Messages that are shown in the terminal and log files contain a lot of useful information, but it is sometimes hard to search anywhere on the web for these messages because they are frequently very specific. For an example I will use the following error message:
/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/apps/mate-panel.rc:30: error: invalid string constant "murrine-scrollbar", expected valid string constant
This error message refers to a file named mate-panel.rc. The string :30
refers to line 30 which happens to be the last line in mate-panel.rc.
If you can't find the specific error message try breaking it up into smaller parts and searching for part of the error message.
Instead of searching for /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/apps/mate-panel.rc:30
search for /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/apps/mate-panel.rc
which is the path to the mate-panel.rc file.
Or search for the mate-panel.rc file by searching for only its name, mate-panel.rc.
Or search for something else in the same error message, for example the error instead of the path to mate-panel.rc:
error: invalid string constant "murrine-scrollbar", expected valid string constant
If that doesn't work search for similar errors. "murrine-scrollbar" is an invalid string constant in the above error message. Try searching for the error message as "boilerplate" or "pro forma" text without including the specific string constant:
error: invalid string constant expected valid string constant
Now the error message is so general that you may get too many useless search results. Try limiting the search results. Because the path /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/apps/mate-panel.rc
exists only in Ubuntu 17.10, try limiting your search results by adding the search phrase "Ubuntu 17.10" or "17.10" to your search query.