 You don't have to have been using Linux for a very long time to know that sometimes things just go wrong and there doesn't really have to be a reason for it, but often times it can be anything from a hardware failure to a Update that has gone wrong to user error where you've deleted something that you weren't supposed to have there could be any number of reasons And it doesn't really matter what the reason is you just want to be able to fix it The question is how do you fix it? And there really is no overarching Everything one-size-fits-all kind of tutorial that I could give you to fix every Linux problem There's just not every situation every scenario is going to be a little bit different and How you solve whatever is going wrong is going to depend on what's going wrong All the solutions are going to be aimed for that one problem But there are a few things that I can tell you that will help you along the way when you don't know exactly What's wrong? So what I'm going to do today is talk about five things you can do to troubleshoot on Linux And this applies to basically every single Linux problem that you could possibly encounter So the first one is the most simple one and the one that I'm going to be mocked for the most And that is to turn your computer off and turn it back on again I know it sounds overly simplistic and that's because it is overly simplistic But a lot of problems can be solved by just turning your computer off and turning it back on again Oftentimes this is because whatever is causing the problem is running in the background and by turning your computer off and turning it back on again It shuts that process down where your computer then will start running normally Now it doesn't mean it's going to solve the problem It just is going to make it so that your computer is working in and it doesn't necessarily mean that again You're going to know what's causing the issue But it might give you an idea So if this solves your issue even temporarily You'll know that there's something in the background that is running that is causing the problem But that doesn't get started at startup So all of these tips are going to be about finding clues as to what could possibly be going wrong with your computer So restarting your computer is probably step number one for the vast majority of Linux problems Turn it off turn it back on again and see if it works Again, I know it sounds very simplistic, but it might just solve your problem Or at least give you a hint as to where the problem is The next one is also very simplistic and that is to update your computer Now there is a good chance that what caused your issue is an update itself So you may have performed an update to your Linux distro Download an application or an updated version of an application And that is what's causing your problem What an update will do for you is look for updates to whatever is on your system And it's possible that between the time that your problem started and your current period of time You will find that the developer has made another update to their program Or the kernel or whatever and they have solved the issue So let's just say for example, Kaden live has pushed out an update that freezes all the time And it just crashes all the time If it's doing it for everyone, the Kaden live developer is going to get right on that And they're going to solve it So you may have downloaded the faulty update And then come back the next day and there's a fix for it So update your computer, maybe there's a fix for whatever is going wrong Again, it's not a one size fix all problem It's possible that your problem will persist afterwards In which case you can kind of write off the idea that it was an update That caused the issue in the first place Or at least that there's going to be a solution through an update You can start exploring other avenues to fix your computer Now the next one is going to be another place where you can look for information On things that have gone wrong And almost every single distribution has some form of mailing list Or discourse forum or website or something Where they post things about the updates that they push to their servers And in those places very often they'll put warnings when things go wrong So for example on Arch Linux.org on their front page You'll see a place where they have a whole bunch of news items That list out things that have gone wrong And things that you can do to bypass those problems It doesn't happen very often but it does happen And if you encounter something wrong with for example Arch Linux You would go there first See if there's a workaround for the problem And if there is perform that workaround Then you're probably going to be good to go And like I said that's not going to be unique to Arch Linux Almost every distribution has something like that Where you can get information on updates that have been pushed to your system That have caused issues for many different people You can also find a lot of that stuff by simply googling the problem Because chances are if you're experiencing an issue Other people are also experiencing it And they will have gotten on places like Reddit Or Askaboom2 or the Arch Forms something And have made posts about the problem So you'll be able to see if everybody else is having the same problem Maybe there's a workaround that is working for everybody Now the next one is the most technical advice I can give you on this list That is generic enough that will help you Troubleshoot or at least diagnose a lot of problems And that is to check your system's logs Now the biggest issue with this advice Is that it's going to be non-specific Simply because the logs on your system Are going to be in different places than on my system Every distro stores them in slightly different places And it's really going to depend on what distribution you're running Now obviously there are some things that are going to be the same Across all distributions There is a directory on your system called slash var slash log And I'll show you this here in a minute That is a place where a lot of system logs are stored And when I say a lot, I mean a lot Almost every single service on your computer Every single underlying technology, program, project Everything probably stores a log somewhere on your computer Leaving little tidbits of information That you can use to diagnose your system when something goes wrong There are two places that I can recommend you look The first one is actually going to be in your home directory And that file that you want to check is called dot xsession dash errors So if I have them in dot xsession dash errors You'll see a bunch of text and it's all very readable It usually consists of error or warning or something like that Basically what this file does is it allows you to see Errors and outputs from programs that display something on the screen Now obviously this is not going to exist for you If you're not using xorg So just know that this file might not be there And if you're using a different distribution other than Fedora It might be somewhere else on your system as well It may not always be in the home directory But for me I've pretty much always seen it in the home directory So the point of this file is that almost everything that displays to the screen Is going to eventually put something in this file So you'll see things from Polybar You'll see things from Discord or any other application that you use And if they have an error of some kind Even if that error is not actually causing any issues that you notice They'll be put into this file right here And you can then go into this file and see what those errors are And once you see the error you can copy it Paste it into Google and find out what that issue is and how to solve it That's the best thing about logs that there is You get the error information then you can go find a solution for it Now obviously like I said this is not the only log that you have to deal with Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it There are a ton of other logs on your system And you'll find most of them in a file called slash var slash log And if we do an ls here these are all logs on my system And as you can see there are a ton of them And they're not always very descriptive as to what they are actually for Now some of them are pretty self-explanatory So Cron, DNF the cups directory there is going to be for printing The xorg thing is going to be for xorg things like that Those are fairly self-explanatory Things like hockey no clue what that is The mail log not actually sure what that is Because I don't use anything in terms of like a mail server on my system So I'm not sure what that is BTMP not sure what that is You get the example There's also some boot logs in here You can see logs from when you boot into your system And there's some SSH stuff here Stuff for samba, stuff for virtual machines Gets all placed in this directory here And this is kind of where I'm going to leave you When it comes to checking logs Because as you can see there are a ton of them If you're having some issues And it wasn't in the xs-errs file This is where you're going to want to go next And I highly recommend just barging in and seeing what's here Because there's a good chance somewhere in here You're going to find whatever's happening to your computer Or you're going to see an error output of whatever's going on And then you can go start finding a solution Like I said this is going to be a time consuming task And a lot of people aren't going to have the patience for it Because like I said there's a ton of logs here And you may go spelunking into all of these And still not find what's going on You may come into that situation And you're going to feel like it's a big giant waste of time But if you are investing yourself in troubleshooting your system Instead of just nuking and paving This is a good place to look for all the possible ills That might happen to your computer Now the final piece of advice that I can give you When it comes to troubleshooting Linux Is to ask in a forum This is the final step If you've tried everything You've turned your computer off You've turned it back on You've updated your computer You've looked through the logs You've checked all the necessary forums And Reddit and stuff like that For the problem that you're experiencing You still haven't found it Or at least you haven't found a solution that works for you Then you can go start asking in a forum Or on Reddit Or on a Discord forum Or a Discord server Or whatever it happens to be You ask that question there And the best part about going through this process Of rebooting your computer Updating your computer Looking for possible solutions online That happen to have been announced from your distro Checking the logs Once you've done all these things You can get on that forum and say Hey, these are the things that I've done Okay, these are the places that I've looked for a solution For an error message, whatever What do I do next? If you've done that And you've said that to people in that forum There's no way you're ever going to hear Read the effing manual Because you've done your homework You've done everything you could possibly do To solve your problem Now it's time to get help And you'll probably receive it Because the Linux community is fantastic For the most part So do all the things that you can do Then go ask the question And you'll probably get your answer So those are the five steps To troubleshooting Linux Now there are probably ones that I've missed That are more specific Or more distro specific But I wanted to keep this as general as possible So that it could cover pretty much any Linux distribution And I hope that I've done that If you have comments about this sort of thing You can leave those in the comment section below You can also follow me on Twitter At the next cast You can follow me on Mastodon or Odyssey Both of those links will be in the video description Along with all my other social media stuff You can also hit the like button If you would do that I would be very appreciative Because it really does help the channel out You can support me on Patreon at patreon.com Slash the Linux cast Just like all of these fine people If you are interested in doing so I now will offer a yearly option For all my Patreon tiers You can save 10% if you support me that way Thanks to everybody who does support me on Patreon and YouTube I truly do appreciate it You guys are all fantastic And without you The channel just would not exist In its current form or fashion I just know that could be true So thanks everybody for your support Thanks everybody for watching I'll see you next time