Ubuntu Bug Filing is not user-friendly

[Josh Berkus]

In the new Launchpad configuration, there is no longer a public link to the "report a bug" form. Instead, all attempts to report a new bug are redirected to the ReportingABug wiki page, here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

That page spends several screens blathering on about "mainline kernel versions" and "upstream maintainers" before getting to any instructions on how to report a bug. These are not things anyone who is not a software engineer is going to understand. Once you get down to the bug instructions, they are several pages long, confusing, and in places flat-out incorrect (for example, ubuntu-bug cannot be started from Dash).

Ubuntu-bug itself is a software-developer-only tool, since it has to be started from the command line and requires the user to input an exact package name or process ID, and if you get that information wrong, ubuntu-bug crashes.

As a result, only people who are either ubuntu developers, know an ubuntu developer who can help them, or have bookmarked the secret bug form URL, can report bugs. While this does an admirable job of cutting down on the number of bug reports, it does so by making sure that many problems (especially usability problems) with ubuntu are never reported.

Ubuntu 12.10
Launchpad, Ubuntu-Bug

[Daniel Farina (drfarina)]

It took me a while to figure it out the first time. I'm not a regular user.

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

Running Apport without a package "ubuntu-bug" will guide the user through questions to help determine the core package at fault. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage is also an excellent source as it covers most issues and guides the user through the steps necessaryto find which package is causing issues. As Apport data is needed in most situations, "ubuntu-bug" is a more compact way to start the process than a user filing a bug against Ubuntu itself and then the user being requested to perform Apport. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs remains as the authorotative source to look for the steps involved in reporting a bug, If one ignores the kernel information (which most users do). That page needs to be revised to remove the suggestion of updating BIOS and in general to make it more clear for casual users. This is not really a bug report, and would be more useful as a question or feature request. Again, not a bug, as the site format was deliberately changed a while ago. This is a feature request, and due to that, I am closing this bug against Ubuntu, and setting the Launchpad one to "Opinion". Please bring this up as a feature request with content developers for Launchpad.

~qbalazs

[Josh Berkus (josh-2)]

Quinn,

You're really not making an effort to change my mind that Ubuntu is intentionally hostile to receiving bug reports from non-hackers, are you?

[Jono Bacon (jonobacon)]

Thanks for the report, Josh. Apologies for your frustration.

I agree that https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs is a mess. I am assigning this bug to Nicholas Skaggs on my team to clean up that page and make it easier to report bugs.

I do believe that filing bugs with ubuntu-bug is the best way to file a bug - it helps to provide debugging and log information that is essential for resolving issues, but https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs should provide better guidance and a step by step guide to using ubuntu-bug more effectively.

[Josh Berkus (josh-2)]

Jono,

I'd also suggest making Ubuntu-Bug an application in Dash, so that users can find it without first having to explain Terminal to them. Better would be a GUI app which guides them through selecting a package or other information they need to provide.

[Nicholas Skaggs (nskaggs)]

@Josh, press alt+f2 and type ubuntu-bug. Launch it and see what you think :-)

[Josh Berkus (josh-2)]

Nicholas,

1. Alt-F2

2. Ubuntu-Bug

3. Select "other problem"

4. Get:

ERROR: You need to specify a package or a PID. See --help for more information.

So, fail. ;-)

[Thomas Ward (teward)]

If you read the error you get, Josh, you need to specify the package or process ID number.

That's easy, it's the same as if you were using the command line: ubuntu-bug PACKAGENAMEORPID

Just replace PACKAGENAMEORPID with the name of the package, or the process id number (you can get that from `pidof PROGRAMNAME`, replacing PROGRAMNAME with the name of the program's executable, except pidof needs the command line)

[Josh Berkus (josh-2)]

Thomas,

So, imagine that I'm talking to my 76-year-old Father-in-law. How do I tell him to figure out the package name?

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

There is built in functionality for people who don't know the source package, "ubuntu-bug -w" allows you to click the window of the program that is causing issues and apport will determine the source package for you.

[Thomas Ward (teward)]

Josh,

As someone who has 65 and 68 year old parents, and 90 year old grandparents who have issues even with Windows and relies on me to solve the problems when they occur, I sympathize with you, however I'm going to go out on a limb and say most 76 year olds aren't using linux, or those that are at least know who to contact when things go wrong (like yourself). But, as most 76 year olds I know and have worked with (which is quite a large group) are using Windows or Apple software, I did leave those groups out of my analysis initially.

However, as Quinn has pointed out, there *is* built in functionality, `ubuntu-bug -w`, which will allow the user to click the window of the program that is causing issues (however if the issue is a crash issue or worse, then it is a bit more difficult to use this method to file a bug, and in those cases it's usually a good idea to check with someone who knows what they're doing or ask for help finding such information as the source-package, as a part of triage is to verify a bug is against a given source package).

[Josh Berkus (josh-2)]

Thomas,

You've just validated my original assertion when filing this bug: "reporting an ubuntu bug is not a task which can be reasonably accomplished without the direct assistance of an Ubuntu/Debian developer, or at least a software engineer".

If this was your goal, then congratulations, you're successful. Although it might be nicer to the user just to tell them "please don't bother trying to report bugs", so that they don't waste their time.

Last I checked, though, the entire purpose of Ubuntu as a distro was to be "Linux for everybody". Did that goal change sometime in the last year, when I wasn't looking?

(BTW, I'm not claiming some kind of virtue here; the PostgreSQL project is *terrible* about accessibility to new users. But that also means I'm familiar enough with the "newbie-hostile" syndrome to recognize it when I see it.)

[Nicholas Skaggs (nskaggs)]

I've created a vUDS session here, and I would encourage conversations surrounding reporting bugs in ubuntu to it:

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/community-1308-quality-reporting-bugs

I began looking at editing the wiki page before realizing this is a bigger discussion point than editing a wiki page.

I agree completely that a bug report is technical, and thus we should think about what we want our user stories for people reporting issues from the pc's, phones, tablets, etc.