| 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?><!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">  %general-entities;]><sect1 id="prepare-askforhelp"><title>Help</title><?dbhtml filename="askforhelp.html"?><para>If an issue or a question is encountered while workingthrough this book, check the FAQ page at <ulink url="&faq-root;#generalfaq"/>.Questions are often already answered there. If your question isnot answered on this page, try to find the source of the problem. Thefollowing hint will give you some guidance for troubleshooting: <ulinkurl="&hints-root;errors.txt"/>.</para><para>We also have a wonderful LFS community that is willing to offerassistance through IRC and the mailing lists (see the <xreflinkend="ch-scatter-administrativa"/> section of this book). In orderto assist with diagnosing and solving the problem, please includeall relevant information 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 tocreate 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 personalpreference. Being upfront about any changes to the establishedprocedure helps us evaluate and determine possible causes of yourproblem.</para></note></sect2><sect2><title>Configure Problems</title><para>If something goes wrong during the stage where the configurescript is run, review the <filename>config.log</filename> file. Thisfile may contain errors encountered during configure which were notprinted to the screen. Include those relevant lines if you need to askfor help.</para></sect2><sect2><title>Compile Problems</title><para>Both the screen output and the contents of various files areuseful in determining the cause of compile issues. The screen outputfrom the <command>./configure</command> script and the <command>make</command> run can be helpful. Itis not necessary to include the entire output, but do include enoughof the relevant information. Below is an example of the type ofinformation 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.cgcc -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 statusmake[2]: *** [make] Error 1make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1make[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 bottomsection:</para><screen><computeroutput>make [2]: *** [make] Error 1</computeroutput></screen><para>This is not enough information to properly diagnose the problembecause it only notes that something went wrong, not<emphasis>what</emphasis> went wrong.  The entire section, as in theexample above, is what should be saved because it includes the commandthat was executed and the associated error message(s).</para><para>An excellent article about asking for help on the Internet isavailable online at <ulinkurl="http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"/>.  Read andfollow the hints in this document to increase the likelihood of gettingthe help you need.</para></sect2><sect2><title>Test Suite Problems</title><para>Many packages provide a test suite which, depending on theimportance of the package, should be run. Sometimes packages willgenerate false or expected failures. If these errors are encountered,check the LFS Wiki page at <ulink url="&wiki-root;"/> to see if we havenoted and investigated these issues. If these issues are noted andaddressed, there is no need to be concerned.</para></sect2></sect1>
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