Is there a way to get processor details without using information from bios?

1

With Linux, is there a way to retrieve the processor model without taking information from bios? I don't know which processor is really mounted. I want to set up the right processor timing, but I don't know the processor type. Every time I change the timing for the processor in BIOS another processor type is determined (I should be an Athlon XP +1500, I think, but I don't know really).

I think with

less /proc/cpuinfo

the results depends on the timing that is set in bios.

So could you tell me how I can find out which processor is really mounted?

Martin

Posted 2011-07-31T17:44:51.380

Reputation: 161

What indicator do you have that the processor type is changing? – Joe Internet – 2011-07-31T17:54:24.800

My bios shows the processor type depending on the clock settings and the resulting frequency. If I set the base-timing to 100 MHz the resulting cpu-speed is 1 GHz and the BIOS show "AMD Athlon XP". If I set the base-timing to 133 MHz the resulting frequency ist 1,333GHz the BIOS shows "AMD Athlon XP 1500+". Now I am a bit confused which processor is really mounted. – Martin – 2011-07-31T18:40:48.390

Does less /proc/cpuinfo also show different results? – Joe Internet – 2011-07-31T19:00:15.640

yes it does show the same names like the bios shows – Martin – 2011-07-31T19:04:02.707

2Ok, what do you get if you run sudo dmidecode -t processor? Does it change for each setting, or stay the same? – Joe Internet – 2011-07-31T19:12:51.027

at a first glance it looks good, i will test it tomorrow thanks – Martin – 2011-07-31T19:48:58.673

According to wikipedia, AMD didn't release the Athlon XP at "less than" the 1500+ performance rating...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon#Athlon_XP.2FMP, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Athlon_XP_microprocessors#Athlon_XP_.22Palomino.22_.28Model_6.2C_180_nm.29... so it's probably a situation with the BIOS to "best guess" based on clock rate. Try matching the cpu signature from dmidecode to the AMD model numbers. That should be the correct CPU version.

– Joe Internet – 2011-07-31T19:58:10.163

Answers

2

There is some information in /proc/cpuinfo and /sys/devices/system/cpu.

Most of the files in there behave like text file and can be viewed with e.g. cat. They also be fairly easy to parse automatically.

Benjamin Bannier

Posted 2011-07-31T17:44:51.380

Reputation: 13 999

I know these locations, but I think their contents base on the information gathered from BIOS – Martin – 2011-07-31T18:44:51.257

1No, the kernel probes those informations directly from the hardware at startup time. Additional details can sometimes be found in the first lines of dmesg output. – Luke404 – 2013-03-27T22:15:10.050

Asked: 2011-07-31T17:44:51.380

Viewed: 1 601 times

Active: 2011-08-01T09:36:59.553