BIOSDECODE(8)

📦
version 3.7 · 2 versions
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  • 3.3 · ubuntu jammy
, in alpine 3.22, alpine 3.23, alpine 3.24, arch rolling, centos-stream 10, centos-stream 9, debian bookworm, debian trixie, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, opensuse-leap 16.0, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ NAME ✨

Okay so this is from the System Manager's Manual 💅 and it's the BIOSDECODE(8) page 🫶 Main character: biosdecode, a BIOS information decoder 🔍

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

biosdecode [OPTIONS]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Bestie, biosdecode goes digging through the BIOS memory and prints out info about every structure (or entry point) it knows about 👀 The entry point types it currently recognizes are:

  • SMBIOS (System Management BIOS) ✨ Use dmidecode for a more detailed output 💖
  • DMI (Desktop Management Interface, which is basically the old version of SMBIOS) 🕰️ Use dmidecode for a more detailed output 💖
  • SYSID 🪪
  • PNP (Plug and Play) 🔌
  • ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) ⚡
  • BIOS32 (BIOS32 Service Directory) 📂
  • PIR (PCI IRQ Routing) 🦋
  • 32OS (BIOS32 Extension, Compaq-specific) 💜 See ownership for a Compaq ownership tag retrieval tool 🧚
  • SNY (Sony-specific, not decoded) 🙈
  • VPD (Vital Product Data, IBM-specific) 💼 Use vpddecode for a more detailed output 💖
  • FJKEYINF (Application Panel, Fujitsu-specific) 🍓

Lowkey fun fact: biosdecode started its life as a part of dmidecode 🥹 But as more entry point types got added, it got its own program. Iconic glow-up 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -d, --dev-mem FILE — Reads memory from the device FILE 💅 (default: /dev/mem)
  • --pir full — Decodes the details of the PCI IRQ routing table 🦋 Only full mode is supported, so don't get creative 🙃
  • -h, --help — Shows the usage info and then exits 🫶
  • -V, --version — Shows the version and then exits ✨

📁 FILES 📁

  • /dev/mem

💀 BUGS 💀

Okay this one's a little messy, bestie. Most of the time biosdecode prints way too much info (you don't really care about addresses 😭) or not enough, because it doesn't follow pointers and has no lookup tables 🙈

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Alan Cox and Jean Delvare, the legends behind this 🫶

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

dmidecode(8), mem(4), ownership(8), vpddecode(8) 💜

Source: dmidecode 🌈 Date: February 2007 🎀 Page: BIOSDECODE(8) 💖 Stay iconic, bestie 💅✨

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