Linux Administration Cookbook

dmidecode

Another noisy-but-favorite tool from Chapter 1, Introduction and Environment setup, dmidecode decodes the DMI table.

We used it to check for virtual hardware initially, but on a non-virtual machine, it can be more useful.

Compare the following -t processor dumps:

$ sudo dmidecode -t processor# dmidecode 3.0Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.SMBIOS 2.5 present.

Note the stark emptiness on our virtual machine, compared with the example from my laptop:

$ sudo dmidecode -t processor# dmidecode 3.1Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.SMBIOS 3.0.0 present.Handle 0x003F, DMI type 4, 48 bytesProcessor Information    Socket Designation: U3E1    Type: Central Processor    Family: Core i7    Manufacturer: Intel(R) Corporation    ID: E9 06 08 00 FF FB EB BF Signature: ...