Nutbean: moved dmidecode info from capone page to here

2009-07-18T08:53:41Z

moved dmidecode info from capone page to here

New page

[http://www.google.com/search?q=dmidecode dmidecode] is the program that makes [[Capone]] work.

dmidecode gives a complete set of DMI information (hardware specs, make, model, manufacturer etc)

Do visit the [http://www.nongnu.org/dmidecode/ dmidecode homepage].

The article [http://www.linux.com/archive/articles/40412 dmidecode - what's it good for?] gives a good idea of what it does.

[http://www.linux.com/archive/articles/41088 Another article] on dmidecode scripting.

If you have access to a Linux shell prompt you can type in the following to get an idea of all the detailed DMI/BIOS/Hardware information that dmidecode provides.

<pre>
user@computer:~$ su
Enter password:********

root@computer:~$ dmidecode
# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.3 present.
36 structures occupying 1146 bytes.
Table at 0x000F0800.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 20 bytes
BIOS Information
Vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
...

Handle 0x0023, DMI type 127, 4 bytes
End Of Table

root@computer:~$ _
</pre>

with Ubuntu you would use
<pre>
user@computer:~$ sudo dmidecode
Enter password:********
</pre>

It may happen that the PATH variable does not include /sbin or /usr/sbin or some such directory which has dmidecode in it. In such a case, typing dmidecode will result in an error saying that the program is unknown.

To avoid this, first get the location of dmidecode
<pre>
user@computer:~$ whereis dmidecode
dmidecode: /usr/sbin/dmidecode /usr/share/man/man8/dmidecode.8.gz
</pre>

Then include that path into the $PATH variable like this:
<pre>
user@computer:~$ PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin
user@computer:~$ echo $PATH
</pre>
The : (colon) is a path separator in Linux just like ; (semi-colon) is on Windows.

Dmidecode has many "output sections" so to speak -
<pre>
user@computer:~$ dmidecode --help
Usage: dmidecode [OPTIONS]
Options are:
-d, --dev-mem FILE Read memory from device FILE (default: /dev/mem)
-h, --help Display this help text and exit
-q, --quiet Less verbose output
-s, --string KEYWORD Only display the value of the given DMI string
-t, --type TYPE Only display the entries of given type
-u, --dump Do not decode the entries
-V, --version Display the version and exit
user@computer:~$ _
</pre>

To get just one ''type'' of DMI info, you must specify the type code or name:

<pre>
user@computer:~$ dmidecode --help --type
dmidecode: option '--type' requires an argument
Type number or keyword expected
Valid type keywords are:
bios
system
baseboard
chassis
processor
memory
cache
connector
slot
user@computer:~$ _
</pre>

On Ubuntu, using sudo to get BIOS info from dmidecode, you get something like this:
<pre>
user@computer:~$ sudo dmidecode --type bios
[sudo] password for user:
# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.3 present.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 20 bytes
BIOS Information
Vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
Version: V5.1
Release Date: 08/01/2007
Address: 0xE0000
Runtime Size: 128 kB
ROM Size: 512 kB
Characteristics:
ISA is supported
PCI is supported
PNP is supported
APM is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
ESCD support is available
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
BIOS ROM is socketed
EDD is supported
5.25"/360 KB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/720 KB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
Serial services are supported (int 14h)
Printer services are supported (int 17h)
CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
AGP is supported
LS-120 boot is supported
ATAPI Zip drive boot is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported

Handle 0x001B, DMI type 13, 22 bytes
BIOS Language Information
Installable Languages: 3
n|US|iso8859-1
n|US|iso8859-1
r|CA|iso8859-1
Currently Installed Language: n|US|iso8859-1

user@computer:~$ _
</pre>

Dmidecode - Revision history

Nutbean: moved dmidecode info from capone page to here