This is Andrew Gee with the fifth screencast in the
Ubuntu Month Of Screencasts.
All of the screencasts in this month can be downloaded
for free at our website, which is screencast.ubuntu.com
One of the great parts of Ubuntu is the vast community it has.
All of these people will be happy to help with through any
problems you may have.
There are many different ways in which you are able to get help
from this community.
The ubuntu documentation is useful for some problems
of not knowing how to do things.
Ubuntu has two different types of documentation,
Official and Community.
The official documentation is what is included in your
installation of Ubuntu
and available on the Internet.
Whereas the community documentation is created by the community
and hosted on the community section of the Ubuntu website.
Now I am going to show you how to access both types of documentation.
From your Ubuntu desktop, you are easily able to access the
official documentation, without even needing an Internet connection.
Just head to the System menu on the top panel
and click on the Help and Support button.
From here you are able to select which category
you are looking for documentation on.
Alternatively, you can use the search field at the top,
to search directly for what you are looking for.
Accessing the community documentation requires
you have an Internet connection.
So go along and load up Firefox
and in the address bar type help.ubuntu.com/community
Similar to the official documentation, you can
choose a category to browse into the documentation for
on the left
or you can use the search box that is at the top.
Launchpad is a web based system developed by
the same people behind Ubuntu.
Within Launchpad there is an answers system.
Here you can ask questions to do with any of the projects
listed on Launchpad, Ubuntu included.
So let us take a look at how this works.
As Launchpad is web based, go ahead and load up Firefox.
Enter the web address, launchpad.net
To ask a question on Launchpad, you will have to create an account.
So go ahead and click on the Log in/Register link at the top right corner.
and on this page enter your email address in the
Not Registered Yet? section
and click the Register button.
Once you have followed those instructions and registered,
log in and go back to the home page.
From here, click on the answers button.
Click on Ubuntu to head to the Ubuntu question tracker.
From here you can search for an existing question
or you can ask a question by clicking on the Ask a question button.
On this page enter a language
and a summary of your question
and click the continue button.
Here you can see a list of questions that may be similar
to what you want to ask.
But if it is not, go ahead and in the description box
type a full description of your question.
Once you have finished entering that, click the add button
and your question will be added to the tracker.
On an answer being made, you will receive an email
notification telling you so.
Follow the link in the email and you are able to add extra
information or notify the tracker that the problem is solved.
Another method of getting support for Ubuntu is
through mailing lists, which are used through your email.
To ask a question you will simply send an email
to the list's email address.
People can then see your question and reply to the question
and the answer will show up in your email inbox.
To subscribe to a mailing list you will need to visit a webpage.
Load up Firefox and type in the address, lists.ubuntu.com
On this web page you will be presented with a big list
of many mailing lists that you can sign up to.
A common one that is used for support is ubuntu-users
Find that on the list and click on it.
You will be presented with a page like this.
To subscribe to the mailing list, simply enter you email address,
name and desired password.
The final option before signing up is giving you the choice of
how you would like to receive messages from the mailing list
For a high volume mailing list, such as this one,
you will probably want a daily digest,
so click Yes and press Subscribe.
To verify that it is in fact your email address
a confirmation email is sent to your email address.
In it, there is a link that you must follow
to verify that it is your email address.
Load up the link in your web browser to be presented
with a web page like this.
Verify that all of the details on the page are correct
and press the subscribe button.
You are now able to send emails to the mailing list,
with the address you can find an email following confirmation.
In this case it is ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com
If you do not like the email based approach of the mailing list,
you might be more accustomed to web forums.
There are many different forums, one for each language.
The main one is ubuntuforums.org
To get to the Ubuntu forums load up Firefox,
enter the address, ubuntuforums.org
The page will load something like this.
To ask a question on the forums, you will have to sign up for an account.
Do this by clicking on the register link
in the navigation bar towards the top of the page.
Follow all of the instructions on the following page
to sign up for an account.
Sign in and then return back to the home page.
From here you can go into all of the relative categories
and make new threads or replies.
Make sure that before posting though, you check
by searching the forums, that your
question has not already been asked.
A final way of getting support from the community
is via IRC.
IRC is a form of instant Internet chat.
This way will give you quickest access to help,
but might be a bit more complicated for a novice.
There are many was to connect to the IRC server Ubuntu operates from
and Pidgin is one of them.
Load up Pidgin by going to Applications menu,
Internet, Pidgin Instant Messenger.
If this is the first time you have loaded Pidgin,
you will probably get a window like this.
If you do not, go to the accounts menu in the main window
and go to Add/Edit.
Here press the Add button.
Under Protocol, select IRC.
Next, in Screen name choose a nickname
that you would like to be known by.
Keep the server the same.
Finally, press the Save button.
Here you can see that you are connecting.
When it has finished connecting,
it should look like that.
Close that,
go to Buddies,
Add Chat,
make sure that the IRC account is selected
and in Channel type #ubuntu,
as this is the likely channel you want to go to.
Press the Add button and you should see the #ubuntu there.
If you double-click on it, it will load up.
You are now in the channel.
Use the box at the bottom of the window to type your message
and type enter to send them.
When people are talking to you, they will likely reference your name
so you can easily see.
Like so.
When you are talking to someone specifically,
make sure you reference their name.
For a full list of IRC guidelines, make sure you check out
wiki.ubuntu.com/IrcGuidelines
There is a pretty obvious method of help too.
You must have got the Ubuntu CD from someone
or bought the computer from someone with Ubuntu pre-installed.
You may find that this person will be happy to help you with any problems.
There is also a commercial support method,
which can be purchased from Ubuntu.
To find out more about this visit ubuntu.com/support/paid
You can purchase this support by contacting them on the website.
Thanks for watching, I am Andrew Gee.
To see more screencasts from the Ubuntu Month of Screencasts,
visit our website at screencasts.ubuntu.com