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Step 1 — Terminal Basics (Ubuntu 24)

Type along exactly as shown. This step is written for absolute beginners and assumes no prior Linux experience.
Estimated time: ~10–15 minutes

What you’ll learn

What the terminal and the shell are
How to open and close a terminal
How to find your current shell and username
How to run basic commands safely
How to read the command prompt and use helpful keyboard shortcuts

This expands the original brief step (“Open terminal → echo $SHELL → whoami → exit”) into a guided mini-lesson with checks, expected outputs, and troubleshooting.

Prerequisites

Ubuntu 24 (or a similar Linux distribution)
A keyboard and mouse (no admin/sudo needed for this step)
Willingness to try and make small mistakes (that’s normal!)

1) Open the Terminal

You can open the terminal in three easy ways — choose the one you like:

Press Ctrl + Alt + T (keyboard shortcut).
Click Activities (top-left) → type terminal → click Terminal.
Open Applications menu → Terminal (or GNOME Terminal).

Expected view: A window with a prompt like:

yourname@your-computer:~$

yourname is your username (who you are)
your-computer is the hostname (your machine’s name)
~ means your home directory (e.g., /home/yourname)
$ is the standard prompt for regular users (a # indicates the root/admin shell — you won’t use root here)

If your prompt looks a bit different, that’s okay—Linux allows customization. The ideas are the same.

2) Meet Your Shell

The shell is a program that reads your commands and runs them. In Ubuntu it’s usually Bash.

Find which shell you are using:

echo $SHELL

Expected output (typical):

/bin/bash

echo prints text
$SHELL is an environment variable that stores the path to your current shell

Alternative cross-check (nice to know):

ps -p $$ -o comm=

Prints the name of the program running your current shell (bash, zsh, etc.)

Tip: Commands are case-sensitive. Echo or ECHO won’t work; use echo in lowercase.

3) Who Am I? Where Am I?

Show your login name:

whoami

Expected output (your actual username):

yourname

Show your current folder (directory):

pwd

Expected output (your home):

/home/yourname

Remember: ~ is a shortcut for your home directory. cd ~ and cd (with no arguments) both take you home.

4) Try a Few Safe Commands

Type each command and press Enter. Don’t worry—these are read-only.

date          # shows the current date and time
ls            # lists files/folders in the current directory
ls -la        # lists everything in long form, including hidden “dotfiles”
clear         # clears your screen (or press Ctrl+L)

If you want to see what a command does:

man ls        # the manual for ls (press q to quit)
ls --help     # quick built-in help for ls
help echo     # help for bash built-in command "echo"

How to read errors: If you see a line like command not found, check your spelling and spaces. Linux cares about lowercase vs uppercase.

5) Keyboard Superpowers (Optional but Very Useful)

↑ / ↓: browse history (commands you already typed)
Tab: auto-complete file/command names (press twice to list options)
Ctrl + A: jump to start of line
Ctrl + E: jump to end of line
Ctrl + U: clear from cursor back to start
Ctrl + K: clear from cursor forward to end
Ctrl + W: delete the previous word
Ctrl + L: clear screen (same as clear)
Ctrl + C: cancel/interrupt a running command (do not use while saving in editors)

Try it: Type ec then press Tab — if echo is the only match, your shell completes the word for you.

6) Practice: Your First Echo

echo prints whatever you give it. Try these:

echo Hello, Linux!
echo "Quoting keeps words together like this: two words"
echo $HOME           # prints your home directory path
echo $USER           # prints your username (same as whoami)

What happened?

Without quotes, the shell splits by spaces
With quotes "...", the shell treats the content as one unit
$ means “expand this variable” ($HOME, $USER, $SHELL, $PATH are common ones)

7) Close the Terminal (Two Safe Ways)

Type:

exit

Or press Ctrl + D (sends “end-of-input”, which ends the shell)

If you had any running programs in the foreground, the shell will usually warn you.

Troubleshooting

Q: I typed WhoAmI and got “command not found.”
A: Commands are case-sensitive. Type whoami (all lowercase).

Q: I see Permission denied.
A: You tried to access something you don’t have rights to. In this step, just practice with safe commands (echo, whoami, pwd).

Q: My terminal is “stuck.”
A: A command might still be running. Press Ctrl + C to cancel. If that doesn’t work, close the terminal window.

Q: My prompt ends with #. Is that bad?
A: That means you’re in a root (administrator) shell. Close the terminal and open a new one. For learning, stay as a regular user ($ prompt).

Quick Quiz (1 minute)

What does $SHELL store?
How do you show your username?
What does ~ represent?
Which key shows your previous command?
Two ways to exit the terminal?

Answers (hover/select to reveal): $SHELL is your shell path; whoami; ~ = home directory; Up Arrow; exit and Ctrl + D.

Next Step

You’re ready for Step 2 — Navigation & File Operations.
Keep this terminal open; we’ll continue in the same window.

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