Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Helps you learn how to: install, configure, and troubleshoot Linux; manage partitions, file systems, and permissions; use Linux commands with options to manage your system; configure and use XFree86; use text processing commands to manage data; install, query, remove, and build software packages; and more.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. xxvi)
• Self-Assessment (p. xxxix)
• Part I LPIC Exam 101
• Chapter 1 Linux Installation (p. 3)
• Linux Distributions (p. 4)
• LPI Certification and Distributions (p. 4)
• Preparing Hardware for Installation (p. 5)
• Viewing Configuration Addresses (p. 6)
• Partitioning Disks (p. 7)
• Red Hat Installation Console Options (p. 13)
• Creating Installation Disks (p. 13)
• Boot Loaders (p. 14)
• Viewing Boot Messages (p. 21)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 23)
• Chapter 2 Using the Linux Shell (p. 27)
• Understanding Shells (p. 28)
• Global and User Settings (p. 28)
• Using the Command Line (p. 30)
• Command Completion (p. 32)
• Special Characters in the Shell (p. 32)
• Controlling Command Execution (p. 33)
• The Readline Library (p. 35)
• bash's History Feature (p. 36)
• Environment Variables and Settings (p. 38)
• Getting $HOME (p. 39)
• Configuring Prompts (p. 40)
• Setting Options in bash (p. 42)
• Job Control (p. 43)
• Managing Processes (p. 45)
• Managing Process Priorities (p. 47)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 50)
• Chapter 3 Basic vi Skills (p. 53)
• Editors (p. 54)
• Modes in vi (p. 54)
• Editing in vi (p. 54)
• Opening a File for Editing (p. 55)
• Navigating Within a File (p. 56)
• Quitting Files (p. 57)
• Saving Files (p. 58)
• Command Mode Editing (p. 58)
• The Cut, Copy, and Paste Commands (p. 60)
• Named and Unnamed Buffers (p. 61)
• Searching in vi (p. 62)
• Searching and Replacing (p. 62)
• Options in vi (p. 64)
• Advanced vi (p. 65)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 68)
• Chapter 4 Hardware (p. 71)
• Hardware (p. 72)
• Modems (p. 74)
• Ethernet/NIC Devices (p. 76)
• Point to Point Protocol (p. 79)
• Plug and Play (p. 83)
• Configuring Sound and Time (p. 84)
• USB Devices (p. 86)
• Setting Up SCSI (p. 89)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 91)
• Chapter 5 Partitioning and File Systems (p. 95)
• Overview (p. 96)
• Partitions (p. 97)
• Disk Partitioning Tools (p. 99)
• Overview of File Systems (p. 103)
• File System Types (p. 107)
• Creating File Systems (p. 107)
• Advanced File System Commands (p. 110)
• Mounting and Unmounting (p. 114)
• Space Utilization (p. 117)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 120)
• Chapter 6 File Systems and Commands (p. 123)
• File System Overview (p. 124)
• What Belongs Where (p. 124)
• File Management Commands (p. 126)
• Basic Navigation (p. 127)
• Listing Files and Directories (p. 128)
• Determining File Types (p. 129)
• Touching Files (p. 130)
• Moving Objects (p. 133)
• Transforming Data Formats (p. 135)
• Creating and Removing Directories (p. 136)
• Where Are Those Files? (p. 138)
• Which Command Will Run? (p. 141)
• Researching a Command (p. 142)
• Linking Files (p. 142)
• Working with Permissions (p. 145)
• User and Group Ownership (p. 149)
• Using Disk Quotas (p. 158)
• File Attributes (p. 164)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 165)
• Chapter 7 XFree86 Configuration and Troubleshooting (p. 169)
• Quick Overview of X (p. 170)
• The XFree86 System (p. 173)
• Fonts in X (p. 178)
• X Display Manager (p. 179)
• Tuning X (p. 180)
• Into and Out of X (p. 181)
• Remote Clients (p. 182)
• Displaying X Clients (p. 184)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 185)
• Chapter 8 Text Processing (p. 189)
• Unix/Linux Toolset Mentality (p. 190)
• Working with I/O Streams (p. 190)
• Pipes (p. 194)
• Filters (p. 196)
• Counting (p. 198)
• Formatting Commands (p. 204)
• Translating Files (p. 205)
• He sed, She sed (p. 205)
• Getting a grep (p. 207)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 213)
• Chapter 9 Software Installation (p. 217)
• Important Exam Information (p. 218)
• Methods of Managing Software Installation (p. 218)
• Shared Libraries (p. 222)
• Installing Software with Packages (p. 224)
• Red Hat Package Management (p. 224)
• The RPM Database (p. 225)
• RPM Package Files (p. 226)
• The rpm Command (p. 227)
• Removing Packages (p. 232)
• Querying Packages (p. 234)
• Building RPMs (p. 237)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 240)
• Part I LPIC Exam 102
• Chapter 10 Linux Boot Process and Runlevels (p. 245)
• The Linux Boot Process (p. 246)
• Understanding Runlevels and init (p. 247)
• Shutting Down a System (p. 249)
• The init Process (p. 251)
• The Runlevel Directories (p. 253)
• Configuring the Runlevels (p. 255)
• Single User Mode (p. 256)
• Making Boot/Rescue Disks (p. 257)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 259)
• Chapter 11 Using Linux and GNU Documentation (p. 263)
• The man Pages (p. 264)
• Using the man Command (p. 265)
• Additional Documentation (p. 269)
• Web and Third-Party Documentation (p. 269)
• Communicating with Users (p. 270)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 273)
• Chapter 12 Managing Users and Groups (p. 277)
• The Importance of User and Group Management (p. 278)
• How the Kernel Understands Users and Groups (p. 278)
• What Accounts Are What? (p. 278)
• User Entries in /etc/passwd (p. 279)
• What Groups Are What? (p. 281)
• Group Entries in /etc/group (p. 283)
• Adding Users and Groups (p. 283)
• Modifying Users and Groups (p. 286)
• Removing Users and Groups (p. 287)
• The Shadow Suite (p. 288)
• skel Templates (p. 293)
• User Variables (p. 294)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 296)
• Chapter 13 System Administration (p. 299)
• Managing System Services (p. 300)
• System Logging (p. 302)
• Scheduling and Running Tasks (p. 310)
• Using cron to Schedule Tasks (p. 312)
• Archiving and Backing Up (p. 316)
• Maintaining System Time (p. 326)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 330)
• Chapter 14 Kernel Configuration and Custom Compilation (p. 333)
• Overview of the Kernel (p. 334)
• The Kernel Versions (p. 334)
• Monolithic Versus Modular Kernels (p. 335)
• Patching the Kernel (p. 340)
• Using the patch Command (p. 341)
• Getting Kernel Source Code (p. 343)
• Configuring the Kernel (p. 344)
• Steps to Compile a Kernel (p. 346)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 351)
• Chapter 15 Linux Shells and Scripting (p. 355)
• Writing Scripts (p. 356)
• Scripting Constructs (p. 361)
• Customizing the Shell Environment (p. 363)
• Environment Variables (p. 363)
• Quoting and Variables (p. 365)
• Shell Aliases (p. 367)
• Shell Functions (p. 370)
• Understanding Shell Levels (p. 373)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 376)
• Chapter 16 Linux Printing (p. 379)
• Linux Printing Overview (p. 380)
• How 1pd Printing Works (p. 380)
• Printing Command Overview (p. 383)
• The 1pd Daemon (p. 384)
• Printing with 1pr (p. 385)
• Monitoring Print Jobs with 1pq (p. 386)
• Removing Print Jobs with 1prm (p. 388)
• Monitoring Print Jobs with 1pc (p. 389)
• Printer Security (p. 394)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 395)
• Chapter 17 Basic Networking (p. 399)
• Conceptual Overview of Networking (p. 400)
• IPs (p. 401)
• Network Masks (p. 403)
• Gateway Addresses, or "Do I Dial 9?" (p. 405)
• Custom Network Masks (p. 406)
• Managing Interfaces (p. 409)
• Local Name Configuration (p. 414)
• Network Configuration Utilities (p. 417)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 429)
• Chapter 18 Network Services (p. 433)
• Network Services (p. 434)
• Providing Services on Demand (p. 434)
• Using TCP Wrappers for Securing Services (p. 440)
• sendmail, Bloody sendmail (p. 444)
• Apache (p. 449)
• Network File System (p. 452)
• Samba (p. 455)
• Domain Name System (p. 460)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 465)
• Chapter 19 Security (p. 469)
• Using TCP Wrappers to Secure a Service (p. 470)
• Understanding Permission Problems (p. 471)
• Validating Package Integrity (p. 472)
• Secure Shell (p. 474)
• Using Firewalls for Security (p. 481)
• Exam Prep Questions (p. 488)
• Chapter 20 Practice Exam 101 (p. 491)
• Chapter 21 Answer Key 101 (p. 503)
• Chapter 22 Practice Exam 102 (p. 513)
• Chapter 23 Answer Key 102 (p. 529)
• Appendix A Debian Package Management (p. 539)
• Appendix B What's on the CD-ROM (p. 551)
• Glossary (p. 557)
• Index (p. 563)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Ross Brunson is currently the director of Linux/Unix education for The Training Camp and an LPI-US (Linux Professional Institute) board member. He began his IT career in the U.S. Army in the 1980s working with battlefield simulation systems running on Unix platforms.

Prior to joining The Training Camp, Ross authored several books about Unix/Linux integration with Windows, including The Linux and Windows 2000 Integration Toolkit . Ross began his formal training and consulting career with Learning Tree International as a courseware technical editor and was his area's second-highest scoring instructor.

After a number of years conducting TCP/IP, Unix, Linux, and networking courses for Learning Tree, Mastering Computers of Scottsdale and other companies, he took a courseware and development position at Computer Associates developing and delivering Windows 2000 and Linux courses for many U.S. and international companies.

Ross then took a position with Thomson Learning's Sair Linux certification and courseware division as the director of courseware development and instruction. He built an excellent instructor force spanning 13 countries and 110 instructors in little over a year, delivering many T3 (trainer preparation courses) to current and prospective instructors in the United States and overseas.