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June 11th, 2006, 06:29 AM
So you upgraded to dapper and things start to break, water wet, sky blue - news at 11. We know this, however with your help Dapper might rock even harder.... because you can file bugs.
First identify your bug, if it's a crash here is what you do.
step 1:
go to your distributions bugtracker to search the bug database to see if this is a known issue. If is you can add comments to the existing bug confirming the issue and providing whatever feedback the developers request. If not then we jump to step 2.
step 2:
Now we need debug symbols, without debug information your bugreport is pretty useless in terms of getting the bug tracked down.
you'll need the deb-src entries in your /etc/apt/sources.list, these are enabled by default so unless you messed with it, you have these setup properly.
first install the build time dependencies
sudo apt-get build-dep <package>
Then build a package with debug symbols
DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS="nostrip noopt" sudo apt-get source -b <package>
Now install your new package:
sudo dpkg --install <package.deb>
Remember it is useful in many cases to compile libraries which your program accesses with debug as well. Step 3 obtaining your stack trace is up next:
step 3:
Now we start the program under the debugger to get a stack trace.
gdb <program>
(gdb) handle SIG33 pass nostop noprint
(gdb) run <append runtime arguments for the program as needed>
Issue crash conditions in your program then obtain the trace with the following command:
(gdb) thread apply all bt
Copy the entire output to a file (I like program.trace but that's just me)
It is also a very good idea to run the program in a terminal to see if it outputs any messages you can add to the bugreport.
Onwards to the moment we've been waiting for, filing our bug.
step 4:
Go to your distributions bugtracker and open up a new bug, attach the trace file, remember to fill in the version of Ubuntu you are running and the version of the program you are running.
-edit-
Addition 15th of April 2006
If the program just hangs you can do:
gdb
attach pid-of-application (get this from ps -ef)
This even works via ssh which comes in handy if the entire system hangs but still responds to ssh logins (this happens surprisingly often)
If the problem is of a none critical nature (no crashing, hangs, data loss, etc.) a none descript bugreport is the best you can do really, screenshots, etc. can help illustrate the problem - always try to include as much relevant information as possible. Enhancement requests would be a good example of such a bug - say, Firefox should not offer to update itself as we rely on apt to do that, please remove the menu item to avoid confusion.
-edit-
Removed all references to the propritary platform used by Ubuntu to track bugs - I have no interest in supporting that kind of community busting efforts, I apologize for the inconvinence.
Taken from Dapper forums.
First identify your bug, if it's a crash here is what you do.
step 1:
go to your distributions bugtracker to search the bug database to see if this is a known issue. If is you can add comments to the existing bug confirming the issue and providing whatever feedback the developers request. If not then we jump to step 2.
step 2:
Now we need debug symbols, without debug information your bugreport is pretty useless in terms of getting the bug tracked down.
you'll need the deb-src entries in your /etc/apt/sources.list, these are enabled by default so unless you messed with it, you have these setup properly.
first install the build time dependencies
sudo apt-get build-dep <package>
Then build a package with debug symbols
DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS="nostrip noopt" sudo apt-get source -b <package>
Now install your new package:
sudo dpkg --install <package.deb>
Remember it is useful in many cases to compile libraries which your program accesses with debug as well. Step 3 obtaining your stack trace is up next:
step 3:
Now we start the program under the debugger to get a stack trace.
gdb <program>
(gdb) handle SIG33 pass nostop noprint
(gdb) run <append runtime arguments for the program as needed>
Issue crash conditions in your program then obtain the trace with the following command:
(gdb) thread apply all bt
Copy the entire output to a file (I like program.trace but that's just me)
It is also a very good idea to run the program in a terminal to see if it outputs any messages you can add to the bugreport.
Onwards to the moment we've been waiting for, filing our bug.
step 4:
Go to your distributions bugtracker and open up a new bug, attach the trace file, remember to fill in the version of Ubuntu you are running and the version of the program you are running.
-edit-
Addition 15th of April 2006
If the program just hangs you can do:
gdb
attach pid-of-application (get this from ps -ef)
This even works via ssh which comes in handy if the entire system hangs but still responds to ssh logins (this happens surprisingly often)
If the problem is of a none critical nature (no crashing, hangs, data loss, etc.) a none descript bugreport is the best you can do really, screenshots, etc. can help illustrate the problem - always try to include as much relevant information as possible. Enhancement requests would be a good example of such a bug - say, Firefox should not offer to update itself as we rely on apt to do that, please remove the menu item to avoid confusion.
-edit-
Removed all references to the propritary platform used by Ubuntu to track bugs - I have no interest in supporting that kind of community busting efforts, I apologize for the inconvinence.
Taken from Dapper forums.