vpd(4) [debian man page]

VPD(4)							 BSD/i386 Kernel Interfaces Manual						    VPD(4)

NAME

     vpd -- Vital Product Data kernel interface

SYNOPSIS

     device vpd

DESCRIPTION

     IBM ThinkPad notebooks (and most IBM desktop PCs) have a 48-byte Vital Product Data (VPD) structure located in the BIOS Shadow RAM.

     The VPD provides machine type and model information, the build ID (this is roughly the BIOS version) and serial number information.

     The vpd driver scans the BIOS area and claims the memory used by the VPD structure.  It provides the sysctl(3) branch hw.vpd to allow this
     information to be accessed by the userland.  The following variables are provided, one per VPD attachment (there should only be one):

     MACHINE_TYPE   (machine.type) Machine type.
     MACHINE_MODEL  (machine.model) Machine model.
     BUILD_ID	    (build.id) BIOS Build ID.
     SERIAL_BOX     (serial.box) Box Serial Number.
     SERIAL_PLANAR  (serial.planar) Motherboard Serial Number.

SEE ALSO

     TP General - Using the BIOS Build ID to identify IBM ThinkPad systems, Reference #: MIGR-45120, November 22, 2002,
     http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=psg1MIGR-45120.

HISTORY

     The vpd driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.1.

AUTHORS

     The vpd driver and this manual page were written by Matthew N. Dodd <mdodd@FreeBSD.org>.

BSD
								  August 31, 2004							       BSD

VPDDECODE(8)						      System Manager's Manual						      VPDDECODE(8)

NAME

       vpddecode - VPD structure decoder

SYNOPSIS

       vpddecode [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION

       vpddecode prints the "vital product data" information that can be found in almost all IBM and Lenovo computers. Available items are:

       o BIOS Build ID

       o Box Serial Number

       o Motherboard Serial Number

       o Machine Type/Model

       Some systems have these additional items:

       o BIOS Release Date

       o Default Flash Image File Name

       Note  that  these  additional  items  are not documented by IBM, so this is guess work, and as such should not be blindly trusted. Feedback
       about the accuracy of these labels is welcome.

OPTIONS

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

       -s, --string KEYWORD
	      Only display the value of the VPD string identified by KEYWORD.  KEYWORD must be a keyword from the following  list:  bios-build-id,
	      box-serial-number,  motherboard-serial-number,  machine-type-model,  bios-release-date.  Each keyword corresponds to an offset and a
	      length within the VPD record.  Not all strings may be defined on all VPD-enabled systems.  If KEYWORD is not provided or not  valid,
	      a  list  of  all	valid keywords is printed and vpddecode exits with an error.  This option cannot be used more than once.  Mutually
	      exclusive with --dump.

       -u, --dump
	      Do not decode the VPD records, dump their contents as hexadecimal instead.  Note that this is still a text output,  no  binary  data
	      will  be	thrown upon you. ASCII equivalent is displayed when possible. This option is mainly useful for debugging.  Mutually exclu-
	      sive with --string.

       -h, --help
	      Display usage information and exit

       -V, --version
	      Display the version and exit

FILES

       /dev/mem

AUTHOR

       Jean Delvare

SEE ALSO

       biosdecode(8), dmidecode(8), mem(4), ownership(8)

dmidecode							   February 2007						      VPDDECODE(8)