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@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +** INTRODUCTION ** + +Dmidecode reports information about your system's hardware as described in +your system BIOS according to the SMBIOS/DMI standard. This information +typically includes system manufacturer, model name, serial number, BIOS +version, asset tag as well as a lot of other details of varying level of +interest and reliability depending on the manufacturer. This will often +include usage status for the CPU sockets, expansion slots (e.g. AGP, PCI, +ISA) and memory module slots, and the list of I/O ports (e.g. serial, +parallel, USB). + +DMI data can be used to enable or disable specific portions of kernel code +depending on the specific hardware. Thus, one use of dmidecode is for kernel +developers to detect system "signatures" and add them to the kernel source +code when needed. + +Beware that DMI data have proven to be too unreliable to be blindly trusted. +Dmidecode does not scan your hardware, it only reports what the BIOS told it +to. + + +** INSTALLATION ** + +The home web page for dmidecode is hosted on Savannah: + http://www.nongnu.org/dmidecode/ +You will find the latest version (including CVS) there, as well as fresh news +and other interesting material, such as a list of related projects and +articles. + +This program was first written for Linux, and has since been reported to work +on FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS and Solaris as well. + +There's no configure script, so simply run "make" to build dmidecode, and +"make install" to install it. You also can use "make uninstall" to remove +all the files you installed. By default, files are installed in /usr/local +but you can change this behavior by editing the Makefile file and setting +prefix to wherever you want. You may change the C compiler and the +compilation flags as well. + +Optionally, you can run "make strip" prior to "make install" if you want +smaller binaries. However, be aware that this will prevent any further +attempt to debug the programs. + +Two parameters can be set in the Makefile file to make dmidecode work on +non-i386 systems. They should be used if your system uses the big endian +byte ordering (Motorola) or doesn't support unaligned memory accesses, +respectively. For example, compiling for a SPARC processor would require +both (but I am not aware of SPARC-based systems implementing SMBIOS). +Compiling for an IA64 processor requires the memory alignment workaround, +and it is enabled automatically. + + +** DOCUMENTATION ** + +Each tool has a manual page, found in the "man" subdirectory. Manual pages +are installed by "make install". See these manual pages for command line +interface details and tool specific information. + +For an history of the changes made to dmidecode, see the NEWS file. + +If you need help, your best chances are to visit the web page (see the +INSTALLATION section above) or to get in touch with the developers directly. +Have a look at the AUTHORS file and contact one of the maintainers. + +If you want to help with the development of dmidecode, please consider +joining the dmidecode-devel discussion list: + http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/dmidecode-devel + + +** COMMON PROBLEMS ** + +IA-64 + +Non-Linux systems are not yet supported. + +MMAP + +Note that mmap() is now used by default wherever possible, since this seems +to solve a number of problems. This default behavior can be changed in +config.h. Just to make sure this is clear, mmap() is not used for performance +reasons but to increase the number of systems on which dmidecode can be +successfully run. + +CYGWIN + +Dmidecode used to work under Cygwin. However the /dev/mem interface was +removed at some point in time so it no longer works. + + +** MISCELLANEOUS TOOLS ** + +Three other tools come along with dmidecode: biosdecode, ownership and +vpddecode. These tools are only useful on systems with a BIOS, so they +are not built on IA-64 by default. + +BIOSDECODE + +This one prints all BIOS related information it can find in /dev/mem. +It used to be part of dmidecode itself, but as dmidecode was growing, +we felt that the non-DMI part had to be moved to a separate tool. + +OWNERSHIP + +This tool was written on a request by Luc Van de Velde for use with Novell +tools in his company. It retrieves the "ownership tag" that can be set on +most Compaq computers. Since it uses the same mechanisms dmidecode and +biosdecode use, and could be of some use for other people as well, we +decided to make it part of the project. + +VPDDECODE + +This tool prints the contents of the "vital product data" structure as +found in most IBM and Lenovo computers. It used to have a lookup table +for the machine name, but it was unreliable and hard to maintain so it +was ultimately dropped. It has a command line interface. |