[673b0d8] | 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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[1770019] | 2 | <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
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[673b0d8] | 3 | <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
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| 4 | %general-entities;
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| 5 | ]>
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[c6b5ddb] | 6 | <sect1 id="prepare-askforhelp">
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[9c10139] | 7 | <title>Help</title>
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[673b0d8] | 8 | <?dbhtml filename="askforhelp.html"?>
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[c6b5ddb] | 9 |
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[81fd230] | 10 | <para>If an issue or a question is encountered while working
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| 11 | through this book, check the FAQ page at <ulink url="&faq-root;#generalfaq"/>.
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| 12 | Questions are often already answered there. If your question is
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| 13 | not answered on this page, try to find the source of the problem. The
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| 14 | following hint will give you some guidance for troubleshooting: <ulink
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| 15 | url="&hints-root;errors.txt"/>.</para>
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| 16 |
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[71ba45f] | 17 | <para>If you cannot find your problem listed in the FAQ, search the mailing
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| 18 | lists at <ulink url="&lfs-root;search.html"/>.</para>
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| 19 |
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| 20 | <para>We also have a wonderful LFS community that is willing to offer assistance
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| 21 | through the mailing lists and IRC (see the <xref
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| 22 | linkend="ch-scatter-administrativa"/> section of this book). However, we get
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| 23 | several support questions everyday and many of them can be easily answered by
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| 24 | going to the FAQ and by searching the mailing lists first. So for us to offer
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| 25 | the best assistance possible, you need to do some research on your own first.
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| 26 | That allows us to focus on the more unusual support needs. If your searches do
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| 27 | not produce a solution, please include all relevant information (mentioned
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| 28 | below) in your request for help.</para>
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[81fd230] | 29 |
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| 30 | <sect2>
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| 31 | <title>Things to Mention</title>
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| 32 |
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| 33 | <para>Apart from a brief explanation of the problem being experienced,
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| 34 | the essential things to include in any request for help are:</para>
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| 35 |
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| 36 | <itemizedlist>
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| 37 | <listitem><para>The version of the book being used (in this case
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| 38 | &version;)</para></listitem>
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| 39 | <listitem><para>The host distribution and version being used to
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| 40 | create LFS</para></listitem>
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| 41 | <listitem><para>The package or section the problem was encountered in</para></listitem>
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| 42 | <listitem><para>The exact error message or symptom being received</para></listitem>
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| 43 | <listitem><para>Note whether you have deviated from the book at all </para></listitem>
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| 44 | </itemizedlist>
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| 45 |
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| 46 | <note><para>Deviating from this book does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
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| 47 | mean that we will not help you. After all, LFS is about personal
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| 48 | preference. Being upfront about any changes to the established
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| 49 | procedure helps us evaluate and determine possible causes of your
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| 50 | problem.</para></note>
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| 51 | </sect2>
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| 52 |
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| 53 | <sect2>
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[09bd7b3] | 54 | <title>Configure Script Problems</title>
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[81fd230] | 55 |
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[fc8a87f] | 56 | <para>If something goes wrong while running the <command>configure</command>
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[334a0df] | 57 | script, review the <filename>config.log</filename> file. This file may
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[fc8a87f] | 58 | contain errors encountered during <command>configure</command> which were not
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[334a0df] | 59 | printed to the screen. Include the <emphasis>relevant</emphasis> lines if you
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[fc8a87f] | 60 | need to ask for help.</para>
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[81fd230] | 61 | </sect2>
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| 62 |
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| 63 | <sect2>
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[09bd7b3] | 64 | <title>Compilation Problems</title>
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[81fd230] | 65 |
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| 66 | <para>Both the screen output and the contents of various files are
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[fc8a87f] | 67 | useful in determining the cause of compilation problems. The screen output
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[0ba4e25] | 68 | from the <command>configure</command> script and the
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[81fd230] | 69 | <command>make</command> run can be helpful. It
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| 70 | is not necessary to include the entire output, but do include enough
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| 71 | of the relevant information. Below is an example of the type of
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| 72 | information to include from the screen output from <command>make</command>:</para>
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| 73 |
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| 74 | <screen><computeroutput>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\"
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| 75 | -DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\"
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| 76 | -DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\"
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| 77 | -DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.
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| 78 | -g -O2 -c getopt1.c
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| 79 | gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o
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| 80 | expand.o file.o function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o
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| 81 | misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o signame.o variable.o vpath.o
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| 82 | default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o
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| 83 | -lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
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| 84 | /lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference
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| 85 | to `getloadavg'
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| 86 | collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
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| 87 | make[2]: *** [make] Error 1
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| 88 | make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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| 89 | make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
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| 90 | make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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| 91 | make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</computeroutput></screen>
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| 92 |
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| 93 | <para>In this case, many people would just include the bottom
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| 94 | section:</para>
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| 95 |
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| 96 | <screen><computeroutput>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</computeroutput></screen>
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| 97 |
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| 98 | <para>This is not enough information to properly diagnose the problem
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| 99 | because it only notes that something went wrong, not
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| 100 | <emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong. The entire section, as in the
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| 101 | example above, is what should be saved because it includes the command
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| 102 | that was executed and the associated error message(s).</para>
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| 103 |
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| 104 | <para>An excellent article about asking for help on the Internet is
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| 105 | available online at <ulink
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| 106 | url="http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>. Read and
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| 107 | follow the hints in this document to increase the likelihood of getting
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| 108 | the help you need.</para>
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| 109 | </sect2>
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| 110 |
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[c6b5ddb] | 111 | </sect1>
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[81fd230] | 112 |
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