Find Linux System Hardware Information With Hwinfo

There are multitude of programs available to find the hardware and software information in a Linux system. We already have covered many such programs here. Today, we are going to learn about yet another similar tool called Hwinfo.

What is Hwinfo?

Hwinfo is a free, open source and command line utility to find Linux system hardware information. Hwinfo probes for the hardware present in a Linux system and displays the extensive details of each hardware device. If you think the details are too much to comprehend, Hwinfo provides an option to display the abbreviated output.

It uses libhd.so library to gather details of almost all hardware such as BIOS, CPU, Architecture, Memory, Hard Disk(s), Partitions, Camera, Bluetooth, CD/DVD drives, Keyboard/Mouse, Graphics card, Monitor, Modem, Scanner, Printer, PCI, IDE, SCSI, Sound card, Network interface card, USB and a lot more.

Hwinfo is initially developed for openSUSE operating system. It was later adopted by several other popular  Linux distributions such as Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu etc.

Install Hwinfo in Linux

The Hwinfo package is available in the official repositories of many Linux distributions.

On Arch Linux and its variants like Manjaro Linux, install hwinfo using command:

$ sudo pacman -S hwinfo

On Debian, Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install hwinfo

On Fedora:

$ sudo dnf install hwinfo

On CentOS, RHEL:

First, enable [EPEL] repository with command:

$ sudo dnf install epel-release

And then install hwinfo using command:

$ sudo yum install hwinfo

On openSUSE:

$ sudo zypper install hwinfo

Find Linux System Hardware Information With Hwinfo

When running Hwinfo without any options, you will get the complete details of the hardware present in your Linux system:

$ sudo hwinfo

Or,

$ sudo hwinfo --all

Sample output:

============ start debug info ============                      
libhd version 21.68 (x86-64) [7688]
using /var/lib/hardware
kernel version is 5.4
----- /proc/cmdline -----
  BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-29-generic root=UUID=3968763a-adde-46e0-ae93-e2a1e51120da ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
----- /proc/cmdline end -----
debug = 0xff7ffff7
probe = 0x15938fcdaa17fcf9fffe (+memory +pci +isapnp +net +floppy +misc +misc.serial +misc.par +misc.floppy +serial +cpu +bios +monitor +mouse +scsi +usb -usb.mods +modem +modem.usb +parallel +parallel.lp +parallel.zip -isa -isa.isdn +isdn +kbd +prom +sbus +int +braille +braille.alva +braille.fhp +braille.ht -ignx11 +sys -bios.vbe -isapnp.old -isapnp.new -isapnp.mod +braille.baum -manual +fb +pppoe -scan +pcmcia +fork -parallel.imm +s390 +cpuemu -sysfs -s390disks +udev +block +block.cdrom +block.part +edd +edd.mod -bios.ddc -bios.fb -bios.mode +input +block.mods +bios.vesa -cpuemu.debug -scsi.noserial +wlan -bios.crc -hal +bios.vram +bios.acpi -bios.ddc.ports=0 +modules.pata -net.eeprom +x86emu=dump -max -lxrc)
shm: attached segment 131081 at 0x7f3ae1378000
>> hal.1: read hal data
>> floppy.1: get nvram
----- /proc/nvram -----
  Checksum status: valid
  # floppies     : 3
  Floppy 0 type  : none
  Floppy 1 type  : none
  HD 0 type      : 02
  HD 1 type      : 01
  HD type 48 data: 44876/196/142 C/H/S, precomp 45431, lz 38938
  HD type 49 data: 511/175/180 C/H/S, precomp 40874, lz 56627
  DOS base memory: 629 kB
  Extended memory: 65535 kB (configured), 65535 kB (tested)
  Gfx adapter    : CGA (80 cols)
  FPU            : installed
----- /proc/nvram end -----
>> floppy.2: nvram info
>> bios.1: cmdline
>> bios.1.1: apm
>> bios.2: ram
/dev/mem[0x400, 256]: mmap(, 4096,,,, 0x0) ok
/dev/mem[0xc0000, 262144]: mmap(, 262144,,,, 0xc0000) ok
[...]

Find Linux System Hardware Information With Hwinfo

As I mentioned before, Hwinfo will report extensive details of all hardware devices. Fortunately, there is an option to display the summary of each device which makes it easier to read the output.

To display short summary of hardware information, run:

$ sudo hwinfo --short

Sample output:

cpu:                                                            
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz, 1508 MHz
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz, 1371 MHz
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz, 1516 MHz
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz, 1333 MHz
keyboard:
                       Logitech Unifying Receiver
  /dev/input/event4    AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
mouse:
                       Logitech Unifying Receiver
  /dev/input/mice      AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint
monitor:
                       4Y4GM 156AT LCD Monitor
graphics card:
                       Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
sound:
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
storage:
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port Mobile SATA AHCI Controller
network:
  wlp9s0               Dell Wireless 1702 802.11bgn Half-size Mini PCIe Card [AR9002WB-1NGCD]
  enp5s0               Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
network interface:
  mpqemubr0-dummy      Ethernet network interface
  tap-d8f1eebb39f      Ethernet network interface
  wlp9s0               Ethernet network interface
  mpqemubr0            Ethernet network interface
  lo                   Loopback network interface
  enp5s0               Ethernet network interface
disk:
  /dev/sdb             Generic Multi-Card
  /dev/sda             ST9500325AS
                       Realtek RTS5138 Card Reader Controller
partition:
  /dev/sda1            Partition
cdrom:
  /dev/sr0             PLDS DVD+-RW DS-8A8SH
usb controller:
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1
bios:
                       BIOS
bridge:
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1
                       Intel HM67 Express Chipset LPC Controller
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 8
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4
                       Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2
hub:
                       Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub
                       Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
                       Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub
                       Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
memory:
                       Main Memory
bluetooth:
                       Qualcomm Atheros AR3011 Bluetooth
unknown:
                       FPU
                       DMA controller
                       PIC
                       Keyboard controller
                       PS/2 Controller
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1
                       Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller
                       Logitech Unifying Receiver
                       Suyin Integrated Webcam

Display short summary of hardware information with hwinfo in Linux

See? The above command has excluded the comprehensive technical details and displays only the essential details of each hardware device. It is now much easier to know what hardware is present in our system.

Display device-specific information with Hwinfo

Hwinfo not only displays the complete hardware information, but also individual device details as well. You can list the details of a specific hardware.

Display CPU details

For instance, the following command displays the details of CPU:

$ sudo hwinfo --cpu

This will complete details of your CPU.

01: None 00.0: 10103 CPU                                        
  [Created at cpu.465]
  Unique ID: rdCR.j8NaKXDZtZ6
  Hardware Class: cpu
  Arch: X86-64
  Vendor: "GenuineIntel"
  Model: 6.42.7 "Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz"
  Features: fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,pae,mce,cx8,apic,sep,mtrr,pge,mca,cmov,pat,pse36,clflush,dts,acpi,mmx,fxsr,sse,sse2,ht,tm,pbe,syscall,nx,rdtscp,lm,constant_tsc,arch_perfmon,pebs,bts,rep_good,nopl,xtopology,nonstop_tsc,cpuid,aperfmperf,pni,pclmulqdq,dtes64,monitor,ds_cpl,vmx,est,tm2,ssse3,cx16,xtpr,pdcm,pcid,sse4_1,sse4_2,x2apic,popcnt,tsc_deadline_timer,xsave,avx,lahf_lm,epb,pti,ssbd,ibrs,ibpb,stibp,tpr_shadow,vnmi,flexpriority,ept,vpid,xsaveopt,dtherm,arat,pln,pts,md_clear,flush_l1d
  Clock: 1437 MHz
  BogoMips: 4589.48
  Cache: 3072 kb
  Units/Processor: 16
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
[...]

You can, of course, display the short summary of CPU:

$ sudo hwinfo --short --cpu

Sample output:

cpu:                                                            
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz, 1650 MHz
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz, 1803 MHz
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz, 1462 MHz
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz, 1621 MHz

Display System architecture details

To find system architecture details, run:

$ sudo hwinfo --arch

Or,

$ sudo hwinfo --short --arch

Display Memory details

To find memory (RAM) details, run:

$ sudo hwinfo --memory

Or,

$ sudo hwinfo --short --memory

Display Disk details

To find Hard disk details, run:

$ sudo hwinfo --disk

Or,

$ sudo hwinfo --short --disk

Display Partition details

To find partition details of the hard disk, run:

$ sudo hwinfo --partition

Or,

$ sudo hwinfo --short --partition

Display Network details

To find Network interface card details, run:

$ sudo hwinfo --network

Or,

$ sudo hwinfo --short --network

Display Sound card details

To find sound card details, run:

$ sudo hwinfo --sound

Or,

$ sudo hwinfo --short --sound

Display BiOS details

To find BIOS details, run:

$ sudo hwinfo --bios

Or,

$ sudo hwinfo --short --bios

Similarly, Hwinfo can probe all other hard items. The list of available hardware items are:

• all,
• arch,
• bios,
• block,
• bluetooth,
• braille,
• bridge,
• camera,
• cdrom,
• chipcard,
• cpu,
• disk,
• dsl,
• dvb,
• fingerprint,
• floppy,
• framebuffer,
• gfxcard,
• hub,
• ide,
• isapnp,
• isdn,
• joystick,
• keyboard,
• memory,
• mmc-ctrl,
• modem,
• monitor,
• mouse,
• netcard,
• network,
• partition,
• pci,
• pcmcia,
• pcmcia-ctrl,
• pppoe,
• printer,
• redasd,
• reallyall,
• scanner,
• scsi,
• smp,
• sound,
• storage-ctrl,
• sys,
• tape,
• tv,
• uml,
• usb,
• usb-ctrl,
• vbe,
• wlan,
• xen,
• zip.

Export hardware information to a file

Hwinfo can be used to generate a complete system hardware report and easily export the details to a text file. You can then share it with your support person or colleague for troubleshooting purpose.

The following command will dump all hardware information in a text file called "hardwareinfo.txt".

$ hwinfo --all --log hardwareinfo.txt

Or,

$ hwinfo --all > hardwareinfo.txt

It is also possible to export a specific hardware device details, for example keyboard, to a file:

$ hwinfo --keyboard > hardwareinfo.txt

Getting help

To display Hwino help section, run:

$ hwinfo --help

For more details, refer man pages.

$ man hwinfo

Resource:

• Hwinfo GitHub Repository

Featured image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.