Re: [gentoo-dev] Troubleshooters for Gentoo
On 2006.10.12 19:34, Maurice van der Pot wrote: Hi, I've noticed in the past that a lot of people come to irc with problems in some area (say networking) that are easy to solve just by first asking a number of questions to identify the problem and then providing the solution. I've always liked the way Microsoft put these troubleshooters in their help files. While the content of Microsoft's troubleshooters probably never really helped anyone, the format of a troubleshooter is in my opinion one of the best ways to help people solve their own problems. Now I've hacked up a program that can create a troubleshooter from specifications of questions and problems and their dependencies, but I'd need to have some decent content to really make it useful for other people. I think having a couple of Gentoo-specific troubleshooters would be a great resource for new users (not just new to Gentoo, but new to Linux). I have a couple of questions: 1) Does this sound like a good idea? 2) Does anyone feel like pouring his/her troubleshooting skills into content for my program? The program is still very immature (I skipped a lot of things that weren't absolutely necessary for the program to show what it can do), but that'll be fixed. When given proper input, it generates HTML files that you can click through and that will hopefully lead you to (a solution to) your problem. It has some sample content to show the format. Maurice. http://griffon26.kfk4ever.com/~griffon26/troubleshooter-0.0.2.tar.bz2 43f0042c802ad5ddcdf2a4db671c41c8 *troubleshooter-0.0.2.tar.bz2 -- Maurice van der Pot Gentoo Linux Developer [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.gentoo.org Creator of BiteMe! [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kfk4ever.com Maurice, Yes and yes, in response to your first two questions. I would like to discuss format and if a program is really required. As a frequent poster on the forums, I've noticed the same things come up time and time again. To make it easy for me to respond, I've posted some NeddySeagoons Rough Guides there, which I refer to. See the links at the bottom of this post. Its always better to catch the problems before they arise, so I propose the addition of some checking steps to the handbook to allow users to confirm everything is OK before they proceed. Experts and overconfident users can skip them of course. I'll give some examples - its not an exhaustive list. 1. Run the mount (no parameters) command prior to fetching a stage tarball. Its surprising how many users fetch a tarball and untar it RAM, having not mounted anything. 2. ls /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf Users use the wrong file name or don't copy it at all. 3. Check the tarball against /PRC/couping. Many IA32 users on i686 fetch an i686 tarball and get illegal instruction errors. 4. grub.Cong - compare file names in /boot with those in grub.Cong Prevents Error 15 Of course - checks during install are only precautions. Whenever man makes a better mousetrap, mice get smarter. Errors will still occur that need to be fixed after the event. Regards, Roy Bamford (NeddySeagoon) Resuming an Install http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-3049166.html#3049166 Chrooting http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-3385239.html#3385239 http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-3516331.html#3516331 Hmm - I wrote it twice and didn't spot it. Fix Networking http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2990710.html#2990710 Xorg Modelines http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-3276263.html#3276263 Sneakernet http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-3276263.html#3276263 IDE Kernel Config http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-3492195.html#3492195 (Written for Intel Chipset ICH6 but easy to expand) I was thinking of trying to learn guide xml to offer some of the above as handbook updates. -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-dev] Troubleshooters for Gentoo
Maurice van der Pot wrote: Hi, I've noticed in the past that a lot of people come to irc with problems in some area (say networking) that are easy to solve just by first asking a number of questions to identify the problem and then providing the solution. I've always liked the way Microsoft put these troubleshooters in their help files. While the content of Microsoft's troubleshooters probably never really helped anyone, the format of a troubleshooter is in my opinion one of the best ways to help people solve their own problems. Now I've hacked up a program that can create a troubleshooter from specifications of questions and problems and their dependencies, but I'd need to have some decent content to really make it useful for other people. I think having a couple of Gentoo-specific troubleshooters would be a great resource for new users (not just new to Gentoo, but new to Linux). I have a couple of questions: 1) Does this sound like a good idea? 2) Does anyone feel like pouring his/her troubleshooting skills into content for my program? The program is still very immature (I skipped a lot of things that weren't absolutely necessary for the program to show what it can do), but that'll be fixed. When given proper input, it generates HTML files that you can click through and that will hopefully lead you to (a solution to) your problem. It has some sample content to show the format. Maurice. http://griffon26.kfk4ever.com/~griffon26/troubleshooter-0.0.2.tar.bz2 43f0042c802ad5ddcdf2a4db671c41c8 *troubleshooter-0.0.2.tar.bz2 If I'm not mistaken, the kbase project was established to help with this type of information: http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/kbase/ -- Joshua Nichols Gentoo/Java Project Lead -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-dev] Troubleshooters for Gentoo
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Joshua Nichols wrote: Maurice van der Pot wrote: Hi, I've noticed in the past that a lot of people come to irc with problems in some area (say networking) that are easy to solve just by first asking a number of questions to identify the problem and then providing the solution. I've always liked the way Microsoft put these troubleshooters in their help files. While the content of Microsoft's troubleshooters probably never really helped anyone, the format of a troubleshooter is in my opinion one of the best ways to help people solve their own problems. Now I've hacked up a program that can create a troubleshooter from specifications of questions and problems and their dependencies, but I'd need to have some decent content to really make it useful for other people. I think having a couple of Gentoo-specific troubleshooters would be a great resource for new users (not just new to Gentoo, but new to Linux). I have a couple of questions: 1) Does this sound like a good idea? 2) Does anyone feel like pouring his/her troubleshooting skills into content for my program? The program is still very immature (I skipped a lot of things that weren't absolutely necessary for the program to show what it can do), but that'll be fixed. When given proper input, it generates HTML files that you can click through and that will hopefully lead you to (a solution to) your problem. It has some sample content to show the format. Maurice. http://griffon26.kfk4ever.com/~griffon26/troubleshooter-0.0.2.tar.bz2 43f0042c802ad5ddcdf2a4db671c41c8 *troubleshooter-0.0.2.tar.bz2 If I'm not mistaken, the kbase project was established to help with this type of information: http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/kbase/ Well . . . almost. This troubleshooters sounds like a distant cousin of what we originally set out to do. We didn't plan just to do troubleshooting -- more like specific quick howtos that didn't necessarily need a whole guide. More How do I do this (amazingly obscure though it may be) rather than how do I fix this problem sequentially -- though there would obviously be fix-it howtos as well. kbase was supposed to be the gathering place for information that really didn't belong in a guide in /doc/en/ for one reason or another...like collecting all the tips'n'tricks from the DTT forum. At the very least, Troubleshooters is not remotely the format kbase was planning on using, as it wouldn't be effective. -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFFL6e3rsJQqN81j74RAoCOAJ9hqHXadpGkXndVMsqMUXp9kYeHxACfceq2 NVeEVTn/BkgWExdHopsrkLU= =GpFz -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
[gentoo-dev] Troubleshooters for Gentoo
Hi, I've noticed in the past that a lot of people come to irc with problems in some area (say networking) that are easy to solve just by first asking a number of questions to identify the problem and then providing the solution. I've always liked the way Microsoft put these troubleshooters in their help files. While the content of Microsoft's troubleshooters probably never really helped anyone, the format of a troubleshooter is in my opinion one of the best ways to help people solve their own problems. Now I've hacked up a program that can create a troubleshooter from specifications of questions and problems and their dependencies, but I'd need to have some decent content to really make it useful for other people. I think having a couple of Gentoo-specific troubleshooters would be a great resource for new users (not just new to Gentoo, but new to Linux). I have a couple of questions: 1) Does this sound like a good idea? 2) Does anyone feel like pouring his/her troubleshooting skills into content for my program? The program is still very immature (I skipped a lot of things that weren't absolutely necessary for the program to show what it can do), but that'll be fixed. When given proper input, it generates HTML files that you can click through and that will hopefully lead you to (a solution to) your problem. It has some sample content to show the format. Maurice. http://griffon26.kfk4ever.com/~griffon26/troubleshooter-0.0.2.tar.bz2 43f0042c802ad5ddcdf2a4db671c41c8 *troubleshooter-0.0.2.tar.bz2 -- Maurice van der Pot Gentoo Linux Developer [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.gentoo.org Creator of BiteMe! [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kfk4ever.com pgp6K5G1VgQt2.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-dev] Troubleshooters for Gentoo
I have a couple of questions: 1) Does this sound like a good idea? 2) Does anyone feel like pouring his/her troubleshooting skills into content for my program? 1.) maybe microsofts troubleshooter sucks, it never solved a single problem I had. this will only be a good Idea if we're guaranteed to do better. on gentoo this would be harder than say red hat. because of almost infinite combinations of ways to have your software built. 2.) maybe... but I think you'll need someone before me. this is too unreliable too many variables / ways of doing things. first question do you use command line / gnome / kde /. answer use program x in this way to solver your problem. user huh. I don't have this program wtf. program x is not installed. checks portage. program x was hardmasked last week. this would be insane open source moves to fast good luck having your troubleshooter keep up. pgpTSnYlXja72.pgp Description: PGP signature
