The FreeBSD Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list. The FAQ attempts to provide answers for a wide range of questions, such as those concerning hardware compatibility, user applications, and kernel configuration.

The mailing lists—if you are not subscribed, use the searchable archives on the FreeBSD web site. If the problem has not been discussed on the lists, you might try posting a message about it and waiting a few days to see if someone can spot something that has been overlooked.

Optionally, the entire web—use your favorite search engine to locate any references to the problem. You may even get hits from archived mailing lists or newsgroups you did not know of or had not thought to search through.

Next, the searchable FreeBSD PR database (Bugzilla). Unless the problem is recent or obscure, there is a fair chance it has already been reported.

Most importantly, attempt to see if existing documentation in the source base addresses your problem.

For the base FreeBSD code, you should carefully study the contents of /usr/src/UPDATING on your system or the latest version at http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/UPDATING?view=log. (This is vital information if you are upgrading from one version to another—especially if you are upgrading to the FreeBSD-CURRENT branch).

However, if the problem is in something that was installed as a part of the FreeBSD Ports Collection, you should refer to /usr/ports/UPDATING (for individual ports) or /usr/ports/CHANGES (for changes that affect the entire Ports Collection). http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/UPDATING?view=log and http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/CHANGES?view=log are also available via svnweb.