Some of our more experienced volunteers have in the past used commands like:
cat /proc/cpuinfo | more
cat/proc/meminfo | more
df -hH
The first command grabs CPU information. The second command displays memory info. The last command displays information about partitions on the hard drive (giving a rough idea of the size of the drive). These are great commands, but much of this information can actually be replaced by one command:
sudo lshw -html > ~/Desktop/myhardware.html
Breaking down the command, lshw probes the hardware (which you should do as root, thus the sudo). The -html switch tells lshw to output to html. lshw can take a -xml switch to output to xml. We prefer html at the moment. The > redirects the output to a file called myhardware.html which is created on the system's desktop.
The resulting myhardware.html file can then be opened with Firefox or Chromium. The following is an example from a dual boot machine I use regularly. I have bolded information we actually use in the shop.
66bf-charlesm-ubuntu
description: Mini Tower Computer
product: HP d530 CMT(DG769A)
vendor: Hewlett-Packard
serial: CAC40101D6
width: 32 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.3 dmi-2.3 smp-1.4 smp
configuration: boot=normal chassis=mini-tower cpus=1 uuid=5514BF93-AA2F-D811-BBD8-7F28EBD2000E
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: 085Ch
vendor: Hewlett-Packard
physical id: 0
serial: CAC40101D6
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: Hewlett-Packard
physical id: 1
version: 786B2 v1.11 (07/10/2003)
size: 128KiB
capacity: 448KiB
capabilities: pci pnp upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect edd int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb agp ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification netboot
*-cpu
description: CPU
product: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 5
bus info: cpu@0
version: 15.2.9
slot: XU1 PROCESSOR
size: 2666MHz
capacity: 3200MHz
width: 32 bits
clock: 533MHz
capabilities: boot fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe up pebs bts cid xtpr
configuration: id=0
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 6
slot: Internal L1 Cache
size: 8KiB
capacity: 20KiB
capabilities: burst internal write-back data
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: 7
slot: Cache L2
size: 512KiB
capacity: 4MiB
capabilities: burst internal write-back data
*-memory:0
description: System Memory
physical id: 27
slot: System board or motherboard
*-bank:0
description: DIMM DDR Synchronous [empty]
vendor: JEDEC ID:
physical id: 0
slot: DIMM1
*-bank:1
description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 266 MHz (3.8 ns)
product: K
vendor: JEDEC ID:7F 98 00 00 00 00 00 00
physical id: 1
serial: F0712C6C
slot: DIMM2
size: 1GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 266MHz (3.8ns)
*-bank:2
description: DIMM DDR Synchronous [empty]
vendor: JEDEC ID:
physical id: 2
slot: DIMM3
*-bank:3
description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 266 MHz (3.8 ns)
product: K
vendor: JEDEC ID:7F 98 00 00 00 00 00 00
physical id: 3
serial: F0612C6E
slot: DIMM4
size: 1GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 266MHz (3.8ns)
*-memory:1 UNCLAIMED
description: Flash Memory
physical id: 28
slot: System board or motherboard
capacity: 512KiB
*-bank UNCLAIMED
description: Chip FLASH Non-volatile
physical id: 0
slot: SYSTEM ROM
size: 512KiB
width: 4 bits
*-memory:2 UNCLAIMED
physical id: 0
*-memory:3 UNCLAIMED
physical id: 2
*-pci
description: Host bridge
product: 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=agpgart-intel
resources: irq:0 memory:ec000000-efffffff
*-pci:0
description: PCI bridge
product: 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master
resources: memory:f9000000-fa1fffff memory:f0000000-f81fffff
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: NV34 [GeForce FX 5200]
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: a1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm agp agp-3.0 vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nvidia latency=248 maxlatency=1 mingnt=5
resources: irq:18 memory:f9000000-f9ffffff memory:f0000000-f7ffffff memory:f8000000-f801ffff
*-generic UNCLAIMED
description: System peripheral
product: 82865G/PE/P Processor to I/O Memory Interface
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 6
bus info: pci@0000:00:06.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:fecf0000-fecf0fff
*-usb:0
description: USB Controller
product: 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:16 ioport:1440(size=32)
*-usb:1
description: USB Controller
product: 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:19 ioport:1460(size=32)
*-usb:2
description: USB Controller
product: 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.2
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:1480(size=32)
*-usb:3
description: USB Controller
product: 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.7
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:23 memory:f8500000-f85003ff
*-pci:1
description: PCI bridge
product: 82801 PCI Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1e
bus info: pci@0000:00:1e.0
version: c2
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master
resources: memory:f8200000-f84fffff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: NetXtreme BCM5782 Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:05:02.0
logical name: eth0
version: 03
serial: 00:0e:7f:28:eb:d2
size: 100MB/s
capacity: 1GB/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm vpd msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.110 duplex=full firmware=5782-v3.13 ip=192.168.1.35 latency=64 link=yes mingnt=64 multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100MB/s
resources: irq:20 memory:f8400000-f840ffff
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: isa bus_master
configuration: latency=0
*-ide:0
description: IDE interface
product: 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.1
logical name: scsi0
logical name: scsi1
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ide bus_master emulated
configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:1f0(size=8) ioport:3f6 ioport:170(size=8) ioport:376 ioport:14c0(size=16) memory:80100000-801003ff
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: WDC WD2500BB-55R
vendor: Western Digital
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 20.0
serial: WD-WCANKF087680
size: 232GiB (250GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=9cec9cec
*-volume:0
description: Windows NTFS volume
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sda1
version: 3.1
serial: 509d82ba-6961-d844-a189-1e1ebb52865c
size: 116GiB
capacity: 116GiB
capabilities: primary bootable ntfs initialized
configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2009-04-09 12:05:53 filesystem=ntfs modified_by_chkdsk=true mounted_on_nt4=true resize_log_file=true state=dirty upgrade_on_mount=true
*-volume:1
description: Extended partition
physical id: 2
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
logical name: /dev/sda2
size: 116GiB
capacity: 116GiB
capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
*-logicalvolume:0
description: Linux filesystem partition
physical id: 5
logical name: /dev/sda5
logical name: /
capacity: 111GiB
configuration: mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,barrier=1,data=ordered state=mounted
*-logicalvolume:1
description: Linux swap / Solaris partition
physical id: 6
logical name: /dev/sda6
capacity: 4872MiB
capabilities: nofs
*-cdrom
description: DVD-RAM writer
product: DVD-RAM GH22LP20
vendor: HL-DT-ST
physical id: 0.1.0
bus info: scsi@1:0.1.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/cdrw
logical name: /dev/dvd
logical name: /dev/dvdrw
logical name: /dev/scd0
logical name: /dev/sr0
version: 1.02
capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
*-ide:1
description: IDE interface
product: 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.2
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ide bus_master
configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:14f0(size=8) ioport:1808(size=4) ioport:14f8(size=8) ioport:180c(size=4) ioport:14d0(size=16)
*-serial UNCLAIMED
description: SMBus
product: 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: latency=0
resources: ioport:fc00(size=32)
*-multimedia
description: Multimedia audio controller
product: 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.5
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.5
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=Intel ICH latency=0
resources: irq:17 ioport:1000(size=256) ioport:1400(size=64) memory:f8500400-f85005ff memory:f8500600-f85006ff
Because we have volunteers with varying skill levels (some never build systems) this amount of information can be a bit intimidating, but it provides some of our more experienced volunteers with good information. For example, the machine above has memory in slots 1 and 3, 0 and 2 would have been better. Also the memory is 266MHz when the board is capable of running 400MHz DDR SDRAM. And while the CPU is a speed 2666MHz, it could be upgraded to a 3200MHz CPU.
In the past we've tried tools like sysinfolabs' ASTRA, a great tool, but the trial version we tried has misinformed us on a couple of pieces of hardware (video cards in particular). Ultimately we love open source / GNU software and prefer to use free software tools whenever possible.
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