Software View

Training Description:

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Freely available Linux based operating systems are being used by millions of people worldwide as their computing platform of choice. Linux can be used in your personal desktop computer. Commercial and non-commercial organizations can use Linux to run mission critical and/or complex applications.

This training from Software View is meant to assist beginners to start using Linux and then move to perform moderately complex tasks which are expected skills of even the System Administrators.

Software View distributes the full content of this training in multimedia format free of charge according to the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. This enables you to modify and/or redistribute the training content even with a different licensing scheme of your choice. If you wish, you can use the material for commercial gain without giving us money. The attribution should clearly mention that your work is derived from or based on the Linux Training distributed by Software View (http://www.swview.org/) according to the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

We sincerely expect that you will boost your abilities and harness the value of free operating systems.

Training Objectives:

1. To install and use a Linux system as the desktop operating system.
2. To gain general operating system knowledge.
3. To gain some amount of computer network knowledge.
4. To perform moderately complex system administration tasks in a Linux system.
5. To perform moderately complex network administration tasks in a Linux system.

Target Groups:

1. Normal computer users (Who do not focus on administrative tasks)
2. System administrators who want to use Linux in their organizations
3. Network administrators who want to use Linux in their organizations
4. Software professionals familiar with other operating systems but not Linux
5. Enthusiastic school children
6. Anyone else who has an interest

Prerequisites:

1. Basic computer literacy.

Communication Language:

Sinhala (With mixed English words)

Facilitator:

Kamal Wickramanayake (Profile)

Notes:

1. The training uses the GNU/Linux distribution called Fedora 7 for demonstrations.
2. This training does not cover everything in full details but some selected topics in some detail. There had been no intention of creating a training with all the topics and details since there is no such need and is not practical.
3. The training content shown below has not yet been finalized.
4. Software View will prepare and publish the multimedia content as it finds time.
5. If you wish to mirror the content of this training, inform us and we will assist you in the mirror process.
6. Multimedia content is presented in Sinhala with mixed English words. You are informed that the presentation does not follow strict language rules found in either language.

Training Content:

1. Introduction
   • What is Linux and a GNU/Linux distribution?
   • What is Linux good for?
   • Things that Linux cannot do
   • What are the popular Linux distributions available?
   • How to get a Linux distribution?
   • What is covered in the remaining sections of this training?
2. GUI Applications Overview
   • Desktop
   • Web browsing - Firefox
   • Word processing, spreadsheet and presentation creation - OpenOffice.org
   • Email sending/receiving - Evolution
   • Chatting - Pidgin (Using Yahoo account)
   • Media players - MPlayer
   • Software development - Glade, Java development with Eclipse (Writing Hello World!)
   • Games
   • Calculator
   • Dictionary
   • Graphics editing - Gimp (Creating an animated GIF)
   • Network protocol analyser - Wireshark (Capturing web traffic)
   • Project management - Planner
   • Firewire (IEEE1394) video capturing and non linear video editing - Kino
   • Advanced non linear video editing - Cinellera
   • Bluetooth file sharing - How to share a photo in the mobile phone?
   • File browsing
   • Terminal windows
   • System monitor
   • Tray bar icons
   • User preferences
   • System administration tools
   • What else is there?
3. Installation of Linux
   • Identify the exact need
   • Install or use a Live CD
   • Using a virtualization product (QEMU, VMWare, VirtualBox, Microsoft Virtual PC,...)
   • Resource requirements
   • Determine distribution (DSL, Fedora, RedHat, CentOS, Ubuntu,...)
   • Versions with long term support
   • Finding the installation media (32/64 bit, CD/DVD, iso/torrent)
   • Where to install? (Just use Live CD, frugal install, hard drive (normal), usb, network boot)
   • Preparing a hard drive for installation
   • Frugal installations
   • Normal installations
   • DSL
   • Fedora
   • Ubuntu
   • Dual boot configuration
   • Boot loader configuration
   • Performing a network installation
4. File System Overview
   • Home directory
   • Typical locations of executables (/bin, /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin, /sbin, /usr/sbin, /usr/local/sbin)
   • Typical locations of configuration files (Dot files, /etc)
   • Other important files and locations (/boot, /proc, /dev, /var, /tmp)
5. Some System Administration
   • Managing user accounts and user groups
   • Package management (Yum/RPM)
   • Starting/stopping services
   • Switching between users
6. File Editing
   • GUI based editors
   • Console based editors
7. Overview Of The Internet
   • IP address/Network mask
   • Network protocol stack
   • TCP Vs UDP
   • Domain Name System
   • Email routing mechanism
8. File Transfer Over The Network
   • FTP
   • SCP
   • Accessing network file systems
9. Remote Login
   • Telnet
   • Secure Shell (SSH)
   • VNC
10. Tools For Hacking (Network)
    • ping
    • traceroute
    • telnet
    • nmap
    • Network monitors/protocol analyzers (tcpdump/Wireshark)
    • Tunneling with SSH
11. Network Servers Overview
    • Web server
    • Mail server
    • Database server
    • Proxy server
    • DNS server
    • DHCP server
    • What else is there?
12. Using Apache Web Server
    • Installation
    • Configurations
    • Document root and where to place the files?
    • Dynamic HTML with PHP
13. Configuring A Database Server (MySQL)
    • General overview
    • Managing databases
    • User management
14. Installing A Web Based Content Management System (Drupal CMS)
    • Content to be described later on
15. Configuring A Caching Proxy Server (Squid)
    • Content to be described later on
16. Configuring A Mail Server (Sendmail)
    • Installation
    • Configuration
    • Web mail configuration
17. Configuring A Name Server (Bind)
    • Content to be described later on
18. Configuring A DHCP Server
    • Content to be described later on
19. Misc (To be categorized)
    • Installing software from the source
    • Boot process
    • Shell scripting
    • Process management