How to Ask a Linux User Group for Help

When people have a problem, issue (or just want their hand held), with anything Linux-related, most people are either guided to or turn to the user community for the Linux distribution, Open Source package, or Linux hardware drivers they are having the issue with.

Who are these people?

It is important to remember that almost all of these people are volunteers, and are often fanatical supporters of the very thing you're looking for help with. They often want to deal with their fellow knowledge-seekers on a much more personal and interactive level than your typical offshored customer support representative reading to you from a script at $2.95 a minute.

Often, since they are taking time from their busy schedules to deal with your problem personally, they expect you to help them make the most of the time they're willing to volunteer to help you resolve your issue. And that's very important to remember when you may be talking to the very person that wrote the program or application in question! Have you ever done that when you've called Microsoft or Intuit/Quicken or Roxio/CD-Creator? Or someone that actually has the power and authority to change the program ... for you?

So how do I ask my question?

Tell us what your computer is, more information is good. Things like the brand and model of your computer, whether it is a laptop or desksop computer, whether other operating systems are installed, hard drive partitions, and the computer components. .... CPU, memory, hard drives, SCSI, USB, Firewire, video card, mother board, sound card, ethernet card, modem, wireless connections, monitor, printers, scanners, card readers, bios version, network, etc. The more specific the better.

Then, don't forget to answer these questions:

1. What is the exact nature of your problem?
2. Exactly what were you attempting to do when you had problems?
3. What steps have you already taken to "fix" the problem?
4. What was the exact error message or how you first knew you had a problem?
5. If no messages were displayed, exactly what happened when you had a problem?
6. You may be asked to clarify or provide more information, do so in a timely, polite and concise manner.
7. Do not get rude if the process takes awhile or is not resolved to your satisfaction immediately. Problems can sometimes take lots of time to resolve.
8. Be honest, do not lie about what you did or were doing when your problem cropped up.
9. Most importantly, keep both your patience and humor.

There may be more but this is basic information necessary to provide any kind of useful assistance.

See Also

• HowToReportBugsEffectively