source: introduction/common/askforhelp.xml@ 8acf99e

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<sect1 id="ch-intro-askforhelp">
  <?dbhtml filename="askforhelp.html"?>

  <title>Help</title>

  <para>If an issue or a question is encountered while working through
  this book, check the FAQ page at <ulink url="&faq-root;#generalfaq"/>.
  Questions are often already answered there. If your question is not
  answered on this page, try to find the source of the problem. The
  following hint will give you some guidance for troubleshooting:
  <ulink url="&hints-root;errors.txt"/>.</para>

  <para>If you cannot find your problem listed in the FAQ, search the mailing
  lists at <ulink url="&lfs-root;search.html"/>.</para>

  <para>We also have a wonderful LFS community that is willing to offer
  assistance through the mailing lists and IRC (see the <xref
  linkend="ch-intro-resources"/> section of this book). However, we
  get several support questions everyday and many of them can be easily
  answered by going to the FAQ and by searching the mailing lists first.
  So for us to offer the best assistance possible, you need to do some
  research on your own first. That allows us to focus on the more unusual
  support needs. If your searches do not produce a solution, please include
  all relevant information (mentioned below) in your request for help.</para>

  <sect2>
    <title>Things to Mention</title>

    <para>Apart from a brief explanation of the problem being experienced,
    the essential things to include in any request for help are:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>The version of the book being used (in this case
        &version;)</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>The host distribution and version being used to
        create LFS</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>The package or section the problem was encountered in</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>The exact error message or symptom being received</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Note whether you have deviated from the book at all </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <note>
      <para>Deviating from this book does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
      mean that we will not help you. After all, LFS is about personal
      preference. Being upfront about any changes to the established
      procedure helps us evaluate and determine possible causes of your
      problem.</para>
    </note>

  </sect2>

  <sect2>
    <title>Configure Script Problems</title>

    <para>If something goes wrong while running the <command>configure</command>
    script, review the <filename>config.log</filename> file. This file may
    contain errors encountered during <command>configure</command> which were
    not printed to the screen. Include the <emphasis>relevant</emphasis>
    lines if you need to ask for help.</para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2>
    <title>Compilation Problems</title>

    <para>Both the screen output and the contents of various files are
    useful in determining the cause of compilation problems. The screen output
    from the <command>configure</command> script and the
    <command>make</command> run can be helpful. It is not necessary to
    include the entire output, but do include enough of the relevant
    information. Below is an example of the type of information to include
    from the screen output from <command>make</command>:</para>

<screen><computeroutput>gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\"
-DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\"
-DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\"
-DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.
-g -O2 -c getopt1.c
gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o
expand.o file.o function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o
misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o signame.o variable.o vpath.o
default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o
-lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference
to `getloadavg'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [make] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2</computeroutput></screen>

    <para>In this case, many people would just include the bottom
    section:</para>

<screen><computeroutput>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</computeroutput></screen>

    <para>This is not enough information to properly diagnose the problem
    because it only notes that something went wrong, not
    <emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong.  The entire section, as in the
    example above, is what should be saved because it includes the command
    that was executed and the associated error message(s).</para>

    <para>An excellent article about asking for help on the Internet is
    available online at <ulink
    url="http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>.  Read and
    follow the hints in this document to increase the likelihood of getting
    the help you need.</para>

  </sect2>

</sect1>