I answered this in the other post, so this is a copy and paste as some may not have access to the other forum:
For RH124 there are two that students really struggle with:
The filesystem hierarchy standard (how directories and files are stored). Until they take my class, 99.9% of them have never encountered a command line and how to use it to navigate the filesystem using CLI commands. Until now, it's all been GUI and drag 'n' drop for them. They have a hard time visualizing it.
The next is vim. That's almost a 'nuff said. The reasons are mostly the same: they’ve not had to use a command line driven text editor. Then throw in that vim is modal, unlike any other editor they’ve used up to then, and they struggle.
There are two in RH134:
SELinux (see Trevor’s post). I don’t think it is horrible. I think I’ve “massaged” the information to make it easier for students to understand. Troubleshooting SELinux is very hard for most students; not because it’s inherently hard but because most of the students in my classes (those right out of high school) haven’t been taught to think critically or problem solve. They don’t know how to gather data (like information in log files), analyze the data, devise a solution, and implement the solution. (I’m a trained troubleshooter, having spent many months in US Navy schools honing the skills and many years afterwards using them.)
The chapter on network storage (autofs) really throws people off. It requires time to get proficient at it – usually more time that I can provide in the classroom before we must move on to the next chapter. Also, autofs is, well, kind of weird in how it implements all the mapping files and what goes into which file, when, and why. Interestingly, my most popular RHEL explanation video is on this topic (I posted a link on RHLC a few years ago and people are still watching it).
Program Lead at Arizona's first Red Hat Academy, est. 2005
Estrella Mountain Community College
