Hardware information

In linux system, there are many commands that can be used to query the hardware information of the host. Some commands are only for specific hardware components, such as cpu, memory and so on. Some commands can query a lot of hardware information.

This post is a brief introduction to the most commonly used commands for querying hardware information, including lscpu,hwinfo,lshw,dmidecode,lspci, etc.

1. lscpu

The lscpu command can be used to query the details of the processor's cpu by simply entering the lscpu. As shown below, it does not provide more options and functions to choose from.

$ 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:    1


Core(s) per socket:    4


Socket(s):             1


NUMA node(s):          1


Vendor ID:             GenuineIntel


CPU family:            6


Model:                 23


Stepping:              10


CPU MHz:               1998.000


BogoMIPS:              5302.48


Virtualization:        VT-x


L1d cache:             32K


L1i cache:             32K


L2 cache:              2048K


NUMA node0 CPU(s):     0-3

2. lshw - Display hardware information list

This command is widely used. It can list the parameters of many different hardware in detail or in summary according to your needs, including cpu, memory, disk, usb controller, network card, etc. lshw is essentially extracting the corresponding hardware information from different files in the / proc file directory.

$ sudo lshw -short

 

H/W path        Device      Class       Description

===================================================

                        system      ()


/0                          bus         DG35EC


/0/0                        processor   Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q8400  @ 2.66GHz


/0/0/1                      memory      2MiB L2 cache


/0/0/3                      memory      32KiB L1 cache


/0/2                        memory      32KiB L1 cache


/0/4                        memory      64KiB BIOS


/0/14                       memory      8GiB System Memory


/0/14/0                     memory      2GiB DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)


/0/14/1                     memory      2GiB DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)


/0/14/2                     memory      2GiB DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)


/0/14/3                     memory      2GiB DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)


/0/100                      bridge      82G35 Express DRAM Controller


/0/100/2                    display     82G35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller


/0/100/2.1                  display     82G35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller


/0/100/19       eth0        network     82566DC Gigabit Network Connection


/0/100/1a                   bus         82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4


/0/100/1a.1                 bus         82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5


/0/100/1a.7                 bus         82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2


/0/100/1b                   multimedia  82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller


/0/100/1c                   bridge      82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1


/0/100/1c.1                 bridge      82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2


/0/100/1c.2                 bridge      82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3


/0/100/1c.2/0               storage     JMB368 IDE controller


/0/100/1d                   bus         82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1


/0/100/1d.1                 bus         82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2


/0/100/1d.2                 bus         82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3


/0/100/1d.7                 bus         82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1


/0/100/1e                   bridge      82801 PCI Bridge


/0/100/1e/5                 bus         FW322/323 [TrueFire] 1394a Controller


/0/100/1f                   bridge      82801HB/HR (ICH8/R) LPC Interface Controller


/0/100/1f.2                 storage     82801H (ICH8 Family) 4 port SATA Controller [IDE mode]


/0/100/1f.3                 bus         82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller


/0/100/1f.5                 storage     82801HR/HO/HH (ICH8R/DO/DH) 2 port SATA Controller [IDE m


/0/1            scsi3       storage     


/0/1/0.0.0      /dev/sda    disk        500GB ST3500418AS


/0/1/0.0.0/1    /dev/sda1   volume      70GiB Windows NTFS volume


/0/1/0.0.0/2    /dev/sda2   volume      395GiB Extended partition


/0/1/0.0.0/2/5  /dev/sda5   volume      97GiB HPFS/NTFS partition


/0/1/0.0.0/2/6  /dev/sda6   volume      97GiB Linux filesystem partition


/0/1/0.0.0/2/7  /dev/sda7   volume      1952MiB Linux swap / Solaris partition


/0/1/0.0.0/2/8  /dev/sda8   volume      198GiB Linux filesystem partition


/0/3            scsi4       storage     


/0/3/0.0.0      /dev/cdrom  disk        DVD RW DRU-190A

Click on the following post to learn more about lshw.

Using lshw command to get hardware information on Linux

3. hwinfo - Hardware Information

hwinfo is also a very widely used hardware information query command, similar to lshw, which can also report hardware information of multiple components in detail or in summary, but different from lshw, it can sometimes give more information than lshw.

$ hwinfo --short


cpu:                                                            


                       Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q8400  @ 2.66GHz, 2000 MHz


                       Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q8400  @ 2.66GHz, 2000 MHz


                       Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q8400  @ 2.66GHz, 2666 MHz


                       Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q8400  @ 2.66GHz, 2666 MHz


keyboard:


  /dev/input/event2    AT Translated Set 2 keyboard


mouse:


  /dev/input/mice      Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse v2.0


graphics card:


                       Intel 965G-1


                       Intel 82G35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller


sound:


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller


storage:


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller


                       JMicron JMB368 IDE controller


network:


  eth0                 Intel 82566DC Gigabit Network Connection


network interface:


  eth0                 Ethernet network interface


  lo                   Loopback network interface


disk:


  /dev/sda             ST3500418AS


partition:


  /dev/sda1            Partition


  /dev/sda2            Partition


  /dev/sda5            Partition


  /dev/sda6            Partition


  /dev/sda7            Partition


  /dev/sda8            Partition


cdrom:


  /dev/sr0             SONY DVD RW DRU-190A


usb controller:


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3


                       Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1


bios:

                       BIOS
 

... TRUNCATED ...

Click on the link below to see more information about hwinfo.

Using hwinfo command to get hardware information on Linux

4. lspci - Display pci bus related information

The lscpi command lists the information on the pci bus and all the device information connected to the pci bus, such as VGA adapters, graphics cards, network cards, usb ports, sata controllers, etc.

$ lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82G35 Express DRAM Controller (rev 03)


00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82G35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)


00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82G35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)


00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566DC Gigabit Network Connection (rev 02)


00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)


00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)


00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)


00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)


00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)


00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)


00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)


00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)


00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)


00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)


00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)


00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev f2)


00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HB/HR (ICH8/R) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)


00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) 4 port SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02)


00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)


00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HR/HO/HH (ICH8R/DO/DH) 2 port SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02)


03:00.0 IDE interface: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB368 IDE controller


04:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): LSI Corporation FW322/323 [TrueFire] 1394a Controller (rev 70)

You can use the grep command to filter out specific device information.

$ lspci -v | grep "VGA" -A 12

5. lsscsi - List scsi device information

List information about scsi/sata devices, such as hard disk drives and optical disk drives.

$ lsscsi

[3:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      ST3500418AS      CC38  /dev/sda 


[4:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  SONY     DVD RW DRU-190A  1.63  /dev/sr0

6. lsusb - lists usb bus information and device information

This command can display USB controller and device information connected to the control. By default, only the outline information is displayed, which can be indicated by the - v option to display more hardware information.

$ lsusb

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub


Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


Bus 005 Device 002: ID 045e:00cb Microsoft Corp. Basic Optical Mouse v2.0


Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub


Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

The above information shows that in this system, a usb port is being occupied by the mouse.

7. Inxi

inxi command is a large bash script file. It can get hardware information from different information sources and commands. Finally, it can give a brightly colored hardware information report that is suitable for non-professionals to read.

$ inxi -Fx

8. lsblk - Lists block device information

List all block device information, including hard disk partition information, and other storage devices, such as CD, flash, etc.

$ lsblk

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT


sda      8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk 


├─sda1   8:1    0    70G  0 part 


├─sda2   8:2    0     1K  0 part 


├─sda5   8:5    0  97.7G  0 part /media/4668484A68483B47


├─sda6   8:6    0  97.7G  0 part /


├─sda7   8:7    0   1.9G  0 part [SWAP]


└─sda8   8:8    0 198.5G  0 part /media/13f35f59-f023-4d98-b06f-9dfaebefd6c1


sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom




9. df - Display disk space information of file system
Report various mounted file system information, including Mount points, used and available disk space.


$ df -H


Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on


/dev/sda6       104G   26G   73G  26% /


none            4.1k     0  4.1k   0% /sys/fs/cgroup


udev            4.2G  4.1k  4.2G   1% /dev


tmpfs           837M  1.6M  835M   1% /run


none            5.3M     0  5.3M   0% /run/lock


none            4.2G   13M  4.2G   1% /run/shm


none            105M   21k  105M   1% /run/user


/dev/sda8       210G  149G   51G  75% /media/13f35f59-f023-4d98-b06f-9dfaebefd6c1


/dev/sda5       105G   31G   75G  30% /media/4668484A68483B47

10. pydf - python version of df

An enhanced python version of the DF command, which can display the queried information in different colors, looks better than df.

$ pydf

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use%          Mounted on                                 


/dev/sda6   96G  23G   68G 24.4 [#.....] /                                          


/dev/sda8  195G 138G   47G 70.6 [####..] /media/13f35f59-f023-4d98-b06f-9dfaebefd6c1


/dev/sda5   98G  28G   69G 29.2 [##....] /media/4668484A68483B47

11. fdisk

The fdisk command can be used to modify hard disk partition table information or to display hard disk partition table information.

$ sudo fdisk -l

 

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes


255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors


Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes


Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk identifier: 0x30093008

 

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System


/dev/sda1   *          63   146801969    73400953+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT


/dev/sda2       146802031   976771071   414984520+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)

/dev/sda5       146802033   351614654   102406311    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6       351614718   556427339   102406311   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       556429312   560427007     1998848   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8       560429056   976771071   208171008   83  Linux

12. mount

The mount command can be used to mount devices, and of course it can also be used to view device mounts in the system.

$ mount | column -t


/dev/sda6    on  /                                            type  ext4             (rw,errors=remount-ro)


proc         on  /proc                                        type  proc             (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)


sysfs        on  /sys                                         type  sysfs            (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)


none         on  /sys/fs/cgroup                               type  tmpfs            (rw)


none         on  /sys/fs/fuse/connections                     type  fusectl          (rw)


none         on  /sys/kernel/debug                            type  debugfs          (rw)


none         on  /sys/kernel/security                         type  securityfs       (rw)


udev         on  /dev                                         type  devtmpfs         (rw,mode=0755)


devpts       on  /dev/pts                                     type  devpts           (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)


tmpfs        on  /run                                         type  tmpfs            (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)


none         on  /run/lock                                    type  tmpfs            (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)


none         on  /run/shm                                     type  tmpfs            (rw,nosuid,nodev)


none         on  /run/user                                    type  tmpfs            (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=104857600,mode=0755)


none         on  /sys/fs/pstore                               type  pstore           (rw)


/dev/sda8    on  /media/13f35f59-f023-4d98-b06f-9dfaebefd6c1  type  ext4             (rw,nosuid,nodev,errors=remount-ro)


/dev/sda5    on  /media/4668484A68483B47                      type  fuseblk          (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)


binfmt_misc  on  /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc                     type  binfmt_misc      (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)


systemd      on  /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd                       type  cgroup           (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,none,name=systemd)


gvfsd-fuse   on  /run/user/1000/gvfs                          type  fuse.gvfsd-fuse  (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=enlightened)

Similarly, you can use the grep command to filter out the file system information you want to see.

$ mount | column -t | grep ext

13. free - View RAM information

View RAM usage in the system, including used space, unused space, and total space.

$ free -m

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached

Mem:          7975       5865       2110          0         24        622


-/+ buffers/cache:       5218       2757


Swap:         1951        921       1030

14. dmidecode

Unlike other commands, the dmidecode command extracts hardware information by reading data from SMBOIS data structures (also known as DMI tables).

# Display processor information


$ </span><span class="kwd">sudo</span><span class="pln"> dmidecode </span><span class="pun">-</span><span class="pln">t processor</span></li><li class="L2"><span class="pln">&nbsp;</span></li><li class="L3"><span class="com">#</span> <span class="pln"> </span> <span class="pun"> Display memory information </span> </li> <li class="L4"> <span class="pln">.$ sudo dmidecode -t memory

 

# displaybiosinformation


$ sudo dmidecode -t bios

Check the man manual for more information.