Linux hardware information from the console. Getting information about hardware in Linux
If you have a need to find out what is hidden from your eyes inside a computer running Linux (we will consider methods that work in Linux Mint and Ubuntu), then doing this is no more difficult than in Windows, and sometimes even easier. There are several methods for this, which we propose to consider in this article.
Let's start with the most familiar method for the average user, inexperienced with all the delights of the Linux OS. Let's imagine that you switched to Linux relatively recently, and have not yet completely weaned yourself from the Windows you are used to.
In Windows, to find out detailed information about the hardware, users usually use special programs, for example AIDA64 and similar ones. We assure you that Linux is not deprived in this regard. It may not have such a variety of similar programs, but there will definitely be those that will provide you with a complete report on the configuration of your computer.
One such program is HardInfo (after installation it appears in the menu as System Profiler and Benchmark). Using this utility, you can get the most complete picture of the computer hardware that is hidden from you. You can install it from the repository of your distribution.
HardInfo program in Linux Mint 18 Sarah Mate
The program presents in an accessible graphic form the main points on which you can obtain information. You just need to click on the desired icon and the program will display the main characteristics of the system.
HardInfo. Information about the memory installed in the computer.
The program also allows for the creation of a report in html format, which you can then view in a browser. To do this, you need to click “Generate Report”, select the items for which you want to see a report and wait for the result.
HTML report generated in the HardInfo program.
Despite all its advantages, the HardInfo program provides poorer results than what you will get from using the terminal and a few commands.
First, let's look at the utility lshw To install it, you need to enter in the terminal: sudo apt-get install lshw After installation, in order to find out the system characteristics, just enter the command in the terminal sudo lshw
Result of sudo lshw command in terminal.
As you can see, the list is very long. To shorten it, you can enter the command sudo lshw -short The list will be shorter and more compact.
Result of sudo lshw -short command in terminal.
There is also another variation of this command that will allow you to view the full list, but at the same time you will load it as needed: sudo lshw|more
This is what the result looks like after entering the command in the terminal sudo lshw|more (now you only need to press the Enter key and read the information displayed).
To generate a report in html format you need to enter the command lshw -html > hardware.html (in this case, the report will be saved to the user’s folder - the one where the Downloads, Music, etc. folders are located).
It should be mentioned that the system has a /proc/ folder, which also contains information about the hardware of your computer. As an example, here are several related commands that, when typed in the terminal, will display the information we are interested in:
cat /proc/cpuinfo- will display information about the processor
cat /proc/meminfo— displays information about RAM
cat /proc/partitions— displays information about hard disk partitions
We hope that this information will help you lift the veil of secrecy about the inner world of your Linux PC.
How to find out the characteristics of a computer in Linux? updated: January 21, 2017 by: Maxim Ivanov
Beginners in the world of Linux are often faced with the question of how to find out all the information about the installed system, hardware and supported functions. Yes, it will be difficult to find a utility a la “Windows Device Manager” =) In fact, you can find programs that allow you to find out all the information about the system, but it is easier, in my opinion, to find out all this directly in the console. Sometimes you need to briefly present “general” information about the system. The commands below generate the output of such data in the about_system.txt file in your “Home folder”. Brigades have been converted to the type “for use in the terminal”.
It is possible to execute the entire block of commands at once, or separately. What each command outputs is indicated in the comment to any line on the right. This video shows the teams and results of several utilities, with the help of which you can find out comprehensive information about the equipment and its presence in Linux systems. The tools were tested in Debian 8. In Ubuntu or Linux Mint everything will work similarly. It should also work in Fedora or OpenSuse. Please write in the comments if anything is different.
lshw – Learn about all computer hardware in detail. dmidecode – data from the DMI table (also called SMBIOS). With the -t parameter it is possible to limit the output to the desired type (bios, system, baseboard, chassis, processor, memory, cache, connector, slot). An example of information about RAM slots (all of them, simply if dies are not installed in them) can be found out like this:
dmidecode -t memory
cat /proc/cpuinfo – processor
cat /proc/meminfo – operational memory and swap file (free - shorter information)
fdisk -l or df – hard disks and their partitions. fdisk will also show the number of cylinders, sectors, etc.
lspci – a list of all PCI devices, sometimes including USB (lsusb is an expert command)
lspci or grep Audio – card game audio driver
lsmod – loaded kernel modules
lsusb – list of all usb devices (including built-in ones, such as webcams, etc.)
Collecting system data using HardInfo
In Windows, in order to find out detailed information about the hardware, users usually use special programs, for example AIDA64 and similar ones. We assure you that Linux is not offended in this regard. It may not have such a variety of similar programs, but there are literally those that will provide you with a complete report on the configuration of your PC. One of these programs is HardInfo (after which the devices are displayed in the menu as System Profiler and Benchmark). With the support of this utility, you can get the most complete picture of the hardware “stuffing” of your computer that is hiding from you. You can install it from the repository of your distribution.
The program presents in an accessible graphic form the main points on which you can obtain information. You just need to click the mouse on the desired icon and the program will display the main characteristics of the system. The program also allows for the creation of a report in html format, which you can then view in a browser. To do this, you need to click “Generate Report”, select the items for which you want to see the report and wait for the result. Despite all its advantages, the HardInfo program provides poorer results than what you will get from using the terminal and a few commands.
Linux system information from ssh console
Very often there is a need to find out this or that information about the system or computer. This can be done in just a couple of lines in the Ubuntu terminal. The Ubuntu GUI has a hardinfo package that shows quite a lot of information about the hardware and software of the computer. But this is a GUI that can be used if a graphical shell is installed on the computer, but the graphical environment, for example, on the server version is missing. And the computer itself may be located somewhere so that your hands cannot reach it) If you want a beautiful window, but the computer is far away, you can forward the hardinfo window via ssh:
uname -a
cat /etc/issue
rpm -qa and analogues
cat /proc/cpuinfo
cat /proc/meminfo
lspci
lsusb
To get started, here is the lshw utility. To install it, you need to run it in the terminal: sudo apt-get install lshw After the devices, in order to find out the system characteristics, just enter the command sudo lshw in the terminal
lshw - this team provides complete information about the hardware of a PC or laptop.
linuxinfo
cat /proc/cpuinfo
free
df -m
and for dessert
less /boot/config-2.6."uname-a"
hwinfo
Linux Ubuntu System Data Collection
In this post I will tell you how to view information about the system, find out what processes (programs) are running, and what kind of overload they create on the computer. And also how to quickly find files and folders on the system when you need to clear disk space. In order to view all information about the computer and the system in Windows, you need to install the Aida64 program. We looked at how to do this in our article How to get complete information about computer mechanisms using Aida64!
Collecting all the intelligible information about the Ubuntu system and hardware can be useful if you have a new computer or laptop, and you are wondering what kind of equipment is there. This can also be useful if you need to replace any component, for example, a hard drive. Or even just like that. To replace equipment, you need to know all the information in advance. You may also need information about Ubuntu hardware if you are setting up Wifi, Bluetooth, a webcam, or installing drivers for a video card. In this article I will list the commands that can be used to obtain information about the Ubuntu operating system. All teams have been tested on Ubuntu 16.04, but they should work on any modern distribution such as Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, etc. Linux processor data is also readily available:
cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor: 0
vendor_id: AuthenticAMD
cpu family: 16
model: 6
model name: AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 250 Processor
stepping: 3
microcode: 0x10000c8
cpu MHz: 2300.000
Linux system data using hwinfo command
hwinfo - this utility provides an abundance of information about components: processor, motherboard, operational memory, video card, hard drive, etc. Unfortunately, it is not present in absolutely all distributions, but establishing another case of something is as easy as shelling pears:
- in Debian, Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install hwinfo
- in Fedora and Red Hat: yum install hwinfo
To display basic information, use the -short switch.
This small list of commands will allow you to quickly find out all the necessary information about your system. Using this list of basic commands, you can easily look at and find out basic information about your PC and operating system. We looked at information about the system, running processes (programs). And in addition, we figured out how to work with the Atritoren Usage Analyzer program. And if you have any unclear questions about this content or have any suggestions, please write them in the comments.
Habey's EMB-2200 is a 100 x 72mm SBC that runs Linux on an i.MX6 UL and offers dual LANs with PoE support, dual CAN, WiFi, BT, mini-PCIe and -40 to 80° support C.
So far we've seen the 100 x 72mm Pico-ITX form factor used with the NXP i.MX6 UltraLite (UL) sandwich-style Digi ConnectCore 6UL SBC Pro system chip, which uses an embedded ConnectCore 6UL computer module, as well as on Pico-ITX carrier for F&S "PicoMODA9 COM.
However, Habey's EMB-2200 is the first fully integrated i.MX6 UL based Sico Pico-ITX SBC that caught our attention.
EMB-2200
(click on the picture to enlarge)
Like other boards, the EMB-2200 runs embedded Linux, supports industrial temperatures, and is focused on lightweight IoT applications.
While the EMB-2200 doesn't have the ConnectCore 6UL SBC Pro NFC and Digi Xbee options, it also provides two 10/100 Ethernet ports, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a mini-PCIe slot for cellular expansion.
EMB-2200 side view
Other features tend to be more limited than the Digi board.
However, unlike Digi or F&S products, the EMB-2200 has optional Power over Ethernet as well as a broadband power supply.
EMB-2200 with optional 5" touch screen
(click image to enlarge)
Up to 696 MHz, Cortex-A7 based SoL i.MX6 UL supported by up to 512 MB RAM and optional eMMC, iNAND or SLC.
There are 4 USB ports, including two shore ports, as well as two CAN and 5 RS-232 among other interfaces.
The RGB LCD interface supports an optional 5-inch resistive touch screen.
Specifications listed for the EMB-2200 include:
- Processor - NXP i.MX6 UltraLite (1x Cortex-A7 @ 528MHz/695MHz)
- Memory/Storage – 128MB, 256MB or 512MB DDR3L RAM;
optional eMMC, iNAND or SLC (amount not specified) - Display:
- 24-bit parallel LCD (RGB) with resolution up to 1366 x 768
- 4-wire touch support
- Optional 5-inch, 800 x 480 resistive touchscreen
- Wireless - WiFi;
bluetooth - Network - 2 x 10/100 Ethernet ports with optional PoE
- Other I/O:
- 2 USB 2.0 host ports (1x OTG)
- 2x USB host interface
- 2x CAN
- 5x RS-232
- Configurable GPIO
- Audio linear
- SPI, I2C
- Expansion - Mini-PCIe slot (full size) with USB signals
- Other features - 2x LEDs;
guard dog - Operating temperature - -40 to 80°C
- Power - 9-36V DC 2.5mm power jack
- Dimensions - 100 x 72 mm (Pico-ITX)
- Operating system - Embedded Linux
Further information
Let's look at several useful commands and utilities that can be used to get information about hardware in Linux. This need arises, for example, when you need to install a driver for some computer device and you need to know its exact name. Or, for example, you want to get information about the memory occupied or computer resources.
Processor information (CPU)
You can get all the necessary information about the central processor in Linux by running the command in the terminal:
Cat /proc/cpuinfo
To determine whether your processor is 32-bit or 64-bit, you need to look at the flags that are indicated in the command output. If among the flags there is lm(long mode), this means that your processor is 64-bit. For example, when executing the command cat /proc/cpuinfo we can get the following flags:
Flags: fpu vme de acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon ...
Information about PCI devices (video card information)
Using the command lspci You can display all information about PCI devices:
This command is often used to get information about a video card. Since the command output lspci is large enough, then you can use the command grep to set the search condition. For example, if we know that we have a video card from Nvidia, then we can use the command:
lspci | grep nVidia
And as a result you get something like:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G72M (rev a1)
Please note that the grep command is case sensitive and therefore, if you do not find what you were looking for the first time, you should try a different spelling, for example, nvidia, NVIDIA or simply idia. Similarly, you can look for information in the output of any other commands by adding to the command: " | grep search-string.
Information about the driver version for Nvidia video cards in Linux can be obtained by running:
Cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version
Random access memory (RAM) information
To get information about the volume, as well as the amount of free and used RAM, you can use the command:
Free -t -m
Information about virtual memory can be obtained with the command vmstat:
If you need more detailed information about the processes occupying RAM and processor (CPU) load, then you can use the Top or htop utilities. The top utility is usually always present in Linux. To run it, simply run:
Hard drive information
Information about hard drive partitions in Linux:
Sudo fdisk -l
Information about mounted partitions, amount of free and used memory:
There is another useful command du, which displays information about the size of each file in the current and subdirectories. If you want to get information about all files in the current directory, run the command without parameters:
You can set the file name as a parameter, for example, to find out the file size abc.bin do:
Du abc.bin
Information about USB devices and USB buses
To display information about USB buses and connected USB devices, use the command lsusb:
Non-console programs
Let's look at several graphic programs that will help when working with equipment.
The Gnome desktop environment includes a graphical utility called System monitor. It displays information about CPU usage, running processes (applications), information about hard drives, and also displays graphs, including network usage. You can run it from the command line by running:
Gnome-system-monitor
To work with hard ones, you can use the GParted program. 
Additional Information
Finally, it’s worth mentioning a very important team lshw, which displays almost all the information about your computer. Team lshw need to run as root user:
Sudo lshw
To display brief information, use the key -short:
Sudo lshw -short
You can get more detailed information about the commands described in this article by using the Linux help system. To do this, you need to run in the console:
Man command-name
For example, to get all the information about a command du, run the command.
For those who have just switched from the Windows operating system to the more complex Linux, it is sometimes difficult to perform those operations that could be done in a couple of seconds on a familiar OS.
One of these tasks is to look at basic information about the system: what is the processor, motherboard, operating system version, bit depth, kernel, etc. In good old Windows, it was enough to display the system properties or open the task manager. But here everything is more complicated. But all the power of Linux is in the console and there are a number of special commands on the command line that will help you find out all the necessary information about your Linux OS, be it Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora or another distribution. Now I will show them to you!
hwinfo— this utility provides a lot of information about components: processor, motherboard, RAM, video card, hard drive, etc. Unfortunately, it is not present in all distributions, but establishing another case of something is as easy as shelling pears:
- in Debian, Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install hwinfo
- in Fedora and Red Hat: yum install hwinfo
To display basic information, use the key --short.
lshw— this command provides complete information about the hardware of a computer or laptop.
Of course, hwinfo is still a long way from the level utility, but it’s quite possible to get basic information. The lshw command is executed with root privileges − sudo lshw.
cat /proc/cpuinfo— displaying complete information about the processor installed on the PC.
cat /proc/meminfo— detailed data on the total amount of RAM, how much is occupied and how much is free.
free -m- the command is similar in result to the previous one, except that the output will be in the form of a small table.
lspci | grep VGA— this directive will display information on the installed video card.
lspci | grep Audio— look at what sound card is installed on the computer.
df-H— detailed information on hard drive partitions, their size and current load.
lspci | grep Ethernet— model and manufacturer of the PC network adapter.
uname -a- this command will display in the console basic data on the Linux operating system - kernel version, distribution, as well as the architecture used - 32 or 64 bits).
uname -r— information about the OS kernel version is displayed.
cat /proc/version— the output of the command is completely similar to the previous one.
lsb_release -a— here the result of the command will be the name of the installed Linux distribution and its version:
cat /etc/*release*— the result of executing the command will be much the same as the previous directive. That is, information about the distribution and its version will be shown.
An important difference is that if you are using an OS built on any distribution, then the command will also display information about the base Linux distribution.
ls -clt / | tail -n 1 | awk '( print $7, $6, $8 )'- this command will display the date and time of system installation.
ls -dl /var/log/installer/- this Linux command also allows you to find out the date and time of system installation.
cat /etc/issue— the result of the command is similar to the previous one. You will be shown the OS distribution version.
With this list of basic commands, you can easily view and find out basic information about your PC and operating system.