Features of the computer

  1. Model
    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf sudo dmidecode -s system-manufacturer}
}
}

    will give me: ``LENOVO''
    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name}
}
}

    will give me: ``1953DDU''

    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf sudo dmidecode -s system-version}
}
}

    will give me: ``ThinkPad T60''

  2. Which version of Ubuntu am I using?
    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf cat /etc/issue}
}
} or better \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf cat /etc/lsb-release}
}
}

  3. IP address

    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf ifconfig -a}
}
}

    will give several details, but the IP address is under ``inet addr''.

    Notice that you could also use the following website to automatically find your IP:
    http://whatismyipaddress.com/

  4. Memory, partitions, etc

    With \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf cat /etc/fstab}
}
} we can see all details about the partitions.

    With \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf free}
}
} we can see the memory use, as follows:

                 total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
    Mem:       1546484    1329288     217196          0      19204     803812
    -/+ buffers/cache:     506272    1040212
    Swap:       995988      34760     961228
    
    The first line indicates that, out of 1.5GB of RAM, 1.3GB is ``in use''. The next line shows us that while 1.3GB is being used, only 500MB of this is actually being used by applications; the rest is being used for buffers and cache. The most important part of this listing for assessing performance is the Swap line; this shows us that we are currently using some swap. The system is able to fit everything into physical memory without having to resort (too much) to slow, disk-based swap space.

    The following two syntax give also some information on memory and partitions
    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda}
}
}
    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf sudo parted /dev/sda print}
}
}

    To force a disk check on next reboot
    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf sudo touch /forcefsck \&\& sudo reboot}
}
}

    To check badblocks
    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf sudo badblocks -n -s -v -c 10240 /dev/sda2}
}
} [where sda2 represents the partition where ubuntu is installed]

    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf sudo e2fsck -cc /dev/sda2}
}
} [where sda2 represents the partition where ubuntu is installed]

  5. Sound

    type \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf alsamixer}
}
} , if you get a windows with levels to move, then is working ok.

    Install later \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf sudo aptitude install gnome-alsamixer}
}
}
    this will be installed in ``Applications/sound-video''.

  6. How do I know what graphic card I have installed?

    \framebox{
\texttt{
\textcolor{red}{\bf lspci $\vert$ grep VGA}
}
}

Webmaster: Christian E. Salas Eljatib, E-mail: christian.salas@yale.edu