Dmidecode for eisfair --------------------- Dmidecode reports information about your system's hardware as described in your system BIOS according to the SMBIOS/DMI standard (see a sample output). This information typically includes system manufacturer, model name, serial number, BIOS version, asset tag as well as a lot of other details of varying level of interest and reliability depending on the manufacturer. This will often include usage status for the CPU sockets, expansion slots (e.g. AGP, PCI, ISA) and memory module slots, and the list of I/O ports (e.g. serial, parallel, USB). DMI data can be used to enable or disable specific portions of kernel code depending on the specific hardware. Thus, one use of dmidecode is for kernel developers to detect system "signatures" and add them to the kernel source code when needed. Beware that DMI data have proven to be too unreliable to be blindly trusted. Dmidecode does not scan your hardware, it only reports what the BIOS told it to. DMIDECODE(8) System Manager's Manual DMIDECODE(8) NAME dmidecode - DMI table decoder SYNOPSIS dmidecode [OPTIONS] DESCRIPTION dmidecode is a tool for dumping a computer's DMI (some say SMBIOS) ta- ble contents in a human-readable format. This table contains a descrip- tion 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 suc- ceeds, it will then parse this table and display a list of records like this one: Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 8 bytes. Base Board Information Manufacturer: Intel Product Name: C440GX+ Version: 727281-001 Serial Number: INCY92700942 Each record has: . A handle. This is a unique identifier, which allows records to refer- ence each other. For example, processor records usually reference cache memory records using their handles. . A type. The SMBIOS specification defines different types of elements a computer can be made of. In this example, the type is 2, which means that the record contains "Base Board Information". . A size. Each record has a 4-byte header (2 for the handle, 1 for the type, 1 for the size), the rest is used by the record data. This value doesn't take text strings into account (these are placed at the end of the record), so the actual length of the record may be (and is often) greater than the displayed value. . Decoded values. The information presented of course depends on the type of record. Here, we learn about the board's manufacturer, model, version and serial number. OPTIONS -d, --dev-mem FILE Read memory from device FILE (default: /dev/mem) -q, --quiet Be less verbose. Unknown, inactive and OEM-specific entries are not displayed. Meta-data and handle references are hidden. -s, --string KEYWORD Only display the value of the DMI string identified by KEYWORD. KEYWORD must be a keyword from the following list: bios-vendor, bios-version, bios-release-date, system-manufacturer, system- product-name, system-version, system-serial-number, system-uuid, baseboard-manufacturer, baseboard-product-name, baseboard-ver- sion, baseboard-serial-number, baseboard-asset-tag, chassis-man- ufacturer, chassis-type, chassis-version, chassis-serial-number, chassis-asset-tag, processor-family, processor-manufacturer, processor-version, processor-frequency. Each keyword corre- sponds to a given DMI type and a given offset within this entry type. Not all strings may be meaningful or even defined on all systems. Some keywords may return more than one result on some systems (e.g. processor-version on a multi-processor system). If KEYWORD is not provided or not valid, a list of all valid keywords is printed and dmidecode exits with an error. This option cannot be used more than once. -t, --type TYPE Only display the entries of type TYPE. TYPE can be either a DMI type number, or a comma-separated list of type numbers, or a keyword from the following list: bios, system, baseboard, chas- sis, processor, memory, cache, connector, slot. Refer to the DMI TYPES section below for details. If this option is used more than once, the set of displayed entries will be the union of all the given types. If TYPE is not provided or not valid, a list of all valid keywords is printed and dmidecode exits with an error. -u, --dump Do not decode the entries, dump their contents as hexadecimal instead. Note that this is still a text output, no binary data will be thrown upon you. The strings attached to each entry are displayed as both hexadecimal and ASCII. This option is mainly useful for debugging. --dump-bin FILE Do not decode the entries, instead dump the DMI data to a file in binary form. The generated file is suitable to pass to --from-dump later. --from-dump FILE Read the DMI data from a binary file previously generated using --dump-bin. -h, --help Display usage information and exit -V, --version Display the version and exit Options --string, --type and --dump-bin determine the output format and are mutually exclusive. DMI TYPES 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 40 Additional Information 41 Onboard Device Additionally, type 126 is used for disabled entries and type 127 is an end-of-table marker. Types 128 to 255 are for OEM-specific data. dmidecode will display these entries by default, but it can only decode them when the vendors have contributed documentation or code for them. Keywords can be used instead of type numbers with --type. Each keyword is equivalent to a list of type numbers: 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 Keywords are matched case-insensitively. The following command lines are equivalent: . dmidecode --type 0 --type 13 . dmidecode --type 0,13 . dmidecode --type bios . dmidecode --type BIOS BINARY DUMP FILE FORMAT The binary dump files generated by --dump-bin and read using --from- dump are formatted as follows: . The SMBIOS or DMI entry point is located at offset 0x00. It is crafted to hard-code the table address at offset 0x20. . The DMI table is located at offset 0x20. FILES /dev/mem BUGS More often than not, information contained in the DMI tables is inaccu- rate, incomplete or simply wrong. AUTHORS Alan Cox, Jean Delvare SEE ALSO biosdecode(8), mem(4), ownership(8), vpddecode(8) dmidecode November 2008 DMIDECODE(8) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BIOSDECODE(8) System Manager's Manual BIOSDECODE(8) NAME biosdecode - BIOS information decoder SYNOPSIS biosdecode [OPTIONS] DESCRIPTION biosdecode parses the BIOS memory and prints information about all structures (or entry points) it knows of. Currently known entry point types are: . SMBIOS (System Management BIOS) Use dmidecode for a more detailed output. . DMI (Desktop Management Interface, a legacy version of SMBIOS) Use dmidecode for a more detailed output. . SYSID . PNP (Plug and Play) . ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) . BIOS32 (BIOS32 Service Directory) . PIR (PCI IRQ Routing) . 32OS (BIOS32 Extension, Compaq-specific) See ownership for a Compaq ownership tag retrieval tool. . SNY (Sony-specific, not decoded) . VPD (Vital Product Data, IBM-specific) Use vpddecode for a more detailed output. . FJKEYINF (Application Panel, Fujitsu-specific) biosdecode started its life as a part of dmidecode but as more entry point types were added, if was moved to a different program. OPTIONS -d, --dev-mem FILE Read memory from device FILE (default: /dev/mem) -h, --help Display usage information and exit -V, --version Display the version and exit FILES /dev/mem BUGS Most of the time, biosdecode prints too much information (you don't really care about addresses) or not enough (because it doesn't follow pointers and has no lookup tables). AUTHORS Alan Cox, Jean Delvare SEE ALSO dmidecode(8), mem(4), ownership(8), vpddecode(8) dmidecode February 2007 BIOSDECODE(8) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ VPDDECODE(8) System Manager's Manual VPDDECODE(8) NAME vpddecode - VPD structure decoder SYNOPSIS vpddecode [OPTIONS] DESCRIPTION vpddecode prints the "vital product data" information that can be found in almost all IBM and Lenovo computers. Available items are: . BIOS Build ID . Box Serial Number . Motherboard Serial Number . Machine Type/Model Some systems have these additional items: . BIOS Release Date . Default Flash Image File Name Note that these additional items are not documented by IBM, so this is guess work, and as such should not be blindly trusted. Feedback about the accuracy of these labels is welcome. OPTIONS -d, --dev-mem FILE Read memory from device FILE (default: /dev/mem) -s, --string KEYWORD Only display the value of the VPD string identified by KEYWORD. KEYWORD must be a keyword from the following list: bios-build- id, box-serial-number, motherboard-serial-number, machine-type- model, bios-release-date. Each keyword corresponds to an offset and a length within the VPD record. Not all strings may be defined on all VPD-enabled systems. If KEYWORD is not provided or not valid, a list of all valid keywords is printed and vpdde- code exits with an error. This option cannot be used more than once. Mutually exclusive with --dump. -u, --dump Do not decode the VPD records, dump their contents as hexadeci- mal instead. Note that this is still a text output, no binary data will be thrown upon you. ASCII equivalent is displayed when possible. This option is mainly useful for debugging. Mutually exclusive with --string. -h, --help Display usage information and exit -V, --version Display the version and exit FILES /dev/mem AUTHOR Jean Delvare SEE ALSO biosdecode(8), dmidecode(8), mem(4), ownership(8) dmidecode February 2007 VPDDECODE(8) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OWNERSHIP(8) System Manager's Manual OWNERSHIP(8) NAME ownership - Compaq ownership tag retriever SYNOPSIS ownership [OPTIONS] DESCRIPTION ownership retrieves and prints the "ownership tag" that can be set on Compaq computers. Contrary to all other programs of the dmidecode pack- age, ownership doesn't print any version information, nor labels, but only the raw ownership tag. This should help its integration in scripts. OPTIONS -d, --dev-mem FILE Read memory from device FILE (default: /dev/mem) -h, --help Display usage information and exit -V, --version Display the version and exit FILES /dev/mem AUTHOR Jean Delvare SEE ALSO biosdecode(8), dmidecode(8), mem(4), vpddecode(8) dmidecode February 2005 OWNERSHIP(8)