(Part 2) Top products from r/linuxquestions

If he's been talking about getting one, then you can't go wrong with a really basic kit. There are some kits with the micro-sd flash card but IMHO they charge too high of a premium for those. Here's a 32GB micro sd card I've used with no problems and very cost effective. From there, you will have to figure out what he wants to do with it. If he wants to run a media server for instance, you'll want to get a bigger micro sd card or get an external usb hdd. There are literally over 100 different sensors that can be used in Rpi projects so having some idea of what he wants to try would really help. Popular projects are things like pet feeders or light controllers or "magic mirrors". You can google and find detailed instructions and shopping lists for these types of projects. You can get him a starter set of common sensors like this or this for home automation. These kits are good if he doesn't know what he wants to do and just wants to tinker around but if he knows what project he wants to do, then it's better to get the basic kit and an amazon gift card so he can buy exactly what he needs.

A kit I always thought would be a cool gift for someone interested in Raspberry Pi is a retro gaming kit which will run old arcade games. The kit I linked has a usb drive with the game ROMs included but at a $10 premium. You can opt for the cheaper kit and download the ROMs from various sources online. This give him a something fun to start with and he can always pull the Rpi out and buy another flash and use it with sensors or other projects in the future.

You can't have it both ways. if you want to know exactly then you have to drill down to the fundamentals which are handled at a low level (C & assembly). If you want to understand the general concepts you'll need to make lateral moves and study CS along with having enough of the tiny details to fill in the gaps with your intuition.

I think what you may like is a book on the linux API. This is between kernelland and userland.

Try this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Handbook/dp/1593272200

Before you do that ensure you know enough basic C. Linux kernel uses K&R style. So this might be good enough and your best bet to fasttrack.

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0131103628

Do keep in mind this is 2K pages worth of reading. This should help to fill in enough of what you don't know you don't know so that you can better use google-fu to get you further.

I wouldn't actually recommend that purchase, go for something like this instead, you want to be making sure you're getting the latest raspberry pi too, here is a kit that looks like a better fit (just make sure the plug matches your country's). https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Premium-Clear-Supply/dp/B07BC7BMHY/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1542830469&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=raspberry+pi&psc=1

That's odd because it would appear the same book in the US is highly rated and is sold by Amazon at a reasonable price. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119021219/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_a5YIwb8AZR6WN

I'm currently about 30% of the way thru it and let me tell you it is very tightly packed with information and doesn't explain concepts in a way that's appropriate for a noob but that's fine because if did it would be 5x longer. Over all, more than half of the book talks about commands and their switches and is therefore a very dry read and involves a lot of rote memorization. I recommend making yourself a lot of flashcards. I've already made myself 380 or so, and at the current rate I'll easily have over 1,000 by the time I am done.

At my current rate of progress I expect to spend about 4-6 weeks working my way thru the book and studying my flash cards before I take the exams.

As others said, PCIe is the only realistic way to go. I bought this and then you can put whatever Intel card you want. I got the 9260NGW currently, but it allows for further upgrades later due to the nature of what it is. Imo, this is the best option as it allows for future upgrades while giving you all but your USB desires.

> Fedora live

I don't boot ISO's, I boot full installs. This means exactly the same functionality you get with installs to internal drives, including ability to read/write files as normal.

My installs function both as systems I can boot on any laptop, or use to rescue a system.

Here is the best value/performance drive I have encountered and the one I use https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KT7DXIU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This book is pretty much a RHEL bible:

http://www.amazon.com/RHCSA-Linux-Certification-Study-Seventh/dp/0071841962

Great resource.

The exams give you some of the foundation blocks for a lot of the more advanced stuff. I think they are worth it.

>Realtek

Realtek is a mixed bag on linux and honestly, I can't suggest an atheros card more to anyone planning on doing any work on Linux. Dump Realtek whenever you can.

Research any product made by tp-link. They TEND to use atheros wifi drivers for their products but always be sure before you purchase one. I've had a 5ghz model of one of their wifi cards in my desktop for ages that's been working like a fucking champ. They also won't break the bank, most of them cost around $30 at most on amazon.

I used this book: https://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Linux-Powered-Professional-Institute/dp/1119021219

Worked good enough with questions after each chapter. Pretty ok to do the 60 questions multiple choice exam back in december 2016.

xargs
sed
grep
awk
tail -f
find
less
vi
ls
wc
pwd
cat
blkid
lsblk
df -h
if/for/while/case
piping with |

There are really too many to list; I'd highly recommend checking out A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming (3rd Edition) by Mark Sobell. It got me started on working from the command line and helped me move from a Help Desk position to a Sysadmin job a few years ago.

If you'll be working with AWS definitely check out their CLI documentation

I recommend this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Alfa-AWUS036NHA-Wireless-USB-Adaptor/dp/B004Y6MIXS/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1535947628&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=alfa+network&psc=1

It's not a dongle, but it's amazing and you can get much larger antennas to really up your range

I'll give you a summary of all the best advice ITT plus some from me:

• Hardware options
  
  • Get 2GB RAM on Amazon for $6.
    
  • Get an SSD on Amazon for $20.
    
  • Look into zswap or zram depending on what hardware you buy or don't buy.
    
  • Decrease swappiness to 1, if you get an SSD but not RAM
    
• Install Void distro plus i3wm.
  
• Browser options:
  
  • Use surf web browser (GUI)
    
  • elinks (terminal) for extremely light experience
    
  • Compile a 2nd instance of surf with javascript disabled, for lighter browsing.
    
  • If you decide to go without a desktop, look into NetSurf framebuffer support.
    
• Use st terminal. Requires tmux for scrolling.

I agree, just get a USB 3.0 or 3.1 external but why get that expensive and super slow HDD when you can get an external SSD or a normal SATA SSD and a USB adapter like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-SATA-Drive-Adapter-Cable/dp/B00HJZJI84

Or the 3.1 version:

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-10Gbps-Adapter-Cable-Drives/dp/B00XLAZODE

I would never run any OS off of an HDD at this point, they're frustratingly slow. But that's just me.

Make sure your bios is current.

https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/F555UA/HelpDesk_BIOS/

Make sure your OS is current(18.04/19.04 recommended)

If no joy,

Replace the module. It's not worth screwing with.

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Wireless-Ac-9260-2230-Gigabit/dp/B079QH5KW1/

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/ASUS+F550+Wifi+Card+Replacement/60439

Reference:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005511/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1037422/

> what is the best distro for this

You will get a lot of answers based upon a lot of opinions with that question. But if you want to be practical, go for CentOS (which is just a Redhat clone) as Redhat is one of the most widely used distros in the corporate IT world.

If you can do everything in the first 9 chapters in this book without much thought, you will be ready for your first full Linux Admin role. It's designed to help you get RHCSA but everything in it is hands on and very practical.

If you're into paper:

• Linux in a Nutshell is a handy quick reference
  
• A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming by Sobell is a great guide for getting to know and use the command line.

Book One

https://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administration-Enterprise/dp/0321919165

You won't need book two until you start looking at cloud based deployments or have a need for scalability.

There are a number of books for RHCSA I personally found Michael Jang's to be more digestible but that is more of a personal preference. I'd see if a local B&N has either and see which looks better if its an option. Also be aware that if you do intend to go for the cert; Redhat will be upgrading their exam to use the newer version of the Redhat distro which would make some of the material less relevant.

https://www.amazon.com/RHCSA-Linux-Certification-Study-Seventh/dp/0071841962/

I don't know if this is a better suggestion, it's just an other approach. You could use a USB adapter which works like a sound card. Something like this.

It seems that you have no wireless card so you need to buy one. Here's a cheap one from ebay (don't know about the quality though) and here's an even cheaper one but it's most likely crap. You can also buy a better one like this one.

Hi,

There's StarLite MK II https://us.starlabs.systems/pages/star-lite. I have pre-ordered this laptop back in June and I'm still waiting for delivery confirmation.
There's also a CHUWI LapBook Pro 14.1 inch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TTFSRSJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Xu4QDbKVYM5TW. I bought this laptop and installed Xubuntu. So far it works great. I'm thinking to cancel my Star Labs pre-order and get another CHUWI.

Michael Jang's book is a good start.

Or just go look up the Exam requirements at Red Hat's website and self-study.

I mean something like this vs something like this From my understanding you can purchase an HD USB stick and a SSD USB stick, is that wrong? If so why is there such a large price difference when both are 3.0 and use the same storage?

Either works. If your trying to land a job working with Linux, read " The Linux Command Line" if you want to understand Linux try "how Linux works"

Also check out "Devops troubleshooting" - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321832043/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_lhVJzbGBZ02RN

Check out "LPI in a nutshell" - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596005288/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_NiVJzbQ3C4ZZ1

If you don't need much space, you can get some really cheap SSDs, here is a $20 120 GB SSD on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-120GB-Solid-SA400S37-120G/dp/B01N6JQS8C

I'm just going to cut and paste what I have typed in the past -

While a great deal of the replies you will receive will be along the lines of 'install this' I would recommend something else.

Choose a distro and install it but I'd suggest you do that first as VM under Virtual Box.

Then go to Edx: Introduction to Linux and learn about the OS and why things are the way they are. It's a basic intro, costs nothing and one I recommend to all beginners.

If you are considering dual booting backup all your data and save a copy of your Windows registry. Just in case it all goes wrong.

You may also find a copy of this very useful -> LPIC-1.

I found this little Gem a couple months ago on amazon. Perhaps if you dont need 2TB external hard drive mount you could "upgrade" to an external ssd drive.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00XLAZODE

I also have a couple Nexstar usb3 external drive connectors in use for drive cloning and hard disk testing and they do work okay. perhaps your hard drive dock has outlived it's expectations.

http://www.vantecusa.com/products.php?pc_id=3

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/B00KT7DXIU/R1XF03NUBYEB5S

Non-mobile: this

^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?

LPIC-1: Linux Professional Institute Certification Study Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119021189/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_2vYCCbWN85ZHX

Acer E15 for 350 USD

Intel Core i3-7100U 7th Generation , 4GB DDR4, 1TB 5400RPM HD, Intel HD Graphics 620.

Here's the laptop I have: https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i3-7100U-Windows-E5-575-33BM/dp/B01K1IO3QW/

And I'm using a USB 3.0 drive: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-SDCZ43-128G-GAM46-Newest-Version/dp/B01BGTG2A0/

Probably, but I don't feel like spending the money to do it...

Weary Traveler, you seek guidance into the world of C Programming. Know that it is a difficult journey and peril is around every corner. A good start would be tomes from Kernighan and Ritchie (http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-2nd-Edition/dp/0131103628) or a more modern scroll from Zed (http://c.learncodethehardway.org/) .

Do not give up and soon you will be programming in C as a budding apprentice mage yourself.

I was about to order the WiFi card you linked but I'm a little worried it wont work on the ubuntu 4.14 kernel. According to this Intel page it seems to require a 5.1+ kernel. If so is there an older card you recommend? I don't care about connection speed as the networks I connect to are old and slow anyways.

​

edit: perhaps this card? According the Intel page it works on 4.14+ kernels. I don't know if "no vpro" is a problem as my system has a vPro inside sticker.

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Wireless-Ac-9260-2230-Gigabit/dp/B079QH5KW1/

edit2: I went ahead and ordered the Intel AC 9260. Can always order something else too if it doesn't work.

Why the hell did they go and do that for?

But does this solve it?