Just a note to everyone, but particularly newbies. We don't want to discourage any questions, no question is too silly, and theres no need to be embarrassed. I asked the dummest questions for years, still do!
BUT There are a few rules about questions which should, out of netiquette, be followed.For example 1. use an informative subject line. Many people scan by subject line and ignore messages they aren't interested in. eg "Why?" and "What is happening?" are less useful then "Why command line over gui?" and "What do these apache logs mean?" [Not picking on those posters in particular] 2. One of the most informative files in linux is /var/log/messages. Take a look there, and the other log files in /var/log, before posting a question. You may be able to figure out what is going on, or at least offer some info to help diagnostics. [Huan's "What's happening?" post offered the logs in question and he got a quick & accurate answer]. To see the last few lines of the file type tail /var/log/messages in a [x]terminal as root. To see the file cycle past continuously add the -f option like tail -f /var/log/messages. There are also X programs to monitor logs (xtail? ktail? - I dunno, never used them!) 3. Tell us some basic info: what distro, what kernel, what version of the software giving you problems etc. 4. tell us what you have done to fix it and what results you got. 5. If X programs are not working open them from the command line and see if there is any output to give you a clue. (eg open an x terminal and type the executable name and you will usually see some error messages or other feedback) 6. consult the man pages, although these are often rather cryptic for newbies. There is other documentation included with most distros. 7. rpm hint: you can see what files were installed by a package by typing rpm -ql package|less and paging through. This may give you a clue as to what man pages or other documentation were installed in a package. 8. search google (www.google.com) and google groups (groups.google.com). A few years ago this almost aways turned up the answer, but now there are often too many irrelevant hits, often repeated. Try anyway. 9. If its a fairly specific question about a specific piece of software, you may be better joining a mailing list or forum specific to that software. Go to the project home page and look for mailing lists and forums, or other support information. There are even more stringent suggestions from that non-sufferer of fools eric raymond at http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html . I don't suggest that people should necessarily have to go to the trouble of following ALL of his pre-requisites before asking as question, and we all know what its like when you don't even know where to start! BUT a few simple steps before you fire off a question doesn't go astray. AND I'm not trying to discourage anyone, or criticize any previous poster. Keep asking, even more experienced people learn something every day from the most basic questions on these lists.
