Looking for Linux Help When You've Lost Your Way? 85
ChesireKat asks: "I'm interested in knowing where people go for their Linux help/questions/needs. It seems that most IRC users will laugh at you, kick you, or just make you feel stupid because you're not quite as smart as they are (irc.nullnet.net is pretty good, they are usually willing to help). Forums are nicer about it, but most of the time, no one quite knows. Man pages always work, but it so time consuming, and sometimes after hours of searching, your still just as clueless as when you started. I'm interesting in knowing where other people find answers to the questions you just can't seem to figure out."
Mailing lists (Score:3, Informative)
Rgds
Rus
The Linux Documentation Project (Score:4, Informative)
Is it really so bad? (Score:4, Informative)
Is it really so bad? I'm on OPN (or whatever it's called now, freenode?) generally, and while questions frequently don't get answered, I rarely see abuse. Same for mailing lists or Usenet. Usenet is a frequently overlooked resource that has the added bonus of being easily searchable for future people with the same issue.
Frankly, the highest percentage of stupid, abusive people I see is here.
linuxquestions.org (Score:2, Informative)
*i have no affiliation with linuxquestions.org, i just find them very useful for questions when i'm at my wits end looking through man pages and a hefty googling.
Not zealotry, I swear. (Score:4, Informative)
Gentoo Forums [gentoo.org]
Not dicks. Helpful. Usually you'll get your question answered in no time flat.
brute force (Score:1, Informative)
it out. I must've spent nearly 3 weeks working with openldap when I first started trying to learn it a little over a year ago.
I've never gone to irc for linux help(though I'm on irc everyday). I have participated on mailing lists for several years but in my early days most of what I learned I learned the old fashioned way, brute force.
At times it was painful, and sometimes frustrating but I always figured it out. Start out small, I wouldn't reccomend attacking some big project if your a newbie.
shit I don't think it was till about 6 years after I started using linux/unix that I really dug into sendmail's configuration(I had managed sendmail systems for years but never really spent much time in the
My early days of use I couldnt' get Xfree86 workin('95-96 era) so I bought a copy of AcceleratedX. in the meantime I spent weeks/months at the console w/o X running on a dozen different VTs doing stuff. Learned sooooooooooooo much. But it takes time.
I have a strong history of using DOS so I was quite comfertable at the command line, even though DOS is nothing like linux. perhaps people without such experience fair much worse when trying to dig into linux.
I remember back in my DOS days when my HD failed, I set the system up to use a ramdrive and was able to continue using the system for basic things(even win3.1) while I waited for a replacement, of course each time I rebooted I had to reinstall everything...
if you do join a mailing list be sure to research your problem as best you can, and be as specific as possible, use an informative subject line to get best results. And don't bitch if nobody responds, try again in a week, word the question differently.
If you really want to learn linux I reccomend slackware(or perhaps gentoo though I've never tried gentoo). I ditched slackware myself when debian 2.0 came out in 1998, haven't used it since but it was a great system to learn on. I specifically chose it over redhat at the time because people said it was harder to learn, less hand holding. been using debian ever since(all my systems run woody, no sarge or sid here)
Find a LUG. (Score:4, Informative)
Our LUG has regular installfests and it's not uncommon for people to bring their machines in if they want to do something complicated. Plus LUGs are good places to network professionally, trade hardware, and meet new people.
Btw, MDLUG [mdlug.org] if you're in the Detroit area, stop by our table during Penguicon [slashdot.org] in May.
Google baby!! (Score:2, Informative)
Lots of valid commentary/explanation.... (Score:3, Informative)
My 2c (Score:3, Informative)
I find the local LUG lists a great place to start when asking for help. They often have very experienced people that are around for helping you. In particular, if you screw it up beyond all recognition, they're close enough that you can ask if they can come and fix the problem.
Google for your problem. Learning how to use google effectively to find answers to your problems is great time saver. Searching for "apache won't work" doesn't get you very far but "apache: can not bind to port 80" is likely to get a much better response out of google.
Look for documentation projects that try and help people out. My personal favourite is the Waikato Linux Users Group wiki [wlug.org.nz] which tries to encampus as much information about linux as it can. It's an excellent place to go and create a page asking a question and have several knowledgable people wiki'ing the answer, and then having it available for everyone else to find when *they* have the same issue.
On Asking Questions (Score:2, Informative)
First of all: most of the time the trouble isn't that people aren't willing to help. Instead, the problem lies in the fact that people asking things are not asking the right questions (which is most of the time because they have been lazy and not done the basic stuff like reading the tutorials or FAQs). People do not like to act as helpdesks, but they DO generally like to help out.
It sounds obvious, but before even considering asking a question from someone, do your research first. Really! It can be a pain, it can be time-consuming, but people can tell if you haven't read up on the subject (and consequently feel like you are trying to use them as helpdesks). It also is good for the future: you might read something that is not entirely relevant for the current task at hand but is just the ticket for some future problem. Read the documentation (even if a README file is all there is, read it). Do the basic Google searches (I find pasting error messages to a Google Groups search sometimes does wonders). Read some tutorials on the matter. If you are trying to set up NFS you will want to know how the damn thing is ultimately supposed to work. In fact, do the reading even before you start to fiddle around with anything new. This might seem elementary, but I've seen SO MANY people just jumping right into configuring a new piece of software of which they do not even grasp the basic concepts and then complain because it doesn't work.
If something isn't working and, play around. Consider what might be causing the error or malfunction. Make up theories: "it doesn't compile because my libsuchandsuch is of a wrong version", "the error on startup is because the program cannot connect to the database", "it seems it cannot find the config file although it is there". When asking your questions, you might even want to present these theories so the people considering your question can see that you have actually thought about the problem.
Be specific. Know the versions and flavors of your programs, compilers, kernels and daemons (and be sure to mention the relevant ones of these when asking your question!). Ask yourself what it is you are actually doing: you are not "configuring Apache" you are "setting up an HTTP server". You are not "trying to build a firewall", you are "trying to block all TCP connections from 192.168.4.2".
Make (at least mental) notes of the things you have tried and how they have changed the symptoms. Even if it doesn't seem like much to you that an error message changes if you fiddle with a configuration option, a guru might know exactly what is going on from that simple piece of information. If you are asking your question in a real-time discussion (IRC, telephone, face-to-face etc) have these notes handy so that you can provide more information if the person you are asking from needs it. Do not dump all of it on them at once.
Of course, if you are posting to a forum or the Usenet, observe the netiquette. Do not assume that your question will be answered. Your question might generate a lot of discussion, but you might still be without an answer to your question. Do not despair. Fiddle around with the problem some more and try to find more clues as to what is going on, then post a new question with the new information.
Do not just barge into a discussion forum, a Usenet group or IRC channel (etc) and immediately fire away your question. Lurk around for a while. Participate in the discussion. Know the people on the list/group/forum/channel. People like to help their acquaintances, but someone random just asking a question is easily overlooked, especially if the forum has been around for a long time.
If you actually get an answer to your question and it solves your problem, great! But do not forget the community that gave you the answer: make further use of the notes you have a