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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Debian -- User Support </title> <link rel="author" href="mailto:webmaster@debian.org"> <meta name="Generator" content="WML 2.32.0"> <meta name="Modified" content="2025-02-16 15:26:36"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"> <meta name="mobileoptimized" content="300"> <meta name="HandheldFriendly" content="true"> <link href="./debhome.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <link href="./startpage.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <link href="./5img-carousel-slider.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <link href="./debian-en.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico"> <meta name="Keywords" content="debian, GNU, linux, unix, open source, free, DFSG"> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Debian website search" href="./search.en.xml"> </head> <body> <div id="header"> <div id="upperheader"> <div id="logo"> <a href="./" title="Debian Home"><img src="./Pics/openlogo-50.png" alt="Debian" width="50" height="61"></a> </div>  <div id="searchbox"> <form name="p" method="get" action="https://search.debian.org/cgi-bin/omega"> <p> <input type="hidden" name="DB" value="en"> <input name="P" value="" size="14"> <input type="submit" value="Search"> </p> </form> </div>  </div>   <div id="navbar"> <p class="hidecss"><a href="#content">Skip Quicknav</a></p> <ul>  <li><a href="https://bits.debian.org/" title="Bits from Debian">Blog</a></li> <li><a href="https://micronews.debian.org" title="Micronews from Debian">Micronews</a></li> <li><a href="https://planet.debian.org/" title="The Planet of Debian">Planet</a></li> </ul> </div>  <p id="breadcrumbs">  </p> </div>   <div id="content"> <h1>User Support</h1> <link href="./font-awesome.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <ul class="toc"> <li><a href="#irc">IRC (real time Support)</a></li> <li><a href="#mail_lists">Mailing Lists</a></li> <li><a href="#usenet">Usenet Newsgroups</a></li> <li><a href="#forums">Debian User Forums</a></li> <li><a href="#maintainers">How to contact Package Maintainers</a></li> <li><a href="#bts">Bug Tracking System</a></li> <li><a href="#release">Known Problems</a></li> </ul> <aside> <p><span class="fas fa-caret-right fa-3x"></span> Debian support is offered by a group of volunteers. If this community-driven support doesn't fulfil your needs and you can't find the answer in our <a href="doc/">documentation</a>, you may hire a <a href="consultants/">consultant</a> to answer your questions or to maintain or add additional functionality to your Debian system.</p> </aside> <h2><a id="irc">IRC (real time Support)</a></h2> <p> <a href="http://www.irchelp.org/">IRC</a> (Internet Relay Chat) is a great way to chat with people from all over the world in real time. It's a text-based chat system for instant messaging. On IRC you can enter chat rooms (so-called channels) or you can directly chat with individual persons via private messages. </p> <p> IRC channels dedicated to Debian can be found on <a href="https://www.oftc.net/">OFTC</a>. For a full list of Debian channels, please refer to our <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/IRC">Wiki</a>. You can also use a <a href="https://netsplit.de/channels/index.en.php?net=oftc&chat=debian">search engine</a> to check for Debian-related channels. </p> <h3>IRC Clients</h3> <p> To connect to the IRC network, you can either use OFTC's <a href="https://www.oftc.net/WebChat/">WebChat</a> in your preferred web browser or install a client on your computer. There are lots of different clients out there, some with a graphical interface, some for the console. Some popular IRC clients have been packaged for Debian, for example: </p> <ul> <li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/stable/net/irssi">irssi</a> (text mode)</li> <li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/stable/net/weechat-curses">WeeChat</a> (text mode)</li> <li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/stable/net/hexchat">HexChat (GTK)</a></li> <li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/stable/net/konversation">Konversation</a> (KDE)</li> </ul> <p> The Debian Wiki offers a more comprehensive <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/IrcClients">list of IRC clients</a> which are available as Debian packages. </p> <h3>Connect to the Network</h3> <p> Once you have the client installed, you need to tell it to connect to the server. In most clients, you can do that by typing: </p> <pre> /server irc.debian.org </pre> <p>The hostname irc.debian.org is an alias for irc.oftc.net. In some clients (such as irssi) you will need to type this instead:</p> <pre> /connect irc.debian.org </pre> <h3>Join a Channel</h3> <p>Once you are connected, join channel <code>#debian</code> by typing this command:</p> <pre> /join #debian </pre> <p>Note: graphical clients like HexChat or Konversation often have a button or a menu entry for connecting to servers and joining channels. </p> <p style="text-align:center"><button type="button"><span class="fas fa-book-open fa-2x"></span> <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianIRC">Read our IRC FAQ</a></button></p> <h2><a id="mail_lists">Mailing Lists</a></h2> <p> More than thousand active <a href="intro/people.en.html#devcont">developers</a> spread around the world work on Debian in their spare time鈥攁nd in their own timezones. Therefore we communicate primarily through e-mail. Similarly, most of the conversation between Debian developers and users happens on different <a href="MailingLists/">mailing lists</a>: </p> <ul> <li>For user support in English, please contact the <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/">debian-user</a> mailing list.</li> <li>For user support in other languages, please check the <a href="https://lists.debian.org/users.html">index</a> of other user mailing lists.</li> </ul> <p> You can browse our <a href="https://lists.debian.org/">mailing list archive</a> or <a href="https://lists.debian.org/search.html">search</a> the archives without the need to be subscribed. </p> <p> Of course, there are plenty of other mailing lists, dedicated to some aspect of the Linux ecosystem and not Debian-specific. Please use your favorite search engine to find the most suitable list for your purpose. </p> <h2><a id="usenet">Usenet Newsgroups</a></h2> <p> A lot of our <a href="#mail_lists">mailing lists</a> can be browsed as newsgroups, in the <kbd>linux.debian.*</kbd> hierarchy. </p> <h2><a id="forums">Debian User Forums</h2> <p> <a href="https://forums.debian.net">Debian User Forums</a> is a web portal where thousands of other users discuss Debian-related topics, ask questions, and help each other by answering them. You can read all boards without having to register. If you want to participate in the discussion and publish your own postings, please register and log in. </p> <h2><a id="maintainers">How to contact Package Maintainers</a></h2> <p> Basically, there are two common ways to get in touch with a maintainer of a Debian package: </p> <ul> <li>If you'd like to report a bug, simply file a <a href="Bugs/Reporting">bug report</a>; the maintainer automatically receives a copy of your bug report.</li> <li>If you simply want to send an email to the maintainer, use the special mail aliases set up for each package:<br> <<em>package_name</em>>@packages.debian.org</li> </ul> <h2><a id="bts">Bug Tracking System</a></h2> <p> The Debian distribution has its own <a href="Bugs/">bug tracker</a> with bugs reported by users and developers. Every bug has a unique number and is kept on file until it is marked as resolved. There are two different ways to report a bug: </p> <ul> <li>The recommended way is to use the Debian package <em>reportbug</em>.</li> <li>Alternatively, you can send an email as described on this <a href="Bugs/Reporting">page</a>.</li> </ul> <h2><a id="release">Known Problems</a></h2> <p>Limitations and severe problems of the current stable distribution (if any) are described on <a href="releases/stable/">the release page</a>.</p> <p>Please pay particular attention to the <a href="releases/stable/releasenotes">release notes</a> and the <a href="releases/stable/errata">errata</a>.</p> <div class="clr"></div> </div>  <div id="footer"> <hr class="hidecss"> <p>Back to the <a href="./">Debian Project homepage</a>.</p> <hr>  <div id="pageLang"> <div id="langSelector"> This page is also available in the following languages: <div id="langContainer"> <select onchange="location = this.value;"> <option value="" disabled selected>Select your language</option> <option value="support.ca.html" title="Catalan" lang="ca">català</option> <option value="support.da.html" title="Danish" lang="da">dansk</option> <option value="support.de.html" title="German" lang="de">Deutsch</option> <option value="support.es.html" title="Spanish" lang="es">español</option> <option value="support.fr.html" title="French" lang="fr">français</option> <option value="support.gl.html" title="Galician" lang="gl">Galego</option> <option value="support.hr.html" title="Croatian" lang="hr">hrvatski</option> <option value="support.id.html" title="Indonesian" lang="id">Indonesia</option> <option value="support.it.html" title="Italian" lang="it">Italiano</option> <option value="support.hu.html" title="Hungarian" lang="hu">magyar</option> <option value="support.nl.html" title="Dutch" lang="nl">Nederlands</option> <option value="support.nb.html" title="Norwegian" lang="nb">norsk (bokmål)</option> <option value="support.pl.html" title="Polish" lang="pl">polski</option> <option value="support.pt.html" title="Portuguese" lang="pt">Português</option> <option value="support.ro.html" title="Romanian" lang="ro">română</option> <option value="support.sk.html" title="Slovak" lang="sk">sloven膷ina</option> <option value="support.fi.html" title="Finnish" lang="fi">suomi</option> <option value="support.sv.html" title="Swedish" lang="sv">svenska</option> <option value="support.vi.html" title="Vietnamese" lang="vi">Tiếng Việt</option> <option value="support.tr.html" title="Turkish" lang="tr">Türkçe</option> <option value="support.bg.html" title="Bulgarian" lang="bg">Български (Bəlgarski)</option> <option value="support.ru.html" title="Russian" lang="ru">Русский (Russkij)</option> <option value="support.uk.html" title="Ukrainian" lang="uk">українська (ukrajins'ka)</option> <option value="support.zh-cn.html" title="Chinese (China)" lang="zh-CN">中文(简)</option> <option value="support.zh-hk.html" title="Chinese (Hong Kong)" lang="zh-HK">中文(HK)</option> <option value="support.zh-tw.html" title="Chinese (Taiwan)" lang="zh-TW">中文(繁)</option> <option value="support.ja.html" title="Japanese" lang="ja">日本語 (Nihongo)</option> <option value="support.cs.html" title="Czech" lang="cs">česky</option> <option value="support.ko.html" title="Korean" lang="ko">한국어 (Korean)</option> <option value="support.fa.html" title="Persian" lang="fa">فارسی (Farsi)</option> </select> </div> How to set <a href="./intro/cn">the default document language</a> </div></div> <hr> <div id="fineprint">  <p>See our <a href="./contact">contact page</a> to get in touch. 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