I just became Red Hat certified!

I just became Red Hat certified!

[Jason Fayre]

Hello everyone,
I just found out today that I passed the Red Hat Certified engineer exam.  
This is a VERY difficult exam as it is performance based meaning you have 
to work on real sysems, not just multiple choice.  I was able to do the 
entire exam through a serial console.  Because of Red Hat's extremely 
strict testing requirements, I wasn't allowed to add any special software 
to the system.  As far as I know, I am the first blind person to complete 
this certification.  If anyone is planning on going for this certification 
and has any questions, please let me know.  I am not allowed to divulge 
specific information about the test itself, but I can talk about any 
accessibility issues you may run into.

RE: I just became Red Hat certified!

[Gordon Svoboda]

Jason, congratulations. The RH certification is a tremendous accomplishment.
Good job!

Regards, Gordon Svoboda
Nexstage Technology Services, Inc.


-----Original Message-----
From: blinux-list-admin@redhat.com
[mailto:blinux-list-admin@redhat.com]On Behalf Of Jason Fayre
Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 11:02 AM
To: blinux-list@redhat.com
Subject: I just became Red Hat certified!


Hello everyone,
I just found out today that I passed the Red Hat Certified engineer exam.
This is a VERY difficult exam as it is performance based meaning you have
to work on real sysems, not just multiple choice.  I was able to do the
entire exam through a serial console.  Because of Red Hat's extremely
strict testing requirements, I wasn't allowed to add any special software
to the system.  As far as I know, I am the first blind person to complete
this certification.  If anyone is planning on going for this certification
and has any questions, please let me know.  I am not allowed to divulge
specific information about the test itself, but I can talk about any
accessibility issues you may run into.




_______________________________________________
Blinux-list mailing list
Blinux-list@redhat.com
https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

Re: I just became Red Hat certified!

[Willem van der Walt<vdwaltw@health.gov.za>]

Hello,
Congratulations!
I have done some of the training for the exam.
What I want to know is how you did the questions where they
break the thing sothat it does not boot properly.
I also want to know about the time of the exam.
As one normally work a bit slower than sighted people, one either has to
be faster in figuring out what to do or ask for extra time.
Did you have to do a lot of pracktical stuff using X?
tia
Willem

On Mon, 6 May 2002, Jason Fayre wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> I just found out today that I passed the Red Hat Certified engineer exam.  
> This is a VERY difficult exam as it is performance based meaning you have 
> to work on real sysems, not just multiple choice.  I was able to do the 
> entire exam through a serial console.  Because of Red Hat's extremely 
> strict testing requirements, I wasn't allowed to add any special software 
> to the system.  As far as I know, I am the first blind person to complete 
> this certification.  If anyone is planning on going for this certification 
> and has any questions, please let me know.  I am not allowed to divulge 
> specific information about the test itself, but I can talk about any 
> accessibility issues you may run into.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 

-- 
Willem van der Walt
Information Services Directorate
Department of Health
South Africa
tel: 27 12 3120700

Re: I just became Red Hat certified!

[Jason Fayre]

I did the entire exam through a serial console.  So, I had a second system 
hooked up to the test system through a serial cable.  
The instructor set up the terminal system so that I was unable to access 
anything accept the test materials and minicom.
During the debug portion, the instructor read the problem to me and then I 
proceeded to fix it via the serial console.  Eaven if the problem required 
the rescue mode from the CD, you can still use serial by adding a kernel 
parameter at the boot prompt. 
Actually, eaven the new boot loader "grub" can be configured to go out the 
serial port.  
I was given five minutes of extra time for each debug senario in order to 
give me time to bring up the serial console. 
Any X problems I had could be corrected from the command-line.


Red Hat had no experience with this sort of thing, so we needed to sort of 
make things up as we whent along.  As more blind people take this test, 
the proces will become more efficient and reliable.


On Tue, 7 May 2002, Willem van der Walt<vdwaltw@health.gov.za> wrote:

> Hello,
> Congratulations!
> I have done some of the training for the exam.
> What I want to know is how you did the questions where they
> break the thing sothat it does not boot properly.
> I also want to know about the time of the exam.
> As one normally work a bit slower than sighted people, one either has to
> be faster in figuring out what to do or ask for extra time.
> Did you have to do a lot of pracktical stuff using X?
> tia
> Willem
> 
> On Mon, 6 May 2002, Jason Fayre wrote:
> 
> > Hello everyone,
> > I just found out today that I passed the Red Hat Certified engineer exam.  
> > This is a VERY difficult exam as it is performance based meaning you have 
> > to work on real sysems, not just multiple choice.  I was able to do the 
> > entire exam through a serial console.  Because of Red Hat's extremely 
> > strict testing requirements, I wasn't allowed to add any special software 
> > to the system.  As far as I know, I am the first blind person to complete 
> > this certification.  If anyone is planning on going for this certification 
> > and has any questions, please let me know.  I am not allowed to divulge 
> > specific information about the test itself, but I can talk about any 
> > accessibility issues you may run into.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > Blinux-list@redhat.com
> > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> > 
> 
> 

Re: I just became Red Hat certified!

[Octavian Rasnita]

What manuals have you used for learning?
I don't want to become certified, but I want to find a good source for
learning Red Hat 7.2 and Unix/Linux in general.

Thanks.
Teddy,
orasnita@home.ro

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Fayre" <jfayre@sun.com>
To: <vdwaltw@health.gov.za>
Cc: <blinux-list@redhat.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 11:09 PM
Subject: Re: I just became Red Hat certified!


I did the entire exam through a serial console.  So, I had a second system
hooked up to the test system through a serial cable.
The instructor set up the terminal system so that I was unable to access
anything accept the test materials and minicom.
During the debug portion, the instructor read the problem to me and then I
proceeded to fix it via the serial console.  Eaven if the problem required
the rescue mode from the CD, you can still use serial by adding a kernel
parameter at the boot prompt.
Actually, eaven the new boot loader "grub" can be configured to go out the
serial port.
I was given five minutes of extra time for each debug senario in order to
give me time to bring up the serial console.
Any X problems I had could be corrected from the command-line.


Red Hat had no experience with this sort of thing, so we needed to sort of
make things up as we whent along.  As more blind people take this test,
the proces will become more efficient and reliable.


On Tue, 7 May 2002, Willem van der Walt<vdwaltw@health.gov.za> wrote:

> Hello,
> Congratulations!
> I have done some of the training for the exam.
> What I want to know is how you did the questions where they
> break the thing sothat it does not boot properly.
> I also want to know about the time of the exam.
> As one normally work a bit slower than sighted people, one either has to
> be faster in figuring out what to do or ask for extra time.
> Did you have to do a lot of pracktical stuff using X?
> tia
> Willem
>
> On Mon, 6 May 2002, Jason Fayre wrote:
>
> > Hello everyone,
> > I just found out today that I passed the Red Hat Certified engineer
exam.
> > This is a VERY difficult exam as it is performance based meaning you
have
> > to work on real sysems, not just multiple choice.  I was able to do the
> > entire exam through a serial console.  Because of Red Hat's extremely
> > strict testing requirements, I wasn't allowed to add any special
software
> > to the system.  As far as I know, I am the first blind person to
complete
> > this certification.  If anyone is planning on going for this
certification
> > and has any questions, please let me know.  I am not allowed to divulge
> > specific information about the test itself, but I can talk about any
> > accessibility issues you may run into.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > Blinux-list@redhat.com
> > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> >
>
>



_______________________________________________
Blinux-list mailing list
Blinux-list@redhat.com
https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

Re: I just became Red Hat certified!

[Tim Pennick]

Jason,

Congratulations!!!

I've been trying to arrange Red Hat training for months, and through no fault
of Red Hat's, am only now shortly to start the training.  I/m intending to try
to do this via their E-learning site.

My question comes back to the much discussed connection via serial port (which
I willl need if/when I get as far as attempting the exam).

I nearly got this working a few months ago, and I could read the boot-up
messages etc., but once the system tried to display the login prompt,
everything went quiet, and nothing else came out of the serial port until I
shut the system down.

Could you give us the definitive version of what you did to configure the
system.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

Tim Pennick

Re: I just became Red Hat certified!

[Jason Fayre]

Well, to be honest, I didn't really use any manuals.  I have been using 
Linux since 1994 and my current job is doing level 3 tech support on Linux 
servers.
The company paid for us to take the Red Hat fast track course and the 
test is part of that course.  There are books available, but I don't know 
if they cover 7.2.  
One book that I have used in the past is "the RHCE study guide, 2nd 
edition" published by McGraw Hill.
The nice thing about this book is that it comes with a CD that has the 
book in HTML format as well as practice test questions.



On Wed, 8 May 2002, Octavian Rasnita wrote:

> What manuals have you used for learning?
> I don't want to become certified, but I want to find a good source for
> learning Red Hat 7.2 and Unix/Linux in general.
> 
> Thanks.
> Teddy,
> orasnita@home.ro
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jason Fayre" <jfayre@sun.com>
> To: <vdwaltw@health.gov.za>
> Cc: <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 11:09 PM
> Subject: Re: I just became Red Hat certified!
> 
> 
> I did the entire exam through a serial console.  So, I had a second system
> hooked up to the test system through a serial cable.
> The instructor set up the terminal system so that I was unable to access
> anything accept the test materials and minicom.
> During the debug portion, the instructor read the problem to me and then I
> proceeded to fix it via the serial console.  Eaven if the problem required
> the rescue mode from the CD, you can still use serial by adding a kernel
> parameter at the boot prompt.
> Actually, eaven the new boot loader "grub" can be configured to go out the
> serial port.
> I was given five minutes of extra time for each debug senario in order to
> give me time to bring up the serial console.
> Any X problems I had could be corrected from the command-line.
> 
> 
> Red Hat had no experience with this sort of thing, so we needed to sort of
> make things up as we whent along.  As more blind people take this test,
> the proces will become more efficient and reliable.
> 
> 
> On Tue, 7 May 2002, Willem van der Walt<vdwaltw@health.gov.za> wrote:
> 
> > Hello,
> > Congratulations!
> > I have done some of the training for the exam.
> > What I want to know is how you did the questions where they
> > break the thing sothat it does not boot properly.
> > I also want to know about the time of the exam.
> > As one normally work a bit slower than sighted people, one either has to
> > be faster in figuring out what to do or ask for extra time.
> > Did you have to do a lot of pracktical stuff using X?
> > tia
> > Willem
> >
> > On Mon, 6 May 2002, Jason Fayre wrote:
> >
> > > Hello everyone,
> > > I just found out today that I passed the Red Hat Certified engineer
> exam.
> > > This is a VERY difficult exam as it is performance based meaning you
> have
> > > to work on real sysems, not just multiple choice.  I was able to do the
> > > entire exam through a serial console.  Because of Red Hat's extremely
> > > strict testing requirements, I wasn't allowed to add any special
> software
> > > to the system.  As far as I know, I am the first blind person to
> complete
> > > this certification.  If anyone is planning on going for this
> certification
> > > and has any questions, please let me know.  I am not allowed to divulge
> > > specific information about the test itself, but I can talk about any
> > > accessibility issues you may run into.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Blinux-list mailing list
> > > Blinux-list@redhat.com
> > > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> > >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 

Re: I just became Red Hat certified!

[Janina Sajka]

Tim:

Are you certain you were booting to runlevel 3? The symptom you
describe is classic for runlevel 5 which won't be accessible
until we get to gnopernicus.

Check in /etc/inittab, of course.

On Wed, 8 May 2002, Tim Pennick wrote:

> 
> Jason,
> 
> Congratulations!!!
> 
> I've been trying to arrange Red Hat training for months, and through no fault
> of Red Hat's, am only now shortly to start the training.  I/m intending to try
> to do this via their E-learning site.
> 
> My question comes back to the much discussed connection via serial port (which
> I willl need if/when I get as far as attempting the exam).
> 
> I nearly got this working a few months ago, and I could read the boot-up
> messages etc., but once the system tried to display the login prompt,
> everything went quiet, and nothing else came out of the serial port until I
> shut the system down.
> 
> Could you give us the definitive version of what you did to configure the
> system.
> 
> Many thanks in advance.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Tim Pennick
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: I just became Red Hat certified!

[Dave Mielke]

[quoted lines by Janina Sajka on May 8, 2002, at 11:47]

>Are you certain you were booting to runlevel 3?

The more likely possibility is that his inittab didn't have a getty (mingetty)
line for the serial port he was using. The serial console capability doesn't
automatically bring up a login prompt on the port being used. It just means
that system console output is written to that port.

-- 
Dave Mielke           | 2213 Fox Crescent | I believe that the Bible is the
Phone: 1-613-726-0014 | Ottawa, Ontario   | Word of God. Please contact me
EMail: dave@mielke.cc | Canada  K2A 1H7   | if you're concerned about Hell.
http://familyradio.com

Re: I just became Red Hat certified!

[Jason Fayre]

In your /etc/inittab file, near the end, you will see 6 lines starting 
with a number 1 through 6.  Add a line under that that says:
7:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS0 vt100

This assumes that the baud rate for the serial line is 9600 and you want 
to use ttyS0 as your serial port.
Personally, I usually crank the baud rate up to 115200.
Hope this helps.


On Wed, 8 May 2002, Tim Pennick wrote:

> 
> Jason,
> 
> Congratulations!!!
> 
> I've been trying to arrange Red Hat training for months, and through no fault
> of Red Hat's, am only now shortly to start the training.  I/m intending to try
> to do this via their E-learning site.
> 
> My question comes back to the much discussed connection via serial port (which
> I willl need if/when I get as far as attempting the exam).
> 
> I nearly got this working a few months ago, and I could read the boot-up
> messages etc., but once the system tried to display the login prompt,
> everything went quiet, and nothing else came out of the serial port until I
> shut the system down.
> 
> Could you give us the definitive version of what you did to configure the
> system.
> 
> Many thanks in advance.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Tim Pennick
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 

Re: I just became Red Hat certified!

[L. C. Robinson]

On Wed, 8 May 2002, Jason Fayre wrote:

> In your /etc/inittab file, near the end, you will see 6 lines
> starting with a number 1 through 6.

Just add it to the end.  The other lines make no difference (for
this functionality).

>   Add a line under that that says:
>  7:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS0 vt100

This must have been taken from a Slackware system (and the line
syntax was badly broken anyway).  Red Hat does not ship agetty.
You can use getty (from the getty_ps package), or mgetty, if that
package is installed (better control of bells, etc):

t0:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -r1 ttyS0 DT9600

There is more detail in previous postings (see the blinux
archives), but if you are going for certification, you will
no doubt find the standard documentation more appropriate.

A more interesting aspect of the original question would concern
how one would add the needed line to the inittab file before the
system was accessible.  In the real world, I guess a likely
method might be via a custom script on a rescue floppy, or
perhaps interactively through a speech enabled rescue CD,
modified from one of the recent CD rescue distributions.  Or to
access, say, a running network server, from another linux
machine, one would probably just scp down a copy of inittab,
modify it, and scp it back (not that one would have much use for
a serial terminal in an already networked environment -- for
bootup and emergencies?).  But I am curious about what would be
acceptable in a certification course environment.

-- L. C. Robinson
reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@onewest.net.invalid

People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and
instability instead.  This is award winning "innovation".  Find
out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see
"CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html