101-500 LPIC-1 Exam 101, Part 1 of 2, version 5.0 Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

The boot sequence of a PC using a BIOS is the process of loading and executing the operating system from the power-on state. The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is a firmware program that is stored in a ROM chip on the motherboard and provides the interface between the hardware and the software. The BIOS performs the following tasks during the boot sequence12:

It runs the power-on self-test (POST) to check the integrity and functionality of the hardware components and peripherals.

It reads the BIOS settings from the CMOS memory and applies them to the system configuration. Some parts of the boot process, such as the boot device order, can be configured from the BIOS by pressing a specific key (usually F2, F10, or Del) during the POST.

It locates and loads the boot loader program from the first sector of the boot device, which is usually the hard disk. The boot loader program can be GRUB, LILO, or Windows Boot Manager, depending on the operating system installed. The boot loader is responsible for loading the kernel and the initial ramdisk (initrd) into memory and passing control to them.

It transfers the execution to the boot loader and exits the boot sequence.

The other options are false or irrelevant. Linux does require the assistance of the BIOS to boot a computer, at least until the kernel takes over the hardware control. The BIOS boot process does not start only if secondary storage is functional, it can also boot from other devices such as USB drives, CD-ROMs, or network. The BIOS is not started by loading hardware drivers from secondary storage, it is stored in a ROM chip and runs before any secondary storage is accessed. References:

Linux Essentials - Linux Professional Institute Certification Programs1

Exam 101 Objectives - Linux Professional Institute2

The Linux Booting Process - 6 Steps Described in Detail - freeCodeCamp.org3

Guide to the Boot Process of a Linux System - Baeldung4

The reserved space is a portion of the filesystem that is only accessible to the root user or users with sudo privileges. The reserved space serves two purposes: to prevent ordinary users from filling up the filesystem completely and crashing the system, and to reduce fragmentation by leaving some free space. The reserved space is set by default to 5% of the total filesystem size when the filesystem is created with the mkfs.ext4 command. This means that 5% of the blocks are reserved for the root user and are not counted as available space by the df command. The reserved space can be changed or disabled by using the tune2fs command with the -m option. For example, to change the reserved space to 1%, use the following command:

sudo tune2fs -m 1 /dev/sdXY

where /dev/sdXY is the device name of the ext4 filesystem.

To disable the reserved space completely, use 0% instead of 1%. However, this is not recommended, as it may affect the performance and stability of the system, especially if the filesystem is almost full.

The mount --bind command is used to create a bind mount, which is an alternate view of a directory tree. A bind mount takes an existing directory tree and replicates it under a different point. The directories and files in the bind mount are the same as the original. Any modification on one side is immediately reflected on the other side, since the two views show the same data. For example, after issuing the command:

mount --bind /some/where /else/where

the directories /some/where and /else/where have the same content, which is the content of /some/where. A bind mount can be useful for accessing hidden files, creating chroot environments, or changing the permissions or ownership of files.

The other options are not correct because:

B. It mounts all available filesystems to the current directory: This is not what the mount --bind command does. The mount --bind command only creates a bind mount for a single directory tree. To mount all available filesystems to the current directory, one would need to use the mount -a command with the -t option and specify the current directory as the target.

C. It mounts all user mountable filesystems to the user’s home directory: This is not what the mount --bind command does. The mount --bind command only creates a bind mount for a single directory tree. To mount all user mountable filesystems to the user’s home directory, one would need to use the mount -a command with the -t option and specify the user’s home directory as the target. However, this is not a common or recommended practice, as it may cause conflicts or errors with the existing files and directories in the user’s home directory.

D. It mounts all file systems listed in /etc/fstab which have the option userbind set: This is not what the mount --bind command does. The mount --bind command only creates a bind mount for a single directory tree. To mount all file systems listed in /etc/fstab which have the option userbind set, one would need to use the mount -a command with the -O option and specify userbind as the option. However, this is not a standard or supported option for the mount command or the /etc/fstab file, and it may not work as expected.

E. It permanently mounts a regular file to a directory: This is not what the mount --bind command does. The mount --bind command only creates a bind mount for a directory tree, not a regular file. To mount a regular file to a directory, one would need to use the mount command with the -o loop option and specify the file and the directory as the source and the target. However, this is only possible for files that contain a valid filesystem image, such as an ISO file or a disk image. A bind mount is not permanent, and it can be unmounted with the umount command.

The command chmod g+s sales sets the setgid bit on the directory sales, which means that any new file or subdirectory created within sales will inherit the group ownership of the directory. The command chmod 2775 sales does the same thing, but also sets the permissions of the directory to rwxrwxr-x, which means that the owner, group, and others can read, write, and execute files in the directory. Both commands ensure that new files created within the directory sales are owned by the group sales. The other commands are either invalid or do not affect the group ownership of new files. References:

Linux Essentials - Linux Professional Institute Certification Programs1

Exam 101 Objectives - Linux Professional Institute

 This option to the find command is useful if the filenames contain spaces when redirecting the output of find to the xargs command. The syntax of the option is:

find [where to start searching from] [expression determines what to find] -print0

The -print0 option tells the find command to print the full file name on the standard output, followed by a null character (ASCII code 0) instead of the newline character. This allows file names that contain spaces or other special characters to be correctly interpreted by the xargs command, which can use the -0 option to read items from the standard input that are terminated by a null character. The syntax of the xargs command with the -0 option is:

xargs -0 [command]

The -0 option tells the xargs command to expect the items from the standard input to be separated by a null character, and to execute the command using the items as arguments.

Therefore, the command find … -print0 | xargs -0 … will search for files and directories using the find command, print the results with a null character as the separator, pipe the output to the xargs command, which will read the items with a null character as the separator, and execute another command using the items as arguments. This will avoid any problems with filenames that contain spaces or other special characters.

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

A, -rep-space: This option does not exist in the find command. There is no option to replace spaces in the filenames with another character in the find command. The command will report an error and exit.

B, -printnul: This option does not exist in the find command. There is a similar option, -print0, which prints the filenames with a null character as the separator, but -printnul is not a valid option. The command will report an error and exit.

C, -nospace: This option does not exist in the find command. There is no option to ignore spaces in the filenames in the find command. The command will report an error and exit.

D, -ignore-space: This option does not exist in the find command. There is no option to ignore spaces in the filenames in the find command. The command will report an error and exit.

UEFI firmware is a software program that provides the interface between the hardware and the operating system on a computer. UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and it is a replacement for the traditional BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). UEFI firmware has several advantages over BIOS, such as faster boot times, better security, larger disk support, and graphical user interface. Some of the features of UEFI firmware are12:

It can use and read certain file systems: UEFI firmware can access files on partitions formatted with FAT12, FAT16, or FAT32 file systems. This allows UEFI to load boot loaders, kernels, and configuration files from these partitions without relying on the legacy MBR (Master Boot Record) or boot sector code. UEFI firmware can also support other file systems, such as NTFS or ext4, with additional drivers.

It is loaded from a fixed boot disk position: UEFI firmware is stored in a ROM chip on the motherboard, but it also requires a special partition on the boot disk to store additional files and drivers. This partition is called the EFI System Partition (ESP) and it is usually the first partition on the disk. The ESP must have a specific GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) and must be formatted with a FAT file system. The UEFI firmware will look for the ESP on the boot disk and load the files from there.

The other options are false or irrelevant. UEFI firmware does not read and interpret partition tables, it relies on the operating system to do that. UEFI firmware does not store its entire configuration on the /boot/ partition, it stores some of its settings in the NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random Access Memory) on the motherboard and some of its files on the ESP. UEFI firmware is not stored in a special area within the GPT (GUID Partition Table) metadata, it is stored in a ROM chip and an ESP. GPT is a partitioning scheme that supports larger disks and more partitions than the legacy MBR scheme. References:

Linux Essentials - Linux Professional Institute Certification Programs1

Exam 101 Objectives - Linux Professional Institute2

How to Boot and Install Linux on a UEFI PC With Secure Boot3

How to Access UEFI Settings From Linux - It’s FOSS4

UEFI firmware updates for linux-surface - GitHub5

The correct setting for umask that ensures that new files have the default permissions -rw-r----- is 0027. The umask command sets or displays the file mode creation mask, which determines the permissions bits for newly created files or directories. The umask value is an octal number that represents the permissions that are not given to the files or directories. To calculate the umask value, we need to subtract the desired permissions from the maximum permissions, which are 666 for files and 777 for directories. For example, if we want the files to have the permissions -rw-r-----, which means read and write for the owner and read for the group, we need to subtract 640 from 666, which gives us 026. However, since the first digit of the umask value is for the special permissions, such as setuid, setgid, and sticky bit, we need to add a zero at the beginning to indicate that no special permissions are set. Therefore, the final umask value is 0026. The other options are incorrect because they do not produce the desired permissions. Option A gives the permissions -rw-rw----, which means read and write for the owner and the group. Option B is not a valid umask value, but the desired permissions in octal format. Option C gives the permissions -rw----r–, which means read and write for the owner and read for others. References:

[LPI Linux Essentials - 1.3 Basic File Management]

[LPI Linux Essentials - 2.1 Using Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard]

[LPI Linux Essentials - 2.2 Mounting, Unmounting Filesystems]

[LPI Linux Essentials - 2.3 Disk Partitions]

Umask command in Linux with examples - GeeksforGeeks

Umask Command in Linux | Linuxize

Linux umask Command Explained - LinuxOPsys

Shell Scripting - Umask Command - GeeksforGeeks

umask Command - IBM

The mkfs command creates a file system on a given device partition. If the type of file system is not specified, the default file system type is ext2. This is mentioned in the man page of mkfs1 and also in the article by How-To Geek2. Ext2 is an older file system that does not support journaling, which is a feature that allows the file system to recover from crashes or power failures. Ext2 is not very commonly used nowadays, as most Linux systems prefer ext4 or other file systems that support journaling and other features. References:

How to Use the mkfs Command on Linux - How-To Geek

mkfs(8): build file system - Linux man page

 The common Linux commands for file management are mv, cp and mkdir. The mv command moves or renames files and directories. The cp command copies files and directories. The mkdir command creates directories. The copy and move commands are not valid Linux commands. References:

LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Weight: 25, Objective 103.1: Work on the command line

LPI Linux Essentials Study Guide, Chapter 3: Working on the Command Line, Section 3.2: Basic Commands, Page 55

The file in the /proc filesystem that lists the parameters passed from the bootloader to the kernel is /proc/cmdline. This file contains a single line of text that shows the command line arguments that were used to boot the kernel. These arguments can include various options, such as the root device, the init process, the console device, and more. The /proc/cmdline file is read-only and cannot be modified at runtime. The parameters in this file are determined by the bootloader configuration, such as GRUB or LILO, and can be changed by editing the corresponding files12.

systemd, Upstart, and SysV init are all init systems used within Linux systems. An init system is the first process executed by the kernel at boot time, which has a process ID (PID) of 1, and is responsible for starting and managing all other processes on the system. Different init systems have different features, advantages, and disadvantages. Some of the most common init systems are:

systemd: A relatively new and modern init system that aims to provide a unified and efficient way of managing system and service states. It is compatible with SysV and LSB init scripts, and supports features such as parallel processing, socket activation, logging, job scheduling, and more. It is the default init system for many popular Linux distributions, such as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and others12.

Upstart: An event-based init system developed by Ubuntu as a replacement for SysV init. It starts and stops system tasks and processes based on events, such as hardware changes, network availability, filesystem mounting, etc. It is a hybrid init system that uses both SysV and systemd scripts, and supports features such as parallel processing, dependency tracking, logging, and more. It is the default init system for some older versions of Ubuntu, and some other Linux distributions, such as Linux Mint and Chrome OS12.

SysV init: A mature and traditional init system that follows the System V (SysV) design of Unix operating systems. It uses a series of runlevels to define the state of the system, and executes scripts in the /etc/rc.d or /etc/init.d directories according to the current runlevel. It is simple and stable, but lacks some features of modern init systems, such as parallel processing, event handling, dependency tracking, etc. It is still used by some Linux distributions, such as Slackware, Gentoo, and others12.

The bootloader is a program that is executed by the BIOS after it completes its tasks of initializing the hardware and performing the POST (Power-On Self Test). The bootloader is responsible for loading the kernel and other necessary files into memory and passing control to the kernel. The bootloader can be either installed in the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the disk or in a separate partition. Some examples of bootloaders are GRUB, LILO, and SYSLINUX. References: LPI Linux Essentials - 1.101.1, LPI Linux Administrator - 102.1

The commands init 1 and telinit 1 both bring a system running SysV init into a state in which it is safe to perform maintenance tasks. This state is also known as single-user mode or runlevel 1, where only the root user can log in and no network services are running. The command shutdown -R 1 now is incorrect, because it reboots the system instead of entering single-user mode. The command shutdown -single now is invalid, because the -single option does not exist for the shutdown command. The command runlevel 1 is also invalid, because runlevel is a command that displays the current and previous runlevels, not a command that changes the runlevel. References:

1: SysVinit - ArchWiki

2: Linux: How to write a System V init script to start, stop, and restart my own application or service - nixCraft

3: sysvinit - Gentoo wiki

The first program that is usually started, at boot time, by the Linux kernel when using SysV init is /sbin/init. This program is responsible for reading the /etc/inittab file and executing the appropriate scripts and programs for each runlevel. The other options are not valid programs that are started by the kernel. /lib/init.so is a shared library that is used by some init programs, but not by SysV init. /etc/rc.d/rcinit is a script that is run by init, not by the kernel. /proc/sys/kernel/init is a kernel parameter that can be used to specify a different init program, but the default value is /sbin/init. /boot/init is not a standard location for an init program, and it is unlikely that the kernel would find it there. References:

1: SysVinit - ArchWiki

2: Linux: How to write a System V init script to start, stop, and restart my own application or service - nixCraft

3: sysvinit - Gentoo wiki