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FreeBSD: viewing hardware (device) information and BIOS data

Practice



Task: obtain at least some reasonably detailed information about the hardware on which this FreeBSD operating system is running. We are interested in data from the BIOS, information about which processor is installed, memory, which memory slots are occupied, which motherboard is installed, which hard drives, etc.


That is, we are interested in what devices are installed in the computer, what hardware is present in a system running FreeBSD.

Basically, I was looking for something analogous to Sandra or Everest, only for FreeBSD and free.


Note. The utility shown below will only work if a DMI BIOS is present. For the most part this does not matter, since all modern computers have shipped with DMI for many years now, but on 486s and early Pentiums you may find that the utility refuses to talk to you.


1) Installing

$ cd /usr/ports/sysutils/dmidecode
$ sudo make install clean


2) Using it

$ sudo dmidecode | less

I piped the output through "less" (or "more") for good reason - the utility prints out an awful lot of text.

Here is a sample of the output (of course, only part of it):

...

Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
        Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
        Product Name: P5KPL-AM EPU
        Version: x.0x
        Serial Number: MT7002K27107529
        Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
        Features:
                Board is a hosting board
                Board is replaceable
        Location In Chassis: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
        Chassis Handle: 0x0003
        Type: Motherboard
        Contained Object Handles: 0

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 40 bytes
Processor Information
        Socket Designation: Socket 775
        Type: Central Processor
        Family: Other
        Manufacturer: Intel
        ID: 61 06 01 00 FF FB EB AF
        Version: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 430 @ 1.80GHz
        Voltage: 1.3 V
        External Clock: 200 MHz
Max Speed: 3800 MHz
        Current Speed: 1800 MHz
        Status: Populated, Enabled
        Upgrade: Socket LGA775
        L1 Cache Handle: 0x0005
        L2 Cache Handle: 0x0006
        L3 Cache Handle: 0x0007
        Serial Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
        Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
        Part Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
        Characteristics: None

Handle 0x0008, DMI type 6, 12 bytes
Memory Module Information
        Socket Designation: DIMM A1
        Bank Connections: 0 1
        Current Speed: 25 ns
        Type: DIMM SDRAM
        Installed Size: 1024 MB (Single-bank Connection)
        Enabled Size: 1024 MB (Single-bank Connection)
        Error Status: OK

Handle 0x0009, DMI type 6, 12 bytes
Memory Module Information
        Socket Designation: DIMM B1
        Bank Connections: 2 3
        Current Speed: Unknown
        Type: DIMM SDRAM
        Installed Size: Not Installed
        Enabled Size: Not Installed
        Error Status: OK

...


3) Dig through man dmidecode - the utility lets you print out not all the data at once, but only a certain part of it (category).

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