Displaying Basic System Information on Linux Shell
unameOutput:
Result of uname command
uname -sOutput:
Kernel name displayed with uname command
$ uname -rOutput:
Get Linux Kernel release information
uname -vOutput:
Linux Kernel version
uname -nmore user-friendly:
uname --nodenameBoth commands will display the same above output. Please note that the hostname and the node name might not be the same for non-Linux systems. Get Machine Hardware Architecture (i386, x86_64, etc.)
uname --mOutput:
Get Linux architecture x86_64
The output x86_64 signifies that I am using a 64-bit architecture. The output i686 means that a user is on a 32-bit system. Get Processor Type
In order to know the type of processor you are using, please use the following command:
$ uname -p
Output:
Get Linux processor type
This output shows that I am using a 64-bit processor. Get Hardware Platform
In order to know the hardware platform you are using, please use the following command:
$ uname -i
Output:
Get hardware platform information
In my case, the output is the same as that of the machine hardware name. Get Operating System information
The following command will let you know the name of the operating system you are using:
$ uname -o
Output:
Linux Operating System information
My Ubuntu machine has displayed the above output for my system. Displaying All Information of Uname Command
The above commands have displayed system information as per the type of switch used. In case, you want to see all the system information at once, use the following command:
$ uname -a
Output:
uname -a result
You can see that the above output shows the complete list of system information for the user. Displaying Detailed Hardware Information
Here we will describe the commands, other than uname, that are used to extract detailed hardware information of your system: Get Hardware Information with lshw
The lshw utility enables you to fetch important hardware information such as memory, CPU, disks, etc. from your system. Please run the following command as a super user in order to view this information:
$ sudo lshw
Output:
Output of lshw command
The above output is a very detailed version of the hardware information of my system. You can also view a summary of hardware information as described in the following section. Short Summary
In order to view the summary of your detailed hardware profile, please use the following command:
$ lshw -short
Output:
Short summary of lshw hardware report
The above output is a column-wise summary of the hardware profile which is more readable. Creating an HTML File
The lshw utility also lets you print your hardware profile to an HTML file as a superuser. Use the following command for this purpose:
$ sudo lshw -html > [filename.html]
Example:
$ sudo lshw -html > hardwareinfo.html
Output:
Hardware report in HTML format
The above HTML file has been created at the /home/user/ folder. Get CPU Information with lscpu
The lscpu utility lists detailed CPU information from the files sysfs and /proc/cpuinfo to your screen. This is how you can use this command:
$ lscpu
Output:
CPU details shown with lscpu
The above output displays CPU architecture, number of CPUs, cores, CPU family model, threads, CPU caches and much more. Get Block Device Information with lsblk
The lsblk utility displays information about all the basic storage devices of your system such as hard drive, its partitions and the flash drives connected to your system.
$ lsblk
You can use the following command to view much more detailed information about all the devices:
$ lsblk -a
Output:
lsblk result Get USB Device Information with lsusb
The lsusb lists information about all the USB controllers and the devices connected to them. Please run the following command:
$ lsusb
You can also use the following command to view much detailed information about each USB device.
$ lsusb -v
Output:
Details about the USB devices
This output displays all the USB controllers and the attached devices. Get Information About Other Devices
You can also view information about the following devices of your system:
PCI devices
Command: $ lspci
SCSI devices
Command: $ lsscsi
SATA devices
Command:
$ hdparm [devicelocation] e.g. $ hdparm /dev/sda2