Topic 101: System Architecture
101.1 Determine and configure hardware settings

• Enable and disable integrated peripherals
• Configure systems with or without external peripherals such as keyboards
• Differentiate between the various types of mass storage devices
• 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, 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

• 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
• Understanding of SysVinit and systemd
• Awareness of Upstart
• Check boot events in the log files

Terms and Utilities:

• dmesg
• BIOS
• bootloader
• kernel
• initramfs
• init
• SysVinit
• systemd

101.3 Change runlevels / boot targets and shutdown or reboot system

• Set the default runlevel or boot target
• Change between runlevels / boot targets including single user mode
• Shutdown and reboot from the command line
• Alert users before switching runlevels / boot targets or other major system events
• Properly terminate processes

Terms and Utilities:

• /etc/inittab
• shutdown
• init
• /etc/init.d/
• telinit
• systemd
• systemctl
• /etc/systemd/
• /usr/lib/systemd/
• wall

Topic 102: Linux Installation and Package Management
102.1 Design hard disk layout

• 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
• Knowledge of basic features of LVM

Terms and Utilities:

• / (root) filesystem
• /var filesystem
• /home filesystem
• /boot filesystem
• swap space
• mount points
• partitions

102.2 Install a boot manager

• Providing alternative boot locations and backup boot options
• Install and configure a boot loader such as GRUB Legacy
• Perform basic configuration changes for GRUB 2
• Interact with the boot loader

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

• menu.lst, grub.cfg and grub.conf
• grub-install
• grub-mkconfig
• MBR

102.3 Manage shared libraries

• Identify shared libraries
• Identify the typical locations of system libraries
• Load shared libraries

Terms and Utilities:

• ldd
• ldconfig
• /etc/ld.so.conf
• LD_LIBRARY_PATH

102.4 Use Debian package management

• 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)

Terms and Utilities:

• /etc/apt/sources.list
• dpkg
• dpkg-reconfigure
• apt-get
• apt-cache
• aptitude
102.5 Use RPM and YUM package management

• 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

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

• 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

Terms and Utilities:

• bash
• echo
• env
• export
• pwd
• set
• unset
• man
• uname
• history
• .bash_history

103.2 Process text streams using filters

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

Terms and Utilities:

• cat
• cut
• expand
• fmt
• head
• join
• less
• nl
• od
• paste
• pr
• sed
• sort
• split
• tail
• tr
• unexpand
• uniq
• wc

103.3 Perform basic file management

• 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

Terms and Utilities:

• cp
• find
• mkdir
• mv
• ls
• rm
• rmdir
• touch
• tar
• cpio
• dd
• file
• gzip
• gunzip
• bzip2
• xz
• file globbing

103.4 Use streams, pipes and redirects

• 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

Terms and Utilities:

• tee
• xargs

103.5 Create, monitor and kill processes

• 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

Terms and Utilities:

• &
• bg
• fg
• jobs
• kill
• nohup
• ps
• top
• free
• uptime
• pgrep
• pkill
• killall
• screen

103.6 Modify process execution priorities

• 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

Terms and Utilities:

• nice
• ps
• renice
• top

103.7 Search text files using regular expressions

• Create simple regular expressions containing several notational elements
• Use regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file content

Terms and Utilities:

• grep
• egrep
• fgrep
• sed
• regex(7)

103.8 Perform basic file editing operations using vi

• Navigate a document using vi
• Use basic vi modes
• Insert, edit, delete, copy and find text

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

• Manage MBR partition tables
• Use various mkfs commands to create various filesystems such as:
o ext2/ext3/ext4
o XFS
o VFAT
• Awareness of ReiserFS and Btrfs
• Basic knowledge of gdisk and parted with GPT

Terms and Utilities:

• fdisk
• gdisk
• parted
• mkfs
• mkswap

104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystems

• Verify the integrity of filesystems
• Monitor free space and inodes
• Repair simple filesystem problems

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

• Manually mount and unmount filesystems
• Configure filesystem mounting on bootup
• Configure user mountable removable filesystems

Terms and Utilities:

• /etc/fstab
• /media/
• mount
• umount

104.4 Manage disk quotas

• Set up a disk quota for a filesystem
• Edit, check and generate user quota reports

Terms and Utilities:

• quota
• edquota
• repquota
• quotaon

104.5 Manage file permissions and ownership

• 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

Terms and Utilities:

• chmod
• umask
• chown
• chgrp

104.6 Create and change hard and symbolic links

• Create links
• Identify hard and/or soft links
• Copying versus linking files
• Use links to support system administration tasks

Terms and Utilities:

• ln
• ls

104.7 Find system files and place files in the correct location

• Understand the correct locations of files under the FHS
• Find files and commands on a Linux system
• Know the location and purpose of important file and directories as defined in the FHS

Terms and Utilities:

• find
• locate
• updatedb
• whereis
• which
• type
• /etc/updatedb.conf