bug reports ignored?

bug reports ignored?

[Folkert van Heusden]

Hi,

Last couple of weeks I sent 2 bug-reports. They seem to be ignored. I was
wondering: what is missing in them? Am I sending them to the incorrect
address? One I also put into bugzilla (no reactions either).

Re: bug reports ignored?

[Jesper Juhl]

On 1/5/06, Folkert van Heusden <folkert@vanheusden.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Last couple of weeks I sent 2 bug-reports. They seem to be ignored. I was
> wondering: what is missing in them? Am I sending them to the incorrect
> address? One I also put into bugzilla (no reactions either).
>
Perhaps you could let us know the subjects & dates of those two
previous mails so they are easier to locate in the archives?

Speaking of bug-reports in general I believe the following holds pretty well :

 - Sometimes bug-reports simply get lost in the flood of emails. This
is especially true if they are only send to lkml and not Cc'ed to the
proper maintainers/authors of the code involved. A well researched
list of recipients (including LKML) greatly increases the chance of a
reply.

 - Sometimes bug-reports don't contain enough info to be able to say
anything useful. People are less inclined to respond to bug reports
like that since it often ends up with developers having to play "20
questions".

 - Sometimes bugs are reported for Tainted kernels, these often just
get ignored. Reproduce the problem with an un-tainted kernel and
people will be more inclined to listen.

 - Sometimes bugs are reported with a *demand* that it be fixed *right
now* or with other abusive language towards developers in the email.
Such reports are usually ignored or, if responded to, don't get very
positive replies.

Then there's also the situation where a lot of people actually do see
the report but don't feel they have anything useful to say on the
issue since it's outside their area of expertiese - a better Cc list
often helps :)

Most of the time I think it's just a case of too much mail and things
get missed unintentionally. Try again, possibly with a better
researched list of recipients and more details about the problem -
eventually the right people will notice :)

--
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
Don't top-post  http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html
Plain text mails only, please      http://www.expita.com/nomime.html

Re: bug reports ignored?

[Folkert van Heusden]

> > Last couple of weeks I sent 2 bug-reports. They seem to be ignored. I was
> > wondering: what is missing in them? Am I sending them to the incorrect
> > address? One I also put into bugzilla (no reactions either).
> Perhaps you could let us know the subjects & dates of those two
> previous mails so they are easier to locate in the archives?

20051219190137.GA13923@vanheusden.com
Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:01:47 +0100
[2.6.13.3] occasional oops mostly in iget_locked

It seems that those oopses in iget_locked are gone since I ran 2.6.14.4
and currently run 2.6.15.


Other message:
20060103210252.GA2043@vanheusden.com
Tue, 3 Jan 2006 22:03:36 +0100
[2.6.15] reproducable hang

this one still happens. System loses total network connectivity. When I
dial the system (by phone), asterisk (the software pabx) picks up the
phone and plays a sample, then it becomes mute. After that, the system
doesn't respond to anything at all. Even sysreq+t is ignored.
The last message on the console is:
eth1: transmit error tx status register 82

>  - Sometimes bugs are reported with a *demand* that it be fixed *right
> now* or with other abusive language towards developers in the email.
> Such reports are usually ignored or, if responded to, don't get very
> positive replies.

Haha no I did not do that :-)


Folkert van Heusden

-- 
Try MultiTail! Multiple windows with logfiles, filtered with regular
expressions, colored output, etc. etc. www.vanheusden.com/multitail/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Get your PGP/GPG key signed at www.biglumber.com!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Phone: +31-6-41278122, PGP-key: 1F28D8AE, www.vanheusden.com

Re: bug reports ignored?

[Willy Tarreau]

On Thu, Jan 05, 2006 at 07:53:20PM +0100, Folkert van Heusden wrote:
> > > Last couple of weeks I sent 2 bug-reports. They seem to be ignored. I was
> > > wondering: what is missing in them? Am I sending them to the incorrect
> > > address? One I also put into bugzilla (no reactions either).
> > Perhaps you could let us know the subjects & dates of those two
> > previous mails so they are easier to locate in the archives?
> 
> 20051219190137.GA13923@vanheusden.com
> Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:01:47 +0100
> [2.6.13.3] occasional oops mostly in iget_locked
> 
> It seems that those oopses in iget_locked are gone since I ran 2.6.14.4
> and currently run 2.6.15.
> 
> 
> Other message:
> 20060103210252.GA2043@vanheusden.com
> Tue, 3 Jan 2006 22:03:36 +0100
> [2.6.15] reproducable hang
> 
> this one still happens. System loses total network connectivity. When I
> dial the system (by phone), asterisk (the software pabx) picks up the
> phone and plays a sample, then it becomes mute. After that, the system
> doesn't respond to anything at all. Even sysreq+t is ignored.
> The last message on the console is:
> eth1: transmit error tx status register 82

Then you're in the situation where you have to narrow the bug down to
something more reproduceable for other people. Possibly very few people
on the list have 2.6.15 + asterisk + a sample to play + etc...

Try to strace asterisk when this happens for instance, try to remove
a lot of loaded modules and configured options from your system, then
you will finally reach a case where you can simply reproduce it with
a 10-line C prog without a complex setup. With those info, it will be
too complex and boring to try to reproduce your problem on any
developer's system.

> >  - Sometimes bugs are reported with a *demand* that it be fixed *right
> > now* or with other abusive language towards developers in the email.
> > Such reports are usually ignored or, if responded to, don't get very
> > positive replies.
> 
> Haha no I did not do that :-)
> 
> 
> Folkert van Heusden

Willy

Re: bug reports ignored?

[Folkert van Heusden]

> > 20060103210252.GA2043@vanheusden.com
> > Tue, 3 Jan 2006 22:03:36 +0100
> > [2.6.15] reproducable hang
> > this one still happens. System loses total network connectivity. When I
> > dial the system (by phone), asterisk (the software pabx) picks up the
> > phone and plays a sample, then it becomes mute. After that, the system
> > doesn't respond to anything at all. Even sysreq+t is ignored.
> > The last message on the console is:
> > eth1: transmit error tx status register 82
> Then you're in the situation where you have to narrow the bug down to
> something more reproduceable for other people. Possibly very few people
> on the list have 2.6.15 + asterisk + a sample to play + etc...
> Try to strace asterisk when this happens for instance, try to remove

That is not possible. The system doesn't respond to anything at that
time. I was surprised that asterisk still ran. I can easily (10 out of
10 times!) reproduce the problem by running tcpdump.

> a lot of loaded modules and configured options from your system, then
> you will finally reach a case where you can simply reproduce it with
> a 10-line C prog without a complex setup. With those info, it will be
> too complex and boring to try to reproduce your problem on any
> developer's system.

That is not an option unfortunately; production system.


Folkert van Heusden

-- 
Try MultiTail! Multiple windows with logfiles, filtered with regular
expressions, colored output, etc. etc. www.vanheusden.com/multitail/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Get your PGP/GPG key signed at www.biglumber.com!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Phone: +31-6-41278122, PGP-key: 1F28D8AE, www.vanheusden.com