10 Linux Commands to Collect System and Hardware Information

As a Linux user, it is important to know how to gather system and hardware information. This article will provide you with 10 Linux commands that can be used to collect important information about your system and hardware.

1. uname

The “uname” command is used to display certain system information such as operating system name, kernel version, and hostname. Here is an example:

$ uname -a 
Linux example-PC 5.4.0-67-generic #75-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 19 18:03:38 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

2. lspci

The “lspci” command is used to display information about PCI buses and devices that are connected to them. Here is an example:

$ lspci 
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 05)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 591b (rev 04)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 05)
...

3. lsblk

The “lsblk” command is used to display block device information. It shows all the connected storage devices including hard drives, USB drives and CD-ROM drives. Here is an example:

$ lsblk 
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   500M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0   488M  0 part /boot
├─sda3   8:3    0 872.6G  0 part /

4. df

The “df” command is used to display disk space usage. It displays file system disk space usage on all mounted file systems. Here is an example:

$ df 
Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev             8163660       0   8163660   0% /dev
tmpfs            1636584    2276   1634308   1% /run

5. cat /proc/cpuinfo

The “cat /proc/cpuinfo” command is used to display information about the CPU. It provides detailed information about the processor, such as its model, speed, and features. Here is an example:

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor   : 0
vendor_id   : AuthenticAMD
cpu family  : 16
model       : 6
model name  : AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor
stepping    : 2
cpu MHz     : 3000.000
cache size  : 512 KB
...

6. free

The “free” command is used to display the amount of free and used memory on your system. It also shows the amount of memory used by buffers and cache. Here is an example:

$ free 
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        8068876     2213600     2608244      443232     3246032     5015364
Swap:       2097148           0     2097148

7. top

The “top” command is used to display real-time information about your system, including CPU usage, memory usage, and running processes. Here is an example:

$ top 

top - 11:25:50 up 35 days, 22:35,  1 user,  load average: 0.36, 0.41, 0.44
Tasks: 285 total,   1 running, 284 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  6.9 us,  1.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 92.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
MiB Mem :   7878.5 total,   1145.9 free,   5155.5 used,   1577.1 buff/cache
MiB Swap:   2048.0 total,   2048.0 free,      0.0 used.   5266.7 avail Mem 

8. lspcu

The “lspcu” command is used to display information about processors, including architecture, speed, and cache. Here is an example:

$ lspcu 
Thread 1 of 1 cores
---------------------

CPU Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
CPU(s): 6
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-5
Thread(s) per core: 1
Core(s) per socket: 6
CPU socket(s): 1
Vendor ID: AuthenticAMD
CPU family: 21
Model: 2

9. hwinfo

The “hwinfo” command is used to display detailed hardware information about your system. It provides information about the CPU, memory, disk, graphics card, and other hardware components. Here is an example:

$ hwinfo 
cpu:
                       AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor, 795 MHz
                       AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor, 2400 MHz
                       AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor, 3000 MHz
                       AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor, 2987 MHz
                       AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor, 795 MHz
                       AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor, 2400 MHz
...

10. dmidecode

The “dmidecode” command is used to display information about your system’s hardware components. It provides detailed information about your system such as manufacturer, BIOS version, RAM details, etc. Here is an example:

$ dmidecode -t system 
# dmidecode 3.3
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
        Manufacturer: Lenovo
        Product Name: 20175
        Version: Lenovo IdeaPad Z580
        [...]
        Wake-up Type: Power Switch
        SKU Number: Lenovo IdeaPad Z580
        Family: IDEAPAD

Conclusion

In conclusion, these 10 Linux commands can be extremely useful when it comes to collecting system and hardware information. Learning how to use them can help you diagnose and troubleshoot issues with your system, and can also help you understand the hardware components in your system better.