GOAL: Check the details of Kalkin's hardware using the software tools that are available on Centos 6.9.


Kalkin's specs: [link]


Insert the Centos 6.9 bootable USB stick into Kalkin.


Boot Kalkin by pressing the power button. Centos boots and automatically logs in.


Open the Terminal application by choosing Applications / System Tools / Terminal.


Copying and pasting on Centos:

Terminal application:
Copy text: Ctrl-Shift-C or right-click / Copy
Paste text: Ctrl-Shift-V or right-click / Paste

Other applications (e.g. Firefox, gedit):
Copy text: Ctrl-C or right-click / Copy
Paste text: Ctrl-V or right-click / Paste





Google "centos hardware info".


Source:
serverfault.com/questions/48642/how-to-find-out-details-about-hardware-on-the-linux-machine

Q:

How to find out details about hardware on the Linux machine?

-i.e - how to get a full list of hardware components in command line (on a machine with no window system)

Thank you.

edited Jul 31 '09 at 18:24
asked Jul 31 '09 at 18:18
Evgeny


A:

lspci

for pci cards,

lsusb

for usb,

lshw

works on debian based distros, here's a list of ways to get other hardware specs [http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-display-information-about-installed-hardware],

edited Apr 26 '12 at 20:34
Mark Henderson

answered Jul 31 '09 at 18:22
Keith


A:

If available,

dmidecode

comes in handy. Particularly on Dell, HP, IBM hardware, where they bother to program relevant hardware information into the various registers.

answered Jul 31 '09 at 18:27
Chad Huneycutt


A:

lspci

is a great utility for listing the system hardware. (Anything on the PCI bus, anyway.)

cat /proc/cpuinfo

- Displays CPU info

cat /proc/meminfo

- Displays memory info

dmesg

(or

cat /var/log/dmesg

) contains some info, not necessarily everything.

If you have a RedHat/CentOS system, you can use

sosreport

to collect a good bit of information, though I don't know if it has all the hardware info listed in it.

Those are some good places to start to find the info you're looking for.

answered Jul 31 '09 at 18:27
baumgart


A:

The /proc filesystem will give you the information that you want... BUT i don't know how you will get it is one easy place.

'cat /proc/cpuinfo' will tell you about your CPU 'cat /proc/devices' will tell you some limited information about block devices. 'ifconfig -a' will tell you about network connections

Others will be able to tell you about more devices. Are you troubleshooting a particular device? If so, you will get better help asking a specific question.

answered Jul 31 '09 at 18:24
Michael Shaw


A:

to summarize that, I'd say here is good start to get information about your system:

1. dmesg - print or control the kernel ring buffer
2. lspci - list all PCI devices
3. lsusb - list USB devices
4. /proc - process information pseudo-file system

answered Apr 26 '12 at 20:21
alexus

I'll test out these commands and see what happens.





This line:

confirms the processor manufacturer (Intel), the family (Xeon E3), and the processor number (E3-1230). It also confirms that the processor frequency is 3.20 GHz.

These lines:

confirm that the processor frequency is ~3200 MHz = 3.2 GHz (again) and that the cache size is 8192 kB = 8 MiB ~= 8 MB.

This line:

confirms that there are 4 cpu cores. This is also confirmed by the fact that there are 4 distinct processors described in the output.

These specs are identical for each processor described in the output, as expected.





This line:

confirms that there are 16422640 kB ~= 16 GB of RAM.




The following link contains the entire output_dmesg.txt file (49 KB, 957 lines).
output_dmesg.txt


Here are some excerpts of which I took note:




This line:

confirms the computer model (Hewlett-Packard HP Z210 Workstation). The BIOS version (J51 v01.20) matches that found when I explored the BIOS boot options on Kalkin.


Some googling reveals some information about the acronym DMI.

Excerpt from:
manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/zesty/man8/dmidecode.8.html
Authors: Alan Cox, Jean Delvare

NAME

dmidecode - DMI table decoder

DESCRIPTION

dmidecode is a tool for dumping a computer's DMI (some say SMBIOS) table contents in a human-readable format. This table contains a description of the system's hardware components, as well as other useful pieces of information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision. Thanks to this table, you can retrieve this information without having to probe for the actual hardware. While this is a good point in terms of report speed and safeness, this also makes the presented information possibly unreliable.

The DMI table doesn't only describe what the system is currently made of, it also can report the possible evolutions (such as the fastest supported CPU or the maximal amount of memory supported).

SMBIOS stands for System Management BIOS, while DMI stands for Desktop Management Interface. Both standards are tightly related and developed by the DMTF (Desktop Management Task Force).

[...]

BUGS

More often than not, information contained in the DMI tables is inaccurate, incomplete or simply wrong.

So:
- DMI stands for Desktop Management Interface.
- SMBIOS stands for System Management BIOS.

Note: BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System.


This line:

confirms the number of processors.


The key described in these lines:

does not appear on this page (by title or by fingerprint):
www.centos.org/keys
1A01485A64DD991D is almost certainly a 32-hex-character (i.e. 16-byte) fingerprint of a public key.
Hypothesis:
- It's a key used internally in Centos but not published.

Google "CentOS Kernel Module GPG key". No helpful results at first pass.

Go to the keyserver at:
pgp.mit.edu
Search String "1A01485A64DD991D".
Result: "No results found".


With regard to this line:

What does SCSI stand for?

Excerpt from:
www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/scsi/index.htm
Author: Charles M. Kozierok

Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI)

The second-most popular hard disk interface used in PCs today is the Small Computer Systems Interface, abbreviated SCSI and pronounced "skuzzy". SCSI is a much more advanced interface than its chief competitor, IDE/ATA, and has several advantages over IDE that make it preferable for many situations, usually in higher-end machines.

What does EHCI stand for in this line?


Google "EHCI".

Excerpt from:
www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/universal-serial-bus/ehci-specification.html

The Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) specification describes the register-level interface for a host controller for the Universal Serial Bus (USB) Revision 2.0. The specification includes a description of the hardware and software interface between system software and the host controller hardware. This specification is intended for hardware component designers, system builders, and device driver (software) developers.

Implementation of the Enhanced Host Controller Interface specification requires a license from Intel. Adopters of the Enhanced Host Controller Interface specification for USB have signed the Enhanced Host Controller Interface specification for USB: Adopters Agreement in order to be licensed to use and implement this specification. This Adopters Agreement provides adopters with a reciprocal, royalty-free license to certain intellectual property rights from Intel and other adopters and contributors for their products that are compliant with the Enhanced Host Controller Interface specification for USB.

These lines:

would seem to suggest a total of 20 USB ports. However, examining the computer chassis, there are only 9 (3 at the front and 6 at the back). The interested reader can confirm this by examining photographs of Kalkin.
Hypotheses:
- Not all port slots on the USB hub component are actually connected to a physical USB port.
- The USB hubs 2-1 and 1-0 (or 2-0) are not actually connected to anything at all. Hub 1-1 connects to all the USB ports on the back. 2-0 (or 1-0) connects to all the USB ports on the front.
- The extra USB ports are used for internal connections between components inside the computer chassis.


These lines:

don't appear to be related to the graphics card (nVidia Quadro 2000 - 1GB GDDR5).


The Toshiba USB stick (containing the Live Centos OS) is plugged into the left-most USB port on the lower row on the back of the chassis. The Logitech USB mouse and the Goldtouch USB Keyboard are plugged into the two slots on the upper row.
Their port numbers are:

These numbers suggest that the USB hub 1-1 connects to all the USB ports on the back of the chassis.
I also have another 8GB memory stick (on which I save this log file as I work on it) plugged into the topmost USB slot on the front of the chassis.
These lines relating to it:

suggest that the USB hub 2-1 connects to the USB ports on the front of the chassis.


Regarding these lines:

I recall from an earlier article that:
- ATA = Advanced Technology Attachment
- PATA = Parallel ATA


These lines:

confirm these interface ports:
- Front:
-- Headphone
-- Microphone
- Rear:
-- 1 Audio Line-in
-- 1 Audio Line-out
-- 1 Microphone


In these lines:

I don't know why the HDMI/DP ports appear to be labeled as sound cards. Going by the specs, DP probably stands for DisplayPort.




Presumably I would need to look at how to install plugins for before it can tell me anything useful.








The following link contains the entire output_dmidecode.txt file (25 KB, 915 lines).
output_dmidecode.txt


Here are some excerpts of which I took note:




Most of the DMI information appears to match that which was previously found.

Of interest is perhaps this:

which confirms that the RAM is (or merely can be?) ECC and that it could possibly be upgraded to 32 GB.

There were three further handles (Handles 0x0017, 0x0019, and 0x001B) that contained information very similar to that of Handle 0x0015. These are probably the other three of the 4 x 4GB 10600E ECC Unbuffered RAM.

These lines

contain values expected from the specs description (DDR3-1333-1600Mhz).





Search on pcguide.com for "PCI".

Excerpt from:
www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/buses/types/pci.htm

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Local Bus

Currently by far the most popular local I/O bus, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus was developed by Intel and introduced in 1993. It is geared specifically to fifth- and sixth-generation systems, although the latest generation 486 motherboards use PCI as well.

Excerpt from:
www.pcguide.com/byop/byop_InstallingPCIExpansionCards.htm

Installing PCI Expansion Cards

If your system doesn't have built-in networking, you might want to install a PCI network card to connect your computers together.

There are many PCI cards that add functionality to your PC, from video input and output cards for home video producers (see videoguys.com for example) to special cards that interface to external mechanical devices.

For example, many experiments at universities are computer controlled, where the computer might control various optics or other mechanical devices, such as spectrometers or gas chromatography equipment. Such control is usually through a PCI card. Other cards might allow your PC to control a home security system.

So it looks like the list of PCI items produced via is roughly equivalent to a list of the peripheral components.

These lines:

appear to be the bridges from the main processor to two sibling processors.
Why only two bridges, rather than three?
Hypotheses:
- One of the other bridges, with a different name than these two bridges, is a bridge to the fourth processor.
- One of these siblings has a further, separate bridge to the fourth processor.
- The fourth processor is not actually accessible from the main processor and is never used.
- One of the two bridges handles communications from the main processor to two sibling processors.

This line:

confirms this item from the specs:
Network Ports: Integrated Intel 82579LM PCIe GbE Controller

This line:

confirms this item from the specs:
Graphics Card: nVidia Quadro 2000 - 1GB GDDR5
Or rather, it at least confirms that the expected controller for that graphics card is listed under the PCI items.








Presumably doesn't exist because this is not a Debian-based system.








Excerpt from:
www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-display-information-about-installed-hardware

Linux display information about installed hardware
Posted on April 20, 2006
last updated January 26, 2008
Posted by: Vivek Gite

You need to use command called lsdev. It gathers information about your computer's installed hardware from the interrupts, ioports and dma files in the /proc directory, thus giving you a quick overview of which hardware uses what I/O addresses and what IRQ and DMA channels.

This command is very useful while troubleshooting various hardware conflict problems.

Task display : CPU Information

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

Task: Display Free and used Memory Information

$ free -m

Task: Display partition information

# fdisk -l

Task: Display file system disk space usage

# df -H

OR

# df -h

Task: Estimate file space usage

# du

Task: List PCI devices

# lspci

Task: List USB devices

# lsusb

Options:

The -b switch displays the amount of memory in bytes; the -k switch (set by default) displays it in kilobytes; the -m switch displays it in megabytes; the -g switch displays it in gigabytes.

The -h switch displays all output fields automatically scaled to the shortest (three digit) representation including the unit. That makes the values human readable.

Confirms that RAM is ~16 GB.
2.3 GB used suggests that the entire OS is loaded into memory, which... would make sense. If the option is available, this would in general be faster. I'd never considered before now the extent to which the OS is loaded into RAM.

When I made the Live Centos memory stick, I found that the Live Centos .iso file (CentOS-6.9-x86_64-LiveDVD.iso) was 2.02 GB on disk (2,023,751,680 bytes).





Hm. Well, it says it can't open the files, but it clearly wants to, so perhaps it just doesn't have permission to do so.





This line:

is probably the hard drive, which in the spec was:
2000GB - SATA - 7200RPM

This line:

corresponds to the 16 GB Live Centos stick.





I think the OS's filesystem currently exists only in RAM, since I have not mounted the 2000 GB hard drive.








It wouldn't surprise me if was also only for Debian-based distros.


How to see all available commands?


Google "list all available commands centos"


Excerpt from:
stackoverflow.com/questions/948008/linux-command-to-list-all-available-commands-and-aliases

Q:

Linux command to list all available commands and aliases

Is there a Linux command that will list all available commands and aliases for this terminal session?

As if you typed 'a' and pressed tab, but for every letter of the alphabet. Or running 'alias' but also returning commands.

Why? I'd like to run the following and see if a command is available:

ListAllCommands | grep searchstr

edited Jun 4 '09 at 0:53
Jonathan Leffler

asked Jun 4 '09 at 0:29
ack


Comment:

press TAB button twice to list all commands available with environment

Thiru Shetty
Mar 8 at 3:12


A:

You can use the bash(1) built-in

compgen

compgen -c

will list all the commands you could run.

compgen -a

will list all the aliases you could run.

compgen -b

will list all the built-ins you could run.

compgen -k

will list all the keywords you could run.

compgen -A function

will list all the functions you could run.

compgen -A function -abck

will list all the above in one go.

Check the man page for other completions you can generate.

To directly answer your question:

compgen -ac | grep searchstr

should do what yout want.

edited May 25 '11 at 1:13
answered Jun 4 '09 at 7:07
camh

Hey, interesting. That's a more concise result than that produced by .


I haven't confirmed all of Kalkin's hardware details, but I have found out how to check most of the ones that interested me.

I'd like to know where I could look for more information in future.


Google "centos 6 documentation"

Excerpt from first result:
www.centos.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46254

Q:

CentOS 6 Online Documentation

I was just wondering if there was a specific reason that CentOS 6 documentation is not listed on the following URL: http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals
Or is there an issue with my browser.

Thanks

jaxxm 2014/05/12 09:17:51


A:

There was some concern over the original license for the RHEL 6 documentation and it was never cloned/changed/made available for CentOS 6. 99.9% of the docs for RHEL 6 should be applicable to CentOS 6 so you can use that from http://docs.redhat.com

TrevorH 2014/05/12 10:51:31

Excerpt from:
wiki.centos.org/Manuals

Manuals

Official CentOS documentation

Branded installation instructions and other documentation for "starting out well" are available for releases through CentOS 5; after that, a license change in upstream sources for this documentation presently rule out creation of "CentOS" branded variants.

- CentOS-5
- CentOS-4
- CentOS-3
- CentOS-2

Excerpt from:
unix.stackexchange.com/questions/101868/where-are-the-centos-6-4-documents

Q:

Where are the CentOS 6.4 documents?

I'm only able to find up to version 5 on CentOS.com:

http://www.centos.org/docs/

Even though CentOS 6 was released back in mid-2011..

asked Nov 20 '13 at 3:09
some1


A:

I've been using the RHEL6 docs instead. They're essentially the same.

http://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/

Here are the CentOS 6 Release Notes [http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS6.0?highlight=%28%28Manuals%7CReleaseNotes%7CCentOS6.0%29%29], if you're interested. The highlight the above link there as well.

edited Nov 20 '13 at 3:30
answered Nov 20 '13 at 3:20
slm

Browse to:
http://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux

I can set Product Version to "6" (i.e. Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6, which presumably corresponds to Centos 6) using a radio button panel on the left-hand side.
Looks like it has extensive documentation, but none of the major titles indicate a focus on hardware examination.




Excerpt from:
unix.stackexchange.com/questions/27323/is-centos-exactly-the-same-as-rhel

Q:

Is CentOS exactly the same as RHEL?

I'm sure this question has been asked again and again elsewhere (I did not find anything specific to CentOS vs RHEL in SE), but I would still like to ask and confirm a few specific points.

I am well aware that CentOS removes all RH trademarks, logos, etc. and is based on the same codes with packages built by the community.

- Are the packages built for CentOS exactly the same? Will the contents of the packages and the behavior of the programs be identical to those found on RHEL?
- What is RHN other than a medium for license registration? What is it to CentOS?

I'm an Ubuntu desktop user. Attended a RH299 course which did not really touch anything about the support aspect (i.e. RHN). Other than that I've no professional Linux knowledge or experience.

EDIT

I did read the CentOS 6.2 release notes [http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS6.2], but I found the details unsatisfactory. The release notes mentions packages modified, removed or added to upstream. But it neither explains nor links to any document detailing what exactly is different in the modified packages. Granted the branding packages are self-explanatory, but it mentions packages like

kernel

,

ntp

,

anaconda

, etc. which have nothing to do with branding as far as I'm aware.

edited Dec 25 '11 at 6:14
asked Dec 21 '11 at 15:16
Oxwivi


Comment:

See The Difference Between Fedora, Redhat, and CentOS [http://danielmiessler.com/study/fedora_redhat_centos]

eyoung100
Sep 19 '14 at 14:41


A:

CentOS is very close to being RHEL without the branding and support. In particular, the library versions are the same, so binaries that work on one will work on the other. The administration tools are the same and configured in similar ways. However, there are a few differences, as the two distributions sometimes apply different minor patches. For example, in this question [http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4663/does-rhel-execute-all-cronjob-files-under-etc-cron-d], it was apparent that RHEL 5 and CentOS 5 apply different rules to identify files under

/etc/cron.d

.

In other words, at the level of your course, you can treat CentOS and RHEL as interchangeable. But if you needed to look up the precise behavior of a program in a corner of the man page, you may encounter differences.

edited Apr 13 at 12:36
Community

answered Dec 21 '11 at 17:21
Gilles

Excerpt from:
danielmiessler.com/study/fedora_redhat_centos
Author: Daniel Miessler

People are often confused by the relationship between Fedora, Redhat, and CentOS. Are they the same company? Is one another version of the other? Which one is more up to date? Etc.

They go in order: [...]

- Fedora is the main project, and it's a communitity-based, free distro focused on quick releases of new features and functionality.
- Redhat is the corporate version based on the progress of that project, and it has slower releases, comes with support, and isn't free.
- CentOS is basically the community version of Redhat. So it's pretty much identical, but it is free and support comes from the community as opposed to Redhat itself.

Created: May 2011 | Updated: Jan 2015

So it appears that going forward I can probably rely on the Red Hat documentation while working with Centos. If I want to know more specifically about checking hardware details, I'll have to read through the various Red Hat guides and documents in order to find relevant commands and information.





- I have not always preserved the format of any excerpts from man pages (e.g. removing extra spaces, line-breaking newlines, word-breaking hyphens).
- I have not always preserved the format of any excerpts from webpages on other sites (e.g. not preserving the original bold/italic styles, changing the list structures, not preserving hyperlinks).
- I have not always preserved the format of any output from bash commands (e.g. sometimes adding/removing newlines in order to make a sequence of commands easier to read, using hyphens for lists and sublists instead of indentation, breaking tables into sections).