Problems and Bugs

• How to Ask Questions the Smart Way
• How to Report Bugs Effectively
• Writing FreeBSD Problem Reports

Problem or Bug?

There are two major problems with reporting problems and bugs:

• Have I encountered a problem?
• Have I discovered a bug?

Problems - Problems are usually recognized by questions such as:

• How do I get this KDE application to work?
• Where is the KDE application configuration file located?

Bugs - Bugs are usually recognized by statements such as:

• When I use the ALT-CTRL-F7 key in this KDE application, the computer locks up, does not respond to any input from the keyboard and I have to reboot.
• When I try to launch a URL with this KDE application, it puts single quotes ' ' around the clipboard contents when it sends it to another application. I get an error from that application because it tries to load something like this: 'http://www.somewhere.com/' instead of just http://www.somewhere.com/. I've played with the launch command and the quoting is happening inside Klipper.

Rule of Thumb: If you are not sure if it's a problem or a bug, assume you have a problem, and report it as such. If it really is a bug, then it will usually be quickly recognized.

It is also important to make sure that your versions of both FreeBSD and KDE are up to date. In many cases your particular problem/bug has already been noted and fixed.

Problems

Problems are best reported on one of the mailing lists:

• KDE-FreeBSD - for problems related to KDE on FreeBSD
• FreeBSD-Questions - for problems specific to FreeBSD and not KDE
• KDE - for problems specific to KDE and not FreeBSD

Rule of Thumb: If you are not sure which list to use, it is probably better to report it on KDE-FreeBSD. Either someone there will be able to help solve the problem, or will be able to direct you to the appropriate resource.

Bugs

Before reporting a bug, make sure that it has not been reported already:

• for KDE Bugs
• for FreeBSD Bugs

If you are sure that you have discovered a new bug, it can be reported at either:

• the KDE Bug Tracking System
• the FreeBSD Problem Report

[ Edit ]