• NAME
  
  dmidecode - DMI table decoder
• SYNOPSIS
  
  dmidecode
  
• 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).
  As you run it, dmidecode will try to locate the DMI table. If it succeeds, it will then parse this table and display a list of records like this one:
  Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 8 bytes. Base Board Information         Manufacturer: Intel         Product Name: C440GX+         Version: 727281-001         Serial Number: INCY92700942
  Each record has:

  

  A handle. This is a unique identifier, which allows records to reference each other. For example, processor records usually reference cache memory records using their handles.

  

  A type. The SMBIOS specification defines different types of elements a computer can be made of. In this example, the type is 2, which means that the record contains "Base Board Information".

  

  A size. Each record has a 4-byte header (2 for the handle, 1 for the type, 1 for the size), the rest is used by the record data. This value doesn't take text strings into account (these are placed at the end of the record), so the actual length of the record may be (and is often) greater than the displayed value.

  

  Decoded values. The information presented of course depends on the type of record. Here, we learn about the board's manufacturer, model, version and serial number.
  

• OPTIONS
  

  "-d" ", " "--dev-mem FILE"

  Read memory from device FILE (default: /dev/mem)

  "-q" ", " "--quiet"

  Be less verbose. Unknown, inactive and OEM-specific entries are not displayed. Meta-data and handle references are hidden.

  "-s" ", " "--string KEYWORD"

  Only display the value of the DMI string identified by KEYWORD. KEYWORD must be a keyword from the following list: bios-vendor, bios-version, bios-release-date, system-manufacturer, system-product-name, system-version, system-serial-number, system-uuid, baseboard-manufacturer, baseboard-product-name, baseboard-version, baseboard-serial-number, baseboard-asset-tag, chassis-manufacturer, chassis-type, chassis-version, chassis-serial-number, chassis-asset-tag, processor-family, processor-manufacturer, processor-version, processor-frequency. Each keyword corresponds to a given DMI type and a given offset within this entry type. Not all strings may be meaningful or even defined on all systems. Some keywords may return more than one result on some systems (e.g. processor-version on a multi-processor system). If KEYWORD is not provided or not valid, a list of all valid keywords is printed and dmidecode exits with an error. This option cannot be used more than once.

  "-t" ", " "--type TYPE"

  Only display the entries of type TYPE. TYPE can be either a DMI type number, or a comma-separated list of type numbers, or a keyword from the following list: bios, system, baseboard, chassis, processor, memory, cache, connector, slot. Refer to the DMI TYPES section below for details. If this option is used more than once, the set of displayed entries will be the union of all the given types. If TYPE is not provided or not valid, a list of all valid keywords is printed and dmidecode exits with an error.

  "-u" ", " "--dump"

  Do not decode the entries, dump their contents as hexadecimal instead. Note that this is still a text output, no binary data will be thrown upon you. The strings attached to each entry are displayed as both hexadecimal and ASCII. This option is mainly useful for debugging.

  "  " "  " "--dump-bin FILE"

  Do not decode the entries, instead dump the DMI data to a file in binary form. The generated file is suitable to pass to --from-dump later.

  "  " "  " "--from-dump FILE"

  Read the DMI data from a binary file previously generated using --dump-bin.

  "-h" ", " "--help"

  Display usage information and exit

  "-V" ", " "--version"

  Display the version and exit Options --string, --type and --dump-bin determine the output format and are mutually exclusive.
  

• DMI TYPES
  
  The SMBIOS specification defines the following DMI types:
  

  __
  r l.
  Type	Information
  0	BIOS
  1	System
  2	Base Board
  3	Chassis
  4	Processor
  5	Memory Controller
  6	Memory Module
  7	Cache
  8	Port Connector
  9	System Slots
  10	On Board Devices
  11	OEM Strings
  12	System Configuration Options
  13	BIOS Language
  14	Group Associations
  15	System Event Log
  16	Physical Memory Array
  17	Memory Device
  18	32-bit Memory Error
  19	Memory Array Mapped Address
  20	Memory Device Mapped Address
  21	Built-in Pointing Device
  22	Portable Battery
  23	System Reset
  24	Hardware Security
  25	System Power Controls
  26	Voltage Probe
  27	Cooling Device
  28	Temperature Probe
  29	Electrical Current Probe
  30	Out-of-band Remote Access
  31	Boot Integrity Services
  32	System Boot
  33	64-bit Memory Error
  34	Management Device
  35	Management Device Component
  36	Management Device Threshold Data
  37	Memory Channel
  38	IPMI Device
  39	Power Supply
  40	Additional Information
  41	Onboard Device

  
  Additionally, type 126 is used for disabled entries and type 127 is an end-of-table marker. Types 128 to 255 are for OEM-specific data. dmidecode will display these entries by default, but it can only decode them when the vendors have contributed documentation or code for them.
  Keywords can be used instead of type numbers with --type. Each keyword is equivalent to a list of type numbers:
  

  __
  l l.
  Keyword	Types
  bios	0, 13
  system	1, 12, 15, 23, 32
  baseboard	2, 10, 41
  chassis	3
  processor	4
  memory	5, 6, 16, 17
  cache	7
  connector	8
  slot	9

  
  Keywords are matched case-insensitively. The following command lines are equivalent:

  

  dmidecode --type 0 --type 13

  

  dmidecode --type 0,13

  

  dmidecode --type bios

  

  dmidecode --type BIOS
  

• BINARY DUMP FILE FORMAT
  
  The binary dump files generated by --dump-bin and read using --from-dump are formatted as follows:

  

  The SMBIOS or DMI entry point is located at offset 0x00. It is crafted to hard-code the table address at offset 0x20.

  

  The DMI table is located at offset 0x20.
  

• FILES
  
  /dev/mem
• BUGS
  
  More often than not, information contained in the DMI tables is inaccurate, incomplete or simply wrong.
• AUTHORS
  
  Alan Cox, Jean Delvare
• SEE ALSO
  
  biosdecode(8) , mem(4) , ownership(8) , vpddecode(8)

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