How many times have you searched in several places for information about your hardware ? This happens often when we are asking for a solution to some problem in a forum. The first thing you’re asked to do is tell what your hardware specs are. Instead of going through all the proc filesystem gathering the information, I find the ls* family of tools very useful. All of you know the "ls" command. These tools apply the ls to hardware.

  • lspci - list all hardware information related to PCI
  • lsusb - list all hardware information related to USB
  • lspcmcia - list all hardware information related to PCMCIA

And the most informative and useful when sending hardware information to someone: lshw. It lists all of the above and more. Although powerful, this tool should be used with care, because MAC and IP addresses are also listed here. So be careful when posting this information to a forum.