You can use the biosdecode and dmidecode commands to get BIOS settings from the CLI. The biosdecode command parses the BIOS memory and prints information about all structures. The dmidecode is a command line tool for dumping a computer’s DMI (SMBIOS) table contents in a human-readable format. This table contains a description of the system’s hardware components. It also includes other useful information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision.
How to view BIOS setting from the command line on Linux
Open the terminal application. You must login as root to run command:
$ sudo -i
OR
$ su -
Type the following command:
# dmidecode | more
Sample outputs:
# dmidecode 3.0 Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs. SMBIOS 2.7 present. 66 structures occupying 3170 bytes. Table at 0x000E0840. Handle 0x0000, DMI type 222, 14 bytes OEM-specific Type Header and Data: DE 0E 00 00 01 99 00 03 10 01 20 02 30 03 Strings: Memory Init Complete End of DXE Phase BIOS Boot Complete Handle 0x0001, DMI type 14, 8 bytes Group Associations Name: Intel(R) Silicon View Technology Items: 1 0x0000 (OEM-specific) Handle 0x0002, DMI type 7, 19 bytes Cache Information Socket Designation: L1 Cache Configuration: Enabled, Not Socketed, Level 1 Operational Mode: Write Back Location: Internal Installed Size: 32 kB Maximum Size: 32 kB Supported SRAM Types: Synchronous Installed SRAM Type: Synchronous Speed: Unknown Error Correction Type: Parity System Type: Data Associativity: 8-way Set-associative Handle 0x0003, DMI type 4, 42 bytes Processor Information Socket Designation: U3E1 Type: Central Processor Family: Xeon Manufacturer: Intel(R) Corporation ID: 71 06 04 00 FF FB EB BF Signature: Type 0, Family 6, Model 71, Stepping 1 Flags: FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip) VME (Virtual mode extension) DE (Debugging extension) PSE (Page size extension) TSC (Time stamp counter) MSR (Model specific registers) PAE (Physical address extension) MCE (Machine check exception) CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported) APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported) .... .. Handle 0x0042, DMI type 14, 20 bytes Group Associations Name: Firmware Version Info Items: 5 0x003D (OEM-specific) 0x003E (OEM-specific) 0x003F (OEM-specific) 0x0040 (OEM-specific) 0x0041 (OEM-specific) Handle 0x0043, DMI type 1, 27 bytes System Information Manufacturer: CompuLab Product Name: sbc-msh Version: 1.1 Serial Number: XXXXXXXXX UUID: 4F4141C0-6999-4157-8F9E-701A0C76F018 Wake-up Type: Other SKU Number: NA Family: Airtop Handle 0xFEFF, DMI type 127, 4 bytes End Of Table
See “Get Information About Your BIOS / Server Hardware From a Shell Without Opening Chassis ( BIOS Decoder )” for more info. Another option is to run:
# biosdecode
You can also use command such as hwinfo. It is used to probe for the hardware present in the system. It can be used to generate a system overview log which can be later used for support.
# hwinfo
# hwinfo --short
# hwinfo --disk
# hwinfo --short --block
# hwinfo --disk --only /dev/sdb
Sample outputs:
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