Aprire una segnalazione di bug

Poiché i nostri sviluppatori non sono in grado di testare tutte le possibili combinazioni di hardware, o tutte le modalità con cui è possibile interagire col sistema operativo, ci affidiamo agli utenti per darci più informazioni su come le cose funzionano dal loro punto di vista. Poiché Haiku è un progetto ancora molto giovane, è molto probabile che sia possibile incorrere in alcuni malfunzionamenti. Vi ringraziamo per il tempo che dedicherete a segnalarci questi bug. Insieme, miglioreremo Haiku, un passo alla volta.

Affinché il tracciamento dei bug sia efficiente, è essenziale rispettare la Bug Tracker Etiquette (pagina in inglese).

Iscrizione a Trac

Per aprire un ticket, è necessario un account sulla piattaforma di segnalazione di Haiku.
Nel momento in cui crei un nuovo account, assicurati di fornire un indirizzo mail valido, in quanto esso è necessario per ottenere alcuni privilegi base per modificare il ticket. Assicurati di controllare la cartella della posta indsiderata, perché talvolta la mail di verifica è erroneamente marcata come tale.

Creazione di un bug report

Prima di effettuare una segnalazione di bug, per favore verifica che non sia già stato riportato. A tale scopo, puoi anche utilizzare la funzione di ricerca.
Una volta stabilito che il bug non sia già stato segnalato, assicurati di fornire quante più informazioni possibili:

• I tentativi di riprodurre il bug che hai condotto nella versione più recente di Haiku. Le immagini per i test sono disponibili per il download.

• Includi alcune informazioni di base dell'ambiente in cui stai testando Haiku (su una macchina reale, su VMWare, su QEMU, ecc.).

• Riporta che revisione del sistema stai utilizzando. Puoi recuperare questa informazione alla voce Informazioni su Haiku dal menu della Deskbar. Riporta anche che tipo di architettura (x86_gcc2, x86_64) stai testando. Le immagini che è possibile scaricare hanno ben evidente questa informazione nel nome del file, per le immagini compilate da te si suppone che tu sappia come le hai costruite.

• Descrivi il problema che hai riscontrato. Cerca di essere il più accurato possibile: descrivi il comportamento riscontrato e quello atteso.

• Riporta tutti i passaggi che è necessario compiere per esporre il bug. Questo aiuterà gli sviluppatori a riprodurlo.

• Allega quante più informazioni possibilli. Se il problema riguarda l'interfaccia grafica, o un'applicazione particolare, allega alla segnalazione un'istantanea dello schermo, se possibile, premendo il tasto STAMPA.

Bug delle applicazioni

Quando ad andare in errore è un'applicazione, puoi sia salvare un file di registro oppure un dump della memoria (in entrambi i casi il file sarà salvato sulla Scrivania) che puoi poi, eventualmente, allegare al ticket. Puoi anche decidere di avviare il Debugger.

Se il bug non provoca il crash dell'applicazione, è possibili che maggiori informazioni siano disponibili a schermo quando l'applicazione è lanciata tramite Terminale. Alcune applicazioni dispongono di opzioni di logging particolari quando lanciate in questo modo con degli opportuni parametri; prova -h oppure --help per vedere se è questo il caso. A titolo d'esempio, osserva i diversi livelli di log di HaikuDepot.

Bug dei server

When vital servers like the app server, the registrar or the input server crash, you won't see the usual crash alert. Instead the whole screen will be cleared white and the Debugger will be started in text-mode, its output appearing directly on screen. Likely you will still be able to move the mouse, which will overwrite the white and Debugger output on screen. Applications still running (like ProcessController or the clock in the Deskbar) might also draw over the debugger output on screen.
Besides everything being more ugly and inconvenient, basically the same applies as for application bugs. Most importantly procure a back trace (bt command). You may need to take a picture of the screen with a digital camera, since you won't be able to copy the text anywhere.
Depending on what exactly crashed, you can try to save a crash report on the Desktop with save-report or write-core for a core file, and then press the power button once to try shutting cleanly down. If the power button doesn't work, there are also the commands shutdown and reboot.

Bug del kernel

Kernel bugs are usually the ones with the most severe effects while at the same time being the hardest to debug. There are different kinds of symptoms, which most likely point to a kernel or driver issue:

• The system enters kernel debugging land (KDL) on its own volition. The upper part of the screen is cleared white and several lines of text are printed on it. The second line says "Welcome to Kernel Debugging Land...", the one above it states the immediate reason for entering KDL.

• The system reboots spontaneously.

• The system freezes completely. You can't move the mouse and no application draws anything anymore. An important test in that situation is, whether you still can enter KDL via the shortcut ALT SysReq D (SysReq being PRINT on most keyboards). Wait at least a minute to see, if anything happens.

• The system doesn't boot up correctly. It may reboot spontaneously or stop at some point (e.g. at some icon of the boot screen). In the latter case also try ALT SysReq D.

• The whole system or some piece of hardware doesn't behave correctly. For example, it could be very slow, errors occur, or something doesn't work at all. If some hardware doesn't work at all, the first obvious check is whether Haiku supports it at all at the moment (e.g. ask on a mailing list or a forum).

Note that while only the last point seems to indicate hardware relation, all the other symptoms could be caused by a bug in a hardware driver as well. If you have a suspicion what piece of hardware or corresponding driver might have to do with the problem, check whether removing/disabling the hardware or the driver makes a difference. For example, if you suspect Wifi you may find that your BIOS has an option to disable it. Or if not, you could blacklist the responsible Wifi driver from your Haiku installation (see Boot Loader).

Kernel Debugging Land - KDL

If the system hasn't entered KDL by itself, you can do that intentionally by invoking the keyboard shortcut ALT SysReq D (SysReq being the Print key, normally).
Note that in KDL your keyboard may not work. PS/2 keyboards always do, with USB keyboards it depends on the type of USB controller (UHCI/EHCI). Generally, the keyboard should be plugged into the port directly, not via any hubs. In some circumstances, the keyboard only works if one has entered KDL via the keyboard shortcut at least once. USB OHCI is not supported at the moment.

KDL itself is a kind of a shell. One can execute commands that print information about the system. The following commands might be of interest:

For more information, see the article Welcome to Kernel Debugging Land.

The KDL output is written to the serial port (if you have one, a respective cable, and a second computer to connect with, you can capture the output there via a terminal program) and to the syslog. If you can't leave KDL it won't be written to the syslog file, though. There's a boot loader debug option that allows you to capture it nonetheless (see below).

You can generate QR codes from KDL output that can then be converted to text using smartphones or similar devices. See the blog post QR Encode your KDL Output on how to get data out of KDL using that feature.

Syslog

This is the preferred method for extracting information from a non-booting system.
The syslog (short for system log) contains valuable information about what has happened in your system, including the output of KDL sessions. It's usually a good idea to attach it to the kernel related Trac ticket. The syslog is written to the file /boot/system/var/log/syslog. Since writing to a file requires a working system, the most recent output might not have made it to the syslog when a kernel problem occurs (particularly on spontaneous reboots or uncontinuable KDL sessions).

The option Enable debug syslog in the boot loader's Debug menu makes the syslog persistent. If the option Save syslog from previous session during boot is activated in the boot loader options (as it is by default), you'll find the syslog of your last session as /boot/system/var/log/previous_syslog.
If you're not able to boot to get to the previous_syslog, you have to enter the boot loader menu by holding down SHIFT (or SPACE when booting via UEFI) while booting.
In the boot loader's Debug menu you should find the entries Display syslog from previous session and Save syslog from previous session. The former displays the syslog on screen, the latter allows you to save it as a file to disk. Note that at the moment only FAT32 volumes are supported for saving the file. If you want to use a USB stick, but have plugged it in too late so that it isn't recognized yet, you can reset the machine and re-enter the boot loader menu. Note: Don't accidentally boot any operating system or the data will be lost.

On screen debug output

The on-screen debug output is useful only for debugging very specific issues and is known to have (timing) issues. Don't use it, if you don't have to.
This is only relevant when Haiku fails to boot on your machine and the Debug syslog option doesn't work for some reason. Before the Haiku boot logo appears, hold SHIFT (or SPACE when booting via UEFI) to enter the boot loader menu. Select Select debug options. Near the bottom, Enable on screen debug output will be listed. (Note: The other options could be enabled in an attempt to boot Haiku. If Haiku will boot only when one or more options are activated, be sure to mention which ones.)
Finally select Return to main menu and then Continue booting.
One or more pages of text will display on the screen, only the last few lines need to be included on your ticket. There's more information on the Boot Loader.

Hardware/Driver bugs

When dealing with a hardware/driver related bug, you should attach the following information as text files:

The first four commands are entered into Terminal. Add a > output.txt after a command, and it's piped into a text file called "output.txt" that you can attach to your bug report or email.

What's next?

After the bug has been reported, a developer will look at your bug and try to classify it. Remember, we are all volunteers, and as such, sometimes a bug report might go unanswered for a while. Adding new information when it becomes available usually helps getting a bug picked up quicker, but do not try to 'bump' the bug up by adding non-descriptive comments.

Remember, reporting a bug is not something you spend a little time on and then you are done. If you reported a bug, then you are part of the Haiku development process. Developers might come up with questions while they are trying to fix your bug. Please stay around to answer these. Consider your participation 'done' when the bug is marked as 'fixed'.