Crazy little thing called linux

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maxum

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So I got it into my head that I'd really, really, really like to be a linux sysadmin. "Has he lost his fookin mind?" I hear you say.

I've got an opensuse linux bible, vmware player and on opensuse installation disk.

Is there anything else I need? Is there a starting point? Or do I simply follow and read the bible?

Any advice for an ubernoob would be greatly appreciated :).

Thanks.
 
maxum said:
So I got it into my head that I'd really, really, really like to be a linux sysadmin. "Has he lost his fookin mind?" I hear you say.

I've got an opensuse linux bible, vmware player and on opensuse installation disk.

Is there anything else I need? Is there a starting point? Or do I simply follow and read the bible?

Any advice for an ubernoob would be greatly appreciated :).

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I would recommend Gentoo to start with if you want to learn it properly. Start doing a stage 1 installation and after you did it successfully you will know linux from the inside out. That will give you a good base to learn how to setup mailservers/webservers/vpns/firewalls etc.

I have personally trained 3 people this way and they all work as linux sysadmins or I.T managers.
 
Rather try and run through something like an Arch setup. Although there are differences between a lot of the distros, you will get your hands nice and dirty trying to figure things out. Other fun things to do, is install minimal CentOS, and then try and build it up until you have a running apache server with perhaps a postgres/mysql database. When you feel more adventurous, start doing things like compiling a kernel, although these days there is very little reason to still do that (I come from kernel 2.2 days :) )
Try and accomplish common tasks. Add users, write some backup scripts, learn bash.

Distros like suse and ubuntu server are cool and once you know how things really stick together, use GUI tools by all means, it will save you lots of time. But if you can, start with the command line and basics.
 
Nuro said:
Rather try and run through something like an Arch setup. Although there are differences between a lot of the distros, you will get your hands nice and dirty trying to figure things out. Other fun things to do, is install minimal CentOS, and then try and build it up until you have a running apache server with perhaps a postgres/mysql database. When you feel more adventurous, start doing things like compiling a kernel, although these days there is very little reason to still do that (I come from kernel 2.2 days :) )
Try and accomplish common tasks. Add users, write some backup scripts, learn bash.

Distros like suse and ubuntu server are cool and once you know how things really stick together, use GUI tools by all means, it will save you lots of time. But if you can, start with the command line and basics.
Click to expand...

Minimal Centos install :love:
 
I am running a Debian LAMP server under VMWARE on my development machine and it gave the least hassles in setting up.

Runing about 18 months now and no issues.

I would suggest try the different flavours under VMWARE and see which one works best for you.
 
One thing that will teach you the (hard) was is Suicide Linux.

If you type in a command wrong, it wipes your hard drive. Best learning tool EVER :p
 
Format your computer. Dont use anything but linux for at least a year. You will learn most of what need to learn out of necessity.
 
ghoti said:
Format your computer. Dont use anything but linux for at least a year. You will learn most of what need to learn out of necessity.
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This is a good idea. Once you are using Linux on bare metal, you also pick up ways to debug drivers and hardware issues. Don't dual boot! Keep a live usb drive of your favourite linux distro lying around for emergencies, preferably the same distro running on your machine.
 
Wow, thank you for the replies :D. Gonna put together a second cheap rig dedicated to linux and try out the advice give here. Thank you so much, your help is greatly appreciated.
 
Nuro said:
This is a good idea. Once you are using Linux on bare metal, you also pick up ways to debug drivers and hardware issues.
Click to expand...

When was the last time you had driver or hardware related issues in linux just out of curiosity?

I had recent issues (unresolved) wrt to drivers in win7 but linux I honestly can't remember, then again I have not purchased new hardware in a good couple of years.
 
ponder said:
When was the last time you had driver or hardware related issues in linux just out of curiosity?

I had recent issues (unresolved) wrt to drivers in win7 but linux I honestly can't remember, then again I have not purchased new hardware in a good couple of years.
Click to expand...
I've been installing CentOS, previously not renowned for up to date drivers, on mixture of old Win XP & new systems for the past 6 months without problems. Drivers definitely don't seem to be a problem with linux these days.
 
ponder said:
When was the last time you had driver or hardware related issues in linux just out of curiosity?

I had recent issues (unresolved) wrt to drivers in win7 but linux I honestly can't remember, then again I have not purchased new hardware in a good couple of years.
Click to expand...

Bluetooth on my Dell laptop and sound on my old HP :(
On my HP, there was an issue with sound crackle, sorted by passing some driver options. Still struggling with pairing bluetooth speakers on my Dell. It detects, pairs, and then plays about 20 seconds before disconnecting. Still trying to figure out if it's bluez, or a driver/kernel issue.

But these are all minor problems. Don't get me started on driver issues on win o_O
 
ponder said:
Bunch of pussies :D http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/
Click to expand...

Was interested until:

The LFS system will be built by using an already installed Linux distribution (such as Debian, Mandriva, Red Hat, or SUSE). This existing Linux system (the host) will be used as a starting point to provide necessary programs, including a compiler, linker, and shell, to build the new system. Select the “development” option during the distribution installation to be able to access these tools.
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So you need to have Linux already to start linux from scratch? wtf.
 
Fudzy said:
Was interested until:



So you need to have Linux already to start linux from scratch? wtf.
Click to expand...

It's not called LFS for nothing, you need and existing OS to build a new one, how else you gonna compile LFS. You need an existing OS as a stepping stone to build and install the new one.

To be honest I've never tried it but I think I should give it a bash at some stage, from what I gather you really do learn a lot more than when install gentoo (stg1), slackware or arch which I have done all of before.
 
ponder said:
It's not called LFS for nothing, you need and existing OS to build a new one, how else you gonna compile LFS. You need an existing OS as a stepping stone to build and install the new one.

To be honest I've never tried it but I think I should give it a bash at some stage, from what I gather you really do learn a lot more than when install gentoo (stg1), slackware or arch which I have done all of before.
Click to expand...

Well that's what I'm interested in. I was just expecting it to start with some small disk image that gives you a blinking terminal console.
 
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