Is this why there are so many bugs?

[VanillaMozilla]

Cariboo, suppose for the moment that I did edit the wiki pages. That might solve one problem, although it may well be a fool's errand. But what about the Launchpad problem? Any suggestions?

[Primefalcon]

that's because typically.. you don't have to worry about it, most times when a program crashes... you'll get a message asking if you wish to file a bug report....

otherwise filing a bug report is as simple as typing ubuntu-bug <program_name>

if you the ubuntu lense thing and type in help and launch the help program and type in file a bug, you'll see the entry how do I report a problem in Ubuntu. You'll see the whole process of alt+f2 and blah blah right there.... so the documentation exists in Ubuntu itself...

[forrestcupp]

Ummmm.... go to the linked posted in the OP...... a fix has been released.......

So bug has been fixed..... do a sudo apt-get update.....

again this whole Thread is mute.... the act that the bug was fixed from the thread shows the OPs whole point is invalid

This thread is not a help request for Thunderbird. That was just an example of the fact that it's not obvious how to file a report for something that doesn't cause a crash.

that's because typically.. you don't have to worry about it, most times when a program crashes... you'll get a message asking if you wish to file a bug report....

otherwise filing a bug report is as simple as typing ubuntu-bug <program_name>

if you the ubuntu lense thing and type in help and launch the help program and type in file a bug, you'll see the entry how do I report a problem in Ubuntu. You'll see the whole process of alt+f2 and blah blah right there.... so the documentation exists in Ubuntu itself...

It's not true that typically you only want to file a report when something crashes. I've noticed lots of bugs that don't actually cause the app to crash.

It's great to know about ubuntu-bug, but if you don't know about that command, filing reports is pretty confusing. If they're going to be that strict about doing it this way, they need to put it in the menus and make it obvious.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Reporting bugs is something I have done from time to time when prompted... but in general I have no idea if I did it right, and I try and avoid it as it does seem to be more voodoo than I can handle.

I should have a look at those wiki entries I think


404

[zer010]

I was not aware of the "ubuntu-bug" command, so thanks for that! ^_^d

[Primefalcon]

As I said however... the documentation is easily found inside of Ubuntu itself.... so it's not like its obscured information

[CarpKing]

So it sounds like the documentation in Ubuntu is fine, and the wiki can be improved, but the main problem is that Launchpad lets you file bugs that will be automatically marked invalid without warning you of this fact. Maybe for official Ubuntu packages (I assume other projects hosted on Launchpad use the manual bug-reporting feature) it should redirect you to the directions for running ubuntu-bug.

[cariboo]

If you subscribe to the bug, you will get email notification if the bug is a duplicate or invalid, you can then post a comment asking what else is needed to help solve the problem.

All the documentation in the world, isn't going to help, if no one reads it.

[VanillaMozilla]

OK, thanks for the information on Apport. That solves the immediate problem.

It's easy enough to find if you know exactly where to look and what to look for. I'm not going to waste time fixing anything if the most knowledgeable users think there's no problem. However, here's a concise guide I wrote for myself, using information I compiled from several sources.

My bug-reporting documentation
============================
Almost all bugs in Ubuntu-distributed software should be reported using Apport. Apport gathers extensive information on the local system, and is also capable of gathering information on crashes. Apport and various supporting packages are installed by default on Ubuntu systems. Launchpad allows reporting bugs without using Apport, but this is discouraged.

Run Apport from a terminal, as follows. The 'ubuntu-bug' command has an alternate form, 'apport-bug'.

To report information on a program
ubuntu-bug -w
and click on the window. This will gather information on that program.

To report on a specific package name
ubuntu-bug <package-name>

To collect crash information
Start Apport (once) and then run the program that crashes.
sudo service apport start force_start=1

To report crash information
??

To report non-specific problems
ubuntu-bug
This will present a form with different types of problems.

To report non-specific problems
ubuntu-bug linux


More information
More information on ubuntu-bug can be found in the following places. None of these sources has complete documentation.

1. The Ubuntu Help utility. Search for 'file a bug'.
2. The man page has partial information. man ubuntu-bug
3. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport
4. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
5. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs

[forrestcupp]

As I said however... the documentation is easily found inside of Ubuntu itself.... so it's not like its obscured information

Maybe, but if they actually want people to help with bug reports, they need to make it obvious instead of tucking instructions for some unknown command away in their documentation. I would think that would be something important enough to put in the menus. The way things are now, it almost seems like they're being put out by doing us the favor of accepting our bug reports, when it's really that we are trying to help them out.