Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

I ran into the following information reading an article on linuxtoday. 
Seemed like this program could be of key interest to those of us who 
inherit alot of old hardware and want to analyze its potential usefulness 
under Linux. Source code is only about 32kb. Not sure if it will compile 
on libc5, but it may be worth looking into in case it does, or could be 
compiled using uclibc. Here's the info from the article:

Identifying hardware without having to physically open the box is a 
tremendous time-saver, and the right utility will tell you more than a 
physical examination of the hardware.

A particularly useful software utility for this is dmidecode. dmidecode 
reads information about a system's hardware as it is described in the 
system BIOS, according to the SMBIOS/DMI standard. (SMBIOS stands for 
System Management BIOS, while DMI stands for Desktop Management 
Interface.) dmidecode reads specs like system manufacturer, model name, 
serial numbers, CPU data, types of expansion slots, and pretty much 
everything on the mainboard, like so:

root@windbag:~# dmidecode
# dmidecode 2.6
SMBIOS 2.3 present.
36 structures occupying 1128 bytes.
at 0x000F0800.
Handle 0x0000
DMI type 0, 20 bytes.
     BIOS Information
     Vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
     Version: 6.00 PG
     Release Date: 10/05/2000
     Address: 0xE0000
                 Runtime Size: 128 kB
                 ROM Size: 256 kB
                 Characteristics:
                          PCI is supported
                          PNP is supported
                          APM is supported
                          BIOS is upgradeable
                          BIOS shadowing is allowed
                          ESCD support is available
                          Boot from CD is supported
                          Selectable boot is supported
                          BIOS ROM is socketed
                          EDD is supported
                                    5.25"/360 KB floppy services are 
supported (int 13h)
                                    5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are 
supported (int 13h)
                                    3.5"/720 KB floppy services are supported 
(int 13h)
                                    3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are 
supported (int 13h)
                                    Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
                                    8042 keyboard services are supported (int 
9h)
                                    Serial services are supported (int 14h)
                                    Printer services are supported (int 17h)
                                    CGA/mono video services are supported 
(int 10h)
                                    ACPI is supported
                                    USB legacy is supported
                                    AGP is supported
                                    LS-120 boot is supported
                                    ATAPI Zip drive boot is supported

And this is just a tiny snippet! The total output is several hundred 
lines. One useful aspect of dmidecode is that it tells you what kind of 
memory is installed and what is supported:

Handle 0x0006
        DMI type 6, 12 bytes.
        Memory Module Information
                     Socket Designation: DIMM1
                     Bank Connections: 0 1
                     Current Speed: 70 ns
                     Type: DIMM SDRAM
                     Installed Size: 256 MB (Single-bank Connection)
                     Enabled Size: 256 MB (Single-bank Connection)
                     Error Status: OK
       Handle 0x0007
                DMI type 6, 12 bytes.
                Memory Module Information
                         Socket Designation: DIMM2
                         Bank Connections: 2 3
                         Current Speed: 70 ns
                         Type: Unknown
                         Installed Size: Not Installed
                         Enabled Size: Not Installed
                         Error Status: OK

dmidecode runs on Linux, BeOS, the BSDs, and on Windows under Cygwin. It 
can also run on other machines when included in a home-built customized 
Knoppix disk. Simply boot up Knoppix on the machines you wish to examine.

James