There are many alternatives to Dmidecode for Windows if you are looking to replace it. The most popular Windows alternative is SIW.It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Windows System Information or DirectX Diagnostic Tool.If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked 13 alternatives to Dmidecode and three of them are available for Windows so hopefully you. How to get dmidecode information without root privileges? How to get total disk read/write in bytes per hdd device from /proc. 3tb external hard disk on 32 bit system. How to get the Serial Number of a disk by corresponding file in linux?
If we are interested in finding out our computer's hardware details, 'dmidecode command' is the go-to Linux command. Hardware information ranges from BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) information to the sizes of the memory devices.
When we run dmidecode on the terminal, the system retrieves the contents of the DMI (Desktop Management Interface) table, which has the main purpose of providing such crucial details to management software. In a way, the command acts as a decoder of the DMI table, hence the name 'dmidecode'.
Table of Contents
How to run the dmidecode command?
Since hardware information like serial numbers and MAC addresses are confidential to the owner of the system, this command requires superuser permission. The easiest way is to use sudo dmidecode and enter the password.
The other way is to switch to the root user by sudo su or sudo -s. Click here for more information on sudo. After entering the password, the terminal is run as a root user. It is indicated by the keyword 'root' before the hostname.
What does the standard dmidecode output look like?
Each table entry has the following elements. Download Easy Drum Machine - Beat Machine on PC with ....
DMI Types
The type number plays an important role as it can be used to extract a particular entry in the table by running the following commands. Let's begin with extracting data using the dmidecode command based on the dmi types.
Extracting on the basis of DMI Types
Each type corresponds to a specific class of information. For instance, as it is clear in the above figure, ‘type 4' focuses on processor information.
More information on DMI Types
To find out the mapping of type number to their categorical information, we can always refer to the manual page in the terminal by using the man command.
After scrolling down the manual, you can find all the designated DMI types
Display entries using multiple DMI Types
To display multiple types of hardware information -t is repeated every time. For instance, to display Baseboard and Chassis Information at the same instance, we run:
or,
DMI Keywords
Instead of displaying details with their DMI number, we can also use special keywords like ‘bios', ‘memory', etc. This can be done by:
By referring to the above table of DMI Types, we can notice that type number 0 and 13 corresponds to BIOS related information, hence the output:
To gain more knowledge about the types of in-built keywords, we can again look up the manual page. We will find the following keywords:
Note: The keywords in dmidecode are matched case-insensitively. dmidecode -t bios and dmidecode -t BiOs gives the same output. In case, the argument provided is not a valid keyword, the terminal displays all the valid ones.
DMI Strings
There is indeed one more method to display such sensitive information – using strings. These strings are predefined and store some offset, which helps the system to look up its corresponding value. Suppose we want to check our processor version, we will execute the following command:
Output:
Note: These strings can provide multiple outputs depending on the system configuration. In case, we enter some invalid string, the terminal will display all kinds of predefined string keywords.
Decoding contents of another device file
By default, dmidecode extracts all the hardware information from /dev/mem file. For more information. refer to this StackOverflow question. In the event we require to decode a DMI Table from a different device file, we run:
How to dump dmidecode data?
Linux also provides the service of dumping the contents of the DMI table, rather than decoding them. Such dumps are mainly used for debugging purposes, but it can help us to decode DMI tables of other systems as well. There are two ways to dump the contents using dmidecode:
Hexadecimal dump – The output of this dump contains data in hexadecimal format as well as various strings.
Binary dump – Complete DMI table is dumped into a file in binary format.
Extracting DMI data from a binary dump file
You can also read the binary data from the dump file by using the below command.
Additional dmidecode Command Options
There are some simple commands to extract some crucial information using dmidecode.
Current Size of RAM/s: The following command lists the size/s of RAM in all the memory slots.
Note: The pipe symbol (|), is used to pass the output of one sub-command to another. In the latter sub-command grep is a searching tool. For detailed information, refer to this.
Maximum Capacity of Memory: In order to upgrade the system's RAM, you must know the maximum capacity the system can withstand. It can be known by:
The number of Cores and Threads: In the multi-threading environment, the number of cores and threads play a huge role. To find out their count, we run:
We can always refer to the manual pages using 'man dmidecode' for rigorous details. Moreover, for understanding dmidecode options, you can enter 'dmidecode -h'.
Conclusion
We hope this tutorial helped you understand the dmidecode command in detail. Don't forget to have a look at some of our recent articles on awk and sed. Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions.
The System Information app provides detailed specifications and other information about your Mac hardware and software, including your network and external devices. In some versions of OS X, this app is called System Profiler.
Choose Apple menu > About This Mac. This opens an overview of your Mac, including your Mac model, processor, memory, serial number, and version of macOS. To see the greater detail provided by the System Information app, click the System Report button.
To open System Information directly, press and hold the Option key and choose Apple menu > System Information. You can also use Spotlight to find System Information, or open it from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
System Information opens to a system report for your Mac:
Select items in the sidebar to see information about each item. For example, the Hardware section shows your Mac serial number, the Memory section shows how much RAM is installed in each internal memory slot, and the Software section shows which startup disk (boot volume) your Mac is using. You can use the Network section and Network Utility to learn more about your network.
Dmidecode For Macbook Air
To have System Information read your serial number aloud, choose File > Speak Serial Number.
Dmidecode Machine Type
To save a copy of your system report, choose File > Save.
Dmidecode For Macbook
The type number plays an important role as it can be used to extract a particular entry in the table by running the following commands. Let's begin with extracting data using the dmidecode command based on the dmi types.
Extracting on the basis of DMI Types
Each type corresponds to a specific class of information. For instance, as it is clear in the above figure, ‘type 4' focuses on processor information.
More information on DMI Types
To find out the mapping of type number to their categorical information, we can always refer to the manual page in the terminal by using the man command.
After scrolling down the manual, you can find all the designated DMI types
Display entries using multiple DMI Types
To display multiple types of hardware information -t is repeated every time. For instance, to display Baseboard and Chassis Information at the same instance, we run:
or,
DMI Keywords
Instead of displaying details with their DMI number, we can also use special keywords like ‘bios', ‘memory', etc. This can be done by:
By referring to the above table of DMI Types, we can notice that type number 0 and 13 corresponds to BIOS related information, hence the output:
To gain more knowledge about the types of in-built keywords, we can again look up the manual page. We will find the following keywords:
Note: The keywords in dmidecode are matched case-insensitively. dmidecode -t bios and dmidecode -t BiOs gives the same output. In case, the argument provided is not a valid keyword, the terminal displays all the valid ones.
DMI Strings
There is indeed one more method to display such sensitive information – using strings. These strings are predefined and store some offset, which helps the system to look up its corresponding value. Suppose we want to check our processor version, we will execute the following command:
Output:
Note: These strings can provide multiple outputs depending on the system configuration. In case, we enter some invalid string, the terminal will display all kinds of predefined string keywords.
Decoding contents of another device file
By default, dmidecode extracts all the hardware information from /dev/mem file. For more information. refer to this StackOverflow question. In the event we require to decode a DMI Table from a different device file, we run:
How to dump dmidecode data?
Linux also provides the service of dumping the contents of the DMI table, rather than decoding them. Such dumps are mainly used for debugging purposes, but it can help us to decode DMI tables of other systems as well. There are two ways to dump the contents using dmidecode:
Hexadecimal dump – The output of this dump contains data in hexadecimal format as well as various strings.
Binary dump – Complete DMI table is dumped into a file in binary format.
Extracting DMI data from a binary dump file
You can also read the binary data from the dump file by using the below command.
Additional dmidecode Command Options
There are some simple commands to extract some crucial information using dmidecode.
Current Size of RAM/s: The following command lists the size/s of RAM in all the memory slots.
Note: The pipe symbol (|), is used to pass the output of one sub-command to another. In the latter sub-command grep is a searching tool. For detailed information, refer to this.
Maximum Capacity of Memory: In order to upgrade the system's RAM, you must know the maximum capacity the system can withstand. It can be known by:
The number of Cores and Threads: In the multi-threading environment, the number of cores and threads play a huge role. To find out their count, we run:
We can always refer to the manual pages using 'man dmidecode' for rigorous details. Moreover, for understanding dmidecode options, you can enter 'dmidecode -h'.
Conclusion
We hope this tutorial helped you understand the dmidecode command in detail. Don't forget to have a look at some of our recent articles on awk and sed. Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions.
The System Information app provides detailed specifications and other information about your Mac hardware and software, including your network and external devices. In some versions of OS X, this app is called System Profiler.
Choose Apple menu > About This Mac. This opens an overview of your Mac, including your Mac model, processor, memory, serial number, and version of macOS. To see the greater detail provided by the System Information app, click the System Report button.
To open System Information directly, press and hold the Option key and choose Apple menu > System Information. You can also use Spotlight to find System Information, or open it from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
System Information opens to a system report for your Mac:
Select items in the sidebar to see information about each item. For example, the Hardware section shows your Mac serial number, the Memory section shows how much RAM is installed in each internal memory slot, and the Software section shows which startup disk (boot volume) your Mac is using. You can use the Network section and Network Utility to learn more about your network.
Dmidecode For Macbook Air
To have System Information read your serial number aloud, choose File > Speak Serial Number.
Dmidecode Machine Type
To save a copy of your system report, choose File > Save.
Dmidecode For Macbook
Dmidecode For Macbook Pro
To learn more about System Information, choose Help > System Information Help.
