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The Linux Upskill Challenge

theleo.zone

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Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#61

Post by licebmi__at__ »

cinntaile wrote: post #54
wrayjustin wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been my go-to training approach for decades. Many of those individuals are now in high-seniority roles that encompasses Linux Administration. It is a tried and true method. If you want to be _good_ with Linux (including administration), build it: Follow the Gentoo Handbook, and restart every time something is wrong or fails. Alternatively, if you want to be a semi-competent user you can go the path of instal…

I assume this is very similar to the Linux from scratch book? https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ Any advantages or disadvantages?

Gentoo handbook method is a lot friendlier than following LFS, yet you stil have to deal somewhat with linux internals. IMO the main advantage over LFS is that is close enough to day to day linux administration that it serves more as a real experience than LFS which seems more like an academic experiment. OTOH, watching stuff compile is the worst part. I would complement the experience with using something like arch for a few weeks as main driver. Quicker than watch compilation logs, still you have to deal enough with linux internals.

Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#62

Post by CalRobert »

29athrowaway wrote: post #59
CalRobert wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What alternatives do you suggest?

Learn about the file system, permissions, processes, signals, threads, the scheduler, standard input and output, networking, etc.

Yeah, I just haven't seen a single book/resource that does this - maybe I'm not looking hard enough. "the linux command line" from nostarch press was good but, of course, focused on commands

Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#63

Post by fduran »

mattbillenstein wrote: post #2

I think the next level above this might be https://sadservers.com/

Oh hi, author here, AMA :-)

I'm happy that a lot of people use and find SadServers beneficial while not costing me a lot of money. Still a lot of features to implement on the website and a shrinking backlog of scenario ideas to materialize (if somebody has ideas for Linux/Docker/Kubernetes etc troubleshooting scenarios, please let me know).

Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#64

Post by wrldos »

BirAdam wrote: post #53

So, in years past, I lamented that people didn’t know basic sysadmin skills and therefore invented complex solutions to what are rather simple problems of configuration within common Linux software. They’d write entirely new pieces of software to deal with something I saw as trivial, and they did this because they didn’t know a solution existed. These days, I don’t lament this at all. As I see it, people wanted to ma…

I've seen that quote a thousand times and I disagree with it profusely. After 30 years of it now on my part, I know we can and should do better. And that does mean reinventing it, not being resigned to the status quo.

Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#65

Post by mixmastamyk »

amelius wrote: post #40
klysm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like your asking how to install software without using precompiled artifacts and also without compiling stuff.

Well, I want to run new versions of software on a system in which I basically don't want to touch system directories like /usr and /lib etc.

Flatpack and appimage are similar to snap but less obnoxious I believe.

Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#66

Post by abnry »

wrldos wrote: post #64
BirAdam wrote: post #53

So, in years past, I lamented that people didn’t know basic sysadmin skills and therefore invented complex solutions to what are rather simple problems of configuration within common Linux software. They’d write entirely new pieces of software to deal with something I saw as trivial, and they did this because they didn’t know a solution existed. These days, I don’t lament this at all. As I see it, people wanted to ma…

I've seen that quote a thousand times and I disagree with it profusely. After 30 years of it now on my part, I know we can and should do better. And that does mean reinventing it, not being resigned to the status quo.

Care to give some examples? I am still too young in Unix years to be wise enough to judge what is good and what is bad.

Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#67

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

wrldos wrote: post #64
BirAdam wrote: post #53

So, in years past, I lamented that people didn’t know basic sysadmin skills and therefore invented complex solutions to what are rather simple problems of configuration within common Linux software. They’d write entirely new pieces of software to deal with something I saw as trivial, and they did this because they didn’t know a solution existed. These days, I don’t lament this at all. As I see it, people wanted to ma…

I've seen that quote a thousand times and I disagree with it profusely. After 30 years of it now on my part, I know we can and should do better. And that does mean reinventing it, not being resigned to the status quo.

> And that does mean reinventing it, not being resigned to the status quo.

There are 2 options: Either we incrementally improve, or we break with tradition. I'm pretty sure people have been saying that we should break with tradition and do better than unix at least since the 90s, but for just as long the incremental improvements keep coming and keep being perfectly good. Modern unix-family OSs are not the unix-family OSs of 30 years ago; we have crash-consistent filesystems, your choice of improved security systems, assorted jail/container systems for compatibility/scaling/security, better service management, etc. Or perhaps phrased differently:

> After 30 years of it now on my part, I know we can and should do better.

We are - just in place rather than throwing out a perfectly good system and ecosystem.

Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#68

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

amelius wrote: post #40
klysm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like your asking how to install software without using precompiled artifacts and also without compiling stuff.

Well, I want to run new versions of software on a system in which I basically don't want to touch system directories like /usr and /lib etc.

> I basically don't want to touch system directories like /usr and /lib etc.

How about touching (creating) a /nix? That'll sit next to the rest of the system just fine, although I don't know how new of a kernel it needs.

Alternatively, there's always the old standby: Can you create a chroot of a newer system and install stuff that way?

Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#69

Post by [deleted] »

wrldos wrote: post #64
BirAdam wrote: post #53

So, in years past, I lamented that people didn’t know basic sysadmin skills and therefore invented complex solutions to what are rather simple problems of configuration within common Linux software. They’d write entirely new pieces of software to deal with something I saw as trivial, and they did this because they didn’t know a solution existed. These days, I don’t lament this at all. As I see it, people wanted to ma…

I've seen that quote a thousand times and I disagree with it profusely. After 30 years of it now on my part, I know we can and should do better. And that does mean reinventing it, not being resigned to the status quo.

[deleted]

Re: The Linux Upskill Challenge

#70

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

washywashy wrote: post #31
29athrowaway wrote: post #11

You can achieve much more learning in 20 days. Important fundamentals are omitted but some oddly specific subjects are cherry-picked and given an unusual amount of attention like running nmap. Running nmap (a portscanner) can get you fired from your job and there's precedent of this. The text formatting is inconsistent. Reader mode makes it better, but a simple markdown file would have clearer. Explaining what a serv…

Curmudgeon alert

Name-calling isn't productive.
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