Where to find answers

[Jman]

This guide will help you find the answers to Fedora related questions you seek by outlining what resources to consult. I use these all the time to find answers. Doing this will help you get answers faster and will help people who answer questions by allowing them to answer more questions or even give them more time to improve the software you use. This is not a thread to ask a support question like "how do I install Fedora?", start a separate thread for that.

(By "project" I mean the organization that created a particular open source project, for example the GIMP. Almost always these projects have a web site.)

• Read the documentation
  You can find documentation:
  • In a help menu
  • For console applications, a man page lists the options for a certain command. (Run "man program ") Use "apropos keyword to find a man page. info pages are another form of documentation. run "pinfo something" to get info on it. pinfo is also can view man pages.
  • Under the /usr/share/doc directory. Typically this is under the program name.
  • Online at the project's web site documentation section. Searching the web for the program name usually finds it.
  • Fedora specific documentation is at http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/ and http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/
• Find howtos
  Howtos can tell you exactly what you need to do. Often they contain hints about what programs you need to learn about. You can find howtos at
  • http://fedorasolved.org (also related sites http://fedoramobile.org/ http://fedora64.org/)
  • http://fedoranews.org
  • And of course here on FedoraForum.
• Read the Fedora FAQ
  There's a reason why this is called a FAQ: these questions are asked a lot.
  (As of this writing it has not been updated for Fedora 5 so it may be of limited use but many items are still relevant.)
• If you are installing software, look for RPMs
  With the right rpm software installs easily. See FedoraSolved for a yum setup, which will install rpms for you from the rpm.livna.org repository. Use the Fedora Tracker search engine to find rpm packages. Get familiar with commands like "yum search" and "yum provides", these find the rpms you need. For those odd rpms not in a yum repository, try http://rpmfind.net. Limit your search to Fedora system. There may be rpms on the project's site.
• Use project specific help channels
  Many projects have their own support systems. Just tell them you are running Fedora. They may have:
  • Web forums
  • mailing lists
  • IRC channels (search IRC channels with this)
  For example, there is a large Mozilla forum here. Use it.
• Search effectively
  Whenever possible, limit your search. Include as many search terms as possible.
  Some resources to search:
  • FedoraForum has a search Use it.
  • Google Linux search will search Linux related pages.
  • Fedora mailing list archives
• If you can't find it, ask
  There are plenty of ways to communicate, including FedoraForum. Tell what you did and what is going wrong, as exactly as possible. Also mention what you've already looked at. Keep this guide to smart questions and our posting guidelines in mind. Your answer will come quicker.

Finding answers is also a skill. Once mastered, you will be able to hear about some random open source progam, find its website, search for an rpm with the tracker, yum install it, then figure it out with its man page. It is not too hard, it is just a matter of knowing the right resources and how to use them.

Good luck, and may you find the answers you are seeking!

[nlkrio]

your advise are very helpfull!

[Jman]

You're welcome.

Added a link to the wiki.

[gavinw6662]

looks like someone who is getting fed up of telling people to read the man pages for the commands.......ha ha ha

[RadioactiveFrog]

Thanks JMan, im a noob and that is very helpful I look forward to attaining the skill of finding the answers

Managed to yum update yesterday that too forever

[Jman]

You're welcome.

[mndar]

I saved this post to my hard drive. Thanks.
Is it possible to have man pages for newbies ? man pages are great and offer detailed explanation of all the features. But they aren't of much use to a newbie at first. Instead of looking for a a How-To or FAQ, it would be great if he could have it offline with a man like command.

[RahulSundaram]

Originally Posted by mndar

I saved this post to my hard drive. Thanks.
Is it possible to have man pages for newbies ? man pages are great and offer detailed explanation of all the features. But they aren't of much use to a newbie at first. Instead of looking for a a How-To or FAQ, it would be great if he could have it offline with a man like command.

man pages are more of a reference material. info pages for some commands are much more detailed. If you have any specific man page you feel requires more detailed information or if any information is missing kindly file a bug report in http://bugzilla.redhat.com against the package. If you can provide the content too that would be great

[aper]

It's really nice tips Mr.Jman ;p

[zeenoid]

This is not a reply. it's a question. I am a mac user most of the time, mac is linux now, but when i use an intel machine i like to use fedora as it is linux based. In the mac system we have a pref. folder with
an international icon all you have to do to change a language is click on the language and it is on your keyboard. When i'm in fedora core 5 how do i change my keyboard from usa to korean is there an easy way to download the korean keyboard of the internet. Then i can select it for my main keyboard.
Thanks
Kevin Meenan

[Jman]

This is not the place to ask support questions, please do that in the support forums. Thank you.

[zeenoid]

Thanks for your reply. I did not know this was not a support forum. I think i will stick with my Mac. It's linux base works much better than fedora with better support.
Thanks Kevin Meenan

[Jman]

Sorry if that came off as discouraging. We have support forums. This thread is about my list of places to look for information in a forum dedicated for how to documents. I welcome comments, but please ask support questions in those support forums.

Yes Mac is nice. The similarities between Linux and the UNIX powering OSX is interesting too.

[Xii]

Thanks. I'll try that style of Java install, from fedora facts.

[Delko]

Very helpful advises! Thanks!