Getting Going with Linux - Course Syllabus

(This page uses style sheets.)

A good, solid introductory course to Linux. Unlike introductory Unix courses which pre-suppose a working system at the start, this course starts off with a bare PC and installs Linux from scratch. After getting used to the commands and facilities, the course finishes with a slightly tailored version of our basic system administration course.

Intended for anybody that wants to get up and running with Linux in a short space of time.

Introduction
Versions, features and concepts
Installation
Hardware Considerations, disk partitioning
System configuration, accounts
Automated installation with Kickstart
Getting Started
Logging in and out
Workstations
Linux Desktops, Gnome and KDE
Running applications
The terminal window, shells, command line format
Help Screens and Manual pages
The X-Window system
Remote display of windows
Files
Filenames and Pathnames, wildcards, the file system tree,
Links to files
Directories; Manipulating, listing
Access permissions ( chmod )
File manipulation ( cp, mv, rm etc.)
X-Window File Managers
Viewing files ( more, cat, etc.)
Editors
Simple use of vi
Window based editors
Linux Utilities
The find command
Mail programs
Pattern extractors (grep, cut, diff)
Backup / Archiving with tar
The ftp file transfer program
I/O Redirection
Principles, importance
Pipes & Filters
Processes
Concepts
Creating background processes, Job Control
Process Status ( ps )
Killing Processes, Signals
Basic System Admin.
Overview, Responsibilities
The Super User Account
System Administration Tools
System Logs
Managing Users
The password and group files
The passwd command
Processes
Overview, listing with ps, killing with kill
Startup and Shutdown
System Startup, Run Levels
The inittab and rc files, checking tools
System Shutdown
Clocks
Dates, Times and Time zones
The cron clock daemon
Printers (CUPS or LPRng)
Overview
Adding and managing printers
Local and Remote Printers
Disks and File Systems
Partitioning, mounting
Unix File Systems, structure
checking with fsck, df, quot
Backing up with tar, cpio
Package Management

Notes

  1. All participants receive printed notes which include all the slides plus additional material.
  2. Ideally, each student should have their own machine to work on.
  3. The length of the Course is normally three or four days.