Table of Contents
LPIC-1 / Linux+ Cheat Sheet
LX0-101
101 System Architecture 14%
101.1 Determine and Configure hardware settings (LCN-3 CTL-3)
- Enable and disable integrated peripherals
- Configure systems with or without external peripherals such as keyboards
- Differentiate between the various types of mass storage devices
- Set the correct hardware ID for different devices, especially the boot device
- 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, hald, dbus
- Terms: /sys, /proc, /dev, modprobe, lsmod, lspci, lsusb
Notes
- BIOS - Basic I/O System - systim init, memory testing, low-level system-config, OS boot order (CD, floppy, HD, PXE), internal HW clock
- /proc fs is kernel's status repository: interrupts, dma, ioports
- Universal Serial Bus (USB)
- lsusb [-t] [-vv] - t-tree view, vv-very verbose
- Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) - USB 1.1
- Universal Host Controller Interface (UHCI) - USB 1.1 - 12 MBps - low+full speed
- Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) - USB 2.0 - 480 MBps - high speed
- Extensible Host Controller Interface (XHCI) - USB 3.0 - 4 GBps - super speed
- Wireless Host Controller Interface (WHCI) - Wireless USB 1.0 - 480 MBps
- Effective speed is lowest speed of device, cable and hub
- Classes of USB devices :
- Human Interface Device (HID) - Input devices: mice, keyboards, etc.)
- Communications device - Modems
- Mass storage device - Disk devices, flash readers, etc.
- Audio - Sound devices
- IrDA - Infrared devices
- Printer - Printers and USB-to-parallel cables
- Linux kernel supported USB in v2.3.x, backported to 2.2.18
- Linux drivers may be host controller drivers (e.g. usb-ohci.o), class drivers (e.g. hid.o, usb-storage.o, printer.o, audio.o) or device-specific drivers
- usbcore.o → host controller driver → class/device driver
- Modularized USB drivers are loaded by the generic /sbin/hotplug kernel support
- lsdev - shows hardware including IRQ info, I/O ports and DMA channels
- lspci [-t] [-vv] - info about system’s PCI buses and installed PCI devices
- A module is dynamically linked into the running kernel when it is loaded
- insmod/rmmod - insert/remove mocule, no dependency checking
- modprobe [-r] [-a] [-t type] - list, insert or remove modules. Does dependency checking.
- lsmod - list modules modinfo module-object-file.o - info about a module file
- sysfs is a RAM-based filesystem derived from ramfs. It provides a means to export kernel data structures to user space. mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
- The udev process uses sysfs info to create dynamic device files as kernel modules are loaded. /etc/udev.d holds rules to be applied when adding or removing a device.
- D-Bus is an IPC system that uses sysfs to implement a message bus daemon used for broadcasting system events e.g.“new device added” or “printer queue changed”.
- hal was a hw abstraction layer (hw access API) on top of udev using D-Bus. It has been deprecated and rolled into udev and the kernel.
101.2 Boot the System (LCN-4 CTL-5)
- 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
- Check boot events in the log file
- Terms: /var/log/messages, dmesg, BIOS, bootloader, kernel, init
Notes
- Boot Loader (LILO or GRUB) launches the linux kernel, passing kernel parameters if needed (/etc/lilo.conf | /boot/grub/menu.lst | /boot/grub/grub.conf)
- Module options (as well as aliases and post-install and pre-remove actions) are stored in /etc/modules.conf .
- dmesg displays kernel messages logged at last system boot.
- /var/log/messages contains all syslog messages.
101.3 Change runlevels and shutdown or reboot system (LCN-4 CTL-5)
- Set the default run level
- Change between run levels including single user mode
- Shutdown and reboot from the command line
- Alert users before switching run levels or other major system events
- Properly terminate processes
- Knowledge of basic features of systemd and Upstart
- Terms: /etc/inittab, shutdown, init, /etc/init.d, telinit
Notes
- When linux boots, first process is the init process which selects and switches to default runlevel.
- Runlevels - 0=shutdown, 1/s/S=single-user_maintenance, 2=multi-user, 3=multi-user_no-X, 5=multi-user_with-X 6=reboot
- On Debian, 2 is default and 3,5 are not used. On Redhat, 3 is the default.
- /etc/rc script to change runlevels on redhat (also init/telinit script)
- /etc/rc.sysinit (Redhat) or /etc/init.d/rcS (Debian) - system init script launched by init before system daemons
- /etc/rc.local- local startup actions called at end of startup
- /etc/init.d contains startup/shutdown scripts for all system services
- /etc/rc0.d - /etc/rc6.d contain softlinks KNNservice or SNNservice specifying whether to start or stop services and in what order for that runlevel (done by init process). Kills done before starts.
- /etc/inittab contains “id:N:initdefault:” for default runlevel N
- runlevel shows current and previous runlevel
- shutdown [options] time [warning message] - -f=fastboot -h=halt -r=reboot -F=force-startup-checks -k=just-send-warning . Time is “now” or “+N” in N minutes or absolute time e.g. 23:58.
102 Installation and Package Management 18%
102.1 Design hard disk layout (LCN-5 CTL-3)
- 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: / (root) filesystem, /var filesystem, /home filesystem, swap space, mount points, partitions
Notes
- choosing a disk layout for linux depends on amount of disk space, purpose of the system, size of the system and backup strategy. Some general guidelines are
- If diskspace is limited, just /boot, / and /swap
- /boot is a separate 50MB partition because older kernels/BIOS require kernels under a 1024 cylinder limit.
- For larger systems keep / smaller/simpler to reduce risk of corruption.
- Can use separate partitions for /var (to isolate system logs), /tmp (to isolate tempfiles), /home (for backup and RAIDing of user's data)
- Using a separate partition for /usr allows it to be shared via read-only NFS which allows for saving space and easier maintenance of apps/updates.
- Superblock on filesystem contains critical metadata so multiple redundant copies are kept.
- Filesystems must be mounted (listed in filesystem table) before being accessible. /etc/fstab is a list of filesystems to mount on boot up.
- Master Boot Record on first 512 bytes of first sector of disk contains info on partitions and bootup. Can be backed up and restored with
dd if=/dev/hda of=~/mbr.txt count=1 bs=512 dd if=~/mbr.txt of=/dev/hda count=1 bs=512
- To backup/restore just the partition layout, use sfdisk
sfdisk -d /dev/hda > partition_backup.txt sfdisk /dev/hda < partition_backup.txt
- Linux may also be booted from Live USB which allows for persistent modifications. If the BIOS does nto support this, a bootable CD can be used first.
- Swap space allows main memory to be temporarily copied to disk. As a starting point set swap to twice the memory size (at least the same size).
102.2 Install a boot manager (LCN-5 CTL-5)
- 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
- Terms: /boot/grub/menu.lst, grub.cfg and other variations, grub-install, MBR, superblock
Notes
- BIOS looks for and runs boot loader from first specified boot device.
- Boot loader find and loads specified kernel (with specified kernel options) which loads required modules and starts system processes.
- LILO is a 2-stage program
- First stage is in 512-byte MBR or in the boot sector of a partition (if it is a secondary boot loader).
- Second stage is in /boot/boot.b .
- Map file locating kernel is in /boot/map
- lilo command reads /etc/lilo.conf which contains kernel image locations, kernel options, the default boot disk etc. It encodes this information along with physical disk information and writes it into the boot files (MBR/boot-sector, boot.b and map).
- GRUB is a multi-stage boot loader, more flexible than LILO.
- Changes take effect immediately.
- (hd0,1) → 2nd partition on the 1st hard disk. Refers only to the order of the disks as seen by the BIOS so order may change if BIOS boot order is changed.
- grub-install writes to MBR/boot sector. Uses/boot/grub/device.map to map BIOS drives to Linux devices e.g. “(hd0) /dev/sda”.
- Grub command-line expects a specific order of commands to boot kernel
grub> root (hd0,0) grub> kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=/dev/hda2 grub> initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img [optional] grub> boot
102.3 Manage shared libraries (LCN-5 CTL-2)
- Identify shared libraries
- Identify the typical locations of system libraries
- Load shared libraries
- Terms: ldd, ldconfig, /etc/ld.so.conf, LD_LIBRARY_PATH
Notes
- Most programs on Linux use common system libraries.
- These can be statically linked into the program at compile-time - more disk, more memory, slower.
- Or can be dynamically loaded at runtime (shared libraries) - shared memory, smaller disksize, faster.
- ldd can be used to display required shared libraries for an executable
- Dynamically linked executables are examined at runtime by the shared object dynamic linker, ld.so
- ldconfig reloads shared library paths from /etc/ld.so.conf to update binary cache /etc/ld.so.cache
- $LD_LIBRARY_PATH env variable can also be used
102.4 Use Debian package management (LCN-5 CTL-2)
- 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: /etc/apt/sources.list, dpkg, dpkg-reconfigure, apt-get, apt-cache, aptitude
Notes
- .deb package names - pkgname_version-revision_arch.deb . version is typically major.minor.patchlevel e.g ncurses4_4.2.3-9_i386.deb
- dpkg operates directly on .deb packages
- uses /var/lib/dpkg/[available|status] files to store metadata
- -i=install -r=remove –purge=purge
- -E=do not overwrite with same version or older
- -G=do not overwrite with older package version
- -l=list matching installed packages -L=list files from package
- -s=status of package -S=search for file in installed packages
- apt-get uses package names and sources and resolves dependencies
- -d=download only -s=simulate -y=assume yes
- install, remove, update (sources), upgrade (all packages), dist-upgrade (to new OS version)
- uses /etc/apt/sources.list. Lines look like
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
- dselect is a menu-based interface to dpkg
- alien converts other package types to .deb packages (or to rpm with -r) e.g. Slackware/generic tarball, RPM . alien -i x.rpm
102.5 Use RPM and YUM package management (LCN-5 CTL-2)
- 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: rpm, rpm2cpio, /etc/yum.conf, /etc/yum.repos.d/, yum, yumdownloader
103 GNU / Unix Commands 43%
103.1 Work on the command line (LCN-6 CTL-1)
- 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: ., bash, echo, env, exec, export, pwd, set, unset, man, uname, history
103.2 Process text streams using filters (LCN-6 CTL-1)
- 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: cat, cut, expand, fmt, head, od, join, nl, paste, pr, sed, sort, split, tail, tr, unexpand, uniq, wc
103.3 Perform basic file management (LCN-6 CTL-4)
- 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: cp, find, mkdir, mv, ls, rm, rmdir, touch, tar, cpio, dd, file, gzip, gunzip, bzip2, file globbing
103.4 Use streams, pipes and redirects (LCN-6 CTL-1)
- 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: tee, xargs
103.5 Create, monitor and kill processes (LCN-6 CTL-2)
- 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: &, bg, fg, jobs, kill, nohup, ps, top, free, uptime, killall
103.6 Modify process execution priorities (LCN-6 CTL-2)
- 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: nice, ps, renice, top
103.7 Search text files using regular expressions (LCN-6 CTL-1)
- Create simple regular expressions containing several notational elements
- Use regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file content
- The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities: grep, egrep, fgrep, sed, regex(7)
103.8 Perform basic file editing operations using vi (LCN-6 CTL-5)
- Navigate a document using vi
- Use basic vi modes
- Insert, edit, delete, copy and find text
- Terms: vi, /, ?, h, j, k, l, i, o, a, c, d, p, y, dd, yy, ZZ, :w!, :q!, :e!
104 Devices, Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy 25%
104.1 Create partitions and filesystems (LCN-7 CTL-3)
- Use various mkfs commands to set up partitions and create various filesystems such as: ext2, ext3, xfs, reiserfs v3, vfat
- Terms: fdisk, mkfs, mkswap
104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystems (LCN-7 CTL-3)
- Verify the integrity of filesystems
- Monitor free space and inodes
- Repair simple filesystem problems
- Terms: 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 (LCN-7 CTL-3)
- Manually mount and unmount filesystems
- Configure filesystem mounting on bootup
- Configure user mountable removeable filesystems
- Terms: /etc/fstab, /media, mount, umount
104.4 Manage disk quotas (LCN-7 CTL-4)
- Set up a disk quota for a filesystem
- Edit, check and generate user quota reports
- Terms: quota, edquota, repquota, quotation
104.5 Manage file permissions and ownership (LCN-7 CTL-4)
- 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: chmod, umask, chown, chgrp
104.6 Create and change hard and symbolic links (LCN-7 CTL-4)
- Create links
- Identify hard and/or soft links
- Copying versus linking files
- Use links to support system administration tasks
- Terms: ln
104.7 Find system files and place files in the correct location (LCN-7 CTL-4)
- 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
- Terms: find, locate, updatedb, whereis, which, type, /etc/updatedb.conf
LX0-102
105 Shells, Scripting and Data Management 17%
105.1 Customize and use the shell environment (LCN-13 CTL-9)
- 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
- Terms: /etc/profile, env, export, set, unset, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, ~/.profile, ~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_logout, function, alias, lists
105.2 Customize or write simple scripts (LCN-13 CTL-9)
- 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
- Terms: for, while, test, if, read, seq
105.3 SQL data management (LCN-13 CTL-9)
- Use of basic SQL commands
- Perform basic data manipulation
- Terms: insert, update, select, delete, from, where, group by, order by, join
106 User Interfaces and Desktops 8%
106.1 Install and configure X11 (LCN-14 CTL-6)
- 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
- Terms: /etc/X11/xorg.conf, xhost, DISPLAY, xwininfo, xdpyinfo, X
106.2 Setup a display manager (LCN-14 CTL-6)
- Turn the display manager on or off
- Change the display manager greeting
- Change default color depth for the display manager
- Configure display managers for use by X-stations
- Terms: /etc/inittab; plus xdm, kdm, and gdm configuration files
106.3 Accessibility (LCN-14 CTL-6)
- Keyboard Accessibility Settings (AccessX)
- Visual Settings and Themes
- Assistive Technology (ATs)
- Terms: 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
107 Administrative Tasks 20%
107.1 Manage user and group accounts and related system files (LCN-15 CTL-7)
- Add, modify and remove users and groups
- Manage user/group info in password/group databases
- Create and manage special purpose and limited accounts
- Terms: /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, /etc/skel, chage, groupadd, groupdel, groupmod, passwd, useradd, userdel, usermod
107.2 Automate system administration tasks by scheduling jobs (LCN-15 CTL-9)
- Manage cron and at jobs
- Configure user access to cron and at services
- Terms: /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
107.3 Localization and internationalization (LCN-15 CTL-6)
- Locale settings
- Timezone settings
- Terms: /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
108 Essential System Services 17%
108.1 Maintain system time (LCN-16 CTL-7)
- 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
- Terms: /usr/share/zoneinfo, /etc/timezone, /etc/localtime, /etc/ntp.conf, date, hwclock, ntpd, ntpdate, pool.ntp.org
108.2 System logging (LCN-16 CTL-7)
- Syslog configuration files
- syslog standard facilities, priorities and actions
- Terms: syslog.conf, syslogd, klogd, logger
108.3 Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) basics (LCN-17 CTL-9)
- Create e-mail aliases
- Configure e-mail forwarding
- Knowledge of commonly available MTA programs (postfix, sendmail, qmail, exim) (no configuration)
- Terms: ~/.forward, sendmail emulation layer commands, newaliases, mail, mailq, postfix, sendmail, exim, qmail
108.4 Manage printers and printing (LCN-18 CTL-6)
- Basic CUPS configuration (for local and remote printers)
- Manage user print queues
- Troubleshoot general printing problems
- Add and remove jobs from configured printer queues
- Terms: CUPS configuration files, tools and utilities; /etc/cups; lpd legacy interface (lpr, lprm, lpq)
109 Networking Fundamentals 23%
109.1 Fundamentals of internet protocols (LCN-19 CTL-8)
- Demonstrate an understanding network masks
- Knowledge of the differences between private and public “dotted quad” IP-Addresses
- Setting a default route
- Knowledge about common TCP and UDP ports (20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 53, 80, 110, 119, 139, 143, 161, 443, 465, 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
- Terms: /etc/services, ftp, telnet, host, ping, dig, traceroute, tracepath
109.2 Basic network configuration (LCN-20 CTL-8)
- Manually and automatically configure network interfaces
- Basic TCP/IP host configuration
- Terms: /etc/hostname, /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/nsswitch.conf, ifconfig, ifup, ifdown, route, ping
109.3 Basic network troubleshooting (LCN-21 CTL-8)
- Manually and automatically configure network interfaces and routing tables
- Including 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
- Terms: ifconfig, ifup, ifdown, route, host, hostname, dig, netstat, ping, traceroute
109.4 Configure client side DNS (LCN-20 CTL-8)
- Demonstrate the use of DNS on the local system
- Modify the order in which name resolution is done
- Terms: /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/nsswitch.conf
110 Security 15%
110.1 Perform security administration tasks (LCN-22 CTL-10)
- 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
- Basic sudo configuration and usage
- Terms: find, passwd, lsof, nmap, chage, netstat, sudo, /etc/sudoers, su, usermod, ulimit
110.2 Setup host security (LCN-23 CTL-10)
- Awareness of shadow passwords and how they work
- Turn off network services not in use
- Understand the role of TCP wrappers
- Terms: /etc/nologin, /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/xinetd.d/*, /etc/xinetd.conf, /etc/inetd.d/*, /etc/inetd.conf, /etc/inittab, /etc/init.d/*, /etc/hosts.allow, /etc/hosts.deny
110.3 Securing data with encryption (LCN-24 CTL-10)
- Perform basic OpenSSH 2 client configuration and usage
- Understand the role of OpenSSH 2 server host keys
- Perform basic GnuPG configuration and usage
- Understand SSH port tunnels (including X11 tunnels)
- Terms: 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/*
