CompTIA Linux+ Fast-Track Certification Bootcamp

This course will be of great benefit to anyone wishing to formalise their Linux knowledge. On completing the course and successfully passing two exams, delegates will be fully CompTIA Linux+ certified.

The Linux+ certification is distribution neutral, therefore content is applicable to many variants of Linux including:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux Enterprise
• Ubuntu

Delegates should have a good understanding of the principles of IT, but do not need any specific Linux knowledge prior to attending.

We provide detailed pre-course material which will give you all the information you need to attend.

• 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

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

• dmesg

• BIOS

• bootloader

• kernel

• initramfs

• init

• SysVinit

System

• 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.

• /etc/inittab

• shutdown

• /etc/init.d

• telinit

• system

• systemctl

• /etc/systemd/

• /usr/lib/system/

wall

• 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.

• / (root) filesystem

• /var filesystem

• /home filesystem

• /boot filesystem

• swap space

• mount points

partitions

• 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.

• menu.lst, grub.cfg and grub.conf

• grub-install

• grub-mkconfig

MBR

• Manage Shared Libraries
• Identify shared libraries.
• Identify the typical locations of system libraries.
• Load shared libraries.

• ldd

• ldconfig

• /etc/ld.so.conf

LD_LIBRARY_PATH

• 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).

• /etc/apt/sources.list

• dpkg

• dpkg-reconfigure

• apt-get

• apt-cache

aptitude

• 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.

• rpm

• rpm2cpio

• /etc/yum.conf

• /etc/yum.repos.d/

• yum

yumdownloader

• 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.

• bash

• echo

• env

• export

• pwd

• set

• unset

• man

• uname

• history

.bash_history

• 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.

• cat

• cut

• expand

• fmt

• head

• od

• join

• nl

• paste

• pr

• sed

• sort

• split

• tail

• tr

• unexpand

• uniq

wc

• 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.

• cp

• find

• mkdir

• mv

• ls

• rm

• rmdir

• touch

• tar

• cpio

• dd

• file

• gzip

• gunzip

• bzip2

• xz

file globbing

• 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.

• tee

xargs

• 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.

• &

• bg

• fg

• jobs

• kill

• nohup

• ps

• top

• free

• uptime

• pgrep

• pkill

• killall

screen

• 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.

• nice

• renice

• 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.

• grep

• egrep

• fgrep

regex

• Perform Basic File Editing Operations Using vi
• Navigate a document using vi.
• Use basic vi modes.
• Insert, edit, delete, copy and find text.

• vi

• /, ?

• h,j,k,l

• i, o, a

• c, d, p, y, dd, yy

ZZ, :w!, :q!, :e!

• Create Partitions and Filesystems
• Manage MBR partition tables.
• Use various mkfs commands to create various filesystems such as:

• ext2/ext3/ext4

• XFS

• VFAT Awareness of ReiserFS and Btrfs. Basic knowledge of gdisk and parted with GPT. The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• fdisk

• gdisk

• parted

• mkfs

mkswap

• Maintain the Integrity of Filesystems
• Verify the integrity of filesystems.
• Monitor free space and inodes.
• Repair simple filesystem problems.

• du

• df

• fsck

• e2fsck

• mke2fs

• debugfs

• dumpe2fs

• tune2fs

xfs tools (such as xfs_metadump and xfs_info)

• Control Mounting and Unmounting of Filesystems
• Manually mount and unmount filesystems.
• Configure filesystem mounting on bootup.
• Configure user mountable removeable filesystems.

• /etc/fstab

• /media

• mount

umount

• Manage Disk Quotas
• Set up a disk quota for a filesystem.
• Edit, check and generate user quota reports.

• quota

• edquota

• repquota

quotaon

• 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.

• chmod

• umask

• chown

chgrp

• 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.

• ln

• 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 propose of important file and directories as defined in the FHS.

• locate

• updatedb

• whereis

• which

• type

/etc/updatedb.conf

• Customize and Use the Shell Environment
• Set environment variables (e.g. PATH) at login or when spawning a new shell.
• Write BASH functions for frequently used sequences of commands.
• Maintain skeleton directories for new user accounts.
• Set command search path with the proper directory.

• source

• /etc/bash.bashrc

• /etc/profile

• ~/.bash_profile

• ~/.bash_login

• ~/.profile

• ~/.bashrc

• ~/.bash_logout

• function

• alias

lists

• Customize or Write Simple Scripts
• Use standard sh syntax (loops, tests).
• Use command substitution.
• Test return values for success or failure or other information provided by a command.
• Perform conditional mailing to the superuser.
• Correctly select the script interpreter through the shebang (#!) line.
• Manage the location, ownership, execution and suid-rights of scripts.

• for

• while

• test

• if

• read

• seq

exec

• SQL Data Management
• Use of basic SQL commands.
• Perform basic data manipulation.

• insert

• update

• select

• delete

• from

• where

• group by

• order by

• Install and Configure X11
• Verify that the video card and monitor are supported by an X server.
• Awareness of the X font server.
• Basic understanding and knowledge of the X Window configuration file.

• /etc/X11/xorg.conf

• xhost

• DISPLAY

• xwininfo

• xdpyinfo

X

• Setup a Display Manager
• Basic configuration of LightDM.
• Turn the display manager on or off.
• Change the display manager greeting.
• Awareness of XDM, KDM and GDM.

• lightdm

/etc/lightdm/

• Accessibility
• Basic knowledge of keyboard accessibility settings (AccessX).
• Basic knowledge of visual settings and themes.
• Basic knowledge of assistive technology (ATs).

• Sticky/Repeat Keys

• Slow/Bounce/Toggle Keys

• Mouse Keys

• High Contrast/Large Print Desktop Themes

• Screen Reader

• Braille Display

• Screen Magnifier

• On-Screen Keyboard

• Gestures (used at login, for example gdm)

• Orca

• GOK

emacspeak

• Manage User and Group Accounts and Related System Files
• Add, modify and remove users and groups.
• Manage user/group info in password/group databases.
• Create and manage special purpose and limited accounts.

• /etc/passwd

• /etc/shadow

• /etc/group

• /etc/skel

• chage

• getent

• groupadd

• groupdel

• groupmod

• passwd

• useradd

• userdel

usermod

• Automate System Administration Tasks by Scheduling Jobs
• Manage cron and at jobs.
• Configure user access to cron and at services.
• Configure anacron.

• /etc/cron.{d,daily,hourly,monthly,weekly}

• /etc/at.deny

• /etc/at.allow

• /etc/crontab

• /etc/cron.allow

• /etc/cron.deny

• /var/spool/cron/*

• crontab

• at

• atq

• atrm

• anacron

/etc/anacrontab

• Localisation and Internationalisation
• Configure locale settings and environment variables.
• Configure timezone settings and environment variables.

• /etc/timezone

• /etc/localtime

• /usr/share/zoneinfo

• Environment variables (LC_*, LC_ALL, LANG, TZ)

• /usr/bin/locale

• tzselect

• tzconfig

• date

• iconv

• UTF-8

• ISO-8859

• ASCII

Unicode

• Maintain System Time
• Set the system date and time.
• Set the hardware clock to the correct time in UTC.
• Configure the correct timezone.
• Basic NTP configuration.
• Knowledge of using the pool.ntp.org service.
• Awareness of the ntpq command.

• /etc/ntp.conf

• hwclock

• ntpd

• ntpdate

pool.ntp.org

• System Logging
• Configuration of the syslog daemon.
• Understanding of standard facilities, priorties and actions.
• Configuration of logrotate.
• Awareness of rsyslog and syslog-ng.

• syslog.conf

• syslogd

• klogd

• /var/log/

• logger

• logrotate

• /etc/logrotate.conf

• /etc/logrotate.d/

• Journalctl

• /etc/systemd/journald.conf

/var/log/journal/

• Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) Basics
• Create e-mail aliases.
• Configure e-mail forwarding.
• Knowledge of commonly available MTA programs (postfix, sendmail, qmail, exim) (no configuration).

• ~/.forward

• sendmail emulation layer commands

• newaliases

• mail

• mailq

• postfix

• sendmail

• exim

qmail

• Manage Printers and Printing
• Basic CUPS configuration (for local and remote printers).
• Manage user print queues.
• Troubleshoot general printing problems.
• Add and remove jobs from configured printer queues.

• CUPS configuration files, tools and utilities

• /etc/cups

lpd legacy interface (lpr, lprm, lpq)

• Fundamentals of Internet Protocols
• Demonstrate an understanding network masks and CIDR notation.
• Knowledge of the differences between private and public “dotted quad” IPAddresses.
• Knowledge about common TCP and UDP ports (20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 53, 80, 110, 123, 139, 143, 161, 162, 389, 443, 465, 514, 636, 993, 995).
• Knowledge about the differences and major features of UDP, TCP and ICMP.
• Knowledge of the major differences between IPv4 and IPv6.
• Knowledge of the basic features of IPv6.

• /etc/services

• IPv4, IPv6

• Subnetting

TCP, UDP, ICMP

• Basic Network Configuration
• Manually and automatically configure network interfaces.
• Basic TCP/IP host configuration.
• Setting a default route.

• /etc/hostname

• /etc/hosts

• /etc/nsswitch.conf

• ifconfig

• ifup

• ifdown

• ip

• route

ping

• Basic Network Troubleshooting
• Manually and automatically configure network interfaces and routing tables to include adding, starting, stopping, restarting, deleting or reconfiguring network interfaces.
• Change, view or configure the routing table and correct an improperly set default route manually.
• Debug problems associated with the network configuration.

• host

• hostname

• dig

• netstat

• ping6

• traceroute

• traceroute6

• tracepath

• tracepath6

netcat

• Configure Client Side DNS
• Query remote DNS servers.
• Configure local name resolution and use remote DNS servers.
• Modify the order in which name resolution is done.

• /etc/resolv.conf

• Host

• Dig

• Perform Security Administration Tasks
• Audit a system to find files with the suid/sgid bit set.
• Set or change user passwords and password aging information.
• Being able to use nmap and netstat to discover open ports on a system.
• Set up limits on user logins, processes and memory usage.
• Determine which users have logged in to the system or are currently logged in.
• Basic sudo configuration and usage.

• fuser

• lsof

• nmap

• sudo

• /etc/sudoers

• su

• ulimit

who, w, last

• Setup Host Security
• Awareness of shadow passwords and how they work.
• Turn off network services not in use.
• Understand the role of TCP wrappers.

• /etc/nologin

• /etc/xinetd.d/*

• /etc/xinetd.conf

• /etc/inetd.d/*

• /etc/inetd.conf

• /etc/init.d/*

• /etc/hosts.allow

/etc/hosts.deny

• Securing Data with Encryption
• Perform basic OpenSSH 2 client configuration and usage.
• Understand the role of OpenSSH 2 server host keys.
• Perform basic GnuPG configuration, usage, and revocation.
• Understand SSH port tunnels (including X11 tunnels).

• ssh

• ssh-keygen

• ssh-agent

• ssh-add

• ~/.ssh/id_rsa and id_rsa.pub

• ~/.ssh/id_dsa and id_dsa.pub

• /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key and ssh_host_rsa_key.pub

• /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key and ssh_host_dsa_key.pub

• ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

• /etc/ssh_known_hosts

• gpg

~/.gnupg/*