On Thu 08 May 2014 at 14:07:12 -0400, Steve Litt wrote: > On Thu, 08 May 2014 16:31:03 +0930 > josh <j...@thefamousjoneses.com> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > When one has a problem with any GNU/Linux distribution and goes to the > > Internet for help, one is always a. assured that there is loads of > > help available and b. directed to a maze of mailing lists where any > > search immediately returns at least a million hits. > > True.
One generalisation deserves another. > > This is certainly > > the case with Debian. > > > > Worse, almost every entry in those lists refers to attempting to > > perform some complex technical activity, usually with a root > > terminal, and is studded with abstruse technical terms. Trying to > > read through even a subset of those entries, obtained by severely > > narrowing the search terms, takes hours. And narrowing the terms may > > just have excluded the only relevant entry. > > That's true. Another generalisation deserves yet another. > > Look at my latest frustration: > > > > I have downloaded 'wheezy' and created a CD from the Iso image. When I > > attempt to boot from the CD the screen image comes up, I respond to a > > few options, then the system reports unable to read from the CD - > > which it has, of course, been doing. > > :-) 'unable to read from the CD': what does that mean? What were the exact words seen? Who can give any help from such a meagre description? > IIRC I had that on Mandriva or Ubuntu in 2008. It was either a driver > issue or I had to tell the BIOS to allow "legacy" drive reading. That was 2008 - and didn't involve Debian. Sounds like a sad story. > Which brings up an important point: The reason for mailing lists. In my It may bring it up but it is irrelevant to answering a post with a complete lack of useful detail. > opinion, long before you've burned up several hours and maybe gotten in > a bad mood, you should ask for live help on a mailing list or IRC > channel. You've done your due diligence RTFM, something's wrong, and > you're perfectly within your rights to ask for help. If some RTFM > shouter insults you or points that to "let me google that for you", > ignore him, or if you can't, filter him. You've done your due > diligence. Was there a time when horses were 'Dobbin' and not 'hobby'? [The rest is snipped because I ran out of puff.] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140508191641.gt17...@copernicus.demon.co.uk