ARC logo Michael L'Estrange
Computer Information Science

CISC 323: Linux Operating Systems


Note: (For students who do not read syllabi)

This syllabus is subject to change, changes will be announced during lecture, and all changes will probably only be reflected in the online course management system.

Online lectures will be scheduled and live streamed; however, attendance online is not mandatory, and students will have the option to view the recorded lecture later.

Students are responsible for all information or announcements presented during lecture.

The preferred way to communicate with the instructor online, is through the messaging system within the course management system itself.

Students who do not access the online course management site during the first 7 days of the course will be dropped having never attended the course.

A student may be dropped if the student does not access the online course management site at least once every 7 days during the semester.

Instructor: Michael L'Estrange
Instructor Email: lestram@arc.losrios.edu
Instructor Web Page: http://ic.arc.losrios.edu/~lestram
Instructor Phone: (916)-484-8147
Instructor Office: ARC main campus, STEM 221
Office hours: Note: Office hours may often be held in STEM 205
Mon 3:30-5:30pm
Tues 4:30-5:30pm
Weds 4:30-5:30pm
Thurs 4:30-5:30pm
Course Code #: 10394
Class Location: STEM 205
Meeting Times: TTh 5:30pm-7:20pm
Semester: Spring 2025
Term: Spring 2025 | First Eight Weeks | 18 January 2025 - 14 March 2025
First meeting: Tuesday 21 January 2025
Final Examination: Thursday 13 March 2024
Prerequisite: None.
Advisory: CISC 300 and ability to touch type. Refer to the course catalog for a description of this course.
Accepted for credit: CSU.
Hours: 18 hours lecture; 18 hours laboratory.
Units: 1

Course Description

This course introduces the Linux operating system for microcomputers. Concepts include the kernel, file structures, daemons, graphical user interfaces (GUI), open source, file security and permissions. Procedures for installing software, basic system administration and utilities, the Bourne again shell (BASH), command line interface utilities, and introduction to scripting topics are also covered.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Textbook and Supplies


Required:

This course uses digital materials that are provided free of charge to the student. A student may purchase a printed text book in the college store at her or his option.
Recommended:

Presentation of Class Materials:

The course will cover the required assignments in the texts, and some outside assignments. The information will be introduced by means of lecture, classroom demonstrations and labs. Students may be given assignments to be completed both in class as well as on their own time. Lab work with a Windows or Linux PC will be required, and can be completed on campus.

Special note for contacting the instructor, especially online students

Please contact the instructor useing the messaging system within the course shell in the Learning Managment System, often Canvas.

Note on contacting the instructor

The instructor is an offline resource, and he will probably not return any messages over the weekend or college vacation days.
Emails that are undecipherable will be ignored. Use standard English in all messages sent to the instructor.
Emails that do not contain a question may not be replied to. A question should be denoted with a question mark, i.e.?!
Messages with long or complex questions may take time to answer, as in several days.
The instructor will not open emails or attachments he cannot identify, i.e. use your ARC Los Rios email account.
The instructor uses the lestram@arc.losrios.edu email address.
DO NOT use the Gmail address @apps.losrios.edu to contact the instructor.
Be aware, that when the instructor sends a group messages to all students enrolled in the course, the return address is sometimes the instructor's Gmail account, which is rarely checked.
No student emails are deleted.

Instructions for emailing your instructor

All emails sent to the instructor should contain the following in the subject line: Course number, your name, and the subject.

Here is an outstanding example:
Subject: CISC 323 | L'Estrange | Summer class add number request

In order to properly and promptly answer emails, your instructor must be able to identify you and what class you are enrolled in. Your instructor teaches many different courses each semester, and sometimes a student may submit a question that will have different answers depending on the course, i.e. How to do things in Linux and Microsoft Windows will have very different answers.

You are required to change the subject line if you change the subject contents of an email.

Your instructor is NOT a double-click resource available 24/7. I shall not be answering emails on weekends. If you send a lengthy email not containing a single question mark, or any punctuation at all, I may never answer your email. If your email question requires research on my part, it may take 2-4 days to get to it. It would not be unusual for the email you sent on a Friday evening to not be answered until the next Wednesday.

Course Policies:

This class will adhere to as closely as possible all ARC and Los Rios guidelines set forth in the catalog and/or the schedule of classes.

A document of general course policies for all my classes can be found on the instructor's web site.

Online Labs

Almost all CIS classes require labs. It is the online student's responsibility to complete the lab. Labs will be completed online using the North/Far North community college consortium's NDG Netlab+ labs. Netlab+ will be introduced during lecture.

Labs

Almost all CIS classes require labs. It is the online student's responsibility to complete the lab. Students may complete lab assignments in CSIT Area Computer Labs, room STEM 301, or at another ARC computer lab facility if allowed.

Lab assignments must be completed by the assigned date. Under no circumstances will network, system, hardware, or any other problems of such nature be considered an excuse for turning in late work.

Lab hours/Assistance:


Students may utilize lab time and assistance on campus in the CSIT area computer lab room STEM 301. Check with the CSIT area lab personnel in room STEM 301 for availability. Lab assistance is not tutoring. Tutoring is available on campus; contact the instructor directly regarding tutoring.

Special Note on Cheating

Independent Work Policy: Labs, Projects, Task, Assignments and Exams are designed to measure the progress of individual students. Collaborative work in groups of two or more is prohibited unless the instructions specifically state otherwise.

A student must not copy another student’s work or import work from another student. Do not allow another student to copy your work. Your work must be independent - Failure to work independently will result in all violators’ grades being reduced to zero for that lab, project, task, assignment or exam. Second offence of this policy will be referred to the Area Dean for administrative action.

Online Testing Privilege: Participation in online examinations is a privilege. When a student submits a lab, project, task, assignment, or exam that appears to violate the independent work policy the instructor retains the right to revoke the online exam privilege and direct the student to the American River College Computer Science Lab STEM 301 for on-site testing.

Accommodations

It is critical that every student be provided an environment which is conducive to learning. Please contact the professor if you have any physical or learning disability or other need which might require a special accommodation.

Special Software:

VMware Player, Linux, Packet Tracer, etc.

Completion of the exercises and projects required for this class requires access to a computer loaded with special software, such as the Linux operating system, virtual machine software, packet tracer, or other special software. To complete lab assignments, students may use the ARC CSIT Area Computer Lab, Room STEM 301. It is not necessary to purchase special software, as most of the software is free, open source, or provided at no cost to the student.

Online Discussions

During the semester you will have access to a course website. These websites allow for intraclass communication with other students through messages, online discussions or forums, etc. The instructor in general will not monitor these communications. However, abusive remarks or attacks against others will not be tolerated and will result in disciplinary actions taken by the instructor and/or college.

Attendance Policy

Attendance will be monitored.
As stated in LRCCD Regulation R-2222, a student may be dropped from any class when that student's absences exceed six percent (6%) of the total hours of class time.

Once a student has been dropped from the class (for whatever reason), he or she will not be reinstated.

Drops: Students unable to complete the course are responsible for notifying the Records Office of their withdrawal. Failure to formally drop the course will result in a final grade of 'F'.

Online students will prove attendance by completing work or communication with the instructor using the online learning management course shell messaging system.

If you have extenuating circumstances which prevent you from participating in the class or submitting your assignments, CONTACT THE PROFESSOR IMMEDIATELY!

Course Lesson Plan / Schedule of Topics

This course will follow the book essentially in chapter order. The schedule of topics, chapters to be covered, and assignments due each week shall be listed in the LMS. Students may certainly read ahead, but completion of assignments early will not be allowed or even be possible. Changes to the details of this course schedule most likely will not be reflected on this web page. For online classes, please refer to the Learning Management System for all current updates. For in person classes, the instructor will also make announcements during lecture.

This below schedule is an example only; Refer to the online course management system for all assignment and due dates after the first day of class.


CISC 323 Linux Operating Systems Course Lesson Plan
Week Topics Assignment
Week 1
  • Syllabus Overview
  • Logging on to ARC student accounts
  • Proper shutdown of the PC
  • Logging into Cisco Netacad website
  • Introduction to CLI
  • How the operating system works.
  • History of Unix/Linux
  • Intro to Telnet
  • Intro to VMware
  • Licenses
  • Book: Chapter 1, 2 and 3
  • Assignment in Netspace: Chapter 1 Reading
  • Quiz #1
  • Lab Assignment #1 Due
Week 2
  • Bios
  • Booting the PC
  • Linux Install
  • Desktop overview
  • Using the mouse
  • Navigating the file system
  • Help
  • Book: Chapter 4, 5 and 6
  • Assignment in Netspace: Chapter 2 Reading
  • Quiz #2
  • Lab Assignment #2 Due
Week 3
  • BASH
  • kernels, daemons, shells
  • ASCII, UNICODE, Binary
  • Shell Prompt Basics
  • Command line syntax
  • man
  • Utilities
  • Book: Chapter 7 and 8
  • Assignment in Netspace: Chapter 3 Reading
  • Quiz #3
  • Lab Assignment #3 Due
Week 4
  • GUI
  • X windows
  • KDE
  • GNOME
  • file security
  • Editors
  • vi
  • Book: Chapter 9, 11 and 12
  • Assignment in Netspace: Chapter 4 Reading and Lab
  • Quiz #4
  • Lab Assignment #4 Due
Week 5
  • File Structures
  • Inodes
  • Accessing & mounting CD's and floppy disks
  • More Shell Prompt Commands
  • Book: Chapter 13 and 15
  • Assignment in Netspace: Chapter 5 Reading and Lab
  • Quiz #5
  • Lab Assignment #5 Due
Week 6
  • Applications
  • Operating system services for applications programs
  • Processes: Parent and child, forks, background and foreground
  • Printing
  • Video
  • Book: Chapter 16, 17 and 20
  • Assignment in Netspace: Chapter 6 Reading and Lab
  • Quiz #6
  • Lab Assignment #6 Due
Week 7
  • Installing packages
  • Alternate procedures for installing software
  • Upgrades
  • User accounts
  • Standard output and input
  • Intro to script files
  • Book: Chapter 10, 21 and 22
  • Assignment in Netspace: Chapter 7 Reading and Lab
  • Quiz #7
  • Lab Assignment #7 Due
Week 8
  • Preparing for "emergencies" on your PC: backups, what to backup, how to restore it.
  • Linux Web sites
  • Book: Chapter 14, 18 and 24
  • Assignment in Netspace: Chapter 8 Reading and Lab
  • Quiz #8
  • Lab Assignment #8 Due
  • Lab Final Exam
  • Final Exam
  • NO Assignments accepted after the final

After the start of class, use only the schedule in the learning managment system. Current Homework/Projects/Lab Assignments and Discussion assignments and due dates will be specified in the learning management system.

Documents turned-in:


When turning in work in hard copy or electronic form, please include a header on the top of the page with the following information:

Your Name Assignment #
CISC 323 Page # of #

Also, when contacting the instructor via email, be sure to include the class number in the subject line, i.e. CISC 323.

Evaluation and Grading

The grade in this course will be determined by student performance in each of the following areas, and weighted as described in the following charts.
Grade Assessment Weighting
Quizzes
 (175 points) 35%
Lab Assignments
 (175 points) 35%
Final Examination/Lab Final (150 points) 30%
Grade Assignment by Total Points
Points Obtained Total % Grade
Assigned
451+ 90% A
401+ 80% B
351+ 70% C
301+ 60% D
less than 300 below 60% F

Extra Credit Work

There will be no extra credit work given in this class. A student's grade is based solely upon the regularly assigned work in the class: homework, lab assignments, projects, quizzes, and examinations.

Grades Available Online

Grades will never be sent out by email.
Most grades for individual assignments will be available during the semester through the learning management system used for the class.
At the end of the semester, final grades will only be accessible through the ARC eServices system.
Be aware that the instructor does not have complete control over the total grade section of the gradebook in Canvas LMS, and unfortunately your total reported in Canvas might not be an up-to-date or accurate reflection of your current grade in the course.

Late Adds

Students who add the course after the first day are still responsible for content missed in lectures and other material or media. The instructor will not repeat a lecture for students who add late.

If the due date has passed for an assignment or exam, and the student missed the assignment because the student had not yet added the course, the student will not be allowed to make up the assignment, and the student will start the course will a score of zero on the missed assignment or exams. If a late student does not agree with this policy, then the student should wait to take the course the following semester.

Policy on Late Work and Makeup Exams

Note for online exams: The Canvas online learning management system allows for due dates on assignment or exams. Unfortunately, the system will report an exam or assignment as 'not activated' after the due date has passed and the student can no longer take the exam.

No late work will be accepted.
No make up quizzes or exams will be given.
NO Assignments accepted after the final

Caveat

The professor reserves the right to change any of the details of this course syllabus or the course schedule with a minimum of advance notice.

Passing the Course

Last Updated: 21 January 2025