Commands to know the system (identify hardware and some software configurations)

A few days ago we saw how to install Debian 6. Now that we have our system installed, we are going to get to know it a little more thoroughly, explaining some basic commands that, in reality, are used for any distribution.

Introduction

A computer equipment consists of physical devices called globally hardware, and logical components called software. There are tools that allow identifying both parts, either to know the characteristics of the equipment and to measure its performance and / or diagnose possible failures.

When there is a need to request support in solving problems, it is important to be able to provide all the information that is possible and necessary about the hardware and software that make up the equipment. In that sense, this article can be seen as an expansion of an older one in which we explained where the system log files are located.

Justification

When looking for answers to the problems you may face when using Linux, it is necessary to provide all the necessary information about the problem in question, such as: the type of computer you have, Debian version, kernel version, desktop system , etc. This will help describe the steps you took to cause or fix the problem.

Related article:

Enable root user in Ubuntu

It's easier to request and get support when you know how to provide such information, and this article is intended to provide a list of commands to achieve that goal. Many new Debian GNU / Linux users do not know how to provide as much information as possible and may not receive adequate help simply because they do not know how to provide the appropriate information.

Conventions

In some commands the resulting information exceeds the height of the screen, so to facilitate the reading of this information, the less pager is used and in this way it is possible to scroll down and up, displaying all the information. To exit the pager, simply press the Q (quit) key. Here are 2 examples of how this pager will be used:

dmesg | less

y

less /etc/apt/sources.list

Manufacturer and model information

Equipment manufacturer:

sudo dmidecode -s system-manufacturer

Product name:

sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name

Product version:

sudo dmidecode -s system-version

Equipment serial number:

sudo dmidecode -s system-serial-number

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) or P / N (Part Number) of the product:

sudo dmidecode | grep -i sku

More detailed information:

sudo dmidecode




Related article:
Permissions and rights in Linux

Processor information

Show manufacturer name, model, and speed:

grep 'vendor_id' / proc / cpuinfo; grep 'model name' / proc / cpuinfo; grep 'cpu MHz' / proc / cpuinfo

Show architecture (32 or 64 bit):

sudo lshw -C CPU | grep width

Show machine type:

join me -m

Show if the processor supports "Virtualization Extensions" (Intel-VT or AMD-V), which are activated from the computer's BIOS configuration:

If the processor is Intel, you need to know if the value "vmx" appears:

grep -i vmx / proc / cpuinfo

If the processor is AMD, you need to know if the value "svm" appears:

grep -i svm / proc / cpuinfo

Battery info

acpi-bi

ó

acpitool -B

RAM memory and SWAP partition

Show total RAM and swap partition (change last parameter to: -b = Bytes, -k = Kilobytes, -m = Megabytes, -g = Gigabytes, as appropriate):

free -o -m

and another way to do it is like this:

grep 'MemTotal' / proc / meminfo; grep 'SwapTotal' / proc / meminfo

To show what partition (and size) the swap is on:

sudo swapon -s

Kernel

Show kernel name and version:

join me -sr

Shell

Show the shell in use:

echo $ SHELL

Distribution

Show the name, version and key name of the distribution:

lsb_release -idc

User environment

Current user name:

echo $ USER

Name of the team:

echo $ HOSTNAME

Current user base directory:

echo $ HOME

Current working directory:

echo $ PWD

o

pwd

Hardware

List PCI / PCIe devices

lspci

List all PCMCIA devices

/ sbin / lspcmcia

List all USB devices:

lsusb

List all devices detected as SCSI:

lsscsi

Modules that have been instructed to the kernel to load during boot:

cat / etc / modules

List all modules that the system loaded:

lsmod | less

List the hardware (summary information):

sudo lshw -short

List the hardware (extensive information):

sudo lshw | less

Storage and boot media

List the partitions on the storage media:

sudo fdisk-l

Know the used and available space in the partitions:

df -h

Know what partition (and size) is swap on:

sudo swapon -s

Show the entries logged for the GRUB "Legacy" bootloader (up to version 0.97):

sudo grep -i title /boot/grub/menu.lst | grep "#" -v

Show the logged entries for the GRUB 2 bootloader:

sudo grep -i menuentry /boot/grub/grub.cfg | grep "#" -v

Show the partition table (File System TABle) that the system mounts automatically during startup:

less / etc / fstab

Show the UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier) ​​value of all partitions:

sudo blkid

Industrial

List the wired PCI network devices:

lspci | grep -i ethernet

List the PCI wireless network devices:

lspci | grep -i network

List USB network devices:

lsusb | grep -i ethernet; lsusb | grep -i network

Show the modules loaded by the system, to control wireless network cards:

lsmod | grep iwl

Show information about the driver used by a specific network device (the word interface should be replaced by the logical name of the network card, for example eth0, wlan0, ath0, etc.):

sudo ethtool -i interface

Configuration of the network cards and their assigned IP addresses:

cat / etc / network / interfaces

Resolution of Domain Names:

cat /etc/resolv.conf

Show the contents of the HOSTS file:

cat / etc / hosts

Computer name, as it will be seen on the local network:

cat / etc / hostname

ó

grep 127.0.1.1 / etc / hosts

ó

echo $ HOSTNAME

Local IP addresses of the wired network cards (summary):

/ sbin / ifconfig | grep -i direc | grep -i bcast

if the system is in English, use:

/ sbin / ifconfig | grep -i addr | grep -i bcast

Local IP addresses of the wired network cards (detail):

/ Sbin / ifconfig

Local IP addresses of wireless network cards (summary):

/ sbin / iwconfig | grep -i direc | grep -i bcast

if the system is in English, use:

/ sbin / iwconfig | grep -i addr | grep -i bcast

Local IP addresses of the wireless network cards (detail):

/ Sbin / iwconfig

Show the routing table:

sudo route -n

To find out the public (external) IP address:

curl ip.appspot.com

Repositories / system update

View the content of the sources.list file, which contains the addresses of the repositories:

less /etc/apt/sources.list

Video

List the video cards (PCI / PCIe):

lspci | grep-i vga

To determine if the computer supports graphics acceleration, the mesa-utils tool package must be installed. This package contains the glxinfo command:

glxinfo | grep -i render

To calculate the FPS (frames per second), execute the following command:

timeout 60 glxgears

Which will show for 60 seconds (with the help of the timeout command) a small window with an animation of 3 gears, while at the same time in the terminal window the average values ​​of frames per second (FPS, frames per second) will be shown. ):

Example of the graphical performance of a system:

338 frames in 5.4 seconds = 62.225 FPS
280 frames in 5.1 seconds = 55.343 FPS
280 frames in 5.2 seconds = 54.179 FPS
280 frames in 5.2 seconds = 53.830 FPS
280 frames in 5.3 seconds = 53.211 FPS
338 frames in 5.4 seconds = 62.225 FPS
280 frames in 5.1 seconds = 55.343 FPS
280 frames in 5.2 seconds = 54.179 FPS
280 frames in 5.2 seconds = 53.830 FPS
280 frames in 5.3 seconds = 53.211 FPS

Example of better graphics performance on another system:

2340 frames in 5.0 seconds = 467.986 FPS
2400 frames in 5.0 seconds = 479.886 FPS
2080 frames in 5.0 seconds = 415.981 FPS
2142 frames in 5.0 seconds = 428.346 FPS
2442 frames in 5.0 seconds = 488.181 FPS
2295 frames in 5.0 seconds = 458.847 FPS
2298 frames in 5.0 seconds = 459.481 FPS
2416 frames in 5.0 seconds = 483.141 FPS
2209 frames in 5.0 seconds = 441.624 FPS
2437 frames in 5.0 seconds = 487.332 FPS

To display the current X (X Window System) server configuration:

less /etc/X11/xorg.conf

To find the current resolution (width x height) and sweep frequency (MHz):

xrandr | grep '*'

To know all the resolutions that the current configuration supports:

xrandr

To display the webcams (USB):

lsusb | grep -i camera

The following example shows the result of 2 webcams connected to the same computer:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0c45: 62c0 Microdia Sonix USB 2.0 Camera
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0ac8: 3420 Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. Venus USB2.0 Camera
Webcams are "mounted" in consecutive order on the / dev / path:

Bus 001 -> / dev / video0
Bus 002 -> / dev / video1
Bus 003 -> / dev / video2
[…] To check that the webcams have been "mounted" in their corresponding path:

ls / dev / video * -lh

Audio

List audio hardware:

lspci | grep -i audio

ó

sudo lshw | grep -i audio | grep product

List the audio playback devices:

aplay -l | grep -i card

if the system is in English then it is used:

aplay -l | grep -i card

List all the modules that the system loaded, to be used by the sound devices:

lsmod | grep -i snd

The following are tests to verify if the speakers are properly connected and distributed. The speakers should be turned on and during the test the volume, cables, and layout can be adjusted. Each test emits a sound in a cycle, and is repeated 2 more times:

If the sound system is 1 channel (monaural):

speaker-test -l 3 -t sine -c 1

If the sound system is 2-channel (stereo):

speaker-test -l 3 -t sine -c 2

If the sound system is 5.1 channel (surround):

speaker-test -l 3 -t sine -c 6

Registers (logs)

Display the last 30 lines of the kernel buffer:

dmesg | tail -30

View the entire kernel buffer:

dmesg | less

The X server logs give useful information about the current configuration of the server, and about the video card:

cd / var / log / ls Xorg * -hl

this will display all the log files from the X server, with the Xorg.0.log file being the most recent.

To view the error messages (errors) and warning messages (warnings):

grep -E "(WW) | (EE)" Xorg.0.log | grep -v unknown

If you want to see all the registry information:

less Xorg.0.log

If you want to see the content of a record prior to the current one, just replace the file name Xorg.0.log with the name of the file you want to view.

To view the boot record, it is necessary to activate it first. Open the / etc / default / bootlogd file and replace the value no with yes, looking like this:

# Run bootlogd at startup? BOOTLOGD_ENABLE = yes

During the next system startup the file / var / log / boot will be generated, which can now be reviewed:

sudo less / var / log / boot

Previous boot records can be viewed with:

sudo ls / var / log / boot * -hl

and be consulted as already shown.

To see other logs: Most of the system logs are found in the / var / log / directory, as well as in several subdirectories, therefore, just enter that directory and make a list to know them:

cd / var / log / ls -hl

Other ways to know the system

Although there are also graphical tools that allow us to know the system, it is possible that the graphical environment does not work, therefore the use of the terminal is essential. Some of the most popular graphical tools are hardinfo and sysinfo, and to install them from the terminal, just run:

sudo aptitude install hardinfo sysinfo