Linux Professional Institute exams: LPIC-1

[bad_brain]

some of you (me too) want to make the LPI exams, the LPI certifications are worth much more in the business world than any of the MS ones, one of the reasons is that those exams are not really easy. the needed knowledge is pretty extensive, so I wrote down what knowledge is expected for the LPIC-1, source is the official LPIC-1 exam book.

the exams are pretty cheap btw, about 100 bucks, on special events like Linux conventions exams are even offered for half the price. learning from books don't really makes sense, the best practice is to work on a Linux system....also learning together with others is useful, for example with your local LUG (Linux user group).
you can look for the nearest LUG here: http://www.linux.org/groups/
the LPI can be found here: http://www.lpi.org


ok, now to the content of the 1st exam, of course not ALL will be tested, the content of each test is generated randomly.



hardware and system architecture
- BIOS settings
- modem and soundcard configuration
- setup of non-IDE drives
- setup of different PCI cards
- setup of communication devices
- setup of USB hardware

Linux installation and package-management
- creation of HDD partitions
- installation of a bootmanager
- creation and installation of programs from source code
- management of shared libraries
- usage of the Debian package manager
- usage of the RedHat package manager

GNU- and Unix-commands
- working in a shell
list of important files, directories and applications:
bash
echo
env
exec
export
pwd
set
unset
~/.bash_history
~/.profile

process texts using filter programs
list of important files, directories and applications:
cat
cut
expand
fmt
head
hexdump
join
nl
paste
pr
sed
sort
split
tac
tail
tr
unexpand
uniq
wc

basics of file management
list of important files, directories and applications:
cp
find
mkdir
mv
ls
rm
rmdir
touch
File Globbing

usage of streams and pipes
list of important files, directories and applications:
tee
xargs
<
<<
>
>>
|
(back ticks)

starting, monitoring and ending of processes
list of important files, directories and applications:
bg
fg
jobs
kill
nohup
ps
top
killall

processing of textfiles via regular expressions
list of important files, directories and applications:
grep
sed

basics of data processing using the vi editor

creation of partitions and file systems
list of important files, directories and applications:
fdisk
mkfs
mkswap

ensuring data system integrity
list of important files, directories and applications:
du
df
fsck
e2fsck
mke2fs
debugfs
dumpe2fs
tune2fs

mounting and unmounting of file systems
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/fstab
mount
unmount

management of disk quotas
list of important files, directories and applications:
quota
edquota
repquota
quotaon

file access control via file permissions
list of important files, directories and applications:
chmod
umask
chattr

management of file owner settings
list of important files, directories and applications:
chmod
chown
chgrp

creation and editing of hard- and symlinks
list of important files, directories and applications:
ln

finding system files and placement of files in the right place
list of important files, directories and applications:
find
locate
slocate
updatedb
whereis
which
/etc/updatedb.conf

installation and configuration of X11
list of important files, directories and applications:
xorgcfg
xorgconfig
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
XF86Setup
xf86config
xvidtune
/etc/X11/XF86Config
.Xresources

setup of a display manager
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/inittab
/etc/X11/xdm/*
/etc/X11/kdm/*
/etc/X11/gdm/*

installation and customization of a window manager environment
list of important files, directories and applications:
.xinitrc
.Xdefaults
xhost
environment variable DISPLAY

management of the kernel and kernel modules
list of important files, directories and applications:
/lib/modules/kernel-version/modules.dep
/etc/modules.conf
/etc/modprobe.conf
depmod
insmod
lsmod
rmmod
modinfo
modprobe
uname

configuration, creation and installation of customized kernels and kernel modules
list of important files, directories and applications:
/usr/src/linux/*
/usr/src/linux/.config
/lib/modules/kernel-version/*
/boot/*
make
make targets

booting, initialization, shutdown and runlevels
list of important files, directories and applications:
/var/log/messages
/etc/modules.conf
/etc/modeprobe.conf
dmesg
LILO
GRUB

changing runlevels, shutdown and reboot of the system
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/inittab
shutdown
init

management of printers and printer queues
list of important files, directories and applications:
CUPS-configuration files, -tools and utilities
/etc/printcap
lpc
lpq
lprm
lp

printing files
list of important files, directories and applications:
a2ps
lpr
lpq

installation and configuration of local and network printers
list of important files, directories and applications:
CUPS-configuration files, -tools and utilities
/etc/printcap
/var/spool/cups/
/var/spool/lpd/*/
lpd

using and managing local system documentation
list of important files, directories and applications:
CUPS-configuration files, -tools and utilities
MANPATH
man
apropos
whatis

finding Linux documentation on the internet

notification of users about system-related events
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/issue
/etc/issue.net
/etc/motd

using and customizing the shell environment
list of important files, directories and applications:
~/.bash_profile
~/.bash_login
~/.profile
~/.bashrc
~/.bash_logout
~/.inputrc
function
export
env
set
lists
seq
unset

writing and customizing simple scripts
list of important files, directories and applications:
for
while
test
chmod

administrative operations
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/group
/etc/gshadow
chage
gpasswd
groupadd
groupdel
groupmod
passwd
useradd
userdel
usermod

optimization of user environments and global environment variables
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/profile
/etc/skel
env
export
set
unset

using and configuring logfiles
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/syslog.conf
/var/log/*
logrotate
tail -f

automatizing administrative operations by planned jobs
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/anacrontab
/etc/at.deny
/etc/at.allow
/etc/crontab
/etc/cron.allow
/etc/cron.deny
/var/spool/cron/*
at
atq
atrm
crontab

designing of effective data backup strategies
list of important files, directories and applications:
cpio
dd
dump
restore
tar

administrate the system time
list of important files, directories and applications:
/usr/share/zoneinfo
/etc/timezone
/etc/localtime
/etc/ntp.conf
/etc/ntp.drift
date
hwclock
ntpd
ntpdate

TCP/IP basics
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/services
ftp
telnet
host
ping
dig
traceroute
whois

TCP/IP configuration and troubleshooting
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/HOSTNAME or /etc/hostname /etc/hosts
/etc/networks
/etc/host.conf
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/nsswitch.conf
ifconfig
ifup and ifdown
route
dhcpcd
dhclient
pump
host
hostname
domainname
dnsdomainname
netstat
ping
traceroute
tcpdump

configuring Linux as PPP client
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/ppp/options.*
/etc/ppp/peers/*
/etc/wvdial.conf
/etc/ppp/ip-up
/etc/ppp/ip-down
wvdial
pppd

configuration and administration of xinetd, inetd and related services
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/hosts.allow
/etc/hosts.deny
/etc/services
/etc/xinetd.conf
/etc/xinetd.d/
/etc/xinetd.log
/etc/inetd.conf

running and basic configuration af a MTA
list of important files, directories and applications:
config files of Postfix, Qmail, Exim and Sendmail
/etc/mail/*
~/.forward
commands of the sendmail emulation layer
newaliases

running and basic configuration of Apache
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/apache2
httpd.conf
apache2ctl
apachectl
httpd

administration of NFS- and SAMBA daemons
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/exports
/etc/fstab
/etc/smb.conf
mount
unmount

setup and configuration of basic DNS services
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/hosts
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/nsswitch.conf
/etc/named.conf
named

setup of the secure shell (OpenSSH)
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/hosts.allow
/etc/hosts.deny
/etc/nologin
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
/etc/ssh_known_hosts
/etc/sshrc
sshd
ssh-keygen

security-related administrative operations
list of important files, directories and applications:
/proc/net/ip_*
find
iptables
passwd
socket
nmap
netstat

basic security of systems
list of important files, directories and applications:
/etc/xinetd.d/*
/etc/xinetd.conf
/etc/inet.d/*
/etc/inetd.conf
/etc/nologin
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/syslog.conf

security on userlevel
list of important files, directories and applications:
quota
usermod
ulimit

[computathug]

This is really interesting and will take an in depth look at this later as a friend is coming round as his mother is in a bad way. Thanks for the info b_b

This is the kind of information i like to read and find out about. Gives people something to aim at achieving rather than just sitting there thinking right what can i do next. Thus so far i have enjoyed MOST the time since i took the venture and like what i have experienced over this short period ( compared to using windows ) The idea of me starting to building thios dbox in my little spare time i have is too improve my linux knowledge

[G-Brain]

Wow, I know all of this except for the printer stuff (don't have one ). Just FYI, "locate" is a symlink to "slocate"

Nice post!

[bad_brain]

I know about 80%, I know pretty all the commands but not all options yet.....will take a little because I am a learning-by-doing guy, but I'll definitely do the exams...

g-brain, I think it's distro-specific, on Debian slocate don't even exist, only locate (which is a binary)....

Code: Select all

serv:~# whereis locate
locate: /usr/bin/locate /usr/lib/locate /usr/share/man/man1/locate.1.gz
serv:~# whatis locate
locate (1)           - list files in databases that match a pattern
serv:~# whereis slocate
slocate:
serv:~# 

[G-Brain]

I guess.

Code: Select all

bash-3.1$ whatis slocate
slocate              (1)  - Security Enhanced version of the GNU Locate
bash-3.1$ whatis locate
locate: nothing appropriate
bash-3.1$ ls -l /usr/bin/locate 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 2007-12-15 16:05 /usr/bin/locate -> slocate

Oh well, I like it secure

[CommonStray]

Code: Select all

circuitbomb@Cyberbomb:~$ whatis slocate
slocate (1)          - Security Enhanced version of the GNU Locate
circuitbomb@Cyberbomb:~$ whatis locate
locate (1)           - Security Enhanced version of the GNU Locate
circuitbomb@Cyberbomb:~$ 

[/quote]