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The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
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<br>Chapter 11 - Getting support for Debian GNU/Linux
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<h2><a name="s-debiandocs"></a>11.1 What other documentation exists on and for a Debian system?</h2>
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Installation instructions for the current release: see <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual">http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual</a></code>.
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The Debian GNU/Linux reference covers many aspects of system administration
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through shell-command examples. Basic tutorials, tips, and other information
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are provided for many different topics ranging from system administration to
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Get it from the <code>debian-reference</code> package, or at <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#quick-reference">http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#quick-reference</a></code>.
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Policy manual documents the policy requirements for the distribution, i.e. the
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structure and contents of the Debian archive, several design issues of the
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operating system etc. It also includes the technical requirements that each
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package must satisfy to be included in the distribution, and documents the
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basic technical aspects of Debian binary and source packages.
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Get it from the <code>debian-policy</code> package, or at <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#policy">http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#policy</a></code>.
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Documentation developed by the Debian Documentation Project. It is available
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href="http://www.debian.org/doc/">http://www.debian.org/doc/</a></code> and
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includes user guides, administration guides and security guides for the Debian
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GNU/Linux operating system.
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Documentation on installed Debian packages: Most packages have files that are
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unpacked into <samp>/usr/share/doc/PACKAGE</samp>.
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Documentation on the Linux project: The Debian package <code>doc-linux</code>
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installs all of the most recent versions of the HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs from the
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<code><a href="http://www.tldp.org/">Linux Documentation Project</a></code>.
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Unix-style `man' pages: Most commands have manual pages written in the style of
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the original Unix 'man' files. They are referenced by the section of the 'man'
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directory where they reside: e.g., foo(3) refers to a manual page which resides
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in /usr/share/man/man3/, and it can be called by executing the command:
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<samp>man 3 foo</samp>, or just <samp>man foo</samp> if section 3 is the first
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one containing a page on <samp>foo</samp>.
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One can learn which directory of <samp>/usr/share/man/</samp> contains a
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certain manual page by executing <samp>man -w foo</samp>.
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New Debian users should note that the 'man' pages of many general system
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commands are not available until they install these packages:
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<samp>man-db</samp>, which contains the <samp>man</samp> program itself, and
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other programs for manipulating the manual pages.
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<samp>manpages</samp>, which contains the system manual pages. (see <a
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href="ch-software.en.html#s-nonenglish">How does Debian support non-English
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languages?, Section 4.8</a>).
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GNU-style `info' pages: User documentation for many commands, particularly GNU
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tools, is available not in `man' pages, but in `info' files which can be read
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by the GNU tool <samp>info</samp>, by running <samp>M-x info</samp> within GNU
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Emacs, or with some other Info page viewer.
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Its main advantage over the original `man' pages are that it is a hypertext
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system. It does <em>not</em> require the WWW, however; <samp>info</samp> can
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be run from a plain text console. It was designed by Richard Stallman and
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Note that you may access a lot of documentation on your system by using a WWW
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browser, through `dwww', `dhelp' or `doccentral' commands, found in respective
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<h2><a name="s-onlineresources"></a>11.2 Are there any on-line resources for discussing Debian?</h2>
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Yes. In fact, the main method of support Debian provides to our users is by
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<h3><a name="s11.2.1"></a>11.2.1 Mailing lists</h3>
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There are a lot of <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/">Debian-related mailing
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On a system with the <code>doc-debian</code> package installed there is a
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complete list of mailing lists in
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<code>/usr/share/doc/debian/mailing-lists.txt</code>.
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Debian mailing lists are named following the pattern
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debian-<var>list-subject</var>. Examples are debian-announce, debian-user,
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debian-news. To subscribe to any list debian-<var>list-subject</var>, send
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mail to debian-<var>list-subject</var>-request@lists.debian.org with the word
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"subscribe" in the Subject: header. Be sure to remember to add
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<em>-request</em> to the e-mail address when using this method to subscribe or
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unsubscribe. Otherwise your e-mail will go to the list itself, which could be
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embarrassing or annoying, depending on your point of view.
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If you have a forms-capable World Wide Web browser, you can subscribe to
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mailing lists using the <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe">WWW form</a></code>. You
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can also un-subscribe using a <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/unsubscribe">WWW form</a></code>.
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The list manager's e-mail address is <code><a
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href="mailto:listmaster@lists.debian.org">listmaster@lists.debian.org</a></code>,
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in case you have any trouble.
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The mailing lists are public forums. All e-mails sent to the lists are also
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copied to the public archive, for anybody (even non-subscribers) to browse or
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search. Please make sure you never send any confidential or unlicensed
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material to the lists. This includes things like e-mail addresses. Of
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particular note is the fact that spammers have been known to abuse e-mail
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addresses posted to our mailing lists. See the <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/index.en.html#disclaimer">Mailing
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Lists Privacy policy</a></code> for more information.
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Archives of the Debian mailing lists are available via WWW at <code><a
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href="http://lists.debian.org/">http://lists.debian.org/</a></code>.
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<h4><a name="s-mailinglistconduct"></a>11.2.1.1 What is the code of conduct for the mailing lists?</h4>
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When using the Debian mailing lists, please follow these rules:
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Do not send spam. See the <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/#ads">Debian mailing list advertising
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Do not flame; it is not polite. The people developing Debian are all
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volunteers, donating their time, energy and money in an attempt to bring the
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Debian project together.
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Do not use foul language; besides, some people receive the lists via packet
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radio, where swearing is illegal.
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Make sure that you are using the proper list. <em>Never</em> post your
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(un)subscription requests to the mailing list itself[<a
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href="footnotes.en.html#f6" name="fr6">6</a>]
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See section <a href="#s-bugreport">How do I report a bug in Debian?, Section
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11.5</a> for notes on reporting bugs.
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<h3><a name="s11.2.2"></a>11.2.2 Maintainers</h3>
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Users can address questions to individual package maintainers using e-mail. To
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reach a maintainer of a package called xyz, send e-mail to
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<em>xyz@packages.debian.org</em>.
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<h3><a name="s11.2.3"></a>11.2.3 Usenet newsgroups</h3>
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Users should post non-Debian-specific questions to one of the Linux USENET
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groups, which are named comp.os.linux.* or linux.*. There are several lists of
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Linux Usenet newsgroups and other related resources on the WWW, e.g. on the
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<code><a href="http://www.linux.org/docs/usenet.html">Linux Online</a></code>
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href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/helpdesk.php">LinuxJournal</a></code> sites.
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<h2><a name="s-searchtools"></a>11.3 Is there a quick way to search for information on Debian GNU/Linux?</h2>
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There is a variety of search engines that serve documentation related to
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<code><a href="http://search.debian.org/">Debian WWW search site</a></code>.
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<code><a href="http://groups.google.com/">Google Groups</a></code>: a search
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engine for newsgroups.
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For example, to find out what experiences people have had with finding drivers
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for Promise controllers under Debian, try searching on the phrase <samp>Promise
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Linux driver</samp>. This will show you all the postings that contain these
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strings, i.e. those where people discussed these topics. If you add
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<samp>Debian</samp> to those search strings, you'll also get the postings
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specifically related to Debian.
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Any of the common web spidering engines, such as <code><a
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href="http://www.altavista.com/">AltaVista</a></code> or <code><a
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href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a></code>, as long as you use the right
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For example, searching on the string "cgi-perl" gives a more detailed
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explanation of this package than the brief description field in its control
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<h2><a name="s-buglogs"></a>11.4 Are there logs of known bugs?</h2>
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Reports on unsolved (and closed) issues are publicly available: Debian
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promissed to do so by stating "We will not hide problems" in the
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<code><a href="http://www.debian.org/social_contract">Debian Social
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The Debian GNU/Linux distribution has a bug tracking system (BTS) which files
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details of bugs reported by users and developers. Each bug is given a number,
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and is kept on file until it is marked as having been dealt with.
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Copies of this information are available at <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/Bugs/">http://www.debian.org/Bugs/</a></code>.
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A mail server provides access to the bug tracking system database via e-mail.
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In order to get the instructions, send an e-mail to request@bugs.debian.org
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with "help" in the body.
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<h2><a name="s-bugreport"></a>11.5 How do I report a bug in Debian?</h2>
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If you have found a bug in Debian, please read the instructions for reporting a
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bug in Debian. These instructions can be obtained in one of several ways:
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By anonymous FTP. Debian mirror sites contain the instructions in the file
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<samp>doc/bug-reporting.txt</samp>.
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From the WWW. A copy of the instructions is shown at <code><a
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href="http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting">http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting</a></code>.
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On any Debian system with the <code>doc-debian</code> package installed. The
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instructions are in the file
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<code>/usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt</code>.
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You can use the package <code>reportbug</code> that will guide you through the
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reporting process and mail the message to the proper address, with some extra
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details about your system added automatically. It will also show you a list of
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bugs already reported to the package you are reporting against in case your bug
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has been reported previously, so that you can additional information to the
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If you want to mail the report with an e-mail program, send a message to
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href="mailto:submit@bugs.debian.org">submit@bugs.debian.org</a></code>. The
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message's first line must be similar to
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Package: package-name
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(replace <var>package-name</var> with the name of the package). The next line
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should relate the package version number in a similar way:
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Version: version-number
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The version number for any package installed on your system can be obtained
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using the command line
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dpkg -s <var>package-name</var>
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This section is referred to as the pseudo-header. The rest of the message
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should contain the description of the bug (please make it moderately detailed),
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the Debian release you are using, and versions of other relevant packages. The
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Debian release number will be displayed by the command
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cat /etc/debian_version
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Expect to get an automatic acknowledgement of your bug report. It will also be
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automatically given a bug tracking number, entered into the bug log and
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forwarded to the debian-bugs-dist mailing list.
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[ <a href="index.en.html#contents">Contents</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-basic_defs.en.html">1</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-getting.en.html">2</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-compat.en.html">3</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-software.en.html">4</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-ftparchives.en.html">5</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-pkg_basics.en.html">6</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-pkgtools.en.html">7</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-uptodate.en.html">8</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-kernel.en.html">9</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-customizing.en.html">10</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-contributing.en.html">12</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-redistrib.en.html">13</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-nexttime.en.html">14</a> ]
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[ <a href="ch-faqinfo.en.html">15</a> ]
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The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
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version 3.1.5, 17 January 2007<br>
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Authors are listed at <a href="ch-faqinfo.en.html#s-authors">Debian FAQ Authors</a><br>
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