Extracting Hardware Information from ArcaOS and OS/2

Sometimes it is important to know the details and specifications of the hardware. Here we list some of the tools that can help you extract more information about the hardware you are using.

PCI.EXE
This is the most used command tool and it comes included on ArcaOS 5.0.1. If you don't have ArcaOS you can download it at: PCI.exe.

The pci.ids is the plain text database of devices, it is important to also updated to the latest level from its site. PCI.exe uses pcidevs.txt which have a different format than pci.ids, there is this REXX tool called ids2devs that will help you convert it.


 * Note: There is this version of pci.exe that includes pci.ids from 2020-05-29.

If you run: [BootDrive]:\sys\install\detect\pci.exe You will see a list of all the devices connected to the PCI bus of you computer.

 Craig Hart's PCI+AGP bus sniffer, Version 1.04vkA, freeware made in 1996-2005. Loaded Vendor Data : "This is version 2017.03.10 of pci.ids using ids2devs version 1.03"

PCI BIOS Version 2.10 found! Number of PCI Buses : 2 PCI Characteristics : Config Mechanism 1

Searching for PCI Devices using the OEMHLP$ driver

Bus 0 (PCI), Device Number 0, Device Function 0 Vendor 8086h Intel Corporation Device 2570h 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface Command 0106h (Memory Access, BusMaster, System Errors) Status 2090h (Has Capabilities List, Supports Back-To-Back Trans.,  Received Master Abort, Fast Timing) Revision 02h, Header Type 00h, Bus Latency Timer 00h Self test 00h (Self test not supported) PCI Class Bridge, type PCI to HOST Subsystem ID 25708086h Unknown (Generic ID) Subsystem Vendor 8086h Intel Corporation Address 0 is a Memory Address (0-4GiB, Prefetchable) : E0000000h..EFFFFFFFh New Capabilities List Present: Vendor-Dependant Capability ...  If you want to save the report to share it or have it for future reference you can run: [BootDrive]:\sys\install\detect\pci.exe >pciout.txt Here you can also see a full report sample from a Intel D865GBF motherboard.

There are also some other switches and options you can try with pci.exe. Check "pci.exe /?" to view other options.

DMIDECODE
There is also available the DMIDECODE command line tool that will list you mode details of your hardware ports. This software is included with ArcaOS 5.0 or can be downloaded from Hobbes

If you run: [BootDrive]:\sys\apps\anpm\dmidecode.exe You will see a detailed report of the components of your computer. There is a sample of this report for the Intel D865GBF motherboard.

lsusb
This command line tool will detail the USB devices attached to the you machine (Internal or external). Download lsusb from Paul Smedley web page. Remember that you need to install also the "libusb1-legacy-0" package from the netlabs rpm (Arca Noae Package Manager).

It is also important to update the USB.IDS database from it's site, and in ArcaOS you need to locate it to X:\sys\bin (where "X" is your ArcaOS drive). Also remember that if you have no USB devices attached, it will not show you any message or warning.

To get the details of your USB attached devices run: lsusb -v You will get a full information report like:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 80ee:0030 VirtualBox Device Descriptor: bLength               18 bDescriptorType        1 bcdUSB              2.00 bDeviceClass         239 Miscellaneous Device bDeviceSubClass        2 ? bDeviceProtocol        1 Interface Association bMaxPacketSize0       16 idVendor          0x80ee VirtualBox idProduct         0x0030 bcdDevice           1.00 iManufacturer          1 VirtualBox iProduct               2 VirtualBox Webcam - Integrated Camera iSerial                3 8f2d6bbea79be203 ...

You can also generate a file like: lsusb -v >usbout.txt Or if you want to read on the screen the full report pausing each page you can run: lsusb -v |more

Related Articles

 * PCI.EXE: A powerful sniffing utility