Discover your hardware

__TOC__

[p]In order to know the details of your hardware you can carry out the following actions:[/p]


[h1]Notebook model name[/h1]

[p]See below your notebook or netbook. Usually there is a sticker where you can find the full name of your computer. Sometimes this sticker can be [b]under the battery[/b].[/p]

[p]Just looking a sticker or printed letters next to you keyboard is usually not enough. For example, you can find "pavilion dv<single number here>" printed on many pavilion laptops like in the pavilion [b]dv7 series[/b], but the full model number (like [b]dv7-4021so[/b]) is located elsewhere, like below your notebook.[/p]

[p]In some rare cases, it is possible that all indicating stickers are removed. Then, use the following command:[/p]

[code]
sudo dmidecode | grep "System Information" -A 2
[/code]

[p]Using this command is [b]not recommended[/b]. It is not always reliable. Use it only as a last resort.[/p]


[h1]The model name of your device (if it is not a notebook)[/h1]

[h2]If the device is integrated (example: a video card)[/h2]

[p]Open a terminal and type the following command:[/p]

[code]
lspci
[/code]

[p]or[/p]

[code]
lspci > FILENAME # output to a file
[/code]

[p]You will obtain the list of your PCI devices, similar to the one written below.[/p]

[code]
00:18.3 Host bridge: [b]Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control[/b]
03:00.0 Network controller: [b]Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 02)[/b]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: [b]NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 8400 GS Rev. 3] (rev a2)[/b]
[/code]

[p][b]Note:[/b] The name of each device is written after the colon (see the text in bold in the above list)[/p]


[h2]USB devices (example: an external USB wifi card)[/h2]

[p]Open a terminal and type the following command:[/p]

[code]
lsusb -v
[/code]

[p]or[/p]

[code]
lsusb -v > FILENAME # output to a file
[/code]

[p]You will obtain the list of your USB devices, similar to the one written below[/p]

[code]
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0846:4260 NetGear, Inc. WG111v3 54 Mbps Wireless [realtek RTL8187B]
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0846 NetGear, Inc.
idProduct 0x4260 [b]WG111v3 54 Mbps Wireless [realtek RTL8187B][/b]
bcdDevice 2.00
iManufacturer 1
iProduct 2
iSerial 3
...
...

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 08ff:2580 AuthenTec, Inc. AES2501 Fingerprint Sensor
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 1.10
bDeviceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class
bDeviceSubClass 255 Vendor Specific Subclass
bDeviceProtocol 255 Vendor Specific Protocol
bMaxPacketSize0 8
idVendor 0x08ff AuthenTec, Inc.
idProduct 0x2580 [b]AES2501 Fingerprint Sensor[/b]
bcdDevice 6.23
iManufacturer 0
iProduct 1 Fingerprint Sensor
iSerial 0
bNumConfigurations 1
...
...
[/code]


[p][b]Note:[/b] The name of each device is written at the row starting with "idProduct" (see the text in bold in the above list)[/p]

[p]Another program that can be handy to retrieve hardware information, specially USB drivers used by the system is [b]hwinfo[/b]. Note that this doesn't come with a standard GNU/Linux distribution, and you'll have to install it with your package management system or from source code.[/p]

[p]Another program that can be handy to retrive hardware information is [b]lshw[/b] and in some distributions (as Trisquel) you can install a graphical interface (lshw-gtk)[/p]


[h1]Notebook architecture[/h1]

[p]Open a terminal and type the following command:[/p]

[code]
lscpu
[/code]

[p]You will obtain information about your CPU(s), like this:[/p]

[code]
Architecture: [b]i686[/b]
CPU op-mode(s): [b]32-bit, 64-bit[/b]
Byte Order: Little Endian
CPU(s): 2
On-line CPU(s) list: 0,1
Thread(s) per core: 1
Core(s) per socket: 2
CPU socket(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 23
Stepping: 6
CPU MHz: 1998.000
BogoMIPS: 5999.68
Virtualization: VT-x
L1d cache: 32K
L1i cache: 32K
L2 cache: 6144K
[/code]

[p]The strings in [b]bold[/b] (in the above list) are the code you are looking for. The code on [b]Architecture[/b] row gives you a general idea of your laptop's architecture (x86, x86-64/amd64, ARM, MIPS) and the one on [b]CPU op-mode(s)[/b] row specifies the bit mode (32-bit, 64-bit).[/p]

[p]If your architecture is reported as i386 or i686, you have either a x86 or x86-64 machine and you need to check if it supports the 64-bit op-mode (x86 is 32-bit and x86-64 is 64-bit). In the example above, the machine is x86-64. For other architectures, it should be quite easy to see what they are.[/p]

[p]If your system doesn't have lscpu command and you cannot or don't want to install it, use the [b]uname -m[/b] command to get the architecture name just like in the lscpu's Architecture row. You might also want to manually check the [b]/proc/cpuinfo[/b] system file which lscpu uses to generate its data from. Open a terminal and type the following command:[/p]

[code]
cat /proc/cpuinfo
[/code]

[p]To find out if your laptop is a x86-64 machine, you can use the following command:[/p]

[code]
cat grep --color "lm" /proc/cpuinfo | grep "lm"
[/code]

[p]If you get a message like the following and you can find the [b]lm[/b] flag from it, then your machine has a x86-64/amd64 architecture and you can choose a x86-64/amd64 distro to run on it.[/p]

[code]
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush
dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx [b]lm[/b] constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf
pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm
[/code]


[h1]The kernel libre version you are using[/h1]

[p]Open a terminal and type the following command:[/p]

[code]
uname -r
[/code]


[h1]VendorID:ProductID code of your device[/h1]

[p](Thanks [a]http://trisquel.info/en/forum/h-nodecom-new-website-hardware-database#comment-5839|Michał Masłowski[/a] and [a]http://trisquel.info/en/forum/h-nodecom-new-website-hardware-database#comment-5837|Julius22[/a])[/p]


[h2]PCI and PCIe cards[/h2]

[p]Open a terminal and type the following command:[/p]

[code]
sudo lspci -nnk
[/code]

[p]You should obtain a list of hardware similar to the one written below[/p]

[code]
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN {{[b]14e4:4311[/b]}} (rev 02)
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: ssb
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 8400 GS Rev. 3] {{[b]10de:10c3[/b]}} (rev a2)
Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. Device [3842:1303]
Kernel driver in use: nouveau
[/code]

[p]Some hardware holds multiple devices, and lots of devices has subsystems.[/p]

[code]
05:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX8112 x1 Lane PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge [10b5:8112] (rev aa)
06:04.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: C-Media Electronics Inc CMI8788 [Oxygen HD Audio] [13f6:8788]
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Virtuoso 100 ([a]https://h-node.org/soundcards/view/en/807/ASUSTeK-Computer-Inc--Virtuoso-100--Xonar-Essence-STX-/1/1/undef/undef/undef/undef/sound-card-works/xonar%20stx|Xonar Essence STX[/a]) {{[b]1043:835c[/b]}}
Kernel driver in use: snd_virtuoso
[/code]

[p]The strings in [b]bold[/b] and placed inside the square brackets (in the above list) are the code you are looking for. The first set of digits (before the colon) are the [b]VendorID[/b], the second set of digits are the [b]ProductID[/b]. In the above example: the [i]VendorID:ProductID[/i] code of the wifi card (note the strings "Network controller" and "WLAN") is [b]14e4:4311[/b] while the VendorID:ProductID code of the video card (note the string "VGA") is [b]10de:10c3[/b][/p]


[h2]USB devices (example: an external USB wifi card)[/h2]

[p]Open a terminal and type the following command:[/p]

[code]
sudo lsusb
[/code]

[p]You should obtain a list of hardware similar to the one written below[/p]

[code]
Bus 001 Device 002: ID [b]0846:4260[/b] NetGear, Inc. WG111v3 54 Mbps Wireless [realtek RTL8187B]
Bus 001 Device 001: ID [b]1d6b:0002[/b] Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID [b]08ff:2580[/b] AuthenTec, Inc. AES2501 Fingerprint Sensor
[/code]

[p]The strings in [b]bold[/b] (in the above list) are the code you are looking for. The first set of digits (before the colon) are the [b]VendorID[/b], the second set of digits are the [b]ProductID[/b]. In the above example: the [i]VendorID:ProductID[/i] code of the external USB wifi card (note the strings "Wireless") is [b]0846:4260[/b][/p]

[h1]The printer's driver you are using[/h1]

[h2]If you are using cups[/h2]

[p]Open a terminal and type the following command:[/p]

[code]
dpkg-query -W -f '${Version}\n' cups
[/code]


[h1]The USB device's driver you are using[/h1]

[p]The easiest way to know the driver used by a USB device is with [b]hwinfo[/b][/p]

[p]Open a terminal and type the following command:[/p]

[code]
hwinfo --usb
[/code]

[p]You should obtain a list of hardware similar to the one written below[/p]

[code]
19: USB 00.0: 0000 Unclassified device
[Created at usb.122]
Unique ID: FKGF.WYbsxjVsRmA
Parent ID: pBe4.v+N+B0xY+P6
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0
SysFS BusID: 2-1:1.0
Hardware Class: unknown
Model: "Microdia Triplex i-mini PC Camera"
Hotplug: USB
Vendor: usb 0x0c45 "Microdia"
Device: usb 0x6029 "Triplex i-mini PC Camera"
Revision: "1.01"
Driver: "[b]sonixb[/b]"
Driver Modules: "gspca_sonixb"
Speed: 12 Mbps
Module Alias: "usb:v0C45p6029d0101dc00dsc00dp00icFFiscFFipFF"
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: gspca_sonixb is active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe gspca_sonixb"
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #9 (Hub)
[/code]

[p]The string in [b]bold[/b] (in the above list) is the driver that the USB device is using so it can work on your system.[/p]


[b][p]Return to [[Help]] Page[/p][/b]

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