Get Hardware Details In Linux With 'dmidecode'

http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/get-hardware-details-in-linux-with-dmidecode

​dmidecode is a tool for dumping a computer's DMI (some say SMBIOS ) table contents in a human-readable format. This table contains a description of the system's hardware components as well as other useful pieces of information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision. Thanks to this table, you can retrieve this information without having to probe for the actual hardware. While this is a good point in terms of report speed and safeness, this also makes the presented information possibly unreliable.

​The DMI table doesn’t only describe what the system is currently made of, it also can report the possible evolutions (such as the fastest supported CPU or the maximal amount of memory supported).

SMBIOS stands for System Management BIOS, while DMI stands for Desktop Management Interface. Both standards are tightly related and developed by the DMTF (Desktop Management Task Force).

As you run it, dmidecode will try to locate the DMI table. If it succeeds, it will then parse this table and display a list of records.

Let us look at a few dmidecode commands

Note: Some of these commands may require root privileges

Running basic dmidecode

Enter the following command in terminal -

dmidecode

To Get Physical Memory (RAM) Information Using Dmidecode

Enter the following command in terminal -

dmidecode -t 16

To Get BIOS information using dmidecode

Enter the following command in terminal -

dmidecode -t bios

To View Manufacturer, Model and Serial number of the equipment using dmidecode

Enter the following command in terminal -

dmidecode -t system

To get Hardware Information about chassis

Enter the following command in terminal -

dmidecode -t chassis

Getting HW information about baseboard

Enter the following command in terminal -

dmidecode -t baseboard

To get 64-bit Memory Error information using type id along with dmidecode

Enter the following command in terminal -

dmidecode -t 33

All Dmi Types

​The following are all the available dmi types available for inquiry by dmidecode.

​Type	​Information
1	System
2	​Base Board
3	Chassis
4	Processor
5	Memory Controller
6	Memory Module
7	Cache
8	Port Connector
9	System Slots
10	On Board Devices
11	OEM Strings
12	​System Configuration Options
13	BIOS Language
14	Group Associations
15	System Event Log
16	Physical Memory Array
17	Memory Device
18	32-bit Memory Error
19	Memory Array Mapped Address
20	Memory Device Mapped Address
21	Built-in Pointing Device
22	Portable Battery
23	System Reset
24	Hardware Security
25	​System Power Controls
26	Voltage Probe
27	Cooling Device
​28	Temperature Probe
29	Electrical Current Probe
30	Out-of-band Remote Access
31	Boot Integrity Services
32	System Boot
33	64-bit Memory Error
34	Management Device
35	Management Device Component
36	Management Device Threshold Data
37	Memory Channel
38	IPMI Device
39	Power Supply
40	Additional Information
41	Onboard Device Extended Information
42	Management Controller Host Interface

​Note that keywords may be used in place of the type numbers. Keywords are not case sensitive

Keyword	Types
bios	0, 13
system	1, 12, 15, 23, 32
baseboard	2, 10, 41
chassis	3
processor	4
memory	5, 6, 16, 17
cache	7
connector	8
slot	9

Usage in the following formats are all equivalent

• dmidecode --type 0 --type 13
  
• dmidecode --type 0,13
  
• Dmidecode --type bios
  
• Dmidecode -- type BIOS
  

Conclusion

​Like I mentioned earlier, you can always run man dmidecode command to find out more about this command tool. I hope you find this simple tutorial quite useful. Share your thoughts with us in the comments. Thanks for reading.