Help

This page leads to resources that can help answer your questions. If you have problems with Mandriva Linux, solutions for help and support are available from a number of sources. This page is dedicated to users who have general questions and want help.

Official documentation

When you install Mandriva Linux, help pages are provided in Star Menu > Documentation. This can help you take control of the Mandriva tools. A quick-start guide is also available on the same menu or as a PDF file on your installation CD.

Mandriva also provides all the official documentation on the Internet for Mandriva Linux and professional products such as MES 5.

Access to official Mandriva manuals online

You can also install manuals from Install & remove Software , and install the books of your choice from the Books category.

Official Mandriva forums

Mandriva offers forums in several languages:

• Official Mandriva forums

In these forums you will find moderators and users. You will also find Team Mandriva. The official forum is a excellent help source. These forums are open to all but you must have register for a Mandriva account (registration is free).

Other forums

• MandrivaUser.org, non-official anglophone community. They have their own infrastructure and IRC channel.

Mandriva Expert

Mandriva Expert is a website that allows you to talk about a specific problem. Mandriva Expert operates under a professional technical support model: if you need help, you can create a "ticket" or "incident" in which you explain your problem in detail. You will receive responses for the incident that you created.

• The community option (community volunteers will try to help you solve your problem) is a free solution. You can open an incident and receive replies to your problem from volunteers in the community.

• Another option is to consult a professional technician from Mandriva. In this case, opening an incident requires a fee. The advantage of this solution is the guarantee of an answer and a minimal delay in time.

If you purchased the PowerPack edition (download or box), you receive the standard support included with your Powerpack. You can begin using this support immediately after registering your activation key (or product key).

Technical Support and Customer Service

If you have problems with a Mandriva order or product you can contact Mandriva customer service by phone or by filling out an online form that will allow you to send a message to Mandriva customer service.

• Contact Mandriva's customer service

Other paid support

There is a list of paid support for Mandriva Linux or parts of it.

Discussion channels

IRC

There is an IRC channel for mandriva users #mandriva on the freenode IRC network (server irc.freenode.net port 6667 as default in most irc programs in Mandriva) where you will frequently find Mandriva developers and contributors. You will need an IRC client Quassel IRC, Xchat, irssi, Konversation, Kopete or KSirc, to discuss support on IRC (see the help documentation for the IRC client in question for assistance).

You can also use the nearest server from your location. For more information, please read the Freenode guide.

Jabber

There is a mandriva Lounge on chat.jabber.org server: xmpp:mandriva@chat.jabber.org. You must use an instant messaging clinet like Gajim, Pidgin (formerly Gaim) or Kopete for instant messaging. Refer to the help documentation for this software to learn how to use them.

Mandriva mailing lists

You can also receive and provide assistance on the Mandriva mailing lists. You only need a mail client (kmail or evolution, for example) to participate. Simply register to receive and send emails to addresses that are specified. For more information, see the following link: http://lists.mandriva.com/. You can also manage your subscriptions to mailing lists with the following site: https://ml.mandriva.net/wws. For more information, see the article entitled "Mailing lists"

Newsgroups

The newsgroups are not well known and represent the ancestor of the forums. Nevertheless, they are still very popular because they fall somewhere between the mailing lists and the forum (the forum web interface is sometimes regarded as heavy). You need a newsgroup client to participate (pan, for example) or you can use the interface provided by google groups. There are several newsgroups that talk about Mandriva : alt.os.linux.mandriva (quite active) (the same one using Google Groups) and alt.os.linux.mandrake (inactive, old).

On the web

You can browse through :

• The official Mandriva websites
• the other websites on the web talking about Mandriva.

Who uses Mandriva near me?

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• You can get help from users who are part of a LUG near you.