LPI Linux Essentials Certification All-in-One Exam Guide by Robb Tracy
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Where to begin with this train wreck. I understand that providing accurate and up to date guides for tests like the LPIC can be a difficult task, but this particular book is riddled with too many errors to simply ignore or chalk up to the dynamic nature of Linux. There are errors in key commands like groupmod (the author tells of an -A option to add users, a completely non-existent option!), basic errors in describing the how sub-shells spawn, and a completely incomplete analysis of openssh configuration. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Only a few of the chapters are free of error and even the practice questions in the text have editing mishaps. This is especially frustrating because students studying for the LPI Linux Essentials exam are expecting reliable info and especially want practice questions they can trust.
Countless times throughout this book I had to jump to the Internet or other texts to to verify information in the book. More often than not, this books text is either very poorly worded or just plain wrong. Here is one choice example describing the mv command:
“The mv command is used much like cp. However, it copies the specified directory to the new location in the file system and then deletes the original.”
The layman might assume this is correct, but if you read any documentation about the mv command you know that this is plainly wrong! The only time a copy and delete is performed is when you mv files across file systems. Basic errors like this left my head wanting to implode. Other times the author seems to focus exclusively on Fedora systems and left out the appropriate Debian command or file system location for a configuration file. Another egregious example, the text completely neglects to mention aptitude or apt-get when discussing package management! The LPI tests expect you to have knowledge of both Red Hat and Debian systems, so this type of oversight can’t be forgiven.
But yet I pushed on through the book, marking errors along the way and hoping for some valuable material to be gained. There is a lot of info on PC hardware that I suppose could be useful to someone, but I think it was way too extensive and not at all relevant to the LPI Essentials exam.
But extensive irrelevant information can’t even begin to make up for hideous errors on commands that are essential not only to the Essentials exam but all future understanding of Linux. Here is one choice pick: “The * regular expression matches any number of characters…”! Any basic manual on regular expressions and grep will tell you that * matches zero or more of the preceding character. So when this book instructs me, repeatedly, that grepping eth* will match eth1, eth2, eth3 (etc.) I cringe! I could go on but I am at a lost for words.
Other textbooks on Linux have errors (Oreilly!), but they have been conscientious enough to create an online errata that addresses these short comings. The LPI in a Nutshell has quite a few errors (though not usually command line syntax), but the author thoughtfully replied to hundreds of emails to ensure the right info gets passed on to the reader. McGraw Hill has no such addendum available.
Why did I get this book? Plain and simple, it is one of only a few on Amazon that specifically deals with the LPI Essential Certification (so choice is limited). It also has a practice exam CD, which I was the most interested in. And here is the most bizarre and telling thing about this guide. The CD-ROM is only compatible with Windows! That says it all folks. A guide for a Linux certification give you a practice test for a Windows computer. I’m practicing for this test on a Debian system, testing commands, checking my systems configuration files and all that good stuff – and then this book hands me this CD I can’t natively run unless I go over to that evil box in the other room. For shame! Oh…and the custom test engine on that CD – 43 practice questions nearly identical to those found in the book (regular expression errors and all!) and another 40 question simulation test that was suppose to mimic the real test. I was really looking forward to that, but guess what, it is 40 of the exact same practice questions – just with a 60 minute timer added – genius! When you run the test again it just reshuffles the same 40 questions! 40 questions! Apparently there is another “extra” test I can access on-line but I am too disgusted at this point to even bother.
If you really want to better prepare for the Essentials Certification, a far better text is the free one recommended on the LPI website written by Linux Front GmbH. This and the Sybex’s “Linux Essentials” by Roderick Smith should be way more helpful and put the learner on the right track. Even better, look at some of the non McGraw Hill books on the LPIC-1 and use that knowledge for the Essentials cert.