Free Practice Questions for LPI 101-500 Exam

The command that is used to update the list of available packages when using dpkg based package management is apt-get update12. The apt-get command is a high-level tool that works with dpkg and provides a user-friendly interface for managing packages3. The apt-get update command is used to synchronize the package index files from the sources specified in the /etc/apt/sources.list file12. This command does not install or upgrade any packages, but only downloads the information about the latest versions and dependencies of the packages12. The apt-get update command is usually run before the apt-get upgrade or apt-get install commands, which are used to upgrade or install packages respectively12.

The other options in the question are not correct because:

B. apt-get upgrade: This command is used to upgrade the installed packages to the latest versions, not to update the list of available packages12.

C. apt-cache update: There is no such command in Linux. The apt-cache command is used to query and display information about the packages, not to update them4.

D. apt-get refresh: There is no such command in Linux. The closest command is apt-get update, which is the correct answer.

E. apt-cache upgrade: There is no such command in Linux. The closest command is apt-get upgrade, which is not the correct answer.

 The dpkg command is a tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian packages. The option --remove is used to remove an installed package, but it does not remove the configuration files that may have been modified by the user. The option --purge is used to remove an installed package and also delete its configuration files. This can be useful if the user wants to completely uninstall a package and start from scratch if it is reinstalled later. The syntax is: dpkg --remove package or dpkg --purge package. For example, dpkg --remove nginx will remove the nginx web server package, but it will leave the configuration files in /etc/nginxdpkg --purge nginx will remove the nginx package and also delete the configuration files in /etc/nginx1. The other options are not correct because:

–remove only removes the program, --purge only removes the config files: This is false, because --purge also removes the program, not just the config files.

–remove removes a package, --purge also removes all packages dependent on it: This is false, because --purge does not remove any other packages, only the specified one. To remove a package and its dependencies, the apt-get command can be used with the option --auto-remove2.

–remove removes only the package file itself, --purge removes all files related to the package: This is false, because --remove also removes the files that are installed by the package, not just the package file itself. --purge only removes the configuration files that are not removed by --remove. References:

dpkg(1) — dpkg — Debian buster — Debian Manpages

How to remove a package and its dependencies with dpkg? - Ask Ubuntu

The command that can be used to download the RPM package kernel without installing it is yumdownloader kernel. This command is part of the yum-utils package, which contains a suite of helper tools for yum package manager. To use this command, you need to install the yum-utils package first1. The downloaded package will be saved in the current directory. You need to use root privilege because yumdownloader will update package index files during downloading. Unlike yum command, yumdownloader will not download any dependent packages1.

The other commands are either invalid or do not have the desired functionality. yum download --no-install kernel is not a valid yum command, as yum does not have a --no-install option2. rpm --download --package kernel is not a valid rpm command, as rpm does not have a --download or a --package option3. rpmdownload kernel is not a standard Linux command. rpm has a native support to download a package from a URL and install it, but not to download a package without installing it4.

 The main configuration file for GNU GRUB is grub.cfg, which is usually located in /boot/grub/ or /boot/grub2/ depending on the distribution. This file contains the menu entries for the boot loader, each with a title, a kernel image, an initrd image, and optional parameters. The grub.cfg file is not meant to be edited manually, as it is generated by the grub-mkconfig command, which reads the settings from /etc/default/grub and the scripts in /etc/grub.d/. The /etc/default/grub file contains the global options for GRUB, such as the default menu entry, the timeout, the theme, etc. The /etc/grub.d/ directory contains executable scripts that are run by grub-mkconfig to generate the menu entries for each operating system or kernel found on the system. For example, the script 10_linux generates the entries for the Linux kernels installed by the package manager, while the script 30_os-prober generates the entries for other operating systems detected on the system, such as Windows. To make changes to the GRUB configuration, one should edit the /etc/default/grub file and/or the scripts in /etc/grub.d/, and then run grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg to update the grub.cfg file. References:

2, 102.2 Install a boot manager

4, 102.2 Install a boot manager

man grub-mkconfig

The dd command is used to copy data from one device or file to another, with optional parameters to specify the block size (bs), the number of blocks to copy (count), and other options. The bootloader is typically located in the first 440 bytes of the disk, which is the Master Boot Record (MBR) area. The MBR also contains the partition table, which starts at byte 446 and occupies 64 bytes. Therefore, to overwrite the bootloader without affecting the partition table or any data following it, the command should copy 440 bytes from /dev/zero (a special device that provides null bytes) to /dev/sda (the disk device) and stop after one block. This is achieved by the command: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=440 count=1 References:

LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, section 1.101.3

dd man page

Master Boot Record

The command dpkg-reconfigure is a Debian package management tool that asks the configuration questions for a specific already installed package just as if the package were being installed for the first time. It can be used to reconfigure a package that was previously installed with default settings, or to change the settings of a package that requires user input during installation. It can also be used to fix a broken configuration file or to restore the original configuration file of a package. References:

Debian Reference: Chapter 2. Debian package management

LPI Linux Essentials: 1.3 Package Management

 The apt-cache command is used to query the APT cache for information about packages. The depends option shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all the possible other packages that can fulfill that dependency. For example, apt-cache depends ubuntu-restricted-extras will show the dependencies of the ubuntu-restricted-extras package. The other options are not valid for the apt-cache command. References:

How to Check Dependencies of a Package in Ubuntu/Debian-based Linux Distributions

Check DEB package dependencies on Ubuntu / Debian

 When using rpm --verify to check files created during the installation of RPM packages, the following information is taken into consideration:

Timestamps. RPM compares the modification time of the installed files with the original time stored in the RPM database. If the file has been modified after installation, the timestamp will differ and RPM will report it with an M flag1.

MD5 checksums. RPM calculates the MD5 checksum of the installed files and compares it with the original checksum stored in the RPM database. If the file has been altered in any way, the checksum will differ and RPM will report it with an 5 flag1.

File sizes. RPM compares the size of the installed files with the original size stored in the RPM database. If the file has been truncated or appended, the size will differ and RPM will report it with an S flag1.

RPM does not take into consideration the following information:

Inodes. RPM does not check the inode number of the installed files, as it is not a reliable indicator of file identity. The inode number can change if the file is moved, copied, or restored from a backup2.

GnuPG signatures. RPM does not verify the GnuPG signatures of the installed files, as they are not part of the RPM package format. The GnuPG signatures are used to verify the authenticity and integrity of the RPM package files before installation, not after3.

 The dpkg-reconfigure command is used to reconfigure an already installed package. It asks configuration questions for the package, just as if the package were being installed for the first time. This can be useful if the user wants to change some settings or options for the package without reinstalling it. The dpkg-reconfigure command can also be used to fix a broken package configuration or to restore the default settings. References:

dpkg-reconfigure(8) - Linux man page

Linux Professional Institute: Exam 101 Objectives

 The command that lists all currently installed packages when using RPM package management is rpm --query --all. This command displays information about all the packages that are currently installed on the system, including their name, version, release, and architecture1. The output can be customized by using various query options and format specifiers2.

The other commands are either invalid or related to YUM, not RPM. yum --query --all is not a valid YUM command, as YUM does not have a --query option3. yum --list --installed is a valid YUM command, but it lists the packages from the YUM repositories, not the RPM database3. rpm --list --installed is not a valid RPM command, as RPM does not have a --list option2.