LPIC 1

LPIC 1 syllabus as seen in the official site:

To pass Level 1 you should be able to:

• Work at the Linux command line
• Perform easy maintenance tasks: help out users, add users to a larger system, backup & restore, shutdown & reboot
• Install and configure a workstation (including X) and connect it to a LAN, or a stand-alone PC via modem to the Internet.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Topic 101 System Architecture
Topic 102 Linux Installation and Package Management
Topic 103 GNU and Unix Commands
Topic 104 Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Topic 101: System Architecture

101.1 Determine and configure hardware settings

• Weight: 2
• Description: Candidates should be able to determine and configure fundamental system hardware.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• /sys
• /proc
• /dev
• modprobe
• lsmod
• lspci
• lsusb

---

101.2 Boot the system

• Weight: 3
• Description: Candidates should be able to guide the system through the booting process.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 files.

Terms and Utilities

• /var/log/messages
• dmesg
• BIOS
• bootloader
• kernel
• init

---

101.3 Change runlevels and shutdown or reboot system

• Weight: 3
• Description: Candidates should be able to manage the runlevel of the system. This objective includes changing to single user mode, shutdown or rebooting the system. Candidates should be able to alert users before switching runlevel and properly terminate processes. This objective also includes setting the default runlevel..

Key Knowledge Areas

• Set the default runlevel.
• Change between run levels including single user mode.
• Shutdown and reboot from the command line.
• Alert users before switching runlevels or other major system event.
• Properly terminate processes.

Terms and Utilities

• /etc/inittab
• shutdown
• init
• /etc/init.d
• telinit

---

Topic 102: Linux Installation and Package Management

102.1 Design hard disk layout

• Weight: 2
• Description: Candidates should be able to design a disk partitioning scheme for a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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.

Terms and Utilities

• / (root) filesystem
• /var filesystem
• /home filesystem
• swap space
• mount points
• partitions

---

102.2 Install a boot manager

• Weight: 2
• Description: Candidates should be able to select, install and configure a boot manager.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Providing alternative boot locations and backup boot options.
• Install and configure a boot loader such as GRUB.
• Interact with the boot loader.

Terms and Utilities

• /boot/grub/menu.lst
• grub-install
• MBR
• superblock
• /etc/lilo.conf
• lilo

---

102.3 Manage shared libraries

• Weight: 1
• Description: Candidates should be able to determine the shared libraries that executable programs depend on and install them when necessary.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Identify shared libraries.
• Identify the typical locations of system libraries.
• Load shared libraries.

Terms and Utilities

• ldd
• ldconfig
• /etc/ld.so.conf
• LD_LIBRARY_PATH

---

102.4 Use Debian package management

• Weight: 3
• Description: Candidates should be able to perform package management using the Debian package tools.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• /etc/apt/sources.list
• dpkg
• dpkg-reconfigure
• apt-get
• apt-cache
• aptitude

---

102.5 Use RPM and YUM package management

• Weight: 3
• Description: Candidates should be able to perform package management using RPM and YUM tools.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• rpm
• rpm2cpio
• /etc/yum.conf
• /etc/yum.repos.d/
• yum
• yumdownloader

---

Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands

103.1 Work on the command line

• Weight: 4
• Description: Candidates should be able to interact with shells and commands using the command line. The objective assumes the bash shell.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• .
• bash
• echo
• env
• exec
• export
• pwd
• set
• unset
• man
• uname
• history

---

103.2 Process text streams using filters

• Weight: 3
• Description: Candidates should should be able to apply filters to text streams.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• cat
• cut
• expand
• fmt
• head
• od
• join
• nl
• paste
• pr
• sed
• sort
• split
• tail
• tr
• unexpand
• uniq
• wc

---

103.3 Perform basic file management

• Weight: 4
• Description: Candidates should be able to use the basic Linux commands to manage files and directories.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• cp
• find
• mkdir
• mv
• ls
• rm
• rmdir
• touch
• tar
• cpio
• dd
• file
• gzip
• gunzip
• bzip2
• file globbing

---

103.4 Use streams, pipes and redirects

• Weight: 4
• 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 Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• tee
• xargs

---

103.5 Create, monitor and kill processes

• Weight: 4
• Description: Candidates should be able to perform basic process management.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• &
• bg
• fg
• jobs
• kill
• nohup
• ps
• top
• free
• uptime
• killall

---

103.6 Modify process execution priorities

• Weight: 2
• Description: Candidates should should be able to manage process execution priorities.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• nice
• ps
• renice
• top

---

103.7 Search text files using regular expressions

• Weight: 2
• 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 Knowledge Areas

• Create simple regular expressions containing several notational elements.
• Use regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file content.

Terms and Utilities

• grep
• egrep
• fgrep
• sed
• regex(7)

---

103.8 Perform basic file editing operations using vi

• Weight: 3
• Description: Candidates should be able to edit text files using vi. This objective includes vi navigation, basic vi modes, inserting, editing, deleting, copying and finding text.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Navigate a document using vi.
• Use basic vi modes.
• Insert, edit, delete, copy and find text.

Terms and Utilities

• vi
• /, ?
• h,j,k,l
• i, o, a
• c, d, p, y, dd, yy
• ZZ, :w!, :q!, :e!

---

Topic 104: Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

104.1 Create partitions and filesystems

• Weight: 2
• Description: Candidates should be able to configure disk partitions and then create filesystems on media such as hard disks. This includes the handling of swap partitions.

Key Knowledge Areas

• ext2
• ext3
• xfs
• reiserfs v3
• vfat

Terms and Utilities

• fdisk
• mkfs
• mkswap

---

104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystems

• Weight: 2
• Description: Candidates should be able to maintain a standard filesystem, as well as the extra data associated with a journaling filesystem.

Key Knowledge Areas

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

Terms and Utilities

• du
• df
• fsck
• e2fsck
• mke2fs
• debugfs
• dumpe2fs
• tune2fs
• xfs tools

---

104.3 Control mounting and unmounting of filesystems

• Weight: 3
• Description: Candidates should be able to configure the mounting of a filesystem.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Manually mount and unmount filesystems.
• Configure filesystem mounting on bootup.
• Configure user mountable removeable filesystems.

Terms and Utilities

• /etc/fstab
• /media
• mount
• umount

---

104.4 Manage disk quotas

• Weight: 1
• Description: Candidates should be able to manage disk quotas for users.

Key Knowledge Areas

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

Terms and Utilities

• quota
• edquota
• repquota
• quotaon

---

104.5 Manage file permissions and ownership

• Weight: 3
• Description: Candidates should be able to control file access through the proper use of permissions and ownerships.

Key Knowledge Areas

• 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 and Utilities

• chmod
• umask
• chown
• chgrp

---

104.6 Create and change hard and symbolic links

• Weight: 2
• Description: Candidates should be able to create and manage hard and symbolic links to a file.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Create links.
• Identify hard and/or softlinks.
• Copying versus linking files.
• Use links to support system administration tasks.

Terms and Utilities

• ln

---

104.7 Find system files and place files in the correct location

• Weight: 2
• Description: Candidates should be thouroughly familiar with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), including typical file locations and directory classifications.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Understand the correct locations of files under the FHS.
• Find files and commands on a Linux system.
• Know the location and purpose of important file and directories as defined in the FHS.

Terms and Utilities

• find
• locate
• updatedb
• whereis
• which
• type
• /etc/updatedb.conf

DIY wall decor

These days I am so lazy and opt for home delivered food a lot. Hence I have a lot of those containers in which pasta and such are delivered. So I thought, why not try to make some sort of wall decor using them.

You will need, any kind of container with a transparent lid, knife, scissor, glue, sellotape, both side glued tape and most important of all, a painting/photo/collage of magazine cutouts, anything you would like to see on your wall.

Step 1: Find the container, cut out the painting/photo/paper to fit the size of the container.

Step 2: If you are using a painting or a photo skip to step 3.

If you are doing a collage with magazine cut-outs, paste your cut-outs on the paper. Add some words. Colour the free space. Use some glitter here and there. I found only a wedding magazine around, so I cut out a few which looked good to me. I wrote "Two souls, one heart."  (French saying used on poesy rings). I used pink and blue color pencils on the empty space too.

I didn't really put a lot of effort in making it, maybe you can do a better job. There could be many themes like pets, your religion, food and drinks, beauty and cosmetics etc depending upon where you are planning to hang it...

Step3: Now we need to stick the paper to the container. Stick the sellotape to the paper and the container as shown:

Cover the container with the paper and put sellotape to the other end of the paper too:

Cover the container with its transparent lid:

Step 4: Stick the double sided tape to the bottom of the container, this part goes to the wall:

Remove the paper and stick it to the wall!! That is all!!

I hope you try it too... Have a nice day <3

Pressure makes Diamond!

(contd from Gratitude prayer...) It is difficult to not to complain about the problems in life and you are asking me to thank for it?! Yes, with out challenges you won't grow or learn. There is a beautiful metaphor, Butterfly struggle story. Read it here.

You know how a caterpillar has to break out of its cocoon with its young tender wings before transforming to the beautiful butterfly. Why does poor caterpillar have to go through all these struggles? The cocoon should crack open on its own right? The caterpillar's struggle to crack open the cocoon with its tender wings gives its wings the strength to fly out, else it would remain a worm with weak wings.

Tell me, do you want to escape all challenges and be weak or go through it and be strong? Let us endure all the struggles and be the tough person who can tell difficulties that I am too difficult for you! When it seems too tough, remember... you have faced struggles before... you have survived all those and you are still here... These too shall pass...

Do you pray everyday?

Do believe in God? Are you sure God exists? Do you trust God or Do you doubt that God may abandon you on times of difficulty? Do you pray? Does your prayer contain anything other than your needs and complaints?

Even if your answer to the above questions are no, I recommend that you pray everyday before going to bed. It does not have to be related to your religion. If you at least believe that you and the world you live in has a creator, Is it too much thank that creator for what you have received and receiving daily? Gratitude is an important value. If you remember and appreciate every little thing in your life that make your life easy, you can lead a content life - rather than fussing over what you don't have always :-P

Okay, If you think this makes sense, take a minute before sleeping to silently pray or just talk to your creator. Thank for everything, everrryyyything. I pray something like this, You can come up with your own.

We seldom think about the nature, right? Imagine a day with out sun, clean air and water! Yes, those are gifts we are receiving since ever. Let us thank for it. Food, clothes and shelter... what would we do with out these? Let us not forget to thank. We should be thanking for being alive itself, for our healthy mind and body as well. How can we not thank for our loving family and friends? <3....

It is difficult to not to complain about the problems in life and you are asking me to thank for it?! (contd to Pressure makes diamond....) ;-)

And most of all, we should thank God for the unconditional Love. I think It is the greatest blessing of all. Whatever you do, God will still love you. (Not that you are licensed to do anything :-P, be a good child and don't hurt others... and be true to your conscience...) God keeps you in the middle of palm and watches over you 24*7. You will never know what it is like to be abandoned by God. Let us love our God too...

Gold N' Pink Glittery Nails!!!

Golden at the top of the nails, merging to the pink at the bottom - coated with silver glitter polishes.

You will need!!

Base coat, Pink nail polish, Golden color polish, Silver glitter polish.

Apply the base coat. After it dries, apply pink nail polish at the bottom 1/4 of the nail. Wait for it to dry. Then take a little of the pink polish and apply small light stokes from the bottom of the nails to 1/2 way up to create a smudging effect. 

Like wise apply the Golden on the top half. Apply the silver glitter on the pink portion.. yeay!!

Energy of mind.

To be having a mind full of energy is vital for any success or progress you wish for. Journey to any achievement involves tough path where it takes every bit of energy you have to keep you moving forward towards your goal. While physical illness, negative thoughts, negative energy of others can reduce your energy, you may need to put some effort to flush out all these with positive thoughts and keep going. Telling your mind consciously how much happiness a success can bring and how things can change will boost your energy.

It is easier said than done to keep an energetic mindset always. Sometimes we even lack the energy to crawl out of bed the day on a rainy day. Or to go for that outing when you are just not feeling well. Sometimes we just want to stay dormant. It is not that bad, is it? I mean it will be weird if we run around 365 days full of energy. Just remember to come off the phase quick and return to the hyper-active busy body you are... :)

EXPLORE.DREAM.DISCOVER

 People in general do not like change. We find it tough to step out of our comfort zones. Whenever an opportunity knocks our door, we tend to think "Hmm, why should I go for this?, I am fine this way...". Years later when you look back, you might even think "I could have done something while I had better health and opportunity"... Do not let that happen!

 
Even you are very busy, squeeze in some time for some fun! Learn a language, Join some club and do some activities, go for some sports, find a new hobby... any, spend time with family(parents,spouse and kids), sing, dance, try everything you have talent for and those you don't. Last but not the least, dream about achieving one step higher than what you have already and achieve it...

                                                     EXPLORE.DREAM.DISCOVER.

DSL at 100Mbps?!

DSL (Digital subscriber line) is a family of technologies that provide internet access by transmitting digital data over the wires of a local telephone network. The data bit rate of consumer DSL services typically ranges from 256 kbit/s to 40 Mbit/s, contrasting to a 100Mbit/s of an optic fiber transmission. While running fiber to millions of individual homes is one expensive construction project, Alcatel-Lucent() announces commercial rollout of a latest DSL technology, called VDSL2, with vectoring. VDSL2 vectoring can use legacy telephone access networks with a data rate 3 times of conventional DSL i.e; 100Mbps!

Michael Peeters, chief technology officer of Alcatel-Lucent’s wire-line division, says "Cross talk limits bandwidth by corrupting the signals that are transmitting information.Cross talk can be eliminated by estimating how much one line is leaking into another and then cancelling out that interference with calculations performed by hardware installed in the street cabinet. Cross talk estimation uses what’s called an error vector, which is sent from a user’s home equipment back to the cabinet. The receiving equipment there knows what the signal should look like, and the difference is a good measure of the amount of cross talk between a wire and all the wires around it."

A basic vectored DSL system.

The term vector is used because the DSL’s individual physical layer voltages can be viewed as a coordinated set or vector of voltages. The group or vector is processed by a common signal processing device for downstream transmission and also for upstream reception as shown in Figure. Essentially, the vector/MIMO processor performs pre-processing of the transmitted signal in downstream transmission via pre-coding or linear pre-filtering, and joint processing of the received signals in the upstream via receive filtering and successive cancellation. This group processing allows cancellation or removal of crosstalk. The gain from the vectoring is largest when all the lines in the binder are processed simultaneously, but even partial vectoring or independent cancellation by different operators provide significant improvement over non-vectored systems.

Level 3 DSM is known as vectoring (Ginis and Cioffi, 2002) and allows for special processing methods in a DSLAM to essentially eliminate all crosstalk between lines, leading to 100s of Mbps speeds in DSL.

get the list and status of device drivers(modules) loaded

The command "lsmod" lists the loaded modules and their status. It prints the content of  /proc/modules file.

#lsmod [-h, -V]

It outputs the following columns:
Module, Size, Used by.
(name of the module; it's size; number of referring modules {use count}and list of referring modules).

Eg:
=====================

# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
af_packet              27392  2

======================

To unload a loaded module:

#rmmod [modulename]

rmmod  will  refuse to unload modules which are in use(use count != 0).

-w --wait option:  rmmod will isolate  the  module,  and wait  until  the module is no longer used.

-f --force option:  rmmod removes modules which are being used, or which are not designed to be removed

 or have been marked as unsafe. It has no effect unless CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_UNLOAD was set

 when kernel was compiled.

Tokyo Sky Tree

"Tokyo Sky Tree" is located in the Narihirabashi/Oshiage area of Sumida Ward, Tokyo in 2012. It reached its full height of 634.0 metres (2,080 ft) in March 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world, displacing the Canton Tower, and the second tallest structure in the world after Burj Khalifa (829.84 m/2,723 ft).

The base of the tower has a structure similar to a tripod; from a height of about 350 m (1,150 ft) and above, the tower's structure is cylindrical to withstand very strong winds. Needless to say. the tower is designed seismic proof. Officially the colour of Sky Tree is "Sky Tree White". This is an original colour based on a bluish white traditional Japanese colour called aijiro. At first site it looks silver or that kind of metallic white.

There are said to be two illumination patterns (sky blue and purple), but we will have to wait until the Tower opens on 22 May 2012 to know for real. Tower looks magnificient lighted up, they do a testing once in a while. A not-so-clear video is here:

 

Design Concept is said "To not only be the world's highest, but the world's most striking in appearance and affinity". And "To Be a New Symbol of Tradition and the Cutting Edge, To Be the Gate to Urban Revitalization, To Be a Tower Watching Over Safety and Security".

Here is the official website!

Sakura and Sky tree.