Dear Kris --<br><br>Would it help your work if we could develop a master checklist for testing alpha and beta releases so we could make thorough and consistent reports to you? It would not take much to develop a standard checklist of the most common areas you want us to test. This is a very small start towards listing some of the issues that crop up frequently:<br>
<br><br>Testing Checklist<br><br>1. General Install<br>a Downloaded OK?<br>b Full Screen Display<br>c Added Users OK<br>d Partitioning<br>e Optional Packages Added<br>f<br><br>2. Video Configuration<br>a Resolution<br>
b Depth<br>c Name of Driver<br>d Advanced Settings<br>e Works As Expected<br>f Problems Noted<br> Symptoms<br> Programs running<br> Repeatable conditions<br> Error Messages<br> Possible fix or solution<br>
Recommended command line to troubleshoot or capture critical info.<br><br>3. KDE Desktop/Panel Icons Functions<br>a Icons activate program<br>b Desktop can be locked/unlocked<br>c Desktop can be resized<br>
d Applets can be added/removed<br>e Programs can be added/removed<br>f System/PBI Updater Working<br><br><br>3a. Other Windows Managers<br><br><br>4. System Settings<br>a Can Enter Administrative Mode<br>b Can Generate System Report<br>
c Can Update System<br>d Can Update Ports<br>e<br>f Problems Noted<br> Symptoms<br> Programs running<br> Repeatable conditions<br> Error Messages<br> Possible fix or solution<br> Recommended command line to troubleshoot or capture critical info.<br>
<br>5. Sound Card<br>a Mfg & Model<br>b Detected/Not-Detected<br>c Volume/Mixer Control<br>d Sound produced<br>e<br>f Problems Noted<br> Symptoms<br> Programs running<br> Repeatable conditions<br>
Error Messages<br> Possible fix or solution<br> Recommended command line to troubleshoot or capture critical info.<br>5. PBI<br>a Work/Do-not-work normally<br>b Can be downloaded and installed<br>c Problems noted<br>
Symptoms<br> Programs running<br> Repeatable conditions<br> Error Messages<br> Possible fix or solution<br> Recommended command line to troubleshoot or capture critical info.<br><br>6. Packages<br>
a<br>b<br>c<br><br>7. Ports<br>a Ports tree installed<br>b Ports tree can be updated<br>c Ports install normally<br>d <br>e<br>f Problems Noted<br> Programs running<br> Repeatable conditions<br> Error Messages<br>
Possible fix or solution<br> Recommended command line to troubleshoot or capture critical info.<br><br>8. Disk Drives<br> Type (ide/sata/scsi & internal/external)<br><br>9. Dual Booting<br><br>10. Networking (Wired/Wireless)<br>
Auto detected<br> Functioning normally<br> Problems Noted<br> Programs running<br> Repeatable conditions<br> Error Messages<br> Possible fix or solution<br> Output of ifconfig command<br>
Other recommended command line to troubleshoot or capture critical info.<br><br>11. USB<br><br>12. Desktop Users Guide<br> Adequacy of instructions<br> Incorrect instructions<br> Missing instructions<br>
<br>etc.<br><br><br><br>When it comes to reporting to you, there is of course the FreeBSD guidance from "Writing FreeBSD Problem
Reports" @
<a href="http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/article.html">http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/article.html</a>
and a similar article "How to Report Bugs Effectively" @
<a href="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html">http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html</a> .<br><br><br>Should a problem report template be created as an adjunct to the master checklist? Moreover, if
we accessed the report/survey/template on a web page form or pdf web
page form, perhaps someone could develop a "capture routine" to log the
data. <br><br>There are many brighter lights than me so perhaps they could chime in on whether this documentation project is a good idea or not.<br><br>Ian Robinson<br>Salem, Ohio<br>