An invalidated bug. Should it have really been invalidated?

[Dr. David Alan Gilbert]

* Chris Johnston (chrisjohnston at ubuntu.com) wrote:
> I'm not going to comment on keeping the bug opened or closed, however I
> will point out:
> 
> "Many Linux <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux> package, hardware,
> and other non-user space bugs are hardware dependent on both the hardware
> itself, and what other hardware the problematic hardware is connected to.
> The rule of thumb is *one report, per person, per hardware combination, per
> bug*. For more on this please see
> here<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue>,
> and further below in this article. As well, please do not post comments to
> another person's report, claiming you have the same problem, because you
> have the same hardware, or same computer model. Instead, please file a
> separate report, and make comments there. This is because no one can verify
> if you would have the same problem or not, because your hardware can not be
> analyzed. "

Right, the challenge is how to group them though - if you think 20 bugs
are actually the same bug:
   * how do we recognise that?
     - because it is useful to group when you think you've found the same
       thing
   * how do we keep hold of all the debug if the original reporter gives
up and moves on?
     - we do see streams of bugs where one person finds it, gives up
       and the bug expires, then someone else finds it 6 months later
       and the same bug persists for years.

The challenge with kernel bugs though is finding the point at which
you say it's actually the same problem, and it can be really tricky which
is I think why those guidelines are there; you don't want to start grouping
stuff together just because it has similar symptoms though unless
it's specific enough to be reasonably sure.

The other thing I sometimes do is ask people to put another bug report
in, but to add a comment on the original giving the number of their
new report as a minimal sort of linking.

Dave
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