HOWTO Get Help With Your Linux Problems
Okay, well firstly if you're looking for help on EFNet's #linuxhelp then the first
thing to remember is that anyone who may try to answer your questions is a volunteer.
No one gets paid for helping, and likewise no one has to pay for answers. So if you
don't happen to like the level of "free" help in the channel then you're always welcome
to go elsewhere. So don't complain if the answers appear not to solve your problem, or
if they just seem stupid to you. Sometimes what appears stupid is actually smarter than
you think, and sometimes it is just stupid. This is irc remember, so try to maintain your
sense of humour and don't take anything too seriously.
Having said that however, you will find that some people have cleverer answers than others.
With Linux there is often many different approaches that can resolve the same issues, and
many different answers can also conflict with each other. So it's best to try to listen to
the most reasonable sounding answers and to not follow blindly everything that everyone
tells you to do. Try to stick with a single nick's directions until they've run out of
ideas or another nick provides better answers.
The REAL trick is not always knowing all the answers.
1. Don't ask to ask! Just state your question, clearly.
2. Don't repeat!
3. DON'T SHOUT!
4. No colors or bold!
5. No spam! No flooding! No pastes!
6. Stay on topic!
7. Don't message people until asked!
8. No clones! One client per customer.
9. No holy wars! No distribution wars!
10. Above all.... RTFM first!
Apart from that, have fun! And remember no one knows it all! Not even Linus! Just some will
know more than others. So be patient, and eventually the answers will come.
Send comments and/or queries about this document to awol@awol.no-ip.org
Knowing what the REAL question is can often be more difficult.
Go to
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html to learn how to ask questions the "SMART" way.
Here are some general rules and guidelines to make life easier for everyone.
That is, don't ask if anyone happens to know about "foo", or if anyone can help you do
"foo". Give specific details of any problems you have, and also provide detailed
information on what steps you've already taken, and on what errors you're getting. Also
explain what linux distribution(distro) you're using, what kernel you're running(uname -r),
and software versions too if applicable. To learn how to ask the right question the right way click here!
Ask your question. If someone knows they will answer. If your question hasn't been answered
quickly, it may just have been missed in amongst the other chatter that occurs on irc.
Wait until it has scrolled off your screen before asking(politely) again. A general
rule would be wait for 5 to 10 minutes before asking again. It may just be that your
question wasn't understood or you didn't provide enough detail.
Caps lock is annoying and will get you /kick'd at the very least and possibly even banned.
Likewise many people find colors and/or bold, reverse text, etc... also annoying. Kicks
and bans will penalise offenders.
Spam or just typing nonsense is VERY annoying and will not be tolerated. Likewise flooding
is also a nuisance and will probably earn you a well deserved kick. It is important to
remember that the Return key is not a substitue for punctuation, so constantly typing
only one word per line will be percieved as a flood so you will probably be kicked for it.
Try to type complete sentences, even if only short. Similarly pastes produce spam! Use
http://www.pastebin.com/ and just tell the channel
the url to it, or simply say ".hitme" once, in the public channel, for our resident pastebot
to supply you with a url to paste your snippet.
There is a reason why it is called #linuxhelp, to provide a forum for questions about
_GNU/LINUX_ problems. Other operating systems have their own support channels. Constantly
harrassing people for assistance with BSD issues or solaris will probably get you banned.
So will constantly talking about other non-linux related subjects.
If someone is willing to help you with your problem, it is often because they are helping
others at the same time. Private messages can distract them from the channel conversations,
and therefore deprive others of the help being provided. Do not initiate /msg's until
invited.
Sometimes the channel fills up quickly with people wanting help. There is a limit to the
numbers of idle nicks before that number causes difficulties with netsplits, so we don't
actually encourage idlers. At times any more than 150+ nicks in the channel causes others
to be unable to /join so we therefore will /kick those who try to keep more than one client
in the channel. It would be best if you're not actually wanting help or even at your
keyboard that you leave the channel first so that others can come in and get the help they
require.
Don't argue that foo is better than bar. Just because you may prefer kde over gnome doesn't
make it better. Open source is all about open choice. It's ALL good! It's everybody's
right to choose whatever they prefer.
It is expected that you have read the documentation before asking for help. Nearly
every problem you could possibly encounter has probably already been covered by an
INSTALL guide or README, HOWTO or FAQ somewhere. A good place to start looking is
The Linux Documentation Project. No one is going
to want to hold your hand and walk you through your problems.
All the above rules are merely guidelines only. It will actually depend on the channel ops
who are awake at the time as to whether they are all strictly enforced or not. However,
vigorously disagreeing and arguing with the ops will probably not advance your cause, so
try to remain calm and plead your case logically if you have any grievances with them.