Hardware Information

Hardware information includes details about:

• CPU
• Memory (RAM)
• Disks & Partitions
• Network interfaces
• Motherboard
• BIOS/UEFI
• PCI/USB Devices
• Sensors (temperature, voltage)

Essential Commands to Check Hardware

lscpu — CPU Information

lscpu

Summary: Displays detailed info about CPU architecture, cores, threads, virtualization support, etc.

Key output:

Architecture:        x86_64
CPU(s):              8
Thread(s) per core:  2
Core(s) per socket:  4
Model name:          Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8250U

free — Memory Information

free -h

Summary: Shows total, used, and free memory and swap in human-readable format.

Output:

              total        used        free
Mem:           7.5G        2.1G        3.2G
Swap:          2.0G        0.0G        2.0G

lsblk — List Block Devices (disks)

lsblk

Summary: Lists all block devices like hard drives and partitions.

Output:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0  500G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0  100G  0 part /
└─sda2   8:2    0  400G  0 part /home

df — Disk Space Usage

df -h

Summary: Displays available and used disk space per filesystem.

Output:

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1        98G   45G   48G  49% /

lspci — PCI Devices

lspci

Summary: Lists PCI bus devices like graphics cards, network controllers.

Example Output:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel UHD Graphics 620
00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Realtek RTL8111

lsusb — USB Devices

lsusb

Summary: Lists all connected USB devices.

Output:

Bus 001 Device 002: Logitech USB Receiver
Bus 002 Device 003: Kingston DataTraveler

dmidecode — BIOS, Motherboard, RAM Info

sudo dmidecode | less

Summary: Shows DMI/SMBIOS data including BIOS version, manufacturer, RAM slots, serial number, etc.

Examples:

sudo dmidecode -t memory     # Only memory info
sudo dmidecode -t system     # System manufacturer, serial, etc.

sensors — Hardware Temperature/Voltage

sensors

Summary: Monitors CPU temperature, fan speeds, voltages.

Output:

Core 0: +45.0°C
Core 1: +47.0°C
Fan1: 2500 RPM

Requires lm-sensors package and sensors-detect setup

inxi — All-in-One System Info (if installed)

inxi -Fxz

Summary: A detailed, readable summary of your hardware and system setup.

Output includes: CPU, GPU, RAM, kernel, disks, networking.

inxi — All-in-One System Info (if installed)/proc Filesystem

Read pseudo-files for live system info.

cat /proc/cpuinfo      # CPU details
cat /proc/meminfo      # Memory info
cat /proc/partitions   # Partition list

Sample Combined Workflow

# Get full CPU and memory overview
lscpu
free -h
 
# Check disks and space
lsblk
df -h
 
# Detect peripherals
lspci
lsusb
 
# Detailed system hardware
sudo dmidecode -t system
sudo dmidecode -t memory
 
# Check system temperature
sensors
 
# Quick summary (optional)
inxi -Fxz

Notes

• Use sudo with dmidecode and sometimes sensors to access restricted data.

• /proc is virtual and provides real-time info.

• Install missing tools:

  sudo apt install lshw lm-sensors inxi
  sudo sensors-detect