Submitting Bug Reports To Open Source Projects?

aldheorte writes "After installing Red Hat Linux 8.0, I discovered some minor bugs. Some of these are with software actively maintained by Red Hat (e.g. redhat-config-date), but some are not (e.g. gaim). Although it is possible to enter bugs for any package at Red Hat Bugzilla, some of these packages have zero bugs, which probably indicates this is not a preferred method of receiving bugs for that project. In fact, I've found this to be the case for for several project. I find no listed bugs for Red Hat's Bugzilla and a whole database of bugs at another site, such as SourceForge. There are many distributions and channels for open source projects to reach the end user, so how do users, especially non-technical ones, effectively submit bug reports to the right database? How do open source projects make it easier for users to submit bug reports and consolidate the bugs in a single database?" Update: 11/01 11pm EDT by C :Don't know why this was sitting under the "HP" topic, so I've changed it to something more appropriate. Sorry if this has resulted in any confusion.

Comments

Ahh...but you see

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahhh....but you see grasshopper...if you can't report a bug, then the project is perfect, and the developer can say "See...my code is l33t!!!" when he applies for the high-paying job in the cubicle farm.

So they don't *want* to make it easy for you.

Slashdot bug report

[orkysoft]

This story has the HP logo for an icon, while it's not about HP at all.

Re:Slashdot bug report

[IamTheRealMike]

Reproducibility: always

Steps to reproduce:

1) Submit story to slashdot
2) Set topic wrong
3) Watch as editors post it anyway

Actual results: story is posted in the wrong section

Expected results: story is posted twice, then an editor should apologise

---------- Comment by Hemos, 10:05pm

Dupe of bug #133340985732

---------- Comment by CmdrTaco, 10:08pm

Marking WONTFIX

---------- Comment by CowboyNeal, 10:09pm

VERIFIED

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

Open Source haqs no bugs, unless the user is an ingrate freeloader who refuses to fix them.

send your bugs to..

[greenskyx]

Well you should really be sending your bug reports to HP. That way they'll be fixed....

Use the unix move command

[DeadSea]

You can submit bugs to almost any project with the unix move command (mv)

1. Make a text file with your favorite editor.
2. Be sure to name the text file with a good summary
3. Edit the text file to include the version of the software you are using, a long description of the bug, and any other relevant information
4. Submit the report with the command: mv <file> /dev/null

See, its all in one place and its easy!

Re:Use the unix move command

[selectspec]

- Write your bug down on some scratch paper.

- Wrap the paper with the bug report around a brick.

- Drive up to your neighbors house and throw the brick through the window.

Re:Use the unix move command

[FauxPasIII]

4. Submit the report with the command: mv /dev/null

There's a bug in step 4 of your process. I just submitted a bug report with more details.

Post all bug reports to Slashdot

[bfallik]

Might as well since we already hear about every minor software release anyway.

Re:They Don't/Shouldn't

[maniac1860]

remotely control the little gnomes in his machine and instruct them to magically fix it

Why do you use gnomes? I've always found pixies to be much more efficient. Plus they make my software look cooler when it's running.

Re:Maintainers.

[Zordak]

Hey, buddy, that's GNU/BSD... oh, wait. Nevermind.

Re:They Don't/Shouldn't

[Wumpus]

One word: Dust.