There are two forms of support for eCos. Commercial support from vendors, and (limited) free support from the eCos discussion forum.

Answers in this category:
How do I get support?
Commercial
Free

The previously mentioned mailing lists are open to all to use freely and core eCos developers read and post there. However the scope is limited as to what can be answered, and queries or problems, even simple ones, may be ignored.

Bug reports can be submitted to the bug tracking system which allows the issue to be tracked in a more reliable manner, however prompt replies are still not guaranteed.

Some businesses provide commercial support more suitable for businesses. Contact the eCos maintainers with your requirements and they may be able to put you in touch with an appropriate vendor.

You can buy commercial support for eCos and RedBoot from a number of vendors. The support can be tailored to your needs, covering everything related to embedded development with eCos: porting the toolchain and eCos/RedBoot to a new architecture or platform, adding new features or drivers to eCos, support of the toolchain, support of eCos/RedBoot, training, etc.

Some businesses provide commercial grade support more suitable for those who need fast turnaround with detailed answers. Contact the eCos maintainers with your requirements and they may be able to put you in touch with an appropriate vendor.

The ecos-discuss mailing list is an open mailing list for discussion of eCos (and RedBoot): everybody can join and there's no moderation.

Core eCos developers also read the list and occasionally reply on questions. Always keep mail on the public mailing lists so that the whole community gets the benefit of solutions to problems, if posted, and so that other members of the community can offer help and gain from your experience. However, while support and advice on the list is free, there is no obligation or guarantee on the part of anyone to respond to mail sent to the list.

Mail followups sent directly to the core eCos developers that are not CC'ed to the list will be ignored, as will unsolicited email also sent directly to the eCos developers. Some developers may offer commercial support packages, and responses would only be guaranteed to their customers.

Posting to the list instead of individuals is an important point, since the list is an open forum where eCos users can help each other. There is no guarantee that your questions will be answered and if your question does go unanswered, consider purchasing a support contract.

There are quite a few questions that go unanswered. A few of the unanswered questions are good questions that nobody knows the answer to or ones that will take significant effort to reply to. However, the majority of unanswered questions stay unanswered because to the regular readers of the mailing list it is clear that the person asking the question did not bother reading the documentation, or try to find the answer on his/her own. So before you ask a question, please read through this FAQ, the mailing list archive, and do read Eric S. Raymond's article on How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. It really does make a difference!