LPI Linux Certification/LPIC1 Exam 101/Detailed Objectives

The following material is directly from the Linux Professional Institute at Objectives 101 reprinted with their permission. Note that their inclusion in this book in no way signifies endorsement on the part of LPI.

This is a required exam for LPI certification Level 1. It covers basic system administration skills that are common across all distributions of Linux.

Each objective is assigned a weighting value. The weights range roughly from 1 to 10, and indicate the relative importance of each objective. Objectives with higher weights will be covered in the exam with more questions.

Topic 101: Hardware & Architecture

1.101.1 Configure Fundamental BIOS Settings

Weight: 1

Description: Candidates should be able to configure fundamental system hardware by making the correct settings in the system BIOS. This objective includes a proper understanding of BIOS configuration issues such as the use of LBA on IDE hard disks larger than 1024 cylinders, enabling or disabling integrated peripherals, as well as configuring systems with (or without) external peripherals such as keyboards. It also includes the correct setting for IRQ, DMA and I/O addresses for all BIOS administrated ports and settings for error handling.

Key files terms and utilities include:
/proc/ioports
/proc/interrupts
/proc/dma
/proc/pci

1.101.3 Configure Modem and Sound cards

Weight: 1

Description: Ensure devices meet compatibility requirements (particularly that the modem is NOT a win-modem), verify that both the modem and sound card are using unique and correct IRQ's, I/O, and DMA addresses, if the sound card is PnP install and run sndconfig and isapnp, configure modem for outbound dial-up, configure modem for outbound PPP | SLIP | CSLIP connection, set serial port for 115.2 Kbps.

1.101.4 Setup SCSI Devices

Weight: 1

Description: Candidates should be able to configure SCSI devices using the SCSI BIOS as well as the necessary Linux tools. They also should be able to differentiate between the various types of SCSI. This objective includes manipulating the SCSI BIOS to detect used and available SCSI IDs and setting the correct ID number for different devices especially the boot device. It also includes managing the settings in the computer's BIOS to determine the desired boot sequence if both SCSI and IDE drives are used.

Key files terms and utilities include:
SCSI ID
/proc/scsi/
scsi_info

1.101.5 Setup different PC expansion cards

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to configure various cards for the various expansion slots. They should know the differences between ISA and PCI cards with respect to configuration issues. This objective includes the correct settings of IRQs, DMAs and I/O Ports of the cards, especially to avoid conflicts between devices. It also includes using isapnp if the card is an ISA PnP device.

Key files terms and utilities include:
/proc/dma
/proc/interrupts
/proc/ioports
/proc/pci
pnpdump(8) isapnp(8) lspci(8)

1.101.6 Configure Communication Devices

Weight: 1

Description: Candidates should be able to install and configure different internal and external communication devices like modems, ISDN adapters, and DSL switches. This objective includes verification of compatibility requirements (especially important if that modem is a winmodem), necessary hardware settings for internal devices (IRQs, DMAs, I/O ports), and loading and configuring suitable device drivers. It also includes communication device and interface configuration requirements, such as the right serial port for 115.2 Kbps, and the correct modem settings for outbound PPP connection(s).

Key files terms and utilities include:
/proc/dma
/proc/interrupts
/proc/ioports
setserial(8)

1.101.7 Configure USB devices

Weight: 1

Description: Candidates should be able to activate USB support, use and configure different USB devices. This objective includes the correct selection of the USB chipset and the corresponding module. It also includes the knowledge of the basic architecture of the layer model of USB as well as the different modules used in the different layers..

Key files terms and utilities include:
lspci(8)
usb-uhci.o
usb-ohci.o
/etc/usbmgr/
usbmodules
/etc/hotplug

Topic 102: Linux Installation & Package Management

1.102.1 Design hard disk layout

Weight: 5

Description: Candidates should be able to design a disk partitioning scheme for a Linux system. This objective includes allocating filesystems or swap space to separate partitions or disks, and tailoring the design to the intended use of the system. It also includes placing /boot on a partition that conforms with the BIOS' requirements for booting.

Key files terms and utilities include:
/ (root) filesystem
/var filesystem
/home filesystem
swap space
mount points
partitions
cylinder 1024

1.102.2 Install a boot manager

Weight: 1

Description: Candidate should be able to select, install, and configure a boot manager. This objective includes providing alternative boot locations and backup boot options (for example, using a boot floppy).

Key files terms and utilities include:
/etc/lilo.conf
/boot/grub/grub.conf
lilo grub-install
MBR
superblock
first stage boot loader

1.102.3 Make and install programs from source

Weight: 5

Description: Candidates should be able to build and install an executable program from source. This objective includes being able to unpack a file of sources. Candidates should be able to make simple customizations to the Makefile, for example changing paths or adding extra include directories.

Key files terms and utilities include:
gunzip gzip bzip2 tar configure make

1.102.4 Manage shared libraries

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to determine the shared libraries that executable programs depend on and install them when necessary. Candidates should be able to state where system libraries are kept.

Key files terms and utilities include:
ldd ldconfig
/etc/ld.so.conf
LD_LIBRARY_PATH

1.102.5 Use Debian package management

Weight: 8

Description: Candidates should be able to perform package management skills using the Debian package manager. This objective includes being able to use command-line and interactive tools to install, upgrade, or uninstall packages, as well as find packages containing specific files or software (such packages might or might not be installed). This objective also includes being able to obtain package information like version, content, dependencies, package integrity and installation status (whether or not the package is installed).

Key files terms and utilities include:
unpack
configure
/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg
/var/lib/dpkg/*
/etc/apt/apt.conf
/etc/apt/sources.list
dpkg dselect dpkg-reconfigure apt-get alien

1.102.6 Use Red Hat Package Manager (RPM)

Weight: 8

Description: Candidates should be able to perform package management under Linux distributions that use RPMs for package distribution. This objective includes being able to install, re-install, upgrade, and remove packages, as well as obtain status and version information on packages. This objective also includes obtaining package information such as version, status, dependencies, integrity, and signatures. Candidates should be able to determine what files a package provides, as well as find which package a specific file comes from.

Key files terms and utilities include:
/etc/rpmrc
/usr/lib/rpm/*
rpm grep

Topic: 103 GNU & Unix Commands

1.103.1 Work on the command line

Weight: 5

Description: Candidates should be able to Interact with shells and commands using the command line. This includes typing valid commands and command sequences, defining, referencing and exporting environment variables, using command history and editing facilities, invoking commands in the path and outside the path, using command substitution, applying commands recursively through a directory tree and using man to find out about commands.

Key files terms and utilities include:
.
bash echo env exec export man pwd set unset
~/.bash_history
~/.profile

1.103.2 Process text streams using filters

Weight: 6

Description: Candidates should should be able to apply filters to text streams. Tasks include sending text files and output streams through text utility filters to modify the output, and using standard UNIX commands found in the GNU textutils package.

Key files terms and utilities include:
cat cut expand fmt head join nl od paste pr sed sort split tac tail tr unexpand uniq wc

1.103.3 Perform basic file management

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to use the basic UNIX commands to copy, move, and remove files and directories. Tasks include advanced file management operations such as copying multiple files recursively, removing directories recursively, and moving files that meet a wildcard pattern. This includes using simple and advanced wildcard specifications to refer to files, as well as using find to locate and act on files based on type, size, or time.

Key files terms and utilities include:
cp find mkdir mv ls rm rmdir touch
file globbing

1.103.4 Use streams, pipes, and redirects

Weight: 5

Description: Candidates should be able to redirect streams and connect them in order to efficiently process textual data. Tasks include redirecting standard input, standard output, and standard error, piping the output of one command to the input of another command, using the output of one command as arguments to another command and sending output to both stdout and a file.

Key files terms and utilities include:
tee xargs < << > >> | ` `

1.103.5 Create, monitor, and kill processes

Weight: 5

Description: Candidates should be able to manage processes. This includes knowing how to run jobs in the foreground and background, bring a job from the background to the foreground and vice versa, start a process that will run without being connected to a terminal and signal a program to continue running after logout. Tasks also include monitoring active processes, selecting and sorting processes for display, sending signals to processes, killing processes and identifying and killing X applications that did not terminate after the X session closed.

Key files terms and utilities include:
& bg fg jobs kill nohup ps top

1.103.6 Modify process execution priorities

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should should be able to manage process execution priorities. Tasks include running a program with higher or lower priority, determining the priority of a process and changing the priority of a running process.

Key files terms and utilities include:
nice ps renice top

1.103.7 Search text files using regular expressions

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to manipulate files and text data using regular expressions. This objective includes creating simple regular expressions containing several notational elements. It also includes using regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file content.

Key files terms and utilities include:
grep regexp sed

1.103.8 Perform basic file editing operations using vi

Weight: 1

Description: Candidates should be able to edit text files using vi. This objective includes vi navigation, basic vi nodes, inserting, editing, deleting, copying, and finding text.

Key files terms and utilities include:
vi
/, ?
h,j,k,l
G, H, L
i, c, d, dd, p, o, a
ZZ, :w!, :q!, :e!
:!

Topic 104: Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

1.104.1 Create partitions and filesystems

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to configure disk partitions and then create filesystems on media such as hard disks. This objective includes using various mkfs commands to set up partitions to various filesystems, including ext2, ext3, reiserfs, vfat, and xfs.

Key files terms and utilities include:
fdisk mkfs

1.104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystems

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to verify the integrity of filesystems, monitor free space and inodes, and repair simple filesystem problems. This objective includes the commands required to maintain a standard filesystem, as well as the extra data associated with a journaling filesystem.

Key files terms and utilities include:
du df fsck e2fsck mke2fs debugfs dumpe2fs tune2fs

1.104.3 Control mounting and unmounting filesystems

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to configure the mounting of a filesystem. This objective includes the ability to manually mount and unmount filesystems, configure filesystem mounting on bootup, and configure user mountable removeable filesystems such as tape drives, floppies, and CDs.

Key files terms and utilities include:
/etc/fstab
mount umount

1.104.4 Managing disk quota

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to manage disk quotas for users. This objective includes setting up a disk quota for a filesystem, editing, checking, and generating user quota reports.

Key files terms and utilities include:
quota edquota repquota quotaon

1.104.5 Use file permissions to control access to files

Weight: 5

Description: Candidates should be able to control file access through permissions. This objective includes access permissions on regular and special files as well as directories. Also included are access modes such as suid, sgid, and the sticky bit, the use of the group field to grant file access to workgroups, the immutable flag, and the default file creation mode.

Key files terms and utilities include:
chmod umask chattr

1.104.6 Manage file ownership

Weight: 1

Description: Candidates should be able to control user and group ownership of files. This objective includes the ability to change the user and group owner of a file as well as the default group owner for new files.

Key files terms and utilities include:
chmod chown chgrp

1.104.7 Create and change hard and symbolic links

Weight: 1

Description: Candidates should be able to create and manage hard and symbolic links to a file. This objective includes the ability to create and identify links, copy files through links, and use linked files to support system administration tasks.

Key files terms and utilities include:
ln

1.104.8 Find system files and place files in the correct location

Weight: 5

Description: Candidates should be thoroughly familiar with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, including typical file locations and directory classifications. This objective includes the ability to find files and commands on a Linux system.

Key files terms and utilities include:
find locate slocate updatedb whereis which
/etc/updatedb.conf

Topic 110: The X Window System

1.110.1 Install & Configure XFree86

Weight: 5

Description: Candidate should be able to configure and install X and an X font server. This objective includes verifying that the video card and monitor are supported by an X server, as well as customizing and tuning X for the videocard and monitor. It also includes installing an X font server, installing fonts, and configuring X to use the font server (may require a manual edit of /etc/X11/XF86Config in the "Files" section).

Key files terms and utilities include:
XF86Setup xf86config xvidtune
/etc/X11/XF86Config
.Xresources

1.110.2 Setup a display manager

Weight: 3

Description: Candidate should be able setup and customize a Display manager. This objective includes turning the display manager on or off and changing the display manager greeting. This objective includes changing default bitplanes for the display manager. It also includes configuring display managers for use by X-stations. This objective covers the display managers XDM (X Display Manger), GDM (Gnome Display Manager) and KDM (KDE Display Manager).

Key files terms and utilities include:
/etc/inittab
/etc/X11/xdm/*
/etc/X11/kdm/*
/etc/X11/gdm/*

1.110.4 Install & Customize a Window Manager Environment

Weight: 5

Description: Candidate should be able to customize a system-wide desktop environment and/or window manager, to demonstrate an understanding of customization procedures for window manager menus and/or desktop panel menus. This objective includes selecting and configuring the desired x-terminal (xterm, rxvt, aterm etc.), verifying and resolving library dependency issues for X applications, exporting X-display to a client workstation.

Key files terms and utilities include:
.xinitrc
.Xdefaults
xhost
DISPLAY environment variable