Hello All!!

I am not "new" to LQ, but this is my first time posting. I wanted to start linux awhile back, but my background has always been Networking as in Cisco equipment.

These days it seems jobs are requiring you know linux/unix and for SURE scripting. So why am i here, finally? To of course speak with everyone who has more knowledge than me and hopefully share info that can help me get on my way.

Questionish

It's time i finally get started. Problem is with all honesty i have noooo idea where to even start. Sure...i've started reading books, even bought "unix for dummies" which i'm not sure was the best idea. I have books here and there - and i decided in the long run i want to get into Redhat since it seems most companies run that as their platform. So before spending tons of money oh redhat classes which book(s) would help me BEST understand root and the directories on down? I wish i had better questions to explain what i actually need, but like i said i dont know where to begin. Also, which OS should i install to get me started? i decided to install Fedora, ubuntu, mandrake or ?? to just get me started. Which do you prefer is best for a beginner.

I'm lost - please help

In the end i would like to become a linux admin for a company. Sure that is just the beginning, but of course i need to get started now to get me somewhere later.

Thanks for the patience!! lol i know that was long.

Hello and welcome to LinuxQuestions,

No matter what distribution you'll end up using/administering finally, there are the basics that are similar across all (or most) distros available. Have a look at the following general, specific and guides for Bash scripting to get you started. If you've worked your way through all of these you'll have a pretty good base to start from. As with everything in Linux, the best way to learn is to get your hands dirty once you have the basics covered, so download some distros (check DistroWatch.org) and start installing/trying/breaking/fixing them.

Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Documentation
Bash Guide for Beginners
Advanced Bash Scripting Guide

Looking forward to your participation in the forums. Have fun with Linux.

Kind regards,

Eric

1 members found this post helpful.

I'm not sure about which books to point you at, but if you've got a spare computer (or even VM) and want to get your feet wet with something that is used in the real world, yes, Fedora is a good place to start for a Red Hat distro. Opensuse also has a following, as it's Novell's. Even Ubuntu gets put on a server from time to time... I've seen it done. The thing about Ubuntu is that it uses apt, Debian's package manager, while Fedora and Suse both use RPM files, and are (very arguably) easier to start with, as the files are easily found online and don't require any dpkg fooling after download, you can (at least last time I used Fedora) simply open an RPM download and it will install, which is something I haven't seen a Debian/apt based distro do yet.

*ahem* Sorry. Might have put a bit too much jargon into that.

For a beginner user, I would suggest Ubuntu. For a beginning admin, I would start with Opensuse, as Fedora comes with SELinux, which you don't want to mess with right off.

Really, don't be afraid. Linux has great support online from other users, and you've already found a place to ask questions as they arise.

I'm don't know which books you have but there are lots of material available on internet, I will give you some links for studying and understanding linux in much easy way:

http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/
and for more you can refer your books you have.

I would recommend you to go with Linux Mint and the link for downloading distro is here:

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

I am in somewhat the same position as you .. Although, the LPIC is a requirement for me, so I am a little under the gun in regards to splitting my time learning LINUX and playing around with it and learning the test and unfortunately, memorizing items that may be on the test. There are some great links in this thread. There are a ton of books out there but there are two things I have found extremely valuable so far .. EXCERCISES - again, it has been referred here to get your hands dirty with a version of Linux.. That is all good but direction, an excercise to tell you to do something and then how to do it. I have found this to be the key and it has been a challenge for me to find these excercises. The second thing that has been very helpful is a "mentor". I consider myself very fortunate to have someone in my corner that is giving me a project a day. This individual is certified and they have an idea what will be covered on the exam. I do the simple project every day and then we review it. Not sure if you have someone like that in your corner but may be worth seeking - which is what you and I are somewhat doing by participating in this forum .. We are reaching out to those that may be willing to assist us .. Perhaps someone can start a thread for projects (excercises) for NEWBIES. Maybe it is already out there and I haven't found it yet.

Good luck to you - thank you for starting this thread as I will be watching the responses for sure.

Hi,

I wouldn't advice Fedora to a new Linux user. Fedora is the 'testing ground' for Red Hat and is 'bleeding edge' which means it 'might' and sometimes 'will' break, leaving the user in limbo if not experienced. For example the latest Fedora uses systemd instead of the regular SysVinit scripts which is a world of difference. If the OP is to learn Red Hat, I'd go with CentOS instead of Fedora because CentOS resembles Red Hat a lot more then Fedora does.

Kind regards,

Eric

Eric,

Great feedback !! CentOS is one of the distros I am learning on. Having so many distributins available is obviously one of the highlights of LINUX .. however .. Referring to the excercises I mentioned above, you have to make sure that you have the right distro for the excercises you are doing. This has been one of my frustrations as I try to do some of the excercises only to find out, 20 minutes later, this isn't installed on my system. Patience, patience, patience ..

KIP

Today's conquered frustration - the back quote is the same as the tilde ... Argggg .. 8)

Hi,

Thanks! If you're preparing for LPIC then you should divide your time between different distros since LPIC is 'vendor independent' and covers both RPM/YUM and DEB/APT on the first level along with compiling from source in the second level (maybe even covering basics for compiling in the first level). Aside from that you should also consider using a 'testing distribution' or 'rolling release' like Fedora/Debian testing to stay up to date on new technologies since they will be covered in the LPIC exams sooner or later. LPIC 'refreshes' the exams every 2.5 years so always check their wiki for changed objectives.

Kind regards,

Eric

WOW!!

Thank all of you guys!

Everyone in this thread had great info. I appreciate it all. Of course once i complete reading all of the links and finally install a OS ( which i think is most likely going to be Fedora ) i will of course have more questions to add. I also think ( KIP.USA ) had an awesome idea of having someone give the newbies rookie projects. Its easy to install a OS, but then what? We can build it to our liking, but what are we actually learning besides very basics. Hopefully someone does start that. I would of course need to learn a bit more before i can start working the project, but that is a GREAT idea.

I hope to chat with everyone more!

I am hoping that this isn't going to be one of those threads that fades off into the sunset. I am thinking there are a lot of users out there that will be looking to similar advise for how to get started. I do understand there are several threads that pertain to new users but this thread appears to have something to it in regards to the projects. Does anyone have any suggestions on books or links that are very "excercise" or "project" based for a new user? I have been told that learning bash scripts is a great way to start but that is more the "scripting" angle. I have found this helpful but this is just one aspect of the learning ..

Thanks ..

KIP USA

Agreed! Lots would say the only way to get started is to read and install a distro of some sort on a computer. I agree with that, but depending on where you want to take what you've learned and read further or make a career out of it. It would be best to have projects or tasks to complete or servers to build. I would like to be a admin in time and during one of my last interviews they asked what TCP dump is and more admin/networking questions. Besides reading about it...what are ways of building? ways of having projects in order to have an idea (atleast) of where to go and how to get things started.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Hi there and welcometo LQ!

How about get some liveCDs and try them out or if you have an spare computer that isnt really in use how about install some Linux there? Or maybe you could use VirtualBox to do it, and try things out. There is no better way to learn but doing it, books will give you info but nothing better than do it to learn. Have you done it yet? Or should i say have you start!!??

Regards

@OP: if you want to learn RHEL, go Centos as its the same code, only free
See Wikipedia for details or Centos homepage.

@ALL: As for projects, it all depends on what you want to do/achieve.
A good way to learn until you pick a particular idea, is to watch the Newbies forum and try to answer as many qns as possible. Doesn't matter if you find an answer, the research will teach you a lot along the way.
See also other's answers to those qns.

1 members found this post helpful.

How about this for a project regarding the sed command - you can find this at http://tille.garrels.be/training/bash/ch05s05.html - this is what came up when I did a search for "sed excercises". Very basic I know, but I think that is what we are looking for here.

These exercises are meant to further demonstrate what sed can do.

Print a list of files in your scripts directory, ending in “.sh”. Mind that you might have to unalias ls. Put the result in a temporary file.

Make a list of files in /usr/bin that have the letter “a” as the second character. Put the result in a temporary file.

Delete the first 3 lines of each temporary file.

Print to standard output only the lines containing the pattern “an”.

Create a file holding sed commands to perform the previous two tasks. Add an extra command to this file that adds a string like “*** This might have something to do with man and man pages ***” in the line preceding every occurence of the string “man”. Check the results.

A long listing of the root directory, /, is used for input. Create a file holding sed commands that check for symbolic links and plain files. If a file is a symbolic link, precede it with a line like “--This is a symlink--”. If the file is a plain file, add a string on the same line, adding a comment like “<--- this is a plain file”.

Create a script that shows lines containing trailing white spaces from a file. This script should use a sed script and show sensible information to the user.

I'm back!!

And yes i finally made progess ( sorry for the repeat post ) i posted something in noobs again

So i made progress and install Vbox and Fedora 16. I will also be trying Mint. I know there are others that were recommended, but i just decided to finally do it.

I hope we can still continue this thread.. i liked everyones info on here. I hope to learn lots from you guys.

Thanks again