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How-To Software Technical

How to get information about hardware on Linux

The dmidecode command reads the system DMI table to display hardware and BIOS information of the server. Apart from getting current configuration of the system, you can also get information about maximum supported configuration of the system using dmidecode. For example, dmidecode gives both the current RAM on the system and the maximum RAM supported by the system.

Here are some sample command use

Find baseboard information

root@websvr:~# dmidecode --type baseboard
# dmidecode 2.11
SMBIOS 2.4 present.
Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
 Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
 Product Name: 440BX Desktop Reference Platform
 Version: None
 Serial Number: None
 Asset Tag: Not Specified
 Features: None
 Location In Chassis: Not Specified
 Chassis Handle: 0x0000
 Type: Unknown
 Contained Object Handles: 0
Handle 0x007F, DMI type 10, 8 bytes
On Board Device 1 Information
 Type: Video
 Status: Disabled
 Description: VMware SVGA II
On Board Device 2 Information
 Type: Sound
 Status: Disabled
 Description: ES1371

List info about the bios

root@websvr:~# dmidecode --type bios
# dmidecode 2.11
SMBIOS 2.4 present.
Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
 Vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
 Version: 6.00
 Release Date: 09/21/2011
 Address: 0xE72C0
 Runtime Size: 101696 bytes
 ROM Size: 64 kB
 Characteristics:
 ISA is supported
 PCI is supported
 PC Card (PCMCIA) is supported
 PNP is supported
 APM is supported
 BIOS is upgradeable
 BIOS shadowing is allowed
 ESCD support is available
 Boot from CD is supported
 Selectable boot is supported
 EDD is supported
 Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
 8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
 Serial services are supported (int 14h)
 Printer services are supported (int 17h)
 CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
 ACPI is supported
 Smart battery is supported
 BIOS boot specification is supported
 Function key-initiated network boot is supported
 Targeted content distribution is supported
 BIOS Revision: 4.6
 Firmware Revision: 0.0

And here is a list of valid keywords types

root@websvr:~# dmidecode --type list
Invalid type keyword: list
Valid type keywords are:
 bios
 system
 baseboard
 chassis
 processor
 memory
 cache
 connector
 slot

As always; I hope this helps some of you. For me these are just notes so I have a place to turn to for reminders.