My experience as a newbie trying to report a bug

I recently switched to Fedora, because OpenSUSE Tumbleweed was way too buggy and OpenSUSE Leap way too outdated. So far I am content, even though compared to YaST, I feel like being thrown back a few decades… but anyway. I tried to file a bug today.

  • I arrived at bugzilla.redhat.com. A login option was to use a Fedora Account System account. Okay, let’s try that. I create an account (please rework that form, the UX is horrible) and log in.
  • I go back to bugzilla and select “Fedora Account System” to log in. I get redirected back to Bugzilla… only to be told that there is “no account linked to [my mail address]”. Alright then… I click “create account for [my mail address]”.
  • I get a confirmation mail - again. I click the link - and get greeted by " The IDPs response was missing the SAMLResponse parameter. This can be cause by inappropriate redirection, MITM behaviour, a failed login attepmt on the IDP, invalid response by the IDP, etc. ". Well, thanks, I guess…
  • Next try. I open Matrix. There seems to be an official community on there with a Fedora channel (on +fedoracommunity:matrix.org). The channel hasn’t had a message since March. Someone should update that community.
  • I click on “discover channels” again and try to join “#fedora:matrix.org” but, well, I get kicked immediately with an “err: needreggednick”, despite this seeming to be a Matrix room and me even being authenticated for IRC through Matrix.
  • Last attempt: here, this forum, that I had trouble finding because the only place it is linked is in the footer of the Fedora homepage.

Honestly, that is a horrible, horrible UX and not how you get users to contribute anything at all…

1 Like

I arrived at bugzilla.redhat.com. A login option was to use a Fedora Account System account. Okay, let’s try that. I create an account (please rework that form, the UX is horrible) and log in.

There is an ongoing work to replace it: GitHub - fedora-infra/noggin: Self-service user portal for open-source communities to use over FreeIPA.

Last attempt: here, this forum, that I had trouble finding because the only place it is linked is in the footer of the Fedora homepage.

It is linked from Reddit, Distrowatch, can be found with an internet search, e.g. “fedora ask questions” lists it on the first page, there is a documentation on Fedora Docs, if you ever land on the old Ask Fedora website, there is a sticky at the top.

I didn’t have a problem signing in to Bugzilla and don’t have experience with communication channels other than IRC and e-mail, so I don’t have any opinions about them. I don’t have much experience with contributing to other distros but I think contributing to Fedora is not very hard.

3 Likes

On Google, “fedora get help” takes one to this page, which has quite an exhaustive list of communication channels:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicating_and_getting_help

It’s unfortunate that you only found inactive matrix channels. I am not aware of the status of support channels on Matrix. Lots of volunteers use platforms they prefer. When they leave, these channels go inactive. That’s just a characteristic of a volunteer driven community.

Ask Fedora is linked to from getfedora.org, by clicking “Help” in the top bar. Does that now appear in your browser? If not, that’s a bug that needs looking into.

5 Likes

Since the Fedora Project is an entirely community driven project, feel free to contribute and improve whatever function or design you did not like.

Ranting does not help, it does not motivate unpaid volunteers to spend their time working on the Fedora Project, and it does not appreciate the time that has been invested by the community.

6 Likes

That’s certainly not the normal experience. The site is maintained by RedHat, if this is a persistent error, you should let the Bugzilla site admins know about this issue (their contact details are listed on the Bugzilla page).

6 Likes

The FAS log in in bugzilla isn’t working

I prefer the homeserver is most convenient

Is the police of #fedora irc channel… i’m in the matrix room with registred nick, of course

The fedora instance still staging yet

Not at all … I have difficulty signing up for the translation team, but I had a blocker, it was solved with an sponsor. thing that was not on the wiki.

This problem is very specific.

Mailing list does not solve the problem?

Good point. I agree