[ddfe603] | 1 | <sect1 id="ch02-askforhelp">
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| 2 | <title>How to ask for help</title>
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[04f5529] | 3 | <?dbhtml filename="askforhelp.html" dir="chapter02"?>
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[ddfe603] | 4 |
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[4ceb3a1] | 5 | <para>If you encounter a problem while using this book, you'll find that most
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| 6 | of the people on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and on the mailing lists are
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| 7 | willing to help you. (An overview of the LFS mailing lists you can find in
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| 8 | <xref linkend="ch01-maillists"/>.) To assist us in diagnosing and solving
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| 9 | your problem, make sure to include as much relevant information
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| 10 | as possible in your request for help.</para>
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[ddfe603] | 11 |
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| 12 | <sect2>
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[4ceb3a1] | 13 | <title>Things to mention</title>
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[ddfe603] | 14 |
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[4ceb3a1] | 15 | <para>Apart from a brief explanation of the problem you're having, the
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| 16 | essential things to include in your request are:</para>
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[ddfe603] | 17 |
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| 18 | <itemizedlist>
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[4ceb3a1] | 19 | <listitem><para>the version of the book you are using (being &version;),</para></listitem>
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| 20 | <listitem><para>the package or section you are having problems with,</para></listitem>
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| 21 | <listitem><para>the exact error message or symptom you are receiving,</para></listitem>
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| 22 | <listitem><para>whether you have deviated from the book at all.</para></listitem>
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[ddfe603] | 23 | </itemizedlist>
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| 24 |
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[4ceb3a1] | 25 | <para>(Note that saying that you've deviated from the book doesn't mean
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| 26 | that we won't help you. After all, LFS is about choice. It'll just
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| 27 | help us to see other possible causes of your problem.)</para>
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[ddfe603] | 28 |
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| 29 | </sect2>
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| 30 |
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| 31 | <sect2>
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| 32 | <title>Configure problems</title>
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| 33 |
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| 34 | <para>When something goes wrong during the stage where the configure
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| 35 | script is run, look at the last lines of the
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| 36 | <filename>config.log</filename>. This file contains possible errors
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[ef94a94] | 37 | encountered during configure which aren't always printed to the screen.
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[ddfe603] | 38 | Include those relevant lines if you decide to ask for help.</para>
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| 39 |
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[d28673b] | 40 | </sect2>
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| 41 |
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[ddfe603] | 42 | <sect2>
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| 43 | <title>Compile problems</title>
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| 44 |
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| 45 | <para>To help us find the cause of the problem, both screen output and
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| 46 | the contents of various files are useful. The screen output from both
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| 47 | the ./configure script and when make is run can be useful. Don't
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| 48 | blindly include the whole thing but on the other hand, don't include too
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| 49 | little. As an example, here is some screen output from make:</para>
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| 50 |
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[5e0e068] | 51 | <para><screen>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\"
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| 52 | -DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\" -DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\"
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| 53 | -DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.
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| 54 | -g -O2 -c getopt1.c
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| 55 | gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o expand.o file.o
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| 56 | function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o
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| 57 | signame.o variable.o vpath.o default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o
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| 58 | -lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
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[ddfe603] | 59 | /lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference to `getloadavg'
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| 60 | collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
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| 61 | make[2]: *** [make] Error 1
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| 62 | make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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| 63 | make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
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| 64 | make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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[5e0e068] | 65 | make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</screen></para>
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[ddfe603] | 66 |
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| 67 | <para>In this case, many people just include the bottom section where it
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| 68 | says <screen>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</screen> and onwards. This
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[2f59cf7] | 69 | isn't enough for us to diagnose the problem because it only tells us
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[ddfe603] | 70 | that <emphasis>something</emphasis> went wrong, not
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| 71 | <emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong. The whole section as
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| 72 | quoted above is what should be included to be helpful, because it
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| 73 | includes the command that was executed and the command's error
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| 74 | message(s).</para>
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| 75 |
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[5c3c294] | 76 | <para>An excellent article on asking for help on the Internet in general
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| 77 | has been written by Eric S. Raymond. It is available online at <ulink
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[d920fb0] | 78 | url="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>.
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[5c3c294] | 79 | Read and follow the hints in this document and you are much more likely
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| 80 | to get a response to start with and also to get the help you actually
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| 81 | need.</para>
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| 82 |
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[ddfe603] | 83 | </sect2>
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| 84 |
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| 85 | </sect1>
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| 86 |
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