Reporting Bugs Well

A great bug report halves fix time. Here’s the craft.

Where

  • Distro-level issues (installer, recovery tooling, repo problems): issue tracker on the relevant org repo (Repository Layout)

  • Upstream-looking issues (specific app behavior, kernel driver bugs): still tell us first if unsure — misrouted reports get redirected kindly

  • Security-sensitive: private channel via maintainers on the main site contact — never public-tracker fresh exploits

Before filing

  1. Fully updated? sudo pacman -Syu then retest (rolling rule)

  2. Search existing issues — your bug may have a workaround already (Known Issues & Workarounds)

  3. Fallback kernel test for boot/hardware oddities (Kernel Management)

The evidence bundle

inxi -Fxxxz                        # hardware + driver picture (privacy-trimmed by z flag)
journalctl -b -p err --no-pager    # errors this boot
journalctl -b --no-pager > full-boot.log   # when asked for everything
pacman -Q | grep -E 'linux|mesa|nvidia|pipewire'   # stack versions
sudo dmidecode -t bios | head      # firmware version, BIOS-class issues

Attach as files (not screenshots of text!). For graphical issues: exact DE/session (echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE, Cinnamon version).

The template that works

SUMMARY: one line — what fails
EXPECTED: what should happen instead
REPRO: numbered steps from clean state, incl. "fresh install" vs "updated system"
HARDWARE: inxi output attached
FREQUENCY: always / intermittent (rate) / once
WORKAROUND: if you found one — say so even if ugly

What happens next

Triage → reproduce attempt → possibly needs-more-info ping (answer fast, tickets age out) → fix lands in rolling updates → ticket closes referencing the update. You’re allowed to ping politely after a week of silence.