DMIDECODE(8)                                       DMIDECODE(8)



NAME
       dmidecode - DMI table decoder

SYNOPSIS
       dmidecode [OPTIONS]


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 hard-
       ware 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  safe-
       ness, 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 evo-
       lutions (such as the fastest supported CPU or the  maxi-
       mal 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  ta-
       ble.  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 Informa-
       tion
               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,  proces-
         sor  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-spe-
              cific entries are not  displayed.  Meta-data  and
              handle references are hidden.

       -s, --string KEYWORD
              Only  display the value of the DMI string identi-
              fied 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-num-
              ber, system-uuid,  baseboard-manufacturer,  base-
              board-product-name, baseboard-version, baseboard-
              serial-number, baseboard-asset-tag, chassis-manu-
              facturer, chassis-type, chassis-version, chassis-
              serial-number, chassis-asset-tag,  processor-fam-
              ily,  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 fol-
              lowing 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  dis-
              played 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:


       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:


       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)



dmidecode                November 2008             DMIDECODE(8)
