Lab Exercise 2.2: Using the Linux Command Line

In this exercise, you will use your newly installed SLES 8 server to practice using commonly-used Linux commands, as well answer some tricky questions. Check the "Answers to Exercises" section at the end of this chapter for the answers.

Complete the following:

1. Boot your server and log in as student with a password of novell and a session type of gnome .
   
   
2. Complete the following:
   
   

   1. In the top bar, select the Terminal icon.

   2. How can you determine who the currently logged on user is? (Hint: There are three ways.)

   3. At the shell prompt, enter su “ to change to the root account.

   4. When prompted for a password, enter novell .

   5. At the shell prompt, enter reboot .

3. When the server has restarted, log in as the student user with a password of novell and a session type of gnome .
   
   
4. Open a terminal session again. How can you determine which shell you are using? (Hint: There are two ways.)
   
   
5. What is the full path to the top utility?
   
   
6. What is the full path to your home directory?
   
   
7. Determine which currently running process is using the most CPU time by completing the following:
   
   

   1. At the shell prompt, enter top .

   2. Enter P (be sure to use an uppercase P ).

   3. Which process uses the most CPU time?

   4. Open a second terminal session.

   5. Enter xclock .

   6. Does the order of the processes change?

8. Determine which interrupt your network board is using by completing the following:
   
   

   1. Open a new terminal session.

   2. Change to the root account by entering su - and providing a password of novell .

   3. Enter ifconfig .

   4. What interrupt is eth0 using?

9. Suppose you need to use the route command to enable multicasting on your server. How can you determine the necessary switches and parameters?
   
   
10. Close all your terminal sessions.
    
    

Check your answers at the end of this chapter. If you got them right, you're ready to move on and learn how to work with the Linux file system.