Wade Schlueter; Instructor Cris Reid; January 4, 2010
IT 250 – Linux Operating System
HW Unit 1 due in Week 2
1. What is the historical sequence of the milestones in Linux development?
a. Unix, the GNU, and the kernel. (Pages 2-6)
2. What are the attributes of Linux that contributes to its popularity?
a. It’s a “free” operating system for use on varying hardware configurations that can perform many
powerful functions, as well as being portable and written in C. (Pages 6-9)
3. Which features of Linux used to describe the functioning of Linux?
a. (Pages 10-16)
4. What are the minimum memory requirements for installing Linux on a 32-bit Intel x86 architecture such
as the standard ITT lab computer?
a. Graphical systems
i. RAM: 256 MB for 32 bit or 512 MB for 64 bit,
ii. CPU: 400 MHz or greater, (Pages 25 and 26)
iii. HDD: 300 MB to well over 9 GB depending on the needs of the user
b. Text Based Systems
i. RAM: 128 MB for 32 Bit or 256 for 64 bit
ii. CPU: 200 MHz or greater
5. What is the recommended size for the Linux swap partition?
a. One to two times the amount of RAM in the system. (Page 31)
6. What are the benefits of the Logical Volume Manager( LVM)?
a. The ability to change the size of volumes on the fly after the volume has been created in order to
accommodate changing user needs. (Page 35)
7. Explain Linux?
a. “The Linux operating system has many unique and powerful features. Like other operating
systems, Linux is a control program for computers. But like UNIX, it is also a well-thought-out
family of utility programs and a set of tools that allow users to connect and use these utilities to
build systems and applications.” (Page 10 and 11)
8. What is the default file system used by Linux?
a. FHS is the default file system. (Page 12)
9. How can a virtual terminal be accessed during installation?
a. Control-Alt-(any key 1-9, which performs various different functions depending on the type of
disc used). (Page 53)
10. What is the purpose and function of Disk Druid?
a. Disk Druid is “a graphical disk-partitioning program that can add, delete, and modify partitions
on a hard disk, is part of the Fedora/RHEL installation system.” It can only be used during
installation. (Page 66)
11. What is the main command and switches needed to shutdown Linux from the command prompt?
a. # /sbin/shutdown –h
(Page 426 and 427)
b. –h halts the system, setting a time in military time afterwards in format 00:00 sets the time for
the system to shut down, and using +time sets the amount of time from current time before it
restarts.
12. What is the main command and switches needed to reboot Linux from the command prompt?
a. ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown –t3 –r now
(Page 426 and 427)
13. What are the two main graphical physical Linux desktop environments?
a. GNOME and KDE are the two main graphical environments. (Pages 15, 94, and 96)
Wade Schlueter; Instructor Cris Reid; January 4, 2010
IT 250 – Linux Operating System
HW Unit 2 due in Week 3
1. Which system configuration file is modified when the display settings are changed and saved?
a. /etc/X11/xorg.conf is the file that is modified when changes are made. (Pages 80 and 89)
2. What is SELinux?
a. SELinux, or Security Enhanced Linux, “improves system security by implementing mandatory
access control policies in the Fedora/RHEL kernel.” (Pages 25 and 414)
3. What type of user account and password guidelines should be used for adding a user on the firstboot
system user screen?
a. Protect your password by not putting it in a place that can be discovered. Also do not tell other
people your password. Choose a password that is difficult to guess, and vary the passwords for
different websites of varying importance. (Pages 61, 126, 550)
4. Which command can a user enter in a graphical terminal emulator to start the Display configuration
program?
a. system-config-display (Pages 85 and 128)
5. What is the GNOME file manager program?
a. Nautilus is the file manager program. (Page 245 and 255)
6. What is the KDE file manager program?
a. Konqueror is the file manager program. (Pages 98, 106, 109, 245)
7. What are the default programs contained in OpenOffice?
a. Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base
8. Under the GNOME desktop menu, where would you find the program to change window appearances
and themes?
a. System, Preferences, Look and Feel, Appearance (Pages 263)
Wade Schlueter; Instructor Cris Reid; January 11, 2010
IT 250 – Linux Operating System
HW Unit 3 due in Week 4
1. What does the command system-config-network do from a terminal emulator in the GUI?
a. Allows network configuration to be done in the event that kudzu does the configuration
incorrectly. (Page 582, 583)
2. How can the Web browser be used to manage printers in Linux?
a. CUPS allows configuration of a printer through a web browser, which can be done by typing in
“localhost:631” in the web browser of the machine connected to the printer. (Page 512, 518)
3. What does the command system-config-printer do from a terminal emulator in the GUI?
a. It is a native application designed to manage and configure printers. (Page 514, 521)
4. What does the SMB daemon do in Linux?
a. Allows Windows machines to connect to a Linux machine and print, as well as see printers on
the network as if it was connected to a Windows machine. (Page 533, 722)
5. What does the LPD daemon do in Linux?
a. LPD, or the Line Printer Daemon, is an older system adopted from Unix by Linux at first until it
was replaced by CUPS for doing its printer services. (Page 512)
6. What does the CUPS daemon do in Linux?
a. CUPS, or the Common UNIX Printing System, is a service that works with multiple operating
systems in terms of doing printing services. (Page 512)
7. What does the command system-config-display do from a terminal emulator in the GUI?
a. Allows you to use the utility designed to probe for your monitor model or to select from a list of
monitors. (Page 85)
Wade Schlueter; Instructor Cris Reid; January 19, 2010
IT 250 – Linux Operating System
HW Unit 4 due in Week 5 (Research Assignment also due this week)
1. What do the directories “/”, “/home”, “/etc”, “/usr”, and “/boot” contain?
a. /
- “the root directory, present in all Linux filesystem structures, is the ancestor of all files
in the filesystem.” This area contains all the other directories and files used by
Linux.(Page 180, 189)
b. /home - This is the location where user’s files on the system are stored. (Page 189)
c. /etc
- This is where local machine configuration files are stored. (Page 189)
d. /usr
- “Traditionally includes subdirectories that contain information used by the system. Files
in /usr subdirectories do not change often and may be shared by several systems.” (Page 189)
e. /boot - This “contains all the files needed to boot the system.” (Page 188)
2. Explain what the “cd” command does in Linux?
a. Changes to a different directory in Linux. (Page 186)
3. Explain which command you would use to create a directory called “stuff” in the root directory.
a. mkdir stuff
(makes a directory, Page 185)
4. What does the “ls” command and the different switches that can be used with this command do?
a. ls lists files in a directory. The –l command gives more file information to the user. ls can also be
used to point towards full and symbolic locations. (Page 139, 193-208)
5. How would you execute multiple commands from one command line?
a. A semicolon separating commands can do this (;). (Page Unknown)
6. What does the “rm” and the “rmdir” commands do?
a. rm
– deletes a file (Page 140)
b. rmdir – deletes a directory(Page 190)
7. Explain what the “cat”, “less”, “touch” and “more” commands do.
a. cat
- displays the contents of a text file. (Page 139)
b. less
– “less is more” in the sense that once the end of the file that is being viewed is reached,
there is a prompt for end of file before being returned to the terminal. (Page 140)
c. touch - allows the creation of empty files (Page 191)
d. more – more is a lot like less, but it does not prompt you that end of file is reached when
viewing a file. Instead, it takes you back to the terminal immediately.(Page 140)
8. What are the three modes of the vi editor?
a. Command Mode, Insert Mode, and Last Line Mode. (Pages 166-167)
9. Which vi command could be used to undo the most recent update to a text file?
a. While in command mode, press ‘u’. (Page 170)
Research Assignment:
1. According to the above book, which are the ten common misconceptions about Linux? (Pages 4-8)
a. Linux is only for servers.
b. Linux is only for techies.
c. Linux doesn’t have the software I need.
d. Linux won’t run my Windows software.
e. You have to use the command line. You have to compile everything.
f. You don’t have to worry about security.
g. I can’t use my existing hardware.
h. There isn’t any technical support.
i. It doesn’t cost anything.
2. According to the above book, which are the two command prompt symbols and what do they represent?
a. $ means that you are logged in as a regular user, while # means you are logged on as root and
have the ability to make potentially destructive changes to your system. (Page 313)
Wade Schlueter; Instructor Cris Reid; February 1, 2010
IT 250 – Linux Operating System
HW Unit 5 due in Week 6 (Chapter 9, 16, Appendix B)
1. What is the default shell in Fedora Core 5?
a. BASH, or the Borne Again SHell.
2. What do the commands “man”, “apropos”, and “info” do?
a. man – displays the manual for a utility when used in conjunction with the name of the utility.
apropos – allows one to search for keywords inside all manuals. If the –k switch is used with
man, this same keyword search function also works like apropos. info – this utility displays
information about a utility. (Page 116/120, 157,118)
3. What do the vi commands “:w”, “:q”, “:wq”, “:wq!”, and “ZZ” do?
a. :w saves the current file as the name it was created under unless a name is specified. :q quits
from vim (but only if the document is saved). :wq saves the file then quits. :wq! Will also save
and quit, but the exclamation mark is typically used to quit without vim refusing to allow you to
quit with unsaved changes. ZZ will also save and quit, and then return you to the shell. (Page
166, 171)
4. What does the command “who | grep john > john.login.txt” do?
a. This shows information about who is currently logged on, and then the grep command tells it to
search the “who” information for lines that have the word John, and then the information is
saved to a text file in the present working directory. (Page 292)
5. What does the “chmod” command do and what are the absolute and symbol permissions that can be
used with the command?
a. Changes the permissions on a file. (Page 287,
http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/cmd.csp?path=c/chmod).
6. Explain the different permissions that a file can have, and explain what a file with 754 would have.
a. chmod can change the permissions for the current user (first digit of three), for the current user’s
group (second digit of three), and for all other groups (third digit of three). 4 gives the file read
only permission, 2 gives write permission, 1 gives execute permission, and 0 gives no
permissions. These permissions can be added to achieve different results. (i.e. 7 is full control, 6
is read and write, 5 is read and execute, 4 is read, 3 is write and execute, 2 is write, and 1 is
execute).
b. 7 would give full control to the current user, 5 would give read and execute permissions to the
group that the logged on users belongs to, and 4 would give read only permission to all other
groups. (Page 193, 287)
7. What has to be done after an administrator has added a user to a system with useradd or adduser before
the user can log on to the system?
a. A user needs to have a password before they can log on to the system. (Page 551, 565, Class
discussion/lab work)
8. Explain how the “at” and “cron” utilities are used and what they are used for?
a. The command “at” allows a job to be run sometime in the future but only once. The “cron”
utility allows commands to be executed at specific times which is set in place by “crontab”.
(Page 559, http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/cmd.csp?path=c/crond)
9. What is the “crontab” command used for?
a. Allows a list of commands to be scheduled for regular use which is understood and used by
“cron.” (Page 559, http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/cmd.csp?path=c/crontab)
10. What are the best practice and problem-solving techniques for system administrators to follow according
to chapter 16 in your course text?
a. Local documentation and utility info/man information, or google information up on the web.
There is also th Linux Documentation Projec (www.tldp.org) has more information on Linux as
well. Checking out the system logs may also provide more information. And if that doesn’t work,
there are always online forums that you can ask questions and have the Linux community answer
back.(Page 1004 – Appendix B, )
Wade Schlueter; Instructor Cris Reid; February 1, 2010
IT 250 – Linux Operating System
HW unit 6 due in Week 7 (Chapter 10 & 18, .Research Assignment also due this week)
1. What are the difference between telnet and ssh?
a. Though both utilities can log onto a remote computer, the difference is that telnet is unencrypted
while SSH is encrypted. (Page 377, 592, 597, 599)
2. What is rlogin?
a. rlogin is like telnet, and has since been replaced by ssh. (Page 358, 1024,
http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/cmd.csp?path=r/rlogin)
3. What is rsh?
a. Allows executions of commands on a remote host but has also been replaced by ssh. (Page 358,
376, http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/cmd.csp?path=r/rsh)
4. What command and syntax would you use to extract files from a compressed tape archive called
backup.tgz?
a. tar –x backup.tgz
(Page 554-555)
5. What does the scp command do and how is it used in Linux?
a. The scp command allows one to copy fies to and from a remote system, and also provides
security as well. It works through ssh as well. This can be done through the terminal interface.
b. This is how the formatting for a command with scp would be done.
scp user@my.ip.add.ress:/home/user/desktop/crap.txt
remoteuser@their.ip.add.ress:/home/remoteuser/desktop/crap.txt (Page 600)
Research Assignment:
1. Research and explain telnet, RSH, and gFTP. You should explain what they do and how they are used.
a. Using the ITT Tech Virtual Library  Books  ebrary  Mastering Red Hat Linux 9, 2003 by
Michael Jang to answer the research questions. (Hint: Use the search feature)
i. telnet
1. What it does: Allows you to configure Linux terminals remotely and quickly.
Though this is not a secure method as information is sent in clear text. This
should be avoided unless the pathway to the remote host is already secure.
2. How it is used: It is a command line (or Terminal as it is called in Fedora 11)
interface, which again allows for remote configuration of clients which should
only be done on a secure network. This is because the information could be
intercepted and private user name information could be compromised easily.
ii. RSH
1. What it does: Otherwise known as remote shell, this allows the user to logon to
various user profiles on a remote machine.
2. How it is used: In order for this to work, this requires that the RSH package is
installed on the remote computer as well as the computer connecting out to the
remote machine.
iii. gFTP
1. What it does: This is a graphical version of the FTP client that allows the
transferring of files to and from a remote computer but through a graphical
interface.
2. How it is used: This can be started, incidentally, through the command-line
interface. This gives you more information on what files are there as well as
file transfer progress.
Wade Schlueter; Instructor Cris Reid; February 23, 2010
IT 250 – Linux Operating System
HW Unit 7 Due in Week 8:
1. Explain the different switches that can be used with tar.
a. –c (create archive), -v verbose (explicitly gives information back on processes being done via
text), -f (write to or read from a file), -t (table of contents of the archive), -x (extract contents of
archive), -z (uncompress before extracting for files ending in tar.gz or tgz) (Page 153, 293, 554,
556, http://www.linuxheadquarters.com/howto/basic/tar.shtml)
2. What is OpenSSH and how it is different, if at all, from SSH?
a. “A free version of the SSH (secure shell) protocol suite that replaces TELNET, rlogin, and more
with secure programs that encrypt all communication—even passwords—over a network.” SSH
on the other hand is now closed source code that is run by the company that originally created it.
b. (OpenSSH: Page 591, 1072, http://www.openssh.com/faq.html)
c. (SSH:
Page 592, 595, 597, 598, 1025, 1030, 1083, http://www.ssh.com/,
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1119266.html)
3. What is CPIO and what is it used for? (Research may be required)
a. CPIO stands for copy in/out, and is thus similar to tar but “can use archive files in a variety of
formats, including the one used by tar.” (Page 555, 556)
4. What do the get and put commands do in FTP? (Research may be required)
a. get – copies a file from the server to the local machine.
b. put – copies a file from the local machine to the server. (Page 614 - 616, Index 1110)
Wade Schlueter; Instructor Cris Reid; February 1, 2010
IT 250 – Linux Operating System
HW Unit 8 Due in Week 9:
1. What is an RPM file and what is it used for?
a. “The rpm (Red Hat Package Manager) utility works only with software packages that have been
built for processing by rpm; it installs, uninstalls, upgrades, queries, and verifies rpm packages.
Because Red Hat released rpm under the GPL … rpm is used by many different distributions.
This utility keeps track of the locations where software packages are installed, the versions of the
installed packages, and the dependencies between the packages.” (Page 501-503, 572)
2. Which command and syntax would be used to install the wow-2.1.0.i386.rpm package file from the
command prompt?
a. rpm –ivh wow-2.1.0.i386.rpm (assumes already in the directory where RPM is located and has
root privileges) (Page 501-503, 572)
3. Explain all the switches that can be used with an RPM file and be sure to identify the switch or switches
that display the most detailed output.
a. –q gives information about the package that you are interested in installing, -qa lists all packages
installed on the computer, -ql lists all the files in the package, -v verbose, -vv very verbose (more
detail than verbose), -h display hash marks (like a progress bar of sorts), -i install, -e uninstall, -u
update, -rebuilddb rebuild RPM database, -f freshen RPM package (which is like update, though
update will update a program even if it isn’t currently installed. Freshen updates only what is
installed). (Page 501-503, 572, http://www.linuxheadquarters.com/howto/basic/rpm.shtml,
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7-Manual/ref-guide/s1-rpm-using.html)
4. What is the correct sequence for installing a program from source code?
a. Get source code, extract it, configure it, make it, make install, and execute. (Page 501-503, 572)
Research Assignment due in Week 9:
1. Accord to Linux for the Non-Geeks, RPM packages often have an identifier before the .rpm file
extension. What are these identifiers and what do they indicate? Contrast these examples with the noarch
identifier.
a. Using the ITT Tech Virtual Library  Books  ebrary  Linux for Non-Geeks, 2004 by
Rickfort Grant to answer the research questions. (Hint: use the search feature rather than read the
whole book)
i. These identifiers (as listed below) help to identify for what processor type the program is
designed to work with after being compiled.
ii. i386.rpm (386 class CPU or better)
iii. i586.rpm (Pentium Class CPU or better)
iv. i686.rpm (Pentium II class CPU or better
v. ppc.rpm (Motorola/IBM power PC CPU, as used in modern Macintosh computers)
vi. noarch.rpm (no architecture) can be used with any CPU
vii. (Page 501 of the class text book, and Page 112 of the e-book)
2. According to Beginning Linux Programming, a makefile is a file that provides information about how an
application is structured. Which are the two main parts of a makefile? Apart from compiling source
code, which two other purposes can a makefile serve?
a. Using the ITT Tech Vritual Library  Books  ebrary  Beginning Linux Programming, 2004
by Neil Matthew and Richard Stones to answer the research questions. (Hint: use the search
feature rather than read the whole book)
b. The “makefile consists of a set of dependencies and rules. A dependency has a target (a file to be
created) and a set of course files upon which it is dependent. The rules describe how to create the
target from the dependent files. Typically, the target is a single executable file.”
c. “It’s often used not only to control the compilation of source code, but also to prepare manual
pages and to install the application into a target directory.” (Page 366 of the e-book)
d. In other words, the makefile contains information about what the program needs in order to work
(dependencies), rules on how & in what order the program should be created, a source of manual
pages, and default installation location.
HW Unit 9 due in Week 10:
1. What is the fundamental difference between shell scripts and C programs?
a. Shell scripts are run on the fly when they are needed, whereas C programs must be compiled first
before the program can be run.
2. What does the DocumentRoot Apache configuration directive do for the httpd service? (Ch. 26)
a. Contains the files for the web site being hosted, which holds all the files that the website would
use.