linux4noobs

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linux4noobs

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Whether you're a seasoned pro or the noobiest of noobs, you've found the right place for Linux support and information. With a dedication to supporting free and open source software, this community aims to ensure Linux fits your needs and works for you. From troubleshooting to tutorials, practical tips, news and more, all aspects of Linux are warmly welcomed. Join a community of like-minded enthusiasts and professionals driving Linux's ongoing evolution.

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When I notice something wrong how do I go about getting the issue fixed? (lemmy.nz)

submitted 1 year ago by Fizz@lemmy.nz to c/linux4noobs@programming.dev

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Linux and its software is constantly under development and the community seems to really be making an effort to ensure that programs work exactly as expected. I often notice little things like glitches or program crashes and I am able to replicate them and I think I should probably submit a bug report or something. Since I am not a dev I have no idea how to do this or where to start. How do I know if its my issue or the programs issue?

For example, Thunderbird 115.1.0 is crashing when I open a specific email. I will put the steps I took to debug it in the comments.

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[–] glibg10b@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

I would start by pasting important parts of the error ("Cannot load required OTR library") into a search engine and seeing if someone else has the same issue

Since the error contains a few file paths, I would then use utilities specific to my distribution to find what packages they belong to. I would remove the files (if they exist), re-install those packages and see if files are begin installed to those locations

I would then see if there's a crashlog in dmesg and repeat the above steps for any libraries mentioned in the log

I would then attempt running Thunderbird with a debugger like GDB to try to find the function that causes the crash

I would then try forwarding the email to myself, removing half of the HTML content and seeing if it crashes. If it does, the issue could be in the other half, so I remove that half instead and see if it crashes again. If it doesn't, I know it's an issue with the HTML, so I do a rough binary search to narrow the email down to the offending part

If it's not an issue with the HTML, I would check the email header and compare it with headers from other emails to see if something stands out. I would first have to do some research on what's inside an email header, though