Ubuntu Wiki

   1 [23:01] <ClassBot> Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/01/29/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session.
   2 [23:02] <charlie-tca> I'm Charlie Kravetz, known as charlie-tca on irc and the mailing lists. I am Xubuntu Quality Assurance Lead, a member of ubuntu-bugsquad, bug-control, and a bugsquad mentor.
   3 [23:02] <charlie-tca> I test the latest development images, and am using Xubuntu Natty Narwhal on my daily machine. This gives me considerable experience in testing, filing bugs, and helping others with bugs.
   4 [23:02] <charlie-tca> I am also one the bug triagers that checks the bug reports to make sure there is enough information for the developer to begin working to resolve your issues.
   5 [23:02] <charlie-tca> I am going to talk about Asking Questions on Launchpad and Filing Bugs on Launchpad.
   6 [23:03] <charlie-tca> Please keep questions to #ubuntu-classroom-chat. Please make sure you keep them prefaced with "QUESTION: " so people can see them. If I am going to answer you question during my session, I will skip over it or save it for later. Please don't feel ignored.
   7 [23:03] <charlie-tca> Launchpad is a collaboration and hosting platform for software projects.
   8 [23:04] <charlie-tca> It brings communities together by making it easy to share code, bug reports, translations and ideas across projects.
   9 [23:04] <charlie-tca> Before you can ask a question or report a bug, you must sign up for Launchpad.
  10 [23:04] <charlie-tca> Signing up for Launchpad is easy. If you have never registered in launchpad, there is an excellent help guide to get you started at https://help.launchpad.net/YourAccount
  11 [23:05] <charlie-tca> In my experience, this is a very well written guide to registering and getting started with Launchpad. Why do you want to register?
  12 [23:06] <charlie-tca> It gives you easy access to all the great things offered by Launchpad! One of those great Launchpad offerings is called Launchpad Answers.
  13 [23:06] <charlie-tca> While mailing lists, web forums, and IRC are great places to find help with free software they do have a couple of shortcomings:
  14 [23:07] <charlie-tca> (a) There's no way to track the progress of a question and
  15 [23:07] <charlie-tca> (b) knowledge about the software is spread across different places.
  16 [23:07] <charlie-tca> An alternative solution to that is Launchpad Answers. Launchpad Answers is a place that keeps track of questions, the comments on those questions, and the answers to those questions.
  17 [23:08] <charlie-tca> It notifies volunteer support contacts of new questions, builds a searchable knowledge base of good answers, and allows people to ask questions and offer support in different languages.
  18 [23:08] <charlie-tca> Using Launchpad Answers is easy, just visit the Answers page at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu.
  19 [23:08] <charlie-tca> heh, yes, it does seem strange to go to something called "answers" to ask a question.
  20 [23:09] <charlie-tca> If you are not logged into launchpad, you will be asked to login before you can ask a question. Since you already registered, just click the login link at the top and sign in.
  21 [23:09] <charlie-tca> Now, if you are not in a hurry, it is a good idea to browse the link called "All FAQs". This is a listing of the "Frequently Asked Questions".
  22 [23:09] <charlie-tca> Many times, I find there are questions and answers in the FAQ that have been bothering me, but were not important enough for me to ask.
  23 [23:10] <charlie-tca> Don't get lost in the FAQs, though. Your own question is important. You can always come back to this and browse through the list.
  24 [23:10] <charlie-tca> You do not need to look to see if your question is already asked, since one of the great features in Launchpad is that it will look for your question.
  25 [23:12] <charlie-tca> You will also see on the right side, a link called "My questions". After you have asked a question, you can click this link to see the questions you have asked, and any comments or answers.
  26 [23:13] <charlie-tca> This makes it easier to find your own questions later, instead of trying to remember what the question was, or the link to it that you forgot to write down.
  27 [23:13] <charlie-tca> You only need the one link to find it later, the same link you used and bookmarked to ask the question - https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu
  28 [23:14] <charlie-tca> You will also see a list called "Answer contacts for Ubuntu". These are some of the people who have volunteered to answer questions.
  29 [23:15] <charlie-tca> They are notified by automatic email of questions asked, and will do their best to answer questions they know the answer to.
  30 [23:15] <charlie-tca> Now, click on the "Ask a Question" link in the right top of the page. Next, type good summary to your question, making sure that the question is entered clearly.
  31 [23:15] <charlie-tca> "Please help me!" or "I need help" is not a good question. A good summary tells what your problem is, in as few words as you can use.
  32 [23:16] <charlie-tca> A good summary would be "How to replace a hard drive without losing the boot loader" or "How do I back-up my data on my hard drive to my cd drive?"
  33 [23:16] <charlie-tca> Of course, a summary that is more than one or two lines is much too long to be useful. Put that extra information in the description instead.
  34 [23:16] <charlie-tca> Click on next, and Launchpad will now search for existing questions that look similar. Don't you just hate those places that ask you to search before you ask?
  35 [23:16] <charlie-tca> Launchpad Answers took care of that for you. If it finds anything that loos like your question, it will show you them.
  36 [23:17] <charlie-tca> If Launchpad doesn't find any similar questions, or those it finds are unhelpful to you, you can write a more detailed description of your problem and submit your question.
  37 [23:17] <charlie-tca> Once you've added your question, Launchpad emails anyone who's volunteered to be an answer contact for your language.
  38 [23:17] <charlie-tca> They can then ask you for more information or offer an answer. Launchpad will then email you whenever your question changes, such as when someone suggests an answer.
  39 [23:18] <charlie-tca> If someone does ask for more information, please be polite in answering. Not everyone is as well versed in your language as you, and may not understand the way the question was worded.
  40 [23:18] <charlie-tca> When adding information, it is usually good to add it as a comment, rather than expand the original description. Many of us do not realize the description was modified, and miss the added material.
  41 [23:18] <charlie-tca> When adding information, it is usually good to add it as a comment, rather than expand the original description. Many of us do not realize the description was modified, and miss the added material.
  42 [23:19] <charlie-tca> <txomon> QUESTION: Is there any type of connection between the forum and the IRC channel? a question might be answered in the chat, and no one would be able to see it later--
  43 [23:20] <charlie-tca> No, to the best of my knowledge, there is no connection. The log files would have to be transcribed to the format used in the forums
  44 [23:20] <charlie-tca> and, yes, we do answer the answer quite often sometimes on IRC.
  45 [23:21] <charlie-tca> the good news is... Most of us realize that there is no "search" for the question and will answer it each time.
  46 [23:21] <charlie-tca> Thats about it for LP answers. Are there any other questions?
  47 [23:22] <charlie-tca> Okay, so lets move on to bug reporting now. Ubuntu, as you may already know, uses Launchpad for reporting bugs.
  48 [23:22] <charlie-tca> Launchpad is a very good bug tracker. We'll be covering how to make your bug report more complete and therefore more likely to get fixed!
  49 [23:23] <charlie-tca> Very often we see bug reports with incomplete information, which means more time is spent getting the actual information. If you give proper information, its easy for us triagers to confirm the bug so the developers can look into it.
  50 [23:23] <ClassBot> txomon asked: Years ago, I submited a bug and I had no response (wifi hw problem), I tried with the latest driver months ago, and replyed the 1st bug I created... Is there any way to make it be reviewed?
  51 [23:24] <charlie-tca> That is a great question! and right on time, too. Thanks, txomon
  52 [23:25] <charlie-tca> As bug triagers, we do attempt to get the bugs reported ready for the developers to step up and work them. We use the status of the bug to let us know what is happening
  53 [23:25] <charlie-tca> when we ask questions.
  54 [23:26] <charlie-tca> The triager asked you for more information. You supplied some of it, but never responded to his second request for trying the mainline kernel.
  55 [23:27] <charlie-tca> Since he did not have all the information, he never completed getting the bug ready.
  56 [23:27] <charlie-tca> Also, I see you moved status to confirmed. Let's examine the bug status down the road a bit.
  57 [23:28] <charlie-tca> Even though you can report bugs directly to Launchpad, we suggest that you don't you do that.
  58 [23:28] <charlie-tca> In fact, most of the time, the appropriate information is never really attached or given when you report directly.
  59 [23:29] <charlie-tca> When you are ready to file a bug report, and need some help with it, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
  60 [23:29] <charlie-tca> If an application crashes, and you're using a version of Ubuntu which is actively under development, Apport will start automatically, raising an appropriate bug report for you to complete in Launchpad. This provides developers with rich debugging information that will make it easier to fix the problem.
  61 [23:29] <charlie-tca> For more information about apport, see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport
  62 [23:30] <charlie-tca> Most of the time, to file your bug report that is not a crash, you will use a small command line program called "ubuntu-bug". Don't let the words "command line" scare you, please. It is not going to be all typing without the graphics.
  63 [23:30] <charlie-tca> Let's say that nautilus is giving you trouble. To report a bug about nautilus, you simply hit Alt+F2, and type "ubuntu-bug nautilus" without those quotes, and click on "Run".
  64 [23:30] <charlie-tca> The format is "ubuntu-bug <package-name>", making it important that you try to have the package correct.
  65 [23:31] <charlie-tca> Many times, the package will be the application that just gave you the problems. You can click on Help -> About  to get the name.
  66 [23:31] <charlie-tca> To know more about finding the right package, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage
  67 [23:31] <charlie-tca> To file a bug against a program that is currently running, go to System > Administration > System Monitor, and find the ID of the process.
  68 [23:31] <charlie-tca> Then type the process ID instead of the <package-name> into the Alt+F2 window.
  69 [23:32] <charlie-tca> Having done that, wait. It is gathering the information about the application that is needed for your bug report. You should get a window titled "Apport".
  70 [23:32] <charlie-tca> When all the information is gathered, you will see a question "Send problem report to the developers?" Please click on "Send Report".
  71 [23:33] <charlie-tca> This opens a window in your web browser or firefox. You will be asked questions now. You may have to type in a summary. Please make this as short but descriptive as possible.
  72 [23:33] <charlie-tca> This is the bug report title, so "crashed" is not a good summary. "Crashed when I opened 1000 files" is good. "Frozen for 10 minutes when I opened 1000 files at once" is better.
  73 [23:34] <charlie-tca> You will also be given a list of similar bugs to compare your bug to. If it doesn't match any, or is a bug report about the audio, linux, or graphics, please check "file a new report".
  74 [23:34] <charlie-tca> You are also give a large window called description or "Further Information".
  75 [23:34] <charlie-tca> "I don't know, I was away when this crash happens" is an accurate description, but not helpful.
  76 [23:34] <charlie-tca> When you submit a bug report, it's important to specify three things:
  77 [23:34] <charlie-tca> (1) What you expected to happen
  78 [23:35] <charlie-tca> (2) What actually happened
  79 [23:35] <charlie-tca> (3) The minimal series of steps necessary to make it happen, where step 1 is "I clicked on ???".
  80 [23:36] <charlie-tca> I personally look at over 1000 bugs a month. I don't know all the programs, and I don't use most of them.
  81 [23:36] <charlie-tca> I like to add when asking a reporter to do this, "please tell me how to do this if I have never used this program or application".
  82 [23:37] <charlie-tca> If I have a good step by step procedure, I will do everything I can to reproduce the issue, so we can tell the developer what they need to fix the issue.
  83 [23:37] <charlie-tca> Fill in the description field with as much information as you can, including the release of Ubuntu you are using.
  84 [23:38] <charlie-tca> It is better to have too much information in the description than not enough.
  85 [23:39] <charlie-tca> <txomon> QUESTION: the url you previously submited the HowTo report a bug, Is good for reporting a bug from the packages, but it doesn't say anything about kernel (just to submit a new one) Is there any other that refers to this specific?
  86 [23:39] <charlie-tca> Thanks for asking!
  87 [23:40] <charlie-tca> we try to confuse the reporter with the kernel bugs. There is no package labeled "kernel".
  88 [23:40] <charlie-tca> In Ubuntu, the kernel, which is what everything else requires to work, is called "linux"
  89 [23:41] <charlie-tca> Therefore, any bug against the kernel, gets the package     linux     asigned to it.
  90 [23:42] <charlie-tca> txomon: Does that answer the question?
  91 [23:43] <charlie-tca> <UndiFineD> QUESTION: I get APPORT maximum errors reported
  92 [23:43] <charlie-tca> Another very good question!
  93 [23:43] <charlie-tca> This is harder to answer. It usually happens when you get too many crashes without reporting the bugs.
  94 [23:45] <charlie-tca> sometimes, it means whatever is crashing is crashing over and over.
  95 [23:46] <charlie-tca> There are two ways to fix this one. The quick and easy one is to remove the .crash reports from /var/crash
  96 [23:46] <charlie-tca> Unfortunately, that doesn't help us get anything fixed.
  97 [23:48] <charlie-tca> instead, open your terminal, go to /var/crash, and use
  98 [23:49] <charlie-tca> ubuntu-bug -c <location of apport file> to file the bug
  99 [23:49] <charlie-tca> In Nautilus, you can also double-click the file to file the report.
 100 [23:50] <charlie-tca> and that happens to be the same command you can use to file a bug if your system is offline when it crashes
 101 [23:51] <ClassBot> There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session.
 102 [23:51] <charlie-tca> Only describe a single problem per bug report so that each can be followed up on in detail. If you experience several issues file separate reports.
 103 [23:52] <charlie-tca> Add supporting attachments to explain or help others reproduce your bug. This might include a screenshot or video capture of the problem or a sample document that triggers the fault.
 104 [23:52] <charlie-tca> To add an attachment to the bug use the "Include an attachment" section of the bug form.
 105 [23:52] <charlie-tca> Additional attachments, if necessary, can be added after the bug is reported via "Add a comment/attachment" at the bottom of the page, after the report is filed.
 106 [23:53] <charlie-tca> If for some reason you cannot file a bug through the Apport tool you can file one via Launchpad. When doing so please ensure that you have determined which package it should be filed against.
 107 [23:53] <charlie-tca> Please read the "Finding the right package" link, https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage.
 108 [23:53] <charlie-tca> To report a bug when you don't know the package name https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug/?no-redirect - please use this as the last instance. If you need help with filing a bug, do drop by at #ubuntu-bugs. We'd be happy to help.
 109 [23:54] <charlie-tca> You should be aware, if you do file the bug directly, we are going to ask you a lot of questions, and have you attach several files to the bug report in most cases.
 110 [23:55] <charlie-tca> Please subscribe to the bug you file. Any changes or added comments will then be sent to you by email. This keeps you informed of the need for more information or even when the bug gets fixed.
 111 [23:55] <charlie-tca> If a request for more information goes without a response for 60 days, most of the time, the bug will expire, and the developers will not look at it again.
 112 [23:56] <charlie-tca> Okay, let's hit status quickly
 113 [23:56] <ClassBot> There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session.
 114 [23:56] <charlie-tca> Most bugs will start out in "New" status. It remains there until the triager gets to it, or someone else experiences the bug.
 115 [23:57] <charlie-tca> The triager will change the status to confirmed if all the information is complete.
 116 [23:57] <charlie-tca> Please do not set your own bugs to confirmed. It tends to confuse us and we don't come back to them.
 117 [23:57] <charlie-tca> If you added information to the bug, please set it back to New. That triggers us to look more
 118 [23:58] <charlie-tca> We will move the bug to triaged to tell the developer we think it is complete.
 119 [23:58] <charlie-tca> If you need further help with filing a bug, or have questions about the bug you filed, please ask in #ubuntu-bugs, and we will do our best to help you.
 120 [23:59] <charlie-tca> Any other questions?
 121 [00:00] <charlie-tca> Thank you all for attending today's sessions. I hope you find them as interesting and helpful as we enjoy doing them.