Rating: 
Summary: An easy choice...
Review: ..while looking for a book to use to study for this exam, I visited the LPI site - those behind the certification. I found the list of 50 things to know for the exam excerpted from this book. If the vendor thought enough of the book to post such, that was a good enough recommendation for me. After taking the exam, I found why the book is so highly recommended - without a doubt, I would have failed had it not been for the pertinent information relayed here.
Rating: 
Summary: outrageous
Review: 1. Chapter on vi - page 122 "who wants to work with such an application ( vi ) when word processors such as Miscosoft Word exist". This not only shows his ignorance about Linux, but also about Programming and System Administration. Author doesn t know that even Visual Basic Programmers do not use MS word to type in their program. Only clerks and non technical managers use MS word. 2. The chapter on printers is too funny - all it is a printout of printcap and lpd.perms files. Even the man pages would have been much more helpful. Even the questions at the end of the chapter cannot be answered from reading the chapter ( lpq is given in some vague one liner in the utility summation. But there is a question appearing on it. ) 3. Page 146 "This utility ( lp ) still exists and is included in many versions of Linux, but is generally overlooked in favor of lpr, which is a newer utility with more-logical options." the same chapter page 160 " lpr - An ancestor to lp, it allows you to submit jobs for printing" 4. Only the output of the commands are shown not the commands themselves, that leaves you wonder what command did the Author type. 5. Two and a half pages are dedicated towards graphical configuration of printers - which is not part of the exam. This is just an example from a 15 page chapter I read today Every chapter is filled with mistakes and useless printouts. I am really surprised that there are people out there who gave this 5 stars ( Unless they are authors themselves with fake ids ).
Rating: 
Summary: Helpful, but pay attention
Review: After LPI 101, it seemed like I needed something to help me study for 102. This seemed like my best bet. It certainly did prepare me for passing the test, but not by a huge margin. Don't expect to be seeing a 700+ score if you're depending on this to get you there.
Another problem is that there are a lot of errors within the book itself, especially the review questions. You'll find yourself being told you answered a question wrong, only to flip back a few pages and see the answer you'd given. Another problem is that the typeface was poorly selected for much of the book. There is no visible difference between a capitol i and a lowercase L, for example. When you're dealing with command switches, that can be a significant issue. There are also a number of typos that nobody caught in editing. All in all, it was helpful, and I would recommend the book. But pay attention; don't take everything as fact.
Rating:
Summary: Authors need to learn about Linux and Unix
Review: At page # 231, a 2 page printout appears out of nowhere. This is the printout of the Xaccess file from red-hat distribution. What is fully is that there is no explanation at all about the meaning of various terms used. Choser, indirect query etc. So I went elsewhere to understand what these words mean. Then it turns out that the authors themselves have no clue what they are. They say.. "The Choser broadcasts that it is available and X terminals or X servers can connect to it for an X Session" Actually choser is a program that relays the indirect XDMCP query to a bunch of hosts ( as XDMCP direct queries ) ( normally broadcast address of the network ) on the behalf of the requesting display, and sends the responses back to the display as a list of hosts providing XDMCP display management. Later the authors treat "choser queries" and "XDMCP queries" as if they are different. Page 235 : "you must comment out this line to have xdm actually listen for chooser and XDMCP requests". Also later while talking about kdm, he says.. "if you are using KDE interface for X" ( KDE is a window manager and not an "interface" ( You will see these kind of vague usages throughout the book ) Same sentence states that "if you are using the KDE interface for X, making the changes to xdm-config or to Xresources will not have the desired effect". But the very next paragraph says : "The kdm application uses the same files as xdm and works in the same manner". Sad that this book has been printed at all...
Rating:
Summary: Errors!
Review: Here's a good example of how bad this book is because of all the errors. Chapter 8 is a review of the basics of the bash shell. It says on page 173 "Processes are covered in great detail in Chapter 6...". Chapter 6 in this book is about the vi editor, not processes, but Chapter 6 in the Exam Cram LPI 101 book is all about processes. They are just copying and pasting out of another book at this point, and they obviously aren't proof reading it. There are TONS of errors in this book. This is the worst Exam Cram book of all time!
Rating:
Summary: Errors!
Review: Here's a good example of how bad this book is because of all the errors. Chapter 8 is a review of the basics of the bash shell. It says on page 173 "Processes are covered in great detail in Chapter 6...". Chapter 6 in this book is about the vi editor, not processes, but Chapter 6 in the Exam Cram LPI 101 book is all about processes. They are just copying and pasting out of another book at this point, and they obviously aren't proof reading it. There are TONS of errors in this book. This is the worst Exam Cram book of all time!
Rating:
Summary: The only thing between you and LPI
Review: I first used the LPI I Exam Cram to pass the first test - you need to pass two to become LPI certified. After that, it was a no-brainer to pick up the second book by the same author. Once again, I was not disappointed. As a consultant, I must know both Microsoft and Linux operating systems, and be able to differentiate details down to the most minute. This book helped me do that with Linux - and pass the exam to become certified.
Rating:
Summary: Good Content; Good Writing
Review: I happened across this book while reading an excerpt from it in UnixReview. LPI had just starting shipping certificates (what good is a certification without a certificate?), so I decided to see just how hard the exams were. I have been a Unix junkie for about ten years, and a Linux convert for two. Before buying anything, I looked at my reference library and found that Chris Hare and Emmett Dulaney - the same two authors here - had written Inside Unix; one of the only books that has had the staying power to still be a good reference seven years after I bought it. Without hesitation, I bought the LPI I and II Exam Crams and found the writing style and knowledge to be of the same high calibre. Epilogue: I passed both exams the first time out.
Rating:
Summary: Not a great book, but it did what I needed.
Review: I just completed my Linux Professional Institute Certification Exam. I passed by a wide margin. I do have extensive experience in UNIX but only a little in Linux. I used the Exam Cram books as my exclusive preparation for the test. I came away much less satisfied with "LPI General Linux II Exam Cram" then I was with the book for the first test, "LPI General Linux I Exam Cram". The book was very uneven with some chapters doing a good job and others with very little in the way of content. There are some minor problems with the book; the occasional inaccuracy and an unfortunate choice for the font which made it impossible to differentiate between certain letters; but the major problem with the book is lack of content in certain important chapters. It still provides a good framework for study so it is far from worthless but it could me much better.
Rating:
Summary: Hastily put together
Review: I was very disappointed with this latest ExamCram book. I used The General Linux I ExamCram and felt that it was very helpful for the 101 exam. This book was almost a detriment to my successful passing of the 102 exam. There were constant technical errors (how much work can it be to do one more proofread??) and the font chosen for the book made it difficult to trust many of the edicts since 1 and l could not be differentiated and spaces were difficult to determine. Additionally, I saw very little of the material in the book on the actual test. I recommend waiting for a more complete, technically correct reference.
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