One of the benefits of learning Linux is that you can understand how the hardware works and the principles behind it. So how do newbies know what hardware components the Linux system is running on? Because it helps you to handle compatibility issues when you install packages and drivers on your system. Let's take a look at how to view hardware information in Linux.
So in this tip, we'll cover a few useful commands that can help you get information about Linux systems and hardware components.
1. How to view information about Linux system
If you just want to know the system name, you can use the uname command without any parameter option (will output system information), or use the uname -s command (output system Kernel name).
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname
Linux
To view the network host name, use the uname command with the "-n” parameter option as shown below.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname -n
tecmint.com
To get information about the kernel version, use the “-v” parameter option.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname -v
#64-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 22 21:28:38 UTC 2014
To get information about the kernel distribution, use the “-r” parameter option .
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname -r
3.13.0-37-generic
To output the hardware name of your system, use the “-m” parameter option:
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ Uname -m
x86_64
As long as you run the "uname -a” command, all of this information can be output at once, as shown below.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ uname -a
Linux tecmint.com 3.13.0-37-generic #64-Ubuntu SMP Mon
Sep 22 21:28:38 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux< Br>2. How to view the hardware information of Linux system
You can use the lshw tool to collect a lot of information about hardware components (such as processor, disk, memory and USB controller).
lshw is a relatively small tool, there are few options that you need to combine when you get the information. The information provided by lshw is collected from different /proc files.
Please note: It is important to remember that the lshw command can only be executed by the superuser (root user) or sudo user.
To output information about your Linux system hardware, run this command.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo lshw
tecmint.com
description: Notebook
product: 20354 (LENOVO_MT_20354_BU_idea_FM_Lenovo Z50-70)
vendor: LENOVO
version: Lenovo Z50-70< Br>serial: 1037407803441
width: 64 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.7 dmi-2.7 vsyscall32
configuration: administrator_password=disabled boot=normal chassis=notebook family=IDEAPAD frontpanel_password=disabled keyboard_password=disabled power-on_password =disabled sku=LENOVO_MT_20354_BU_idea_FM_Lenovo Z50-70 uuid=E4B1D229-D237-E411-9F6E-28D244EBBD98
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: Lancer 5A5
vendor: LENOVO
physical id: 0
version: 31900059WIN
serial: YB06377069
slot: Type2 - Board Chassis Location
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: LENOVO
physical id: 0
version: 9BCN26WW
date : 07/31/2014
size : 128KiB
capacity: 4032KiB
capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect edd int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13fl Oppy720 int13floppy2880 int9keyboard int10video acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
......
If you use the -short option, you can output a summary of the hardware information.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo lshw -short
H/W path Device Class Description
========================== ================================================================================================================================================= /0/0 memory 128KiB BIOS
/0/4 processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70GHz
/0/4/b memory 32KiB L1 cache
/0/4 /c memory 256KiB L2 cache
/0/4/d memory 3MiB L3 cache
/0/a memory 32KiB L1 cache
/0/12 memory 8GiB System Memory
/0/12/0 Memory DIMM [empty]
/0/12/1 memory DIMM [empty]
/0/12/2 memory 8GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns)
/0/12/3 memory DIMM [empty]
/0/100 bridge Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller
/0/100/2 display Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller
/0/100/3 multimedia Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller
...
If you want to generate the output as an html file, you can use the option -html.
tecmint@tecmint ~ $ sudo lshw -html > lshw.html
Generating Linux Hardware Information in HTML Format