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## Appendix B Reporting bugs

These are the guideline for how to report bugs. Take a look at this list below before you submit bugs:

1. Before getting unsettled, read this manual through and through. Also, see the GNU GRUB FAQ.
2. Always mention the information on your GRUB. The version number and the configuration are quite important. If you build it yourself, write the options specified to the configure script and your operating system, including the versions of gcc and binutils.
3. If you have trouble with the installation, inform us of how you installed GRUB. Don’t omit error messages, if any. Just ‘`GRUB hangs up when it boots`’ is not enough.

   The information on your hardware is also essential. These are especially important: the geometries and the partition tables of your hard disk drives and your BIOS.

4. If GRUB cannot boot your operating system, write down everything you see on the screen. Don’t paraphrase them, like ‘`The foo OS crashes with GRUB, even though it can boot with the bar boot loader just fine`’. Mention the commands you executed, the messages printed by them, and information on your operating system including the version number.
5. Explain what you wanted to do. It is very useful to know your purpose and your wish, and how GRUB didn’t satisfy you.
6. If you can investigate the problem yourself, please do. That will give you and us much more information on the problem. Attaching a patch is even better.

   When you attach a patch, make the patch in unified diff format, and write ChangeLog entries. But, even when you make a patch, don’t forget to explain the problem, so that we can understand what your patch is for.

7. Write down anything that you think might be related. Please understand that we often need to reproduce the same problem you encountered in our environment. So your information should be sufficient for us to do the same thing—Don’t forget that we cannot see your computer directly. If you are not sure whether to state a fact or leave it out, state it! Reporting too many things is much better than omitting something important.

If you follow the guideline above, submit a report to the Bug Tracking System. Alternatively, you can submit a report via electronic mail to bug-grub@gnu.org, but we strongly recommend that you use the Bug Tracking System, because e-mail can be passed over easily.

Once we get your report, we will try to fix the bugs.

Next: Where GRUB will go, Previous: How to obtain and build GRUB, Up: GNU GRUB manual [Contents][Index]