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Getting Information About the Motherboard in Linux

There are many tools you can use to get system information on Linux. In this article, we will review some commands that can be used to get information about "Motherboard (Mainboard)".

Finding Motherboard Model in Linux

You can use the dmidecode command to get information about your motherboard. This command requires "root" privileges.

motherboard model
ali@zion:~$ sudo dmidecode -t 2
# dmidecode 3.2
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.8 present.

Handle 0x000F, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
    Manufacturer: LENOVO
    Product Name: Lenovo ideapad 700-15ISK
    Version: SDK0J40688 WIN
    Serial Number: R90M1CHR
    Asset Tag: No Asset Tag
    Features:
        Board is a hosting board
        Board is replaceable
    Location In Chassis: Part Component
    Chassis Handle: 0x0000
    Type: Motherboard
    Contained Object Handles: 0
With the "-t" option, we select the DMI type we want to get information about. "2" represents the motherboard. You can find the full list at the bottom of the page.

lspci Command

With the lspci command, you can get information about "PCI" devices:

lspci command
ali@zion:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family Thermal Subsystem (rev 31)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 31)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation HM170/QM170 Chipset SATA Controller [AHCI Mode] (rev 31)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev f1)
00:1e.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family Serial IO UART #0 (rev 31)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM170 Chipset LPC/eSPI Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family Power Management Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family SMBus (rev 31)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 950M] (rev ff)
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165 Plus Bluetooth (rev 99)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)

Using the different options of the lspci command, you can choose the information you'll get:

lspci -v

You can use the "-v" option to make the output more detailed. You can increase the verbose level with "-vv" and "-vvv":

lspci -v
ali@zion:~$ lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
    Subsystem: Lenovo Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: skl_uncore

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 120
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
    I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff [size=4K]
    Memory behind bridge: d1000000-d1ffffff [size=16M]
    Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000a0000000-00000000b1ffffff [size=288M]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: pcieport

You may see "access denied" on some lines in the output of the lspci command. To get this information, you need to run the lspci command with "root" privileges.

By increasing the verbose level; you can find many detailed information such as kernel modules used by the hardware or IRQ number.

dmidecode DMI Types

Type Information
0 BIOS
1 System
2 Baseboard
3 Chassis
4 Processor
5 Memory Controller
6 Memory Module
7 Cache
8 Port Connector
9 System Slots
10 On Board Devices
11 OEM Strings
12 System Configuration Options
13 BIOS Language
14 Group Associations
15 System Event Log
16 Physical Memory Array
17 Memory Device
18 32-bit Memory Error
19 Memory Array Mapped Address
20 Memory Device Mapped Address
21 Built-in Pointing Device
22 Portable Battery
23 System Reset
24 Hardware Security
25 System Power Controls
26 Voltage Probe
27 Cooling Device
28 Temperature Probe
29 Electrical Current Probe
30 Out-of-band Remote Access
31 Boot Integrity Services
32 System Boot
33 64-bit Memory Error
34 Management Device
35 Management Device Component
36 Management Device Threshold Data
37 Memory Channel
38 IPMI Device
39 Power Supply
40 Additional Information
41 Onboard Devices Extended Information
42 Management Controller Host Interface