[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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[21b0ece] | 5 | <para>If you encounter a problem while using this book, and your problem
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[b60ca14] | 6 | is not listed in the FAQ (<ulink
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| 7 | url="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq"/>), you will find that most
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| 8 | of the people on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and
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| 9 | on the mailing lists are willing to help you. An
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[e820e05] | 10 | overview of the LFS mailing lists can be found in
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[1e6acd6] | 11 | <xref linkend="ch01-maillists"/>. To assist us in diagnosing and solving
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[e820e05] | 12 | your problem, include as much relevant information as possible in your
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| 13 | request for help.</para>
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[ddfe603] | 14 |
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| 15 | <sect2>
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[4ceb3a1] | 16 | <title>Things to mention</title>
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[ddfe603] | 17 |
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[4ceb3a1] | 18 | <para>Apart from a brief explanation of the problem you're having, the
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| 19 | essential things to include in your request are:</para>
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[ddfe603] | 20 |
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| 21 | <itemizedlist>
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[4ceb3a1] | 22 | <listitem><para>the version of the book you are using (being &version;),</para></listitem>
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[66b86e5] | 23 | <listitem><para>the host distribution and version you are using to create
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| 24 | LFS from,</para></listitem>
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[1e6acd6] | 25 | <listitem><para>the package or section giving you problems,</para></listitem>
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[4ceb3a1] | 26 | <listitem><para>the exact error message or symptom you are receiving,</para></listitem>
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| 27 | <listitem><para>whether you have deviated from the book at all.</para></listitem>
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[ddfe603] | 28 | </itemizedlist>
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| 29 |
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[4ceb3a1] | 30 | <para>(Note that saying that you've deviated from the book doesn't mean
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[2c094d6] | 31 | that we won't help you. After all, LFS is about choice. It'll just
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[4ceb3a1] | 32 | help us to see other possible causes of your problem.)</para>
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[ddfe603] | 33 |
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| 34 | </sect2>
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| 35 |
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| 36 | <sect2>
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| 37 | <title>Configure problems</title>
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| 38 |
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| 39 | <para>When something goes wrong during the stage where the configure
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| 40 | script is run, look at the last lines of the
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[1e6acd6] | 41 | <filename>config.log</filename>. This file may contain errors
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| 42 | encountered during configure which weren't printed to the screen.
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[ddfe603] | 43 | Include those relevant lines if you decide to ask for help.</para>
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| 44 |
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[d28673b] | 45 | </sect2>
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| 46 |
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[ddfe603] | 47 | <sect2>
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| 48 | <title>Compile problems</title>
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| 49 |
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| 50 | <para>To help us find the cause of the problem, both screen output and
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| 51 | the contents of various files are useful. The screen output from both
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[2c094d6] | 52 | the ./configure script and the make run can be useful. Don't blindly
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[1e6acd6] | 53 | include the whole thing but on the other hand, don't include too little.
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| 54 | As an example, here is some screen output from make:</para>
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[ddfe603] | 55 |
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[2c094d6] | 56 | <para><screen>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\"
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| 57 | -DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\" -DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\"
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| 58 | -DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.
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[5e0e068] | 59 | -g -O2 -c getopt1.c
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[2c094d6] | 60 | gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o expand.o file.o
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| 61 | function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o
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| 62 | signame.o variable.o vpath.o default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o
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[5e0e068] | 63 | -lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
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[ddfe603] | 64 | /lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference to `getloadavg'
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| 65 | collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
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| 66 | make[2]: *** [make] Error 1
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| 67 | make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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| 68 | make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
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| 69 | make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
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[5e0e068] | 70 | make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</screen></para>
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[ddfe603] | 71 |
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| 72 | <para>In this case, many people just include the bottom section where it
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[2c094d6] | 73 | says <screen>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</screen> and onwards. This
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[2f59cf7] | 74 | isn't enough for us to diagnose the problem because it only tells us
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[ddfe603] | 75 | that <emphasis>something</emphasis> went wrong, not
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[2c094d6] | 76 | <emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong. The whole section, as
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[1e6acd6] | 77 | in the example above, is what should be included to be helpful, because it
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[ddfe603] | 78 | includes the command that was executed and the command's error
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| 79 | message(s).</para>
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| 80 |
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[5c3c294] | 81 | <para>An excellent article on asking for help on the Internet in general
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[2c094d6] | 82 | has been written by Eric S. Raymond. It is available online at <ulink
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[4ad5128c] | 83 | url="http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>.
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[1e6acd6] | 84 | Read and follow the hints in that document and you are much more likely
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[5c3c294] | 85 | to get a response to start with and also to get the help you actually
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| 86 | need.</para>
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| 87 |
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[ddfe603] | 88 | </sect2>
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| 89 |
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| 90 | </sect1>
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| 91 |
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