1 | <sect1 id="ch02-askforhelp">
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2 | <title>How to ask for help</title>
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3 | <?dbhtml filename="askforhelp.html" dir="chapter02"?>
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4 |
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5 | <para>If you have 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 the mailing lists will be
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7 | willing to help you. You can find a list of the LFS mailing lists in
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8 | <xref linkend="ch01-maillists"/>. To assist us in helping though, you should
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9 | make sure that you have as much relevant information as you can
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10 | available. This will assist in diagnosing and solving your problem.
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11 | This part of the book will guide you as to which sort of information
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12 | will be useful.</para>
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13 |
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14 | <sect2>
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15 | <title>Basic Information</title>
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16 |
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17 | <para>First of all we need a brief explanation of the problem.
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18 | Essential things to include are:</para>
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19 |
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20 | <itemizedlist>
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21 | <listitem><para>The version of the book you are using, which is &version;</para></listitem>
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22 | <listitem><para>Which package or section you are having problems with</para></listitem>
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23 | <listitem><para>What the exact error message or symptom you are recieving is</para></listitem>
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24 | <listitem><para>If you have deviated from the book at all</para></listitem>
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25 | </itemizedlist>
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26 |
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27 | <para>Note that saying that you've deviated from the book doesn't mean
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28 | that we won't help you, after all, LFS is all about choice. It'll just
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29 | help us to see the possible other causes of your problem.</para>
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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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36 | <para>When something goes wrong during the stage where the configure
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37 | script is run, look at the last lines of the
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38 | <filename>config.log</filename>. This file contains possible errors
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39 | encoutered during configure which aren't always printed to the screen.
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40 | Include those relevant lines if you decide to ask for help.</para>
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41 |
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42 | </sect2>
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43 |
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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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49 | the ./configure script and when make is run can be useful. Don't
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50 | blindly include the whole thing but on the other hand, don't include too
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51 | little. As an example, here is some screen output from make:</para>
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52 |
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53 | <para><screen>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\"
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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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56 | -g -O2 -c getopt1.c
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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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60 | -lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
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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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67 | make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</screen></para>
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68 |
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69 | <para>In this case, many people just include the bottom section where it
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70 | says <screen>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</screen> and onwards. This
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71 | isn't enough for us to diagnose the problem because it only tells us
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72 | that <emphasis>something</emphasis> went wrong, not
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73 | <emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong. The whole section as
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74 | quoted above is what should be included to be helpful, because it
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75 | includes the command that was executed and the command's error
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76 | message(s).</para>
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77 |
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78 | </sect2>
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79 |
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80 | </sect1>
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81 |
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