Job role: Linux support technician
You live through a support technician's week: a forgotten password, a full home directory, an app that won't open and a printing problem; you solve each ticket and keep a record.
Level 101 · 13 lessons · 15 practice labs
Lessons
Monday
- How to read and answer a ticket
- A user forgot their password: a safe reset
- A locked account and why
- Short task: close the three tickets in Monday's queue
Wednesday
- Home directory full and the user can't save files
- An app won't start: permissions or a missing package
- A new starter who can't reach the shared folder
- Short task: put the tickets in priority order and solve them
Friday
- "My computer is really slow"
- A stuck print queue
- Reporting a suspicious downloaded file without opening it
- Writing a weekend handover note
- Capstone: clear a busy day's ticket queue and report on it
Practice labs
- Reset a forgotten password safely: Reset a user's password to a temporary value and force a change at first login.
- Find why an account locked and unlock it: Examine the account's failed attempt counter and logs, note the reason for the lock in the ticket and unlock it.
- Give a new starter access to the shared folder: Check group membership and directory permissions for a user who cannot reach the shared folder and fix it without widening anyone else's rights.
- Free space in a full home directory: Find the folders using most space in the home of a user who cannot save files and list what could be deleted with their consent.
- Find why an app will not start: Start it from a terminal and read the error, determine whether permissions or a missing package is the cause and fix it.
- Solve a "my computer is really slow" ticket: Check CPU, memory and disk in turn, find the process slowing things, close it without harming the user's work and write a recommendation.
- Label tickets by type: Label the six tickets in the queue as account, printer, software or hardware and assign each one to the right team.
- Put the ticket queue in priority order: Order eight tickets by impact and urgency and solve the first three with written reasons.
- Clear a busy day's queue and report on it: Solve six tickets from the Karaçam Mobilya office, escalate the one you cannot with the right information and write an end-of-day summary.
- Read a ticket and ask for what is missing: Review three tickets and write for each the one question to ask before starting on a fix.
- Report a suspicious file without opening it: Determine a downloaded file's type, hash and origin without opening it, move it to quarantine and write a record for the security team.
- Write the weekend handover note: Write up open tickets, workarounds applied and things to watch clearly enough that the on-call person can continue without asking.
- Clear a stuck print queue: Find the job blocking the queue, cancel it and verify a test page prints.
- Fix a printer that prints gibberish: Find the wrong driver in the queue definition of a printer that prints gibberish, redefine it with the right driver and verify with a test page.
- Solve a whole floor being unable to print: Merge the tickets of five users on one floor into a single incident, test the print service, the queue and access to the printer in turn to locate the fault, fix it and write a short update for the users.
About this course
You live through a support technician's week: a forgotten password, a full home directory, an app that won't open and a printing problem; you solve each ticket and keep a record.
What you will learn
Prerequisites
No prior knowledge is needed; the course starts from zero.
Lab environment
Lessons run in your own Kali Linux terminal that opens in the browser. Nothing to install; the lab starts clean in every lesson.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this course right for my level?
- The course is at beginner level; every term is explained where it first appears.
- Is there anything to install?
- No. Every lesson runs in your own lab environment that opens in the browser.
- How do lessons work?
- Each lesson has 8 to 10 steps and a short quiz. Early steps show the command to type, later steps give less help; if two attempts fail, the solution opens.
- Can I try it for free?
- Yes. The first three lessons of every course are free.