How to Check Hardware Information in Linux

If you're a Linux user, you may want to know what hardware your system is running on. This can be useful for troubleshooting or when you're looking to upgrade your system. Also, for system administrators, it is important to have a good understanding of the hardware components in the system. This blog post teaches you the commands you can use to check your hardware information in Linux. Additionally, if you manage multiple servers or need robust performance for your applications, you might consider opting to [buy a Linux VPS server]. A Linux VPS server offers the flexibility, control, and resources needed to efficiently handle various tasks, making it an ideal choice for both developers and system administrators.

Commands to Check Hardware Information in Linux

Hardware information can be obtained by using different commands in Linux. This section will teach you the common Linux commands for checking hardware info with detailed examples.

Iscpu

This command is used to report information about the CPU of your system. And it doesn't provide any further functionality or option.

Syntax: $ Iscpu

Ishw

This command reports brief and detailed information about several hardware components such as CPU, Memory, Disk, Network adapter, USB controller, etc. This command will extract the information from different /proc files.

Install Ishw

Using Ubuntu or Debian, you can get it from default repositories.

Syntax: $ sudo apt-get install lshw

If you use Fedora, install it from the default repositories. On CentOS, you can install Ishw from the Epl repository.

Syntax: $ sudo yum install lshw

Using Ishw

You need to run this command with super privileges to detect and report the maximum amount of information. SO run this command as root, or use sudo.

Syntax: $ sudo lshw

Report full info

Running "Ishw" will generate full information and report about all detected hardware.

And it contains a big output with a lot of technical details.

Syntax: $ sudo lshw

Report brief info

With the "-short", you will generate brief information about the hardware devices. And it gives you an idea about the hardware profile of your system.

Syntax: $ sudo lshw -short

Hwinfo

Hwinfo is another useful command to generate detailed and brief information about several different hardware components, even more than Ishw.

Install Hwinfo

It's available in the repositories of Ubuntu and Debian.

Syntax: $ sudo apt-get install hwinfo

Using Hwinfo

You can mention the hardware component you want to see the information of.

Syntax: $ hwinfo –help

Report all info

Running this command will give you full information about all hardware units.

Syntax: $ hwinfo

Report brief info

With the "-short" command, you will get brief information about the hardware devices but not the details.

Syntax: $ hwinfo –short

Lspci

This command displays information about PCI buses and the devices connected to the PCI subsystem. And includes a graphic card, network adapter, USB ports, etc.

Syntax: $ lspci

Using grep

With grep, you can filter specific devices’ information.

Syntax: $ lspci -v | grep "VGA" -A 12

Lsscsi

This command reports the scsi/sata devices, such as hard and optical drivers.

Syntax: $ lsscsi

Lsusb

This command displays brief information about the USB controllers and connected devices. You can also get detailed information about each USB port using the verbose option "-v".

Syntax: $ lsusb

Syntax: $ lsusb -v

Lnxi

Lnxi tool is a full-featured CLI utility that generates easy-to-read information from several sources.

Syntax: $ inxi -Fx

Isblk

It displays information about all block devices, such as optical and flash drives.

Syntax: $ lsblk

Df

It reports the disk space available on the filesystem with each file name's argument.

Syntax: $ df -H

Pydf

This command is an improved df version used to display coloured output.

Syntax: $ pydf

Fdisk

This command is used to create and manipulate disk partition tables. So, you can view, create, delete, change, resize, copy, and move partitions on a hard drive using the dialogue-driven interface.

Syntax: $ sudo fdisk -l

Mount

This command is used to mount and unmount a file system.

Syntax: $ mount | column -t

Using grep

With grep, you can filter the file system that you want to see.

Syntax: $ mount | column -t | grep ext

Free

This command is used to Check the amount of use, free and total amount of RAM on the system.

Syntax: $ free -m

Dmidecode

This command differs from the other commands because it extracts hardware information by reading data from the DMI tables.

CPU info

You can use the command below to see information about the CPU.

Syntax: $ sudo dmidecode -t processor

Ram info

You can use the command below to see information about Memory.

Syntax: $ sudo dmidecode -t memory

Bios info

You can use the command below to see information about bios.

Syntax: $ sudo dmidecode -t bios

/proc files

Most files in the /proc directory contain data about hardware and configurations. Let's check out some of them:

CPU and Memory info

You can use the commands below to see information about CPU and Memory.

Syntax: $ cat /proc/cpuinfo

Syntax: $ cat /proc/meminfo

Kernel info

You can use the command below to see information about the Linux kernel.

Syntax: $ cat /proc/version

SCSI devices

Small Computer Systems Interface, SCSI, allows you to add up to 15 peripheral devices to the computer. And you can use the command below to see information about SCSI.

Syntax: $ cat /proc/scsi/scsi

Partitions

You can use the command below to see information about partitions.

Syntax: $ cat /proc/partitions

Hdparm

This command is used to show information about Sata devices like hard disks.

Syntax: $ sudo hdparm -i /dev/sda

Conclusion

Checking hardware information on Linux is crucial for system administrators.
Checking your hardware’s information can be done with commands including Iscpu, hwinfo, and lspci.
Using these commands lets you get information about every part of your computer’s hardware.

You can also buy linux server to practice it on a routine basis.