There certainly is a lot of useful information in this output, but it's
not
necessarily the information needed (and certainly not all of the
information
requested by the OP). So how would I, or the OP, use this utility
properly to answer the question, "What is the make (manufacturer) and
model number of my motherboard?" Or does it not answer that question
fully?
The dmidecode utility dumps all of the DMI information available to the
BIOS, so it is, in effect, the same thing as checking for the MOBO via the
BIOS at system boot.
That said, it's important to note that your BIOS knows how to take the DMI
information and display it in a format for the display at boot time.
So your bios automatically knows it's a shuttle, but the AK32 is used to
show the exact MOBO revision.
That said, the bios must know to check another DMI value to determine
whether it is the AK32A as opposed to a straight AK32 or some other
revision.
On one of my servers, dmidecode produces:
# dmidecode 2.6
SMBIOS 2.3 present.
61 structures occupying 1735 bytes.
Table at 0x000EF130.
Handle 0x0000
DMI type 0, 19 bytes.
BIOS Information
Vendor: IBM
Version: PLKT44AUS
Release Date: 02/13/2002
Address: 0xF0000
Runtime Size: 64 kB
ROM Size: 256 kB
Characteristics:
ISA is supported
PCI is supported
PNP is supported
APM is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
Japanese floppy for NEC 9800 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
Japanese floppy for Toshiba 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
5.25"/360 KB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/720 KB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
Serial services are supported (int 14h)
Printer services are supported (int 17h)
CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
AGP is supported
LS-120 boot is supported
ATAPI Zip drive boot is supported
Handle 0x0001
DMI type 1, 25 bytes.
System Information
Manufacturer: IBM
Product Name: 686831U
Version: Not Specified
Serial Number: 23NN078
UUID: 0036AB92-E6AD-2212-8B2C-CFF000D0B779
Wake-up Type: Power Switch
Handle 0x0002
DMI type 2, 8 bytes.
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: IBM
Product Name: 686831U
Version: Not Specified
Serial Number: JNZNL0T7V8D
The difference in output is merely a reflection of what is stored in the
DMI; in my case it happens to be a little more complete than yours.
Regardless, the tool provides the best opportunity to get the information
w/o having to a) find the docs, b) open the box, or c) reboot to get into
the BIOS.
--
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
