[46c039e] | 1 | <sect1 id="prepare-askforhelp">
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[ddfe603] | 2 | <title>How to ask for help</title>
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| 3 |
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[a52b2c2] | 4 | <para>If you encounter a problem while using this book, and your problem
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| 5 | is not listed in the FAQ (<ulink url="&faq-root;"/>), you will find that
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| 6 | most of the people on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and on the mailing lists
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| 7 | are willing to help you. An overview of the LFS mailing lists can be
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[3be4d97] | 8 | found via <xref linkend="ch-scatter-maillists"/>. To assist us in
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| 9 | diagnosing and solving your problem, include as much relevant
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| 10 | information 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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[66b86e5] | 20 | <listitem><para>the host distribution and version you are using to create
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| 21 | LFS from,</para></listitem>
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[1e6acd6] | 22 | <listitem><para>the package or section giving you problems,</para></listitem>
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[4ceb3a1] | 23 | <listitem><para>the exact error message or symptom you are receiving,</para></listitem>
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| 24 | <listitem><para>whether you have deviated from the book at all.</para></listitem>
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[ddfe603] | 25 | </itemizedlist>
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| 26 |
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[4ceb3a1] | 27 | <para>(Note that saying that you've deviated from the book doesn't mean
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[2c094d6] | 28 | that we won't help you. After all, LFS is about choice. It'll just
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[4ceb3a1] | 29 | help us to see other possible causes of your problem.)</para>
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[ddfe603] | 30 |
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| 31 | </sect2>
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| 32 |
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| 33 | <sect2>
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| 34 | <title>Configure problems</title>
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| 35 |
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[b89299e] | 36 | <para>When something goes wrong during the stage where the configure script
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| 37 | is run, look through the <filename>config.log</filename> file. This file
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| 38 | may contain errors encountered during configure which weren't printed to
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[17476c5] | 39 | the screen. Include those relevant lines if you decide to ask for
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[b89299e] | 40 | help.</para>
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[ddfe603] | 41 |
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[d28673b] | 42 | </sect2>
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| 43 |
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[ddfe603] | 44 | <sect2>
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| 45 | <title>Compile problems</title>
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| 46 |
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| 47 | <para>To help us find the cause of the problem, both screen output and
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| 48 | the contents of various files are useful. The screen output from both
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[2c094d6] | 49 | the ./configure script and the make run can be useful. Don't blindly
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[1e6acd6] | 50 | include the whole thing but on the other hand, don't include too little.
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| 51 | As an example, here is some screen output from make:</para>
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[ddfe603] | 52 |
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[21ba4e3] | 53 | <screen>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\"
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[2c094d6] | 54 | -DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\" -DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\"
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| 55 | -DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.
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[5e0e068] | 56 | -g -O2 -c getopt1.c
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[2c094d6] | 57 | gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o expand.o file.o
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| 58 | function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o
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| 59 | signame.o variable.o vpath.o default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o
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[5e0e068] | 60 | -lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
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[ddfe603] | 61 | /lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference to `getloadavg'
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| 62 | collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
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| 63 | make[2]: *** [make] Error 1
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| 64 | make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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| 65 | make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
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| 66 | make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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[21ba4e3] | 67 | make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</screen>
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[ddfe603] | 68 |
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[4e7792e] | 69 | <para>In this case, many people just include the bottom section where it
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| 70 | says:</para>
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[27d9bc1a] | 71 |
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| 72 | <screen>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</screen>
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| 73 |
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| 74 | <para>and onwards. This isn't enough for us to diagnose the problem because it
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| 75 | only tells us that <emphasis>something</emphasis> went wrong, not
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| 76 | <emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong. The whole section, as in the example
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| 77 | above, is what should be included to be helpful, because it includes the
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| 78 | command that was executed and the command's error message(s).</para>
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[ddfe603] | 79 |
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[5c3c294] | 80 | <para>An excellent article on asking for help on the Internet in general
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[2c094d6] | 81 | has been written by Eric S. Raymond. It is available online at <ulink
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[4ad5128c] | 82 | url="http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>.
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[1e6acd6] | 83 | Read and follow the hints in that document and you are much more likely
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[5c3c294] | 84 | to get a response to start with and also to get the help you actually
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| 85 | need.</para>
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| 86 |
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[ddfe603] | 87 | </sect2>
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| 88 |
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[0841437] | 89 | <sect2>
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[2785ba8] | 90 | <title>Test suite problems</title>
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| 91 |
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| 92 | <para>Many packages provide a test suite which, depending on the importance
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| 93 | of the package, we may encourage you to run. Sometimes packages will
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| 94 | generate false or expected failures. If you encounter these, you can check
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[daaa0941] | 95 | the LFS Wiki page at <ulink url="&wiki-root;"/> to see whether we have
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| 96 | already noted and investigated them. If we already know
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[2785ba8] | 97 | about them, then usually there is no need to be concerned.</para>
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[0841437] | 98 |
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| 99 | </sect2>
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| 100 |
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| 101 |
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[ddfe603] | 102 | </sect1>
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| 103 |
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