It is always a good practice to know the hardware components of your Linux system running, this helps you to deal with compatibility issues when it comes to installing packages, and drivers on your system using yum, dnf, or apt.

In this article, we shall look at some useful Linux commands that can help you to extract information about your Linux system and hardware components.

1. How to View Linux System Information

To know only the system name, you can use the uname command without any switch that will print system information or the uname -s command will print the kernel name of your system.

[email protected] ~ $ uname

Linux

To view your Linux network hostname, use the ‘-n’ switch with the uname command as shown.

[email protected] ~ $ uname -n

tecmint.com

To get information about the Linux kernel version, use the ‘-v’ switch.

[email protected] ~ $ uname -v

#64-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 22 21:28:38 UTC 2014

To get the information about your Linux kernel release, use the ‘-r’ switch.

[email protected] ~ $ uname -r

3.13.0-37-generic

To print your Linux hardware architecture name, use the ‘-m’ switch:

[email protected] ~ $ uname -m

x86_64

All this information can be printed at once by running the ‘uname -a’ command as shown below.

[email protected] ~ $ 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

2. How to View Linux System Hardware Information

Here you can use the lshw tool to gather vast information about your hardware components such as cpu, disks, memory, usb controllers, etc.

lshw is a relatively small tool and there are a few options that you can use with it while extracting information. The information provided by lshw was gathered from different /proc files.

Note: Do remember that the lshw command is executed by the superuser (root) or sudo user.

To print information about your Linux system hardware, run the following command.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo lshw

tecmint.com               
    description: Notebook
    product: 20354 (LENOVO_MT_20354_BU_idea_FM_Lenovo Z50-70)
    vendor: LENOVO
    version: Lenovo Z50-70
    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  
          int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 
int13floppy2880 int9keyboard int10video acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
......

You can print a summary of your hardware information by using the -short option.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo lshw -short

H/W path       Device      Class          Description
=====================================================
                           system         20354 (LENOVO_MT_20354_
                                          BU_idea_FM_Lenovo Z50-70)
/0                         bus            Lancer 5A5
/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 wish to generate output as an html file, you can use the option -html.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo lshw -html > lshw.html

3. How to View Linux CPU Information

To view information about your CPU, use the lscpu command as it shows information about your CPU architecture such as the number of CPUs, cores, CPU family model, CPU caches, threads, etc from sysfs and /proc/cpuinfo.

[email protected] ~ $ lscpu

Architecture:          x86_64
CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                4
On-line CPU(s) list:   0-3
Thread(s) per core:    2
Core(s) per socket:    2
Socket(s):             1
NUMA node(s):          1
Vendor ID:             GenuineIntel
CPU family:            6
Model:                 69
Stepping:              1
CPU MHz:               768.000
BogoMIPS:              4788.72
Virtualization:        VT-x
L1d cache:             32K
L1i cache:             32K
L2 cache:              256K
L3 cache:              3072K
NUMA node0 CPU(s):     0-3

4. How to Collect Linux Block Device Information

Block devices are storage devices such as hard disks, flash drives, etc. lsblk command is used to report information about block devices as follows.

[email protected] ~ $ lsblk

NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda       8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1    8:1    0  1000M  0 part 
├─sda2    8:2    0   260M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda3    8:3    0  1000M  0 part 
├─sda4    8:4    0   128M  0 part 
├─sda5    8:5    0 557.1G  0 part 
├─sda6    8:6    0    25G  0 part 
├─sda7    8:7    0  14.7G  0 part 
├─sda8    8:8    0     1M  0 part 
├─sda9    8:9    0 324.5G  0 part /
└─sda10   8:10   0   7.9G  0 part [SWAP]
sr0      11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  

If you want to view all block devices on your system then include the -a option.

[email protected] ~ $ lsblk -a

NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda       8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1    8:1    0  1000M  0 part 
├─sda2    8:2    0   260M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda3    8:3    0  1000M  0 part 
├─sda4    8:4    0   128M  0 part 
├─sda5    8:5    0 557.1G  0 part 
├─sda6    8:6    0    25G  0 part 
├─sda7    8:7    0  14.7G  0 part 
├─sda8    8:8    0     1M  0 part 
├─sda9    8:9    0 324.5G  0 part /
└─sda10   8:10   0   7.9G  0 part [SWAP]
sdb       8:16   1         0 disk 
sr0      11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
ram0      1:0    0    64M  0 disk 
ram1      1:1    0    64M  0 disk 
ram2      1:2    0    64M  0 disk 
ram3      1:3    0    64M  0 disk 
ram4      1:4    0    64M  0 disk 
ram5      1:5    0    64M  0 disk 
ram6      1:6    0    64M  0 disk 
ram7      1:7    0    64M  0 disk 
ram8      1:8    0    64M  0 disk 
ram9      1:9    0    64M  0 disk 
loop0     7:0    0         0 loop 
loop1     7:1    0         0 loop 
loop2     7:2    0         0 loop 
loop3     7:3    0         0 loop 
loop4     7:4    0         0 loop 
loop5     7:5    0         0 loop 
loop6     7:6    0         0 loop 
loop7     7:7    0         0 loop 
ram10     1:10   0    64M  0 disk 
ram11     1:11   0    64M  0 disk 
ram12     1:12   0    64M  0 disk 
ram13     1:13   0    64M  0 disk 
ram14     1:14   0    64M  0 disk 
ram15     1:15   0    64M  0 disk 

5. How to Check USB Controller in Linux

The lsusb command is used to report information about USB controllers and all the devices that are connected to them.

[email protected] ~ $ lsusb

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0bda:b728 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 5986:0249 Acer, Inc 
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:0129 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
RTS5129 Card Reader Controller
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:00cb Microsoft Corp. 
Basic Optical Mouse v2.0
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 
2.0 root hub

You can use the -v option to generate detailed information about each USB device.

[email protected] ~ $ lsusb -v

6. How to Check PCI Devices in Linux

PCI devices may include usb ports, graphics cards, network adapters, etc. The lspci tool is used to generate information concerning all PCI controllers on your system plus the devices that are connected to them.

To print information about PCI devices run the following command.

[email protected] ~ $ lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT 
DRAM Controller (rev 0b)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT 
Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0b)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller
(rev 0b)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP USB xHCI HC 
(rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP HECI #0 
(rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP HD Audio Controller 
(rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP PCI Express Root Port 3 
(rev e4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP PCI Express Root Port 4 
(rev e4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP PCI Express Root Port 5 
(rev e4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP USB EHCI #1 
(rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP LPC Controller 
(rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP SATA Controller 1 
[AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 
PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 
RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
03:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM108M [GeForce 840M] (rev a2)

Use the -t option to produce output in a tree format.

[email protected] ~ $ lspci -t

-[0000:00]-+-00.0
           +-02.0
           +-03.0
           +-14.0
           +-16.0
           +-1b.0
           +-1c.0-[01]----00.0
           +-1c.3-[02]----00.0
           +-1c.4-[03]----00.0
           +-1d.0
           +-1f.0
           +-1f.2
           \-1f.3

Use the -v option to produce detailed information about each connected device.

[email protected] ~ $ lspci -v

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller (rev 0b)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3978
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Capabilities: 

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT 
Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0b) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 380d
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 62
	Memory at c3000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
	Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	I/O ports at 6000 [size=64]
	Expansion ROM at  [disabled]
	Capabilities: 
	Kernel driver in use: i915
.....

7. How to Check SCSI Devices in Linux

To view all your scsi/sata devices, use the lsscsi command as follows. If you do not have the lsscsi tool installed, run the following command to install it.

$ sudo apt-get install lsscsi        [on Debian derivatives]
# yum install lsscsi                 [On RedHat based systems]
# dnf install lsscsi                 [On Fedora 21+ Onwards]

After installation, run the lsscsi command as shown:

[email protected] ~ $ lsscsi

[0:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      ST1000LM024 HN-M 2BA3  /dev/sda 
[1:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  PLDS     DVD-RW DA8A5SH   RL61  /dev/sr0 
[4:0:0:0]    disk    Generic- xD/SD/M.S.       1.00  /dev/sdb 

Use the -s option to show device sizes.

[email protected] ~ $ lsscsi -s

[0:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      ST1000LM024 HN-M 2BA3  /dev/sda   1.00TB
[1:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  PLDS     DVD-RW DA8A5SH   RL61  /dev/sr0        -
[4:0:0:0]    disk    Generic- xD/SD/M.S.       1.00  /dev/sdb        -

8. How to Check SATA Device in Linux

You can find some information about sata devices on your system as follows using the hdparm utility. In the example below, I used the block device /dev/sda1 which is the hard disk on my system.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo hdparm /dev/sda1

/dev/sda1:
 multcount     =  0 (off)
 IO_support    =  1 (32-bit)
 readonly      =  0 (off)
 readahead     = 256 (on)
 geometry      = 56065/255/63, sectors = 2048000, start = 2048

To print information about device geometry in terms of cylinders, heads, sectors, size, and the starting offset of the device, use the -g option.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo hdparm -g /dev/sda1

/dev/sda1:
 geometry      = 56065/255/63, sectors = 2048000, start = 2048

9. How to Check Linux File System Information

To gather information about file system partitions, you can use the fdisk command. Although the main functionality of the fdisk command is to modify file system partitions, it can also be used to view information about the different partitions on your file system.

You can print partition information as follows. Remember to run the command as a superuser or else you may not see any output.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! 
The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, 
total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xcee8ad92

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1  1953525167   976762583+  ee  GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

10. How to Check Linux Hardware Components Info

You can also use the dmidecode utility to extract hardware information by reading data from the DMI tables.

To print information about Linux memory, run this command as a superuser.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo dmidecode -t memory

# dmidecode 2.12
# SMBIOS entry point at 0xaaebef98
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0005, DMI type 5, 24 bytes
Memory Controller Information
	Error Detecting Method: None
	Error Correcting Capabilities:
		None
	Supported Interleave: One-way Interleave
	Current Interleave: One-way Interleave
	Maximum Memory Module Size: 8192 MB
	Maximum Total Memory Size: 32768 MB
	Supported Speeds:
		Other
	Supported Memory Types:
		Other
	Memory Module Voltage: Unknown
	Associated Memory Slots: 4
		0x0006
		0x0007
		0x0008
		0x0009
	Enabled Error Correcting Capabilities:
		None
...

To print information about the system, run this command.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo dmidecode -t system

# dmidecode 2.12
# SMBIOS entry point at 0xaaebef98
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
	Manufacturer: LENOVO
	Product Name: 20354
	Version: Lenovo Z50-70
	Serial Number: 1037407803441
	UUID: 29D2B1E4-37D2-11E4-9F6E-28D244EBBD98
	Wake-up Type: Power Switch
	SKU Number: LENOVO_MT_20354_BU_idea_FM_Lenovo Z50-70
	Family: IDEAPAD
...

To print information about Linux BIOS, run this command.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo dmidecode -t bios

# dmidecode 2.12
# SMBIOS entry point at 0xaaebef98
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
	Vendor: LENOVO
	Version: 9BCN26WW
	Release Date: 07/31/2014
	Address: 0xE0000
	Runtime Size: 128 kB
	ROM Size: 4096 kB
	Characteristics:
		PCI is supported
		BIOS is upgradeable
		BIOS shadowing is allowed
		Boot from CD is supported
		Selectable boot is supported
		EDD is supported
		Japanese floppy for NEC 9800 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
		Japanese floppy for Toshiba 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
		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)
		8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
		CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
		ACPI is supported
		USB legacy is supported
		BIOS boot specification is supported
		Targeted content distribution is supported
		UEFI is supported
	BIOS Revision: 0.26
	Firmware Revision: 0.26
...

To print information about the Linux processor, run this command.

[email protected] ~ $ sudo dmidecode -t processor

# dmidecode 2.12
# SMBIOS entry point at 0xaaebef98
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 42 bytes
Processor Information
	Socket Designation: U3E1
	Type: Central Processor
	Family: Core i5
	Manufacturer: Intel(R) Corporation
	ID: 51 06 04 00 FF FB EB BF
	Signature: Type 0, Family 6, Model 69, Stepping 1
	Flags:
...

Summary

There are many other ways you can use to obtain information about your Linux system hardware components. Most of these commands use files in the /proc directory to extract system information.

Hope you find these tips and tricks useful and remember to post a comment in case you want to add more information to this or if you face any difficulties in using any of the commands. Remember to always stay connected to Tecmint.