If it was time sensitive, and a show-stopper error, I usually just had to solve the problem using a different approach/library/tool. Sometimes you could find someone on irc to help, but that was pretty hit or miss.

If there was time, I would post on either a bbs, or usenet (comp.lang.*), and hope somebody else had the answer.

The ecosystem was better documented at the time though. Solaris manuals, for example, were very extensive. You didn't have the litany of third party tools that you do today. So, problems that weren't explained in the manuals weren't as common.