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If you've bought the boxed version of Mandrake, you
are entitled to get installation support for a specified period of time.
Register
and you will receive a registration number. State that number in your mails
to support@linux-mandrake.com.
Or use the all new MandrakeFirstTime / MandrakeOnline mechanism introduced
in 8.1.
The central platform for official as well as community
support is MandrakeExpert. Here
you can either ask your question for free to one of the community experts,
or you pay to get an guaranteed answer from the professional support staff
in a specified amount of time. You can also become a community expert and
provide help to others.
You can also get some kind of 'indirect' official support by searching for
software error reports in M's bug tracker.
Another place
to check is the Mandrake
Linux Update and Security Advisories collection for all Mandrake Linux
products. Here you will find news on security updates as well as the 'Errata'
pages covering release errors.
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Linux is free. Software covered by the GNU GPL can be downloaded
and distributed by everyone at whatever price he or she sees fit. M doesn't
earn a penny from these self-made copies and therefore provides no official
support for users of these copies, but only for users of the official, boxed
version or for users who pay M for supporting them.
M is a company like others and must make a profit.
There are several platforms for user to user support,
though, some provided by Mandrake, others based upon independent community
effort.
When you use these platforms, please keep in mind that
no one there is obliged to answer your questions. In order to get answers,
it is therefore a good strategy to be polite. It is also advisable to ask
your question in an easily comprehensible
manner.
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The mailing lists
offer a platform for peer support among users of ML. Some people at M have
half an eye on these lists and answer questions from time to time. The master
of these lists is Denis Havlik.
So if you have any trouble concerning the lists, ask him.
Note that you can subscribe and unsubscribe via the same form. Do
not send (un)subscribe messages to the lists.
Further read-only lists include: 'Development',
'Announcements' and 'Security'.
Most of the mailing-lists are archived at The Mail Archive:
You can search these archives. They are
quite a valuable resource: chances are your problem isn't unique and has
already been addressed in one of these lists.
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The Usenet newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandrake (aolm)
is another peer-support forum. You can search archives of messages posted
there on
Google Groups. To post to this newsgroup you will need a newsreader like
Pan (it's on
your Mandrake CD) and access to an NNTP server, usually your Internet Service
Provider runs one.
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There are several IRC channels created by Mandrake
users, usually called #mandrake on several networks. If you are new to IRC,
visit the Mandrake channels on irc.openprojects.net.
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Valuable information on Mandrake in general and
answers to commonly asked or burning questions can also be found on Mandrake Forum, a news and discussion
forum.
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The MandrakeUserNet
web ring connects sites made by or for or by and for Mandrake users.
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Have a look at the Online Documentation,
and the Demo and Tutorial
Center by my buddy Phil.
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Red Hat and Mandrake have a lot in common. Therefore
you should consider using Red Hat's free support
resources, too.
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The
Unofficial Red Hat User FAQ is an old but still awe-inspiring archive
which has answers to a lot of basic questions. Notice that the link takes
you to the last version archived on web.archive.org. In order to browse that
site there, you'll need to have JavaScript enabled.
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The
Red Hat Knowledgebase. Its search capabilities are somewhat limited but
it covers most of the basic questions and much more in easy English.
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The
Red Hat Linux Installation Support FAQ
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The
(search-able) Red Hat mailing list archives.
Since digests of most of these lists are also mirrored on Usenet ('lists.redhat.*'
hierarchy), a search via Google Groups
also yields results from them. I wouldn't consider it good manners to post
Mandrake specific questions on Red Hat Linux mailings lists, though.
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The
Red Hat Support Forums are a bit awkward to handle, but you may find
one or the answer there.
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Older Mandrake CDs come with The Official
Red Hat Installation Guide ('rhl-install-guide-[version].rpm') as
well as The Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide('rhl-getting-started-guide-[version].rpm').
Online versions
are available, too.
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There are some 20 Red Hat-Linux related Usenet newsgroups
in the redhat.* hierarchy. Since alt.os.linux.mandrake seems to become increasingly
popular with Red Hat users, I see no reason why you shouldn't post your Mandrake
questions there ;-).
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Last but not least there are several books about
Red Hat Linux available, like for instance the entry level 'Red Hat
Linux Unleashed', which seems to be quite popular with new Mandrake
users.
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'Do it yourself' is the philosophy behind GNU/Linux.
Therefore it features a thriving culture of user support forums:
Most likely your questions aren't Mandrake specific
and can be answered by anyone using GNU/Linux. Look at the other pages in
this section, especially at the pages on GNU/Linux
resources. Keep in mind that in order to get a good answer, you have
to ask a good question.
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