Display system hardware components, from DMI SMBIOS table, using dmidecode command

 

    To display the system hardware components that you currently use on your Linux computer system, the dmidecode command can be use.  The dmidecode dump the computer DMI or SMBIOS table contents in a human readable format. This DMI or SMBIOS contains a description of the system hardware components and other useful information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision. The step by step command example below show the use of dmidecode command to show the list of computer hardware system components on Linux Fedora.

The SMBIOS specification defines the following DMI types:

Type Information

0     BIOS 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

 

Dmidecode Keyword:

bios               0, 13

system           1, 12, 15, 23, 32

baseboard     2, 10

chassis          3

processor      4

memory         5, 6, 16, 17

cache            7

connector      8

slot                9

 

Get computer system hardware components from DMI/SMBIOS table

 

To get all DMI/SMBIOS information, execute the dmidecode command using -q for quite mode

[root@fedora ~]# dmidecode -q

 

If the list is t o long and hard to see, execute dmidecode command and pipe the output of the dmidecode command to less command.

[root@fedora ~]# dmidecode -q | less

BIOS Information

Vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD

Version: 6.00

Release Date: 04/10/2007

Address: 0xE7A00

Runtime Size: 99840 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

USB legacy is supported

Smart battery is supported

BIOS boot specification is supported

 

System Information

Manufacturer: VMware, Inc.

Product Name: VMware Virtual Platform

Version: None

Serial Number: VMware-56 4d 83 60 d3 81 71 c9-86 3e 03 4f b9 c2 93 6f

UUID: 564D8360-D381-71C9-863E-034FB9C2936F

Wake-up Type: Power Switch

 

Base Board Information

Manufacturer: Intel Corporation

:

 

or redirect the output of dmidecode command to text file (dmidecode.txt) as shown on example below.

[root@fedora ~]# dmidecode -q > dmidecode.txt

[root@fedora ~]#

 

The example below show how to view dmidecode command output that we save in the text file using vi command, but you can choose other the editor to view the text file.

[root@fedora ~]# vi dmidecode.txt

BIOS Information

Vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD

Version: 6.00

Release Date: 04/10/2007

Address: 0xE7A00

Runtime Size: 99840 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

USB legacy is supported

Smart battery is supported

BIOS boot specification is supported

 

System Information

Manufacturer: VMware, Inc.

Product Name: VMware Virtual Platform

Version: None

Serial Number: VMware-56 4d 83 60 d3 81 71 c9-86 3e 03 4f b9 c2 93 6f

UUID: 564D8360-D381-71C9-863E-034FB9C2936F

Wake-up Type: Power Switch

 

Base Board Information

Manufacturer: Intel Corporation

"dmidecode.txt" 494L, 11459C

 

Get specific hardware information:

You can use these dmidecode --type 0,13 or dmidecode --type bios command to get the equivalent output on BIOS information, as shown on the command example below.

[root@fedora ~]# dmidecode --type 0,13

# dmidecode 2.9

SMBIOS 2.31 present.

 

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 20 bytes

BIOS Information

Vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD

Version: 6.00

Release Date: 04/10/2007

Address: 0xE7A00

Runtime Size: 99840 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

USB legacy is supported

Smart battery is supported

BIOS boot specification is supported

 

[root@fedora ~]#

 

and the command below give the same output....

[root@fedora ~]# dmidecode --type bios

# dmidecode 2.9

SMBIOS 2.31 present.

 

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 20 bytes

BIOS Information

Vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD

Version: 6.00

Release Date: 04/10/2007

Address: 0xE7A00

Runtime Size: 99840 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

USB legacy is supported

Smart battery is supported

BIOS boot specification is supported

 

[root@fedora ~]#

 

To get help or more information on dmidecode command, execute the following command:

[root@fedora ~]# man dmidcode

 

NOTE:    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).