CompTIA Linux+ (Exam LX0-101)

Plan Linux installations by evaluating computer role, distro, and hardware compatibility; consider 32/64 bit, RAM, and disk space; then configure partitions, file systems, packages, users, networking, and GNOME or KDE.

Practice a clean centos-style installation using the anaconda installer, selecting language, storage options, host name, and root password, then install a basic desktop and review package deployment.

Continue the Centaurus 6 desktop installation, completing packages, outlining hardware requirements, and guiding post-install setup, including user creation and handling boot video issues.

Install Ubuntu server 12 using a text-based, menu-driven process, selecting language, time zone, keyboard layout, and hostname, then create a user, encrypt the home directory, and partition the disk.

Configure apt to manage package downloads and updates, install a baseline Ubuntu server with OpenSSH server, and grub boot loader, while monitoring installations for errors and deciding on automatic updates.

Learn practical Linux installation troubleshooting by checking hardware compatibility and ACL, reviewing logs and system messages, resolving networking issues, testing media, and trying alternative hardware or distributions.

Explore a quick tour of Linux interfaces, from graphical user interfaces to terminal shells, with login and non-login sessions, file system navigation, and switching workspaces.

Explore the Linux shell and terminal, compare bash, csh, and zsh, and learn how prompts, directories, and shell profiles shape command execution and scripting for the LX0-101 exam.

Explore shell configuration files across distributions, distinguishing system-wide files in /etc from user-specific files in the home directory, and practice how login and non-login shells load profile and bash files.

Master the basics of the Linux command line, including case sensitivity, ls with -l, tab completion, and using aliases to shorten commands.

Learn to use Linux command history to recall and replay commands, view and edit the bash history file, configure history size and controls, and export history for scripting.

Navigate Linux directories from root to home, using pwd, ls, and cd. Understand directory structure and shortcuts like tilde, dot, and dot dot to move through the file system.

Discover how the command path and PATH variable guide Linux to locate executables across directories, using which, and extending PATH to include more locations.

learn how variables act as data placeholders, differentiate user defined and environment variables, use dollar signs to reference them, and export or edit bash profiles to persist across sessions.

Learn how to obtain help for Linux commands using help, man, info, and which, and understand switches, arguments, and how to navigate man and info pages.

Learn how to locate and understand commands using whereis and which, explore the rpm command in the Redhat package manager, and recognize how user privileges affect command paths and execution.

Master Linux command line basics by exploring variables, export, environment details with uname, and essential navigation using cd, pwd, and path concepts.

Explore processing text streams in Linux from the command line using cat, echo, and wc, and learn to chain commands with pipes and redirects.

Master text streams by using cut and paste to extract usernames and full names from a colon-delimited password file. Then learn to prepare and join these fields with join.

Combine user names and full names from two files using join and paste, aligning fields by line numbers and redirecting the results to a new file.

Explore text streams in Linux by viewing tab-delimited data, converting tabs to spaces with expand, and inspecting with od, while using sort and unique to organize output.

Explore processing text streams with format and print, using the man ls page, to format long files, practice piping and redirection, and improve Linux text manipulation skills.

Use head to view the first lines and tail to view the last lines of a file, with a default of ten lines and an option to set n.

Learn how the split command breaks large files into line-based or size-based chunks, names output files with a prefix, and preserves the original file.

Explore sed and TR for streaming text editing, performing on-the-fly substitution and case conversion, and redirecting output to preserve originals for massive files.

Master redirecting standard input, output, and errors in Linux commands, using >, >>, <, and the 0, 1, 2 conventions to control where results and errors go.

Explore piping, sending a command’s output into another’s input, unlike redirection. Chain commands with pipes, use tee to display and save output, and employ grep and tr.

Learn to search inside text files with grep, using regular expressions and fixed strings, explore ignore case with dash II and dash F, and pipe outputs to other commands.

Edit text with vi, the Linux standard editor, to modify configuration files and scripts, and learn vi’s four modes—command mode, insert mode, replace mode, and command line mode—for efficient navigation.

Open vi to edit a text document, switching between command, insert, and replace modes. Use colon for write and quit commands (w, q, or q!), and note vi lacks built-in spellcheck.

Discover how red hat based systems use rpm packages to install software, manage dependencies, and install via command line or graphical tools, with rpm naming and architecture details.

Explore how the rpm tool queries, verifies, and manages packages on Red Hat systems, including dependency checks, signature verification, database maintenance, and common install tasks.

Explore yum, the Red Hat rpm package manager, to download, install, and resolve dependencies using configured repos, and use yum list all and yum info to inspect packages.

Master yum to install rpm packages, resolve dependencies, and perform updates and upgrades. The lecture highlights nmap as a network scanner and the yum config manager for configuring yum.

Explore Debian package management with dpkg, apt-get, and aptitude, compare it to rpm and yum, and learn to install, update, and resolve dependencies on Debian-based systems.

Master Debian package management with apt and apt-get, performing updates, upgrades, installs, repository handling, and verifying dependencies; compare with rpm/yum and use aptitude, gui tools, and man pages.

Discover how Linux shared libraries, dynamic and static, let multiple apps share system code, with library naming and versioning guiding troubleshooting and dependency management via ldconfig and ldd.

Explore how the dynamic linker locates shared libraries, inspect ldconfig caches and include directives, and troubleshoot dependencies with ldd and rpm.

Discover how Linux treats hardware as devices under /dev, and how kernel modules and drivers enable recognition and management, using /proc to view system hardware information.

Learn to check your kernel version and loaded modules via /lib/modules, then inspect /proc and /dev, including meminfo and mounts, to understand device files and mounted devices.

Learn to view hardware information using hdparm, lsusb, hwinfo, lsmod, and ls pci, and understand device files in /dev and mount points in /proc to troubleshoot hardware problems.

Learn to manage Linux kernel modules using lsmod, modinfo, modprobe, insmod, and rmmod, inspect /proc/modules, and explore dependencies with depmod and module loading experiments.

Explore integrated peripherals and headless devices, troubleshoot resource conflicts, and remotely manage hardware via web interfaces, VNC, or SSH, ensuring IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway are configured.

Explore hot plug versus cold plug devices with examples like USB drives and RAM modules, and how udev creates /dev entries and handles device initialization.

Understand mass storage devices from floppy disks to serial ATA drives, and learn essential configuration details: interrupts, io addresses, dma channels, and device IDs that influence boot order.

Explore scuzzy (SCSI) mass storage, boot device selection by LUN, and termination and firmware options, covering hard drives, optical drives, tapes, and RAID. Include ssd and flash drives.

Explore the boot process from post and BIOS to the bootloader, kernel loading the initramdisk, root filesystem, and init scripts that start services at run levels.

Access the bootloader during startup to control options, switch kernels, and troubleshoot, using escape for grub, e to edit, a to modify kernel arguments, or C for a command line.

Observe boot events by rebooting a virtual box to compare startup messages, hardware detection, and GRUB, then use the message command to view and filter /var/log/messages.

Examine runlevels in Linux, comparing System V and BSD init scripts, their rc directories, and how to manage services with start, stop, restart, and reload using init or telinit.

Navigate System V and BSD init structures, locate rc and init scripts, manage services with stop, start, restart, and reload, and switch to runlevel 3 for multi-user mode.

Learn to shut down and restart a Linux system in an orderly, safe way using commands like shutdown, halt, and power off, with root access and proper unmounting.

Install and configure bootloaders like grub and lilo, and understand how they select operating systems and kernels. Verify grub installation and use YaST or command-line tools to manage bootloader settings.

Configure grub by examining /boot/grub, understand its three stages, and edit menu.lst or grub.conf carefully; learn essential commands like grub-install and how boot entries reference kernels.

Explore how Linux stores data on disks with various file systems and the standard file hierarchy, including root and common directories, and how partitions organize storage.

Explore how to plan hard disk layout by partitioning drives, selecting file systems, and assigning mount points for directories like /home and /var to optimize space, security, and recoverability.

Plan linux disk layout with partitions for root, boot, home, var, and swap before installation to improve security, recoverability, and scalability.

Learn to create a custom hard disk layout with standard partitions on two 20 GB virtual drives, including /boot, /home, /var, /usr, and swap.

Plan disk layouts during installation to ensure partitions and file systems are set correctly. Use fdisk and mkfs tools to create partitions, swap, and file systems like xfs or exfat.

Learn to prepare a new disk with fdisk, create primary and extended partitions, assign sizes, identify Linux and swap partitions, format with mkfs, and mount /dev/sdXn.

Explore how to mount file systems in Linux, using mount points, commands, and options, and learn how to make mounts persistent via /etc/fstab.

Mount an existing filesystem with the mount command, create a backup mount point, and configure a persistent mount in /etc/fstab for reliable boot-time availability.

Learn how to verify Linux file system integrity and space usage using df, du, and inode checks, and run fsck with notes on xfs tools and manual versus automatic checks.

Learn how to set up and manage quotas on Linux file systems, enable quotas, configure quota definitions, use quota and repquota, and assign quotas to users and groups.

Learn how to enable and manage disk quotas on the root filesystem using quota tools, verify installation, run quota checks, and assign quotas with edquota.

Explore how Linux uses files and directories, navigate the directory tree, and manage files by creating, destroying, copying, moving, and finding them, while learning file types and device files.

Explore the Linux directory structure and the file hierarchy standard, and identify core directories like /bin, /boot, /etc, /var, /lib, /usr, /home and /root.

Master locating files across the file system with find, locate, whereis, and type, using quotes, wildcards, and index-based searches with updatedb.

Learn to manage directories with absolute and relative paths, create work, customers, and suppliers folders, and use mkdir, touch, echo, and ls.

Learn to copy, move, and remove files in linux, including backing up to a backup directory, using absolute and relative paths and recognizing rm risks.

Learn to remove files safely in Linux using rm with interactive prompts (-i or -I), handle directories recursively, and avoid risky wildcards that delete unintended data.

Learn to use tar to create and extract tar balls for backups, manage absolute and relative pathnames, apply compression, and move archives to external media, with introduction to cpio piping.

Master CPO-based backups by feeding a file list from find and archiving to a CPO file, then back up a USB drive with dd for a block-level image.

Learn to create and extract archives using zip and tar with gzip or bzip2 on Linux, and understand proper path usage and practice for the CompTIA Linux+ exam.

Discover hard links that share the same inode and symbolic links that are separate pointers to targets, with steps to create and identify them using ln -s and ls.

Explore file ownership and permissions on a Linux box, including owner, group, and others, and learn read, write, execute rights and octal values.

Learn to run commands to change file permissions, ownership, and groups using chmod, view results with ls -l, and understand permission bits like 6 4 4 and 7 7 7.

Explore special file permissions, including setuid, setgid, and the sticky bit, and learn how umask and chmod control default and explicit access on files and directories.

Learn how processes work in linux, including PIDs, parent process IDs, forking, and process management with commands. Understand init, runlevels, system versus user processes, and boot directories.

Learn how to foreground and background applications in a terminal, using ampersand, job numbers, fg, bg, and the jobs command to control processes without losing the terminal.

Explore top, the real-time process viewer showing pid, user, cpu time, memory, and cpu percentage, and learn to toggle columns, sort fields, and manage priority with nice values.

Learn how to adjust a process's nice value to influence its priority, including using renice as root, verifying with ps, and understanding how higher nice lowers priority.

Explore process performance by using commands like free and uptime to monitor memory, swap, and load averages, and identify memory hogs or errant processes over time.

Learn to manage processes with the kill command, sending signals such as sighup, sigint, sigkill, and sigterm to restart, stop, or terminate, using ps to locate pids, with root privileges.

Learn to manage Linux processes with kill and killall, using -15 for graceful termination and -9 for brute force, and keep tasks running with nohup after logout.