dmidecode(8)
Read and decode DMI (SMBIOS) system information from the BIOS.
Synopsis
dmidecode [OPTION]... [TYPE]Description
dmidecode reads the system's DMI (Desktop Management Interface) table, also called SMBIOS (System Management BIOS), and displays it in human-readable form. This table contains detailed hardware information such as processor, memory, system model, serial numbers, and other inventory data directly from the BIOS.
The DMI data is parsed and formatted into logical structures called types. You can query all types or filter by a specific type number or keyword.
Common options
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
-t, --type TYPE | Display info for specified type (e.g., 0=BIOS, 1=System, 4=Processor, 17=Memory) |
-s, --string KEYWORD | Display value for a specific keyword (e.g., system-manufacturer, processor-version) |
-u, --dump | Output raw DMI data in hexadecimal format |
-q, --quiet | Suppress header line and decode invalid entries |
-k, --no-dmi-header | Don't print DMI table header information |
-d, --dev-mem FILE | Read DMI data from specified device file (default: /dev/mem) |
-S, --sysfs | Read DMI data from sysfs entry instead of /dev/mem |
-l, --list | Print all supported keywords |
-o FORMAT, --output FORMAT | Specify output format: text (default) or json |
Examples
Display complete DMI information from the BIOS
dmidecodeShow System Information (manufacturer, model, serial number)
dmidecode -t 1Display CPU/Processor information (type, speed, cores)
dmidecode -t 4Show installed memory modules (RAM stick details)
dmidecode -t 17Print only the system manufacturer (e.g., Dell, HP, Lenovo)
dmidecode -s system-manufacturerDisplay the processor model and version
dmidecode -s processor-versionShow BIOS version information
dmidecode -t 0 -s bios-versionOutput in JSON format and filter for memory modules using jq
sudo dmidecode -o json | jq '.[] | select(.type==17)'