Bug Reporting and Triage

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Bug Reporting

Where do I report a bug?

Bugs are submitted to the Ubuntu MATE project on Launchpad

If you don’t already have an account, set one up on Launchpad before you get started.

How do I report a bug?

This tutorial by APolihron, one of our QA testers, demonstrates how to file a bug report. It is incredibly useful, with GIFs to illustrate each step of the process!

Who can I talk to about bugs and bug reporting?

Join the Ubuntu MATE community in the Support and Help Requests section of the Community page to talk to new and experienced bug reporters!

Bug Triage

If you’re comfortable with bug reporting, bug triage is another great way to contribute to Ubuntu MATE!

Bug triagers help teams determine which bugs are critical, and which are less urgent.

Some bug triage tasks require special privileges granted by project owners or administrators, but others simply require a Launchpad account. Here are the key things you can do to help us prioritise bugs:

  • Can you reproduce a reported bug? If you can, write up the steps you followed to confirm the issue.
  • If you confirmed the bug, could you also replicate the issue in stock Ubuntu or other flavours? Your report should indicate if the bug affected other flavours, or it only affected Ubuntu MATE.
  • If you can’t reproduce the bug, can you get more information from the original bug reporter?
  • Did you determine the bug was a duplicate? If you did, mark one bug as a duplicate of the other.
  • Did you determine the bug was filed with the wrong project? If so, re-open the bug with the right project and leave a note in the bug’s initial location.

Bug triage can help us realise where an error is, especially if the error is upstream (for example, with the MATE Desktop instead of Ubuntu MATE.) Bug triagers help maintain communication between projects and help bug fixers know where they need to focus their efforts.