DMIDECODE(8)						      System Manager's Manual						      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 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 devel-
       oped 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:

       o 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.

       o 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".

       o 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.

       o 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, base-
	      board-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-ver-
	      sion, 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  dmide-
	      code 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.

       Please note in case of dmidecode is run on a system with BIOS that boasts new SMBIOS specification, which is not supported by the tool yet,
       it will print out relevant message in addition to requested data on the very top of the output. Thus informs the output data is	not  reli-
       able.

DMI TYPES

       The SMBIOS specification defines the following DMI types:

       Type   Information
       --------------------------------------------
	  0   BIOS
	  1   System
	  2   Baseboard
	  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 Devices Extended Information
	 42   Management Controller Host Interface

       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:

       o dmidecode --type 0 --type 13

       o dmidecode --type 0,13

       o dmidecode --type bios

       o dmidecode --type BIOS

BINARY DUMP FILE FORMAT

       The binary dump files generated by --dump-bin and read using --from-dump are formatted as follows:

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

       o 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							    March 2012							      DMIDECODE(8)