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- <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
- <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
- "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
- <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
- %general-entities;
- ]>
- <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, please 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 every day 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 output from the <xref linkend='version-check'/></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>
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