanced by this research, and the quality of
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| 72 | volunteers is enhanced because they don't feel that their time has been abused,
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| 73 | so they are far more likely to participate.</para>
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| 74 |
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| 75 | <para>An excellent article on asking for help on the Internet in general
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| 76 | has been written by Eric S. Raymond. It is available online at <ulink
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| 77 | url="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>.
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| 78 | Read and follow the hints in that document and you are much more likely
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| 79 | to get a response to start with and also to get the help you actually
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| 80 | need.</para>
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| 81 | </sect2>
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| 82 |
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| 83 | </sect1>
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| 84 |
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