Where to start when things don't work?

[Note: I consider myself to be a Linux newbie. The information on this page is incomplete, and some may even be wrong. But I have learned a few things that I could not find back in the Wiki. Following is an overview of this.]

Starting to find your way in Linux can be a frustrating thing when applications and hardware don't seem to work as they should. Linux has many ways to troubleshoot problems, but they may be different from what you are used to with other operating systems.

This page tries to help you pinpoint the cause of trouble, and point you to places where you might get help solving the problem. Troubleshooting information on this page is of general nature, that means it shows general techniques that can be used in (almost) all situations, and it shows things you can do when you really don't know what a problem is related to. More specific information, that is clearly related to a piece of software or hardware, should be looked for on their respective pages.

Pinpointing causes

Run from terminal

While Windows programs generally display a dialog box in case of an error, the Linux standard way to display error messages is through the stderror device. Running an application from the Gnome menu you won't see much, but running it from a terminal window you will see the error messages in the terminal window. Try to see if you can find errors telling you that some component is missing or malfunctioning.

You can find Terminal under Applications > Accessories > Terminal. More information on Terminal can be found in TerminalHowto and TerminalAdvanced.

Most applications can be run straight from Terminal by typing their command name. Most of the time, this is not the application name you will see in the Gnome menu. There are several ways to find the command name that is associated to an application in the menu:

• Applications Menu Editor (located in Applications > System Tools), only for items on the Applications menu. Open the Menu Editor, select the appropriate category in the left pane, find your application in the right pane, and double-click the application name. You should now get a dialog that shows the associated command name.

• Synaptic Package Manager (located in System > Administration). Use the search function to locate the package that the malfunctioning application belongs to. Installed packages show a green square. Hightlight the package that the application belongs to, right-click, and choose Properties. Then go to the Installed Files tab. Entries that start with "/usr/bin/" are commonly commands that can be executed from the Terminal.

• Execute "ls /usr/bin/" from Terminal, this will show you most application command names on your system.

Run as another user

Some problems are connected to the user-settings. Trying to run them as another user may help you pinpoint this. Go to System > Administration > Users and Groups, and create a new user. If your problem involves running admin tasks, be sure to go to the User Privileges tab and check "Executing system administration tasks". Now, log off and log in as your newly created user, and check if your problem still persists.

Getting help

Equiped with the information you gathered in the pinpointing chapter, you can now help others help you. Enter the forums to ask about your problems, giving the collected information. Or use a web search engine to search for the error messages you've gotten. Lots of links can be found under HowToGetHelp.

General solutions

• As hard as it may sound, your best solution might be to reformat your Linux partition and start over with a clean install. As a new user, you tend to install many different applications to try stuff out. You may have installed an incompatible set of applications, our you may have made a mistake configuring some application. When problems are very hard to pinpoint, a reformat may be your best and quickest solution.

CategoryCleanup