It is always a good practice to know the hardware components of your
Linux system is running on, this helps you to deal with compatibility
issues when it comes to installing packages, drivers on your system.
10 Commands to Check Hardware and System Information in Linux
Therefore in this
tips and tricks,
we shall look at some useful commands that can help you to extract
information about your Linux system and hardware components.
1. How to View Linux System Information
To know only system name, you can use
uname command without any switch will print system information or
uname -s command will print the kernel name of your system.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname
Linux
To view your network hostname, use
‘-n’ switch with uname command as shown.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname -n
tecmint.com
To get information about kernel-version, use
‘-v’ switch.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname -v
#64-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 22 21:28:38 UTC 2014
To get the information about your kernel release, use
‘-r’ switch.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname -r
3.13.0-37-generic
To print your machine hardware name, use
‘-m’ switch:
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname -m
x86_64
All this information can be printed at once by running
‘uname -a’ command as shown below.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname -a
Linux tecmint.com 3.13.0-37-generic #64-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 22 21:28:38 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
2. How to View Linux System Hardware Information
Here you can use the
lshw tool to gather vast information about your hardware components such as
cpu,
disks,
memory,
usb controllers etc.
lshw is a relatively small tool and there are few
options that you can use with it while extracting information. The
information provided by
lshw gathered form different
/proc files.
Note: Do remember that the
lshw command executed by superuser (
root) or
sudo user.
Read Also:
Difference Between su and sudo User in Linux
To print information about your Linux system hardware, run this command.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo lshw
tecmint.com
description: Notebook
product: 20354 (LENOVO_MT_20354_BU_idea_FM_Lenovo Z50-70)
vendor: LENOVO
version: Lenovo Z50-70
serial: 1037407803441
width: 64 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.7 dmi-2.7 vsyscall32
configuration: administrator_password=disabled boot=normal chassis=notebook family=IDEAPAD frontpanel_password=disabled keyboard_password=disabled power-on_password=disabled sku=LENOVO_MT_20354_BU_idea_FM_Lenovo Z50-70 uuid=E4B1D229-D237-E411-9F6E-28D244EBBD98
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: Lancer 5A5
vendor: LENOVO
physical id: 0
version: 31900059WIN
serial: YB06377069
slot: Type2 - Board Chassis Location
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: LENOVO
physical id: 0
version: 9BCN26WW
date: 07/31/2014
size: 128KiB
capacity: 4032KiB
capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect edd int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int9keyboard int10video acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
......
You can print a summary of your hardware information by using the
-short option.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo lshw -short
H/W path Device Class Description
=====================================================
system 20354 (LENOVO_MT_20354_BU_idea_FM_Lenovo Z50-70)
/0 bus Lancer 5A5
/0/0 memory 128KiB BIOS
/0/4 processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70GHz
/0/4/b memory 32KiB L1 cache
/0/4/c memory 256KiB L2 cache
/0/4/d memory 3MiB L3 cache
/0/a memory 32KiB L1 cache
/0/12 memory 8GiB System Memory
/0/12/0 memory DIMM [empty]
/0/12/1 memory DIMM [empty]
/0/12/2 memory 8GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns)
/0/12/3 memory DIMM [empty]
/0/100 bridge Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller
/0/100/2 display Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller
/0/100/3 multimedia Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller
...
If you wish to generate output as a html file, you can use the option
-html.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo lshw -html > lshw.html
Generate Linux Hardware Information in HTML
3. How to View Linux CPU Information
To view information about your CPU, use the lscpu command as it shows
information about your CPU architecture such as number of CPU’s, cores,
CPU family model, CPU caches, threads, etc from
sysfs and
/proc/cpuinfo.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lscpu
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
CPU(s): 4
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-3
Thread(s) per core: 2
Core(s) per socket: 2
Socket(s): 1
NUMA node(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 69
Stepping: 1
CPU MHz: 768.000
BogoMIPS: 4788.72
Virtualization: VT-x
L1d cache: 32K
L1i cache: 32K
L2 cache: 256K
L3 cache: 3072K
NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-3
4. How to Collect Linux Block Device Information
Block devices are storage devices such as hard disks, flash drives etc.
lsblk command is used to report information about block devices as follows.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 1000M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 260M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda3 8:3 0 1000M 0 part
├─sda4 8:4 0 128M 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 557.1G 0 part
├─sda6 8:6 0 25G 0 part
├─sda7 8:7 0 14.7G 0 part
├─sda8 8:8 0 1M 0 part
├─sda9 8:9 0 324.5G 0 part /
└─sda10 8:10 0 7.9G 0 part [SWAP]
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
If you want to view all block devices on your system then include the
-a option.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lsblk -a
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 1000M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 260M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda3 8:3 0 1000M 0 part
├─sda4 8:4 0 128M 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 557.1G 0 part
├─sda6 8:6 0 25G 0 part
├─sda7 8:7 0 14.7G 0 part
├─sda8 8:8 0 1M 0 part
├─sda9 8:9 0 324.5G 0 part /
└─sda10 8:10 0 7.9G 0 part [SWAP]
sdb 8:16 1 0 disk
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
ram0 1:0 0 64M 0 disk
ram1 1:1 0 64M 0 disk
ram2 1:2 0 64M 0 disk
ram3 1:3 0 64M 0 disk
ram4 1:4 0 64M 0 disk
ram5 1:5 0 64M 0 disk
ram6 1:6 0 64M 0 disk
ram7 1:7 0 64M 0 disk
ram8 1:8 0 64M 0 disk
ram9 1:9 0 64M 0 disk
loop0 7:0 0 0 loop
loop1 7:1 0 0 loop
loop2 7:2 0 0 loop
loop3 7:3 0 0 loop
loop4 7:4 0 0 loop
loop5 7:5 0 0 loop
loop6 7:6 0 0 loop
loop7 7:7 0 0 loop
ram10 1:10 0 64M 0 disk
ram11 1:11 0 64M 0 disk
ram12 1:12 0 64M 0 disk
ram13 1:13 0 64M 0 disk
ram14 1:14 0 64M 0 disk
ram15 1:15 0 64M 0 disk
5. How to Print USB Controllers Information
The
lsusb command is used to report information about USB controllers and all the devices that are connected to them.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0bda:b728 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 5986:0249 Acer, Inc
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:0129 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5129 Card Reader Controller
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:00cb Microsoft Corp. Basic Optical Mouse v2.0
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
You can use the
-v option to generate a detailed information about each USB device.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lsusb -v
6. How to Print PCI Devices Information
PCI devices may included usb ports, graphics cards, network adapters etc. The
lspci tool is used to generate information concerning all PCI controllers on your system plus the devices that are connected to them.
To print information about PCI devices run the following command.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller (rev 0b)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0b)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller (rev 0b)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP USB xHCI HC (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP HECI #0 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP HD Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev e4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev e4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev e4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
03:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM108M [GeForce 840M] (rev a2)
Use the
-t option to produce output in a tree format.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lspci -t
-[0000:00]-+-00.0
+-02.0
+-03.0
+-14.0
+-16.0
+-1b.0
+-1c.0-[01]----00.0
+-1c.3-[02]----00.0
+-1c.4-[03]----00.0
+-1d.0
+-1f.0
+-1f.2
\-1f.3
Use the
-v option to produce detailed information about each connected device.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller (rev 0b)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3978
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0b) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 380d
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 62
Memory at c3000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at 6000 [size=64]
Expansion ROM at [disabled]
Capabilities:
Kernel driver in use: i915
.....
7. How to Print SCSI Devices Information
To view all your scsi/sata devices, use the
lsscsi command as follows. If you do not have
lsscsi tool installed, run the following command to install it.
$ sudo apt-get install lsscsi [on Debian derivatives]
# yum install lsscsi [On RedHat based systems]
# dnf install lsscsi [On Fedora 21+ Onwards]
After install, run the
lsscsi command as shown:
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lsscsi
[0:0:0:0] disk ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M 2BA3 /dev/sda
[1:0:0:0] cd/dvd PLDS DVD-RW DA8A5SH RL61 /dev/sr0
[4:0:0:0] disk Generic- xD/SD/M.S. 1.00 /dev/sdb
Use the
-s option to show device sizes.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ lsscsi -s
[0:0:0:0] disk ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M 2BA3 /dev/sda 1.00TB
[1:0:0:0] cd/dvd PLDS DVD-RW DA8A5SH RL61 /dev/sr0 -
[4:0:0:0] disk Generic- xD/SD/M.S. 1.00 /dev/sdb -
8. How to Print Information about SATA Devices
You can find some information about sata devices on your system as follows using the
hdparm utility. In the example below, I used the block device
/dev/sda1 which the harddisk on my system.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo hdparm /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1:
multcount = 0 (off)
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 56065/255/63, sectors = 2048000, start = 2048
To print information about device geometry interms of cylinders,
heads, sectors, size and the starting offset of the device, use the
-g option.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo hdparm -g /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1:
geometry = 56065/255/63, sectors = 2048000, start = 2048
9. How to Print Linux File System Information
To gather information about file system partitions, you can use
fdisk command. Although the main functionality of
fdisk
command is to modify file system partitions, it can also be used to
view information about the different partitions on your file system.
You can print partition information as follows. Remember to run the command as a superuser or else you may not see any output.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo fdisk -l
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xcee8ad92
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1953525167 976762583+ ee GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
10. How to Extract Information about Hardware Components
You can also use the
dmidecode utility to extract hardware information by reading data from the DMI tables.
To print information about memory, run this command as a superuser.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo dmidecode -t memory
# dmidecode 2.12
# SMBIOS entry point at 0xaaebef98
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0005, DMI type 5, 24 bytes
Memory Controller Information
Error Detecting Method: None
Error Correcting Capabilities:
None
Supported Interleave: One-way Interleave
Current Interleave: One-way Interleave
Maximum Memory Module Size: 8192 MB
Maximum Total Memory Size: 32768 MB
Supported Speeds:
Other
Supported Memory Types:
Other
Memory Module Voltage: Unknown
Associated Memory Slots: 4
0x0006
0x0007
0x0008
0x0009
Enabled Error Correcting Capabilities:
None
...
To print information about system, run this command.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo dmidecode -t system
# dmidecode 2.12
# SMBIOS entry point at 0xaaebef98
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 20354
Version: Lenovo Z50-70
Serial Number: 1037407803441
UUID: 29D2B1E4-37D2-11E4-9F6E-28D244EBBD98
Wake-up Type: Power Switch
SKU Number: LENOVO_MT_20354_BU_idea_FM_Lenovo Z50-70
Family: IDEAPAD
...
To print information about BIOS, run this command.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo dmidecode -t bios
# dmidecode 2.12
# SMBIOS entry point at 0xaaebef98
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
Vendor: LENOVO
Version: 9BCN26WW
Release Date: 07/31/2014
Address: 0xE0000
Runtime Size: 128 kB
ROM Size: 4096 kB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
EDD is supported
Japanese floppy for NEC 9800 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
Japanese floppy for Toshiba 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
5.25"/360 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
Targeted content distribution is supported
UEFI is supported
BIOS Revision: 0.26
Firmware Revision: 0.26
...
To print information about processor, run this command.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo dmidecode -t processor
# dmidecode 2.12
# SMBIOS entry point at 0xaaebef98
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 42 bytes
Processor Information
Socket Designation: U3E1
Type: Central Processor
Family: Core i5
Manufacturer: Intel(R) Corporation
ID: 51 06 04 00 FF FB EB BF
Signature: Type 0, Family 6, Model 69, Stepping 1
Flags:
...
Summary
There are many other ways you can use to obtain information about
your system hardware components. Most of these commands use files in the
/proc directory to extract system information.
Hope you find this tips and tricks useful and remember to post a
comment in case you want to add more information to this or if you face
any difficulties in using any of the commands. Remember to always stay
connected to
Tecmint.
