Re: Why is troubleshooting Linux so hard?
On Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:00:08 -0500, Borden Rhodes wrote:
(...)
> So, yes, software breaks. But that's okay because I'm patient and
> understanding and I can usually recover from the crashes or work around
> them... just as long as I believe that some day it'll be fixed and not
> break anymore.
Over the time, it will break again.
> So, the idea, and the point of the subject of this
> thread, is what do the public like me do when software breaks?
Filling bugs and/or using another program while it gets fixed.
> My thesis is that FLOSS software currently breaks in a way that doesn't
> give me enough of the right symptoms to fix the problem myself or ask
> for help intelligently.
I've never reached such situation. When something goes wrong -and Google
seems not solving the problem-, I explain the symptoms in mailing lists
or forums, attach the logs and get feedback.
> If anyone still doesn't believe me, I'll
> subscribe you to my computer logs and a commentary of my problems!
You'll have first to explain what your problem is.
> So, what I want are better symptoms from software. Ideally, I want an
> error message which I can plug into Google and be directed to a probable
> cause of the problem. I can usually handle things from there.
The nature of the problem may prevent this from happening. For instance,
a hardware failure (bad ram or damaged micro, lack of power, loose
cable...), can be very difficult to register in your logs or for getting
a warning message box. Your system can give you "hints" but nowadays it
won't tell you: "hey, this happens because your sata #3 hard disk cable
flaws, please correct".
IBM is (was?) working on self-diagnosis system software that "heal" by
themselves... so in a near future your wishes could be materialized :-)
> Currently, I can't tell what error messages and log entries are related
> to a problem I'm having. Worse, if I plug the error message into
> Google, I get directed to old source repositories, bug reports totally
> unrelated to my problem, flame wars and a tedious variety of dead ends
> and wild goose chases. Surely there must be a better way to
> troubleshoot FLOSS!
The success in problem solving is proportionally related to the interest
in getting solved. Nobody will care if you don't care...
> Finally, I don't care how software reaches this utopian state. It can
> be top-down, bottom-up, sideways, revolutionary, explosive or any which
> organisation or movement or argument or death threat which lets me
> participate in the community without having to specialise in computer
> science.
You can participate in the communitity in many ways that require no
advanced skills in computer science: mailing lists support, translation
and documentation, design...
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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