Chapter 20: What To Do If Tux Starts Acting Up

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Overview

Problem Solving

It happens to everyone, no matter what operating system you are using — something goes wrong, and you are stuck with nowhere to go. Don’t feel bad, and most importantly, don’t panic. I repeat: DON’T PANIC! Nothing but trouble comes when you do. Going into a panicked frenzy usually turns a simple problem into a big one. Nothing is ever as bad as it seems . . . usually.

When something weird does come up and you don’t quite know what to do, take your hands off the mouse and keyboard immediately. I mean that literally — hands off! Resist the urge to act.

Once you’ve done that, sit back, take a deep breath, and think. What is actually happening? What did you do that got you to this point? Hopefully, after this brief period of reflection, the problem will have solved itself, as it so often does. If not, take a break. Go downstairs and have a bowl of granola, or clam chowder, or (better yet)

change that flat tire on your bicycle that’s been keeping you from riding for three weeks. Then, once you’re done, come back to this book and look through this section to see if your problem matches anything I’ve mentioned here.

To be honest, I really haven’t had much trouble with my Red Hat or Fedora systems up to now. In fact, I’ve had fewer problems than I mention in this section. Nevertheless, computers are computers, and operating systems, whether Windows, Mac, or Linux, are sufficiently complex to freak themselves out on occasion, as my friend put it. As it is impossible to anticipate every possible mishap that might occur to everyone, I’ve limited this section to the mostly minor problems that I or those around me have had. If you come up with problems of a different nature, try one of the online forums or mailing lists mentioned in the Appendices and ask your question there. Be sure to say that you are a Linux newbie, so that the responders will dumb-down their comments a tad. If you can’t grasp what they tell you to do, don’t be afraid to seek clarification.

I will only deal with operating system failures here; hardware failures are a different story entirely, and there is nothing much you can do in such situations other than replace the offending unit (most commonly a hard disk that conks out). Hardware failures are system independent, so they would happen even if you were using Windows on your machine. Don’t blame Linux if such problems happen on its watch, because it isn’t the cause.

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