figuring out hardware specs (RAM, processor speed)

appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

Is there an easy way to list the hardware you're running? I just acquired some new boxen and am not sure what all have. I know `free -m` will tell me about my memory, but it seems the numbers are always a little off from the exact physical totals; for example my laptop has 256MB memory, but `free -m` reports total mem as 249.

More importantly is processor speed, I don't know of any commands that will tell me that, and I haven't been able to find the MHz printed on the motherboard anywhere.

Thanks for any help.

cyblord · Guru Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 424

if you use kde, there should be a program that tells you your system specs. it's called kinfo maybe?

or you can try getting some gdesklets (applets that float around on your desktop) which'll give you some information also.

Headrush · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 11:33 pm Post subject:

lspci -v

You can boot a LiveCD and check the specs before installing anything.

quag7 · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 11:54 pm Post subject:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

May return you some useful specs on your CPU including speed.
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tgh · Apprentice Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 222

Lots of useful stuff under /proc...

/proc/cpuinfo
/proc/meminfo
/proc/config.gz
/proc/modules
/proc/partitions
/proc/mounts
...

Or the output from the "dmesg" command.

ratmonkey · n00b Joined: 13 Aug 2006 Posts: 15

There's already better suggestions, but if you just want to know the basics:

nephros · Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:45 am Post subject:

lspci - shows PCI devices
dmidecode - shows an abundance of information about the subsystems
x86info - shows CPUcapabilities
fdisk -l - shows partitioning info
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appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

Thanks guys, I'm good to go. Lots of useful stuff in /proc for sure.