FindRightPackage improvements

[David Tombs]

Brian Murray wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 01:51:56PM -0400, David Tombs wrote:
>> Hello fellow bug squad members,
>>
>> I think the idea of changing bug reporting to only come via apport is a 
>> great idea. It is essential, however, that instructions for using apport 
>> are clear--and not only to technical users. I personally feel that our 
>> documentation is not clear at all, and would probably result in the vast 
>> majority of users giving up or assigning a random, incorrect package if 
>> forced to do so.
>>
>> The biggest problem to me seems to be 
>> <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage/>. The page is pretty 
>> disorganized (with general instructions and lists of specific packages 
>> interspersed) and inconsistent in the technical level of the language. 
>> For example, "If you encounter a bug when booting the Live CD..." is 
>> pretty clear, but "Most distribution upgrades are performed with the 
>> package update-manager." is not so much (what is a distribution upgrade? 
>> FC -> Ubuntu? ;) )
>>
>> So, I think some effort at streamlining the page, especially thinking 
>> through steps as though one has just started using Ubuntu, is in order. 
>> Specifically, categorizing the page into general instructions v. 
>> "scenarios" and toning down some of the Ubuntu lingo and technical 
>> language would be most helpful. Though I don't have much time to spare, 
>> I'd be glad to rewrite some parts of it I'm not sure what the policy is 
>> for that, however.
>>
>> What do you all think?
> 
> I think this would be quite helpful for people and welcome any help you
> can provide.  With regards to the policy for rewriting it - I'd first
> outline how you would like to specifically reorganize the page, in case
> you don't get to all of it and so others can help, and then just dive
> right in!  I'm happy to help too.
>  

Well, I totally forgot about this email so I just wrote up a new draft
of the page, which I have attached.

To summarize, I made the following significant changes:

* Organized page into "Scenarios" and "Package-Specific" sections to
improve navigation.
* Removed all example ubuntu-bug command-lines, as I think this is
irrelevant to the page.
* Removed some advanced info on finding the executable name for an
application, such as using ps or top.
* Added specific symptoms that point to X bugs.
* Removed instructions to gather info from .xsession-errors, since that
has nothing to do with finding the right package, but instead is
debugging information.

Please let me know what ya'll think of the new page, especially if you
think I degraded it at all! I want my work to make everyone's lives easier.

Cheers,
David
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