Errors To Avoid
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* Check for other lists like this one on the net. Knowledge of what to avoid is crucial if mentor/technician patience is limited. | * Check for other lists like this one on the net. Knowledge of what to avoid is crucial if mentor/technician patience is limited. | ||
| − | * Forgetting proper shutdown: Some programs that should only exist once will | + | * Forgetting proper shutdown: Some programs that should only exist once will leave "lock" files in /home/username/.ProgramName/SomeSubDirectory to prevent running the same program in coexistence; but if you crash or turn off the computer without using [[shutdown]] the "lock" file will stay and prevent running the program again. This happens a lot with browsers and the lock file (literally named "lock" in many cases such as mozilla) can be deleted safely to be able to restart the program. Also, not doing a proper shutdown can have effects from losing random information on your hard disk (rare) to extra delay when booting (common) - and a few commands or applications almost guarantee trouble if not shutdown properly. |
* Don't ever mess with files who are flagged noschg and have names like "ld-elf", no matter what 20 FAQ and manual patches say, before doing a full backup. You can't just remove the noschg and move that file and then move another in its place because bewteen those two steps you lose the command line. Copying a file over another might work, but by all means keep a copy of the original file around as well as a full backup of everything first! | * Don't ever mess with files who are flagged noschg and have names like "ld-elf", no matter what 20 FAQ and manual patches say, before doing a full backup. You can't just remove the noschg and move that file and then move another in its place because bewteen those two steps you lose the command line. Copying a file over another might work, but by all means keep a copy of the original file around as well as a full backup of everything first! | ||
| − | * Java in the browsers might be inhumanely hard to install if you're a rookie or even an intermediate. Possibly it is totally uninstallable on some system/versions without having any kind of warning or error message or FAQ mentioning so - Sun has refused being straightforward on whether the task is strictly impossible or just extremely hard. Even if installed correctly, it can't use microsoft's activeX. Installing wine with firefox for windows might be an alternative. | + | * Java in the browsers might be inhumanely hard to install if you're a rookie or even an intermediate. Possibly it is totally uninstallable on some system/versions without having any kind of warning or error message or FAQ mentioning so - Sun has refused being straightforward on whether the task is strictly impossible or just extremely hard. Even if installed correctly, it can't use microsoft's activeX (which is required for some JAVA-based multiplayer games such as runescape). Installing wine with firefox for windows might be an alternative. |
[[Category : New_User_Tips_and_FAQs ]] | [[Category : New_User_Tips_and_FAQs ]] | ||
Latest revision as of 05:04, 16 September 2006
There are errors that may take days to recover from, or may be unrecoverable. Mentors would be wise to have their students know of this list to save precious time and aggravation.
- Never interrupt Portupgrade. Recovery may take days of work/compile and isn't always a success.
- Never delete directly from /usr/ports and its subdirectories. If you delete even a small and silly game with no dependencies, you can still break things as some package might require it. To save space the command you probably intended is "make clean" or "make distclean"; the latter will clean /usr/ports/distfiles and any packages that were built for your system.
- Never forget to take notes when your mentor walks you thru a complicated and risky process. If he won't give you the time to write it down, check your Logs later.
- Make sure your backups are up to date before doing anything risky to your system, and always read at least the man pages!
- Check for other lists like this one on the net. Knowledge of what to avoid is crucial if mentor/technician patience is limited.
- Forgetting proper shutdown: Some programs that should only exist once will leave "lock" files in /home/username/.ProgramName/SomeSubDirectory to prevent running the same program in coexistence; but if you crash or turn off the computer without using shutdown the "lock" file will stay and prevent running the program again. This happens a lot with browsers and the lock file (literally named "lock" in many cases such as mozilla) can be deleted safely to be able to restart the program. Also, not doing a proper shutdown can have effects from losing random information on your hard disk (rare) to extra delay when booting (common) - and a few commands or applications almost guarantee trouble if not shutdown properly.
- Don't ever mess with files who are flagged noschg and have names like "ld-elf", no matter what 20 FAQ and manual patches say, before doing a full backup. You can't just remove the noschg and move that file and then move another in its place because bewteen those two steps you lose the command line. Copying a file over another might work, but by all means keep a copy of the original file around as well as a full backup of everything first!
- Java in the browsers might be inhumanely hard to install if you're a rookie or even an intermediate. Possibly it is totally uninstallable on some system/versions without having any kind of warning or error message or FAQ mentioning so - Sun has refused being straightforward on whether the task is strictly impossible or just extremely hard. Even if installed correctly, it can't use microsoft's activeX (which is required for some JAVA-based multiplayer games such as runescape). Installing wine with firefox for windows might be an alternative.
