Help us help you

[dave_boo]

Those of us who are passionate about Linux mostly want to give back. I, and possibly others on this forum, can not code so that avenue is closed off. While I do donate to projects, evangelizing and assisting others as I have been assisted is an immediate reward and a furtherance of the F/OSS community. As many questions do come from new users, who are not familiar with RTFM or whose Google-foo isn't that strong, there's often a delay in onset of a problem and a proper resolution being given. This delay can be extremely frustrating and potentially put new users off of Linux.

So without getting too technical, please use the below guidelines when posting a question.

1. What is the problem.
Pretty self explanatory; what brings you here? Be precise. Saying "Video doesn't work" can mean a multitude of things. Does the screen produce no image? Are you trying to play videos and nothing comes on? Are the videos tearing? ETC.

2. What hardware do you have.
This is where it gets more tricky. While sometimes general information garnered from a dual-boot Windows Device Manager can help, it is better for us to get all the information from Linux. There are two commands, both listed below, that will allow us to assist you. You're going to need to open up a terminal. It looks scary, but it's nothing. If there is one in your start menu (usually helpfully labelled "Terminal" or "(some letter)term", that's the way to go. Ubuntu and other distributions have a key shortcut of Ctrl+Alt+T (hold down all three to get it).

sudo lspci -v

sudo lsusb -v

Note that it is proper etiquette to enclose the output from those commands in the code tags (highlight the output that you paste and chose the < > option at the top of the posting screen).

3. What environment do you run.

The final step, because although there are many similarities between various distros, and even respins of the same distro, there are various subtle quirks to each. If you know the information, such as the distribution (Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, openSUSE, Gentoo, Packman, Arch, Fedora, etc) as well as the desktop environment (KDE, Gnome, XFCE, LXDE, Cinnamon, Enlightenment, etc) as well as version that is great. We also will need the kernel version being ran, which if you still have the terminal open from above can be found with the below command.

uanme -a

4. Have some patience.

Nobody on this forum is getting paid to help. We're doing it out of the reward of helping spread F/OSS. All of us have other things that need to be done and we will get to your question as soon as possible. Splurging a bit for support, using Ubuntu, Fedora, or SuSE's services (I am sure there are others) will get immediate results as well as help with the development of Linux.

[SpaceKadet]

uname -a

Otherwise excellent summary Dave.

[dave_boo]

uname -a

Otherwise excellent summary Dave.

Good catch and thanks for the correction.

[narkeddiver]

I think this is a really useful way of helping people frame their problems with Linux and hopefully will help them get a quicker resolution

For me (and here I expect to get some flack) the thing holding Linux back from from really getting into the mainstream is the reliance on the terminal

To help support my folks (who are in their 70's) for most issues they if they have windoze or OS X I can say click here, click here and tell me what it says - easy for them

I would love for them to run Linux but to find the same info I'd have to tell them open terminal, type this

[dave_boo]

I think this is a really useful way of helping people frame their problems with Linux and hopefully will help them get a quicker resolution

For me (and here I expect to get some flack) the thing holding Linux back from from really getting into the mainstream is the reliance on the terminal

To help support my folks (who are in their 70's) for most issues they if they have windoze or OS X I can say click here, click here and tell me what it says - easy for them

I would love for them to run Linux but to find the same info I'd have to tell them open terminal, type this

There are guis out there...but having to tell somebody to go back and make another screenshot because not all the information is captured is a PITA. Furthermore, a lot of issues arise from the kernel not having the driver. And as a lot of vendors make subtle changes to their products, having the more verbose output helps us make recommendations as to the course of action required.

I also find that keeping it simple allows the greatest latitude in helping people. Having to open one programme (a terminal) and pasting a command from a forum, then pasting the output back in the forum is sure a lot less work than trying to get them to understand where the programme is located in the start menu, which tabs to click on, expecting them to be able to take a screenshot (or horror of horrors properly transcribe the error(s)).

I probably stereotype a bit, but I'd assume that somebody from that generation would be more comfortable with a block of text than the young pups who grew up on icons...

[dharmabm]

I think this is a really useful way of helping people frame their problems with Linux and hopefully will help them get a quicker resolution

For me (and here I expect to get some flack) the thing holding Linux back from from really getting into the mainstream is the reliance on the terminal

To help support my folks (who are in their 70's) for most issues they if they have windoze or OS X I can say click here, click here and tell me what it says - easy for them

I would love for them to run Linux but to find the same info I'd have to tell them open terminal, type this

Anyone I support, from my 70 year old parents to my biggest enterprise clients, I always make sure I have ssh access. As long as they have internet, I can solve the problem!

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