Topic 101: System Architecture

101.1 Determine and configure hardware settings

Key Knowledge Areas

• Enable and disable integrated peripherals.

• Configure systems with or without external peripherals such as keyboards.

• Differentiate between the various types of mass storage devices.

• Set the correct hardware ID for different devices, especially the boot device.

• Know the differences between coldplug and hotplug devices.

• Determine hardware resources for devices.

• Tools and utilities to list various hardware information (e.g. lsusb, lspci, etc.)

• Tools and utilities to manipulate USB devices

• Conceptual understanding of sysfs, udev, hald, dbus

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /sys

• /proc

• /dev

• modprobe

• lsmod

• lspci

• lsusb

 101.2-Boot the system

Key Knowledge Areas

• Provide common commands to the boot loader and options to the kernel at boot time.

• Demonstrate knowledge of the boot sequence from BIOS to boot completion.

• Check boot events in the log files.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /var/log/messages

• dmesg

• BIOS

• bootloader

• kernel

• init

101.3 Change runlevels and shutdown or reboot system

Key Knowledge Areas

• Set the default runlevel.

• Change between run levels including single user mode.

• Shutdown and reboot from the command line.

• Alert users before switching runlevels or other major system event.

• Properly terminate processes.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/inittab

• shutdown

• init

• /etc/init.d

• telinit

Topic 102: Linux Installation and Package Management

102.1 Design hard disk layout

Key Knowledge Areas

• Allocate filesystems and swap space to separate partitions or disks.

• Tailor the design to the intended use of the system.

• Ensure the /boot partition conforms to the hardware architecture requirements for booting.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• / (root) filesystem

• /var filesystem

• /home filesystem

• swap space

• mount points

• partitions

102.2 Install a boot manager

Key Knowledge Areas

• Providing alternative boot locations and backup boot options.

• Install and configure a boot loader such as GRUB.

• Interact with the boot loader.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /boot/grub/menu.lst

• grub-install

• MBR

• superblock

• /etc/lilo.conf

• lilo

102.3 Manage shared libraries

Key Knowledge Areas

• Identify shared libraries.

• Identify the typical locations of system libraries.

• Load shared libraries.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ldd

• ldconfig

• /etc/ld.so.conf

• LD_LIBRARY_PATH

102.4 Use Debian package management

Key Knowledge Areas

• Install, upgrade and uninstall Debian binary packages.

• Find packages containing specific files or libraries which may or may not be installed.

• Obtain package information like version, content, dependencies, package integrity and installation status (whether or not the package is installed).

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/apt/sources.list

• dpkg

• dpkg-reconfigure

• apt-get

• apt-cache

• aptitude

102.5 Use RPM and YUM package management

Key Knowledge Areas

• Install, re-install, upgrade and remove packages using RPM and YUM.

• Obtain information on RPM packages such as version, status, dependencies, integrity and signatures.

• Determine what files a package provides, as well as find which package a specific file comes from.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• rpm

• rpm2cpio

• /etc/yum.conf

• /etc/yum.repos.d/

• yum

• yumdownloader

Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands

103.1 Work on the command line

Key Knowledge Areas

• Use single shell commands and one line command sequences to perform basic tasks on the command line.

• Use and modify the shell environment including defining, referencing and exporting environment variables.

• Use and edit command history.

• Invoke commands inside and outside the defined path.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• .

• bash

• echo

• env

• exec

• export

• pwd

• set

• unset

• man

• uname

• history

103.2 Process text streams using filters

Key Knowledge Areas

• Send text files and output streams through text utility filters to modify the output using standard UNIX commands found in the GNU textutils package.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• cat

• cut

• expand

• fmt

• head

• od

• join

• nl

• paste

• pr

• sed

• sort

• split

• tail

• tr

• unexpand

• uniq

• wc

103.3 Perform basic file management

Key Knowledge Areas

• Copy, move and remove files and directories individually.

• Copy multiple files and directories recursively.

• Remove files and directories recursively.

• Use simple and advanced wildcard specifications in commands.

• Using find to locate and act on files based on type, size, or time.

• Usage of tar, cpio and dd.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• cp

• find

• mkdir

• mv

• ls

• rm

• rmdir

• touch

• tar

• cpio

• dd

• file

• gzip

• gunzip

• bzip2

• file globbing

103.4 Use streams, pipes and redirects

Key Knowledge Areas

• Redirecting standard input, standard output and standard error.

• Pipe the output of one command to the input of another command.

• Use the output of one command as arguments to another command.

• Send output to both stdout and a file.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• tee

• xargs

103.5 Create, monitor and kill processes

Key Knowledge Areas

• Run jobs in the foreground and background.

• Signal a program to continue running after logout.

• Monitor active processes.

• Select and sort processes for display.

• Send signals to processes.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• &

• bg

• fg

• jobs

• kill

• nohup

• ps

• top

• free

• uptime

• killall

103.6 Modify process execution priorities

Key Knowledge Areas

• Know the default priority of a job that is created.

• Run a program with higher or lower priority than the default..

• Change the priority of a running process.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• nice

• ps

• renice

• top

103.7 Search text files using regular expressions

Key Knowledge Areas

• Create simple regular expressions containing several notational elements.

• Use regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file content.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• grep

• egrep

• fgrep

• sed

• regex(7)

103.8 Perform basic file editing operations using vi

Key Knowledge Areas

• Navigate a document using vi.

• Use basic vi modes.

• Insert, edit, delete, copy and find text.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• vi

• /, ?

• h,j,k,l

• i, o, a

• c, d, p, y, dd, yy

• ZZ, :w!, :q!, :e!

Topic 104: Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

104.1 Create partitions and filesystems

Key Knowledge Areas

• Use various mkfs commands to set up partitions and create various filesystems such as:

  • ext2

  • ext3

  • xfs

  • reiserfs v3

  • vfat

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• fdisk

• mkfs

• mkswap

104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystems

Key Knowledge Areas

• Verify the integrity of filesystems.

• Monitor free space and inodes.

• Repair simple filesystem problems.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• du

• df

• fsck

• e2fsck

• mke2fs

• debugfs

• dumpe2fs

• tune2fs

• xfs tools (such as xfs_metadump and xfs_info)

104.3 Control mounting and unmounting of filesystems

Key Knowledge Areas

• Manually mount and unmount filesystems.

• Configure filesystem mounting on bootup.

• Configure user mountable removeable filesystems.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/fstab

• /media

• mount

• umount

104.4 Manage disk quotas

Key Knowledge Areas

• Set up a disk quota for a filesystem.

• Edit, check and generate user quota reports.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• quota

• edquota

• repquota

• quotaon

104.5 Manage file permissions and ownership

Key Knowledge Areas

• Manage access permissions on regular and special files as well as directories.

• Use access modes such as suid, sgid and the sticky bit to maintain security.

• Know how to change the file creation mask.

• Use the group field to grant file access to group members.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• chmod

• umask

• chown

• chgrp

104.6 Create and change hard and symbolic links

Key Knowledge Areas

• Create links.

• Identify hard and/or softlinks.

• Copying versus linking files.

• Use links to support system administration tasks.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ln

104.7 Find system files and place files in the correct location

Key Knowledge Areas

• Understand the correct locations of files under the FHS.

• Find files and commands on a Linux system.

• Know the location and propose of impotant file and directories as defind in the FHS.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• find

• locate

• updatedb

• whereis

• which

• type

• /etc/updatedb.conf