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Linux System Information via dmidecode and inxi

Posted on Jun 29, 2022 by kingbeowulf



dmidecode is a userspace command-line utility for Linux that can parse the SMBIOS data of your computer. This utility is handy to display system information without having to reboot into the UEFI/BIOS. Details are in 'man dmidecode' for the various options; I prefer the "--t, --type TYPE" option as it also uses human readable TYPE keywords to groups and drill into the specific information needed. The inxi utility usues dmidecode (and many other utilities) and some nice formatting to deliver comprehensive system information.

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

Here are some examples to locate the BIOS version and mother board information.

 1# dmidecode -t bios
 2# dmidecode 3.3
 3Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
 4SMBIOS 3.3.0 present.
 5
 6Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 26 bytes
 7BIOS Information
 8	Vendor: American Megatrends International, LLC.
 9	Version: F36e
10	Release Date: 10/14/2021
11	Address: 0xF0000
12	Runtime Size: 64 kB
13	ROM Size: 16 MB
14	Characteristics:
15		PCI is supported
16		BIOS is upgradeable
17		BIOS shadowing is allowed
18		Boot from CD is supported
19		Selectable boot is supported
20		BIOS ROM is socketed
21		EDD is supported
22		Japanese floppy for NEC 9800 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
23		Japanese floppy for Toshiba 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
24		5.25"/360 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
25		5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
26		3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
27		3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
28		Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
29		Serial services are supported (int 14h)
30		Printer services are supported (int 17h)
31		CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
32		ACPI is supported
33		USB legacy is supported
34		BIOS boot specification is supported
35		Targeted content distribution is supported
36		UEFI is supported
37	BIOS Revision: 5.17
38
39Handle 0x0032, DMI type 13, 22 bytes
40BIOS Language Information
41	Language Description Format: Long
42	Installable Languages: 15
43		en|US|iso8859-1
44		zh|TW|unicode
45		zh|CN|unicode
46		ru|RU|iso8859-5
47		de|DE|iso8859-1
48		ja|JP|unicode
49		ko|KR|unicode
50		es|ES|iso8859-1
51		fr|FR|iso8859-1
52		it|IT|iso8859-1
53		pt|PT|iso8859-1
54		vi|VI|iso8859-1
55		id|ID|iso8859-1
56		tr|TR|iso8859-1
57		pl|PL|iso8859-1
58	Currently Installed Language: en|US|iso8859-1
 1# dmidecode -t system
 2# dmidecode 3.3
 3Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
 4SMBIOS 3.3.0 present.
 5
 6Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
 7System Information
 8	Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
 9	Product Name: X570 AORUS ELITE
10	Version: -CF
11	Serial Number: Default string
12	UUID: 03c00218-044d-0503-e306-b20700080009
13	Wake-up Type: Power Switch
14	SKU Number: Default string
15	Family: X570 MB
16
17Handle 0x0006, DMI type 12, 5 bytes
18System Configuration Options
19	Option 1: Default string
20
21Handle 0x0007, DMI type 32, 20 bytes
22System Boot Information
23	Status: No errors detected

Please note that, depending on your hardware SMBIOS implementation, not all TYPEs may be available. System and memory information via inxi, in comparison:

 1# inxi -M
 2Machine:
 3  Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: X570 AORUS ELITE v: -CF serial: N/A
 4  Mobo: Gigabyte model: X570 AORUS ELITE serial: N/A
 5    UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: F36e date: 10/14/2021
 6
 7# inxi -m
 8Memory:
 9  RAM: total: 31.34 GiB used: 2.73 GiB (8.7%)
10  Array-1: capacity: 128 GiB slots: 4 EC: None
11  Device-1: DIMM 0 size: 8 GiB speed: 3600 MT/s
12  Device-2: DIMM 1 size: 8 GiB speed: 3600 MT/s
13  Device-3: DIMM 0 size: 8 GiB speed: 3600 MT/s
14  Device-4: DIMM 1 size: 8 GiB speed: 3600 MT/s

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