Aligned to LPI 010-160 official exam topics across all 5 topic areas. Covers the Linux community, navigation, command line, OS concepts, and security.
Level: Beginner
Grade band: Certification
Time: about 25 hours
Outcomes
- Navigate the Linux filesystem using the command line
- Manage files, directories, and processes with core Linux commands
- Write basic shell scripts using variables, conditionals, and loops
- Configure users, groups, and file permissions
- Explain Linux security concepts and common open-source tools
Topic 1 — Linux Community & Open Source (20%)
Linux History, Distributions & Licensing
- Linux and open source: history, kernel, FOSS, GPL vs permissive licenses — 25 min
- Linux distributions: Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS/Rocky, Arch, Alpine; package managers — 25 min
- Open source licensing: GPL v2/v3, LGPL, MIT, Apache, BSD — rights and obligations — 25 min
- Linux career paths: sysadmin, DevOps, cloud engineer, security analyst — 25 min
Topic 2 — Finding Your Way on a Linux System (20%)
Command Line Basics & Navigation
- Command line basics: shell, terminal, pwd, ls, cd, man, history, tab completion, I/O redirection, pipes — 25 min
- Linux file system hierarchy: /, /etc, /var, /home, /tmp, /proc, /dev, /usr, /bin; file types — 25 min
- Navigating the filesystem: absolute vs relative paths, ls options, hidden files, file types — 25 min
- Getting help: man pages, info, –help, apropos, whatis, tldr — 25 min
Topic 3 — The Power of the Command Line (20%)
File Operations & Text Processing
- File operations: cp, mv, rm, mkdir, find, grep, sort, wc, head, tail, cat, less — 25 min
- Archiving and compression: tar, gzip, bzip2, zip; package management commands — 25 min
- Shell scripting basics: variables, conditionals, loops, functions, shebang — 25 min
- Regular expressions: basic and extended regex, grep -E, sed, awk patterns — 25 min
- Environment variables: PATH, HOME, USER, SHELL; export, env, set, unset — 25 min
Topic 4 — The Linux Operating System (20%)
File System, Processes & Hardware
- Linux file system hierarchy: /, /etc, /var, /home, /tmp, /proc, /dev, /usr, /bin; file types — 25 min
- Processes and hardware: ps, top, kill, systemctl, journalctl, hardware info commands — 25 min
- Disk management: fdisk, lsblk, df, du, mount, umount, /etc/fstab — 25 min
- Networking on Linux: ip addr, ip route, ss, ping, traceroute, /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf — 25 min
- Boot process: BIOS/UEFI, GRUB, kernel, initramfs, systemd targets — 25 min
Topic 5 — Security & File Permissions (20%)
Permissions, Users & Security
- Users and groups: useradd, usermod, userdel, passwd, id, /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, sudo, wheel — 25 min
- File permissions and security: chmod, chown, SUID/SGID/sticky bit, SSH hardening, ufw, Fail2ban — 25 min
- SSH: key-based authentication, sshd_config hardening, port forwarding, scp, sftp — 25 min
- Firewall management: ufw, firewalld, iptables basics — rules, chains, policies — 25 min
- Security tools: Fail2ban, auditd, lynis, chkrootkit, clamav — purpose and usage — 25 min
Start the first lesson: Linux and open source: history, kernel, FOSS, GPL vs permissive licenses