GNU/Linux introduction, configuration and administration - crash course!

Submitted by Chandrashekar Babu on July 18, 2005 - 8:40pm.
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Greetings to all!
Its been a long while since I've updated my website. Thanks to all those who have shown interest in my personal website and to those who've been visiting often with patience, looking for information/updates. I've been largely tied up with work related activities (new projects, new hope) and my personal life for a while which left my website stagnant for a long time now. Anyways, here's the quick announcement:

I've scheduled to conduct a crash course (fast track, rather) on GNU/Linux introduction, configuration and administration to start from 25th July, 2005. The course shall span to 15 days (4 hours a day, 6 days a week, 60 hours in total) and is suitable for Engineering/CS students and software professionals alike who can cope up with speed. An introductory session will be conducted on 23rd July, 2005 (Saturday). A brief highlight of the scheduled course are as shown below:
[Note: The following course is tailored to cater to specific requirements of participants who have registered to join the course, taking time constraints into consideration.If you have a requirement not covered in the brief highlight as shown below, please feel free to contact me with your requirement.]

  • Introduction to Free Software, Open Source and the GNU/Linux environment.
  • Surviving on the GNU/Linux command line environment.
    • Introduction to BASH:
    • Basic shell commands/utilities (the core-utils package).
    • Manipulating files and directories.
    • Significant environment variables used throughout the system.
    • Users, groups, permissions and the DAC security model.
    • Command grouping and the effective usage of filters.
    • Process and system management commands.
    • Automation of mundane tasks using shell scripts and one-liners.
    • Miscellaneous command line tools and utilities.
  • Popular text editors on GNU/Linux - vi and emacs.
  • Various ways to gain help relevant to solving issues and learning concepts/commands on GNU/Linux platform:
    • Man pages, info pages, howto documents, FAQs and guides.
    • Software specific packaged/installed documentation.
    • Various Linux specific websites and forums.
    • Searching on the internet for relevant help.
    • Vendor-specific sites, hardware-specific linux solution portals/sites.
    • Mailing lists - searching their archives, subscribing to them and understanding basic internet/forum/mailing list etiquette.
    • GNU/Linux, Free Software and Open Source/Technology magazine.
  • Anatomy of the GNU/Linux environment:
    • System boot procedure.
    • Boot managers, boot loaders and the overview of booting the Linux kernel.
    • The init process, system initialization scripts and runlevel configuration.
    • Understanding the fundamental differences in system startup/configuration amongst various GNU/Linux distributions.
    • Distribution-independent method of configuration sysinit scripts, various run-levels and startup/shutdown services.
    • System shutdown procedure.
    • Understanding various GNU/Linux system services.
    • From boot prompt to GUI in 10 seconds and less than 25 running processes - an exercise.
    • GNU/Linux system recovery (from boot failure) using rescue distributions and installation/rescue disc.
    • GNU/Linux file system hierarchy - understanding the significance of various top-level directories.
    • An insight on device files (from /dev directory) and the proc filesystem (/proc directory).
    • Managing Linux kernel modules, determining hardware and relevant device drivers to be loaded during boot.
  • Linux filesystem - management and maintenance.
  • Installing and managing software on various distributions (package management).
  • Archival utilities on GNU/Linux.
  • Downloading, configuring, compiling and installing software from the source tarball.
  • Basic network configuration:
    • An overview of Linux networking and the TCP/IP protocol.
    • Basic network configuration using Ethernet interface with static IP address and DHCP (client).
    • Understanding and configuring basic network relevant services (telnet, ftp, ssh, nfs, nis, dns and others).
    • Dialup access configuration (PPP, PPPoE).
  • The X Window System.
    • Introduction to the X Window System and the X11 protocol.
    • X Server configuration.
    • Basic X Applications.
    • X Window managers.
    • X client configuration methods.
    • X Display managers.
    • Desktop environments on GNU/Linux (KDE, GNOME, XFce, GNUStep and others).
    • Miscellaneous X Applications.
    • Remote X sessions.
    • VNC server and client configuration.
  • Installation and configuration of Slackware Linux, Fedore Core and Debian GNU/Linux.
  • An overview of Apache, MySQL and PHP configuration.
  • Basic management and maintenance of Apache web server.
  • Basic database management/administration on MySQL.
  • An overview of PHP scripting and hosting PHP based websites.
  • Installation and configuration of readily available CMS suite based on PHP.

Yes! This seems like a whole lot in very little time. But if you are determined to learn, nothing seems inevitable.

Also note: The above course chart does not guarantee to transform you into a wizard/guru/master of known universe in 15 days.
Like every other courses that I conduct, this course shall merely teach you how to swim in the Free Software/Open Source waters. Only your own effort, dedication and expertise shall make you an avid swimmer in the long run.

Still interested ? Dont wait! shoot your e-mails to training @ chandrashekar.info and express yourself, get more details about the course, schedule, location and time now!

Cheers,
Chandrashekar Babu.