phpman > man > biosdecode(8)

BIOSDECODE(8)                          System Manager's Manual                         BIOSDECODE(8)



NAME
       biosdecode - BIOS information decoder

SYNOPSIS
       biosdecode [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION
       biosdecode  parses  the  BIOS  memory  and  prints information about all structures (or entry
       points) it knows of. Currently known entry point types are:

       • SMBIOS (System Management BIOS)
         Use dmidecode for a more detailed output.

       • DMI (Desktop Management Interface, a legacy 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)


       biosdecode started its life as a part of dmidecode but as more entry point types were  added,
       it was moved to a different program.

OPTIONS
       -d, --dev-mem FILE
              Read memory from device FILE (default: /dev/mem)

           --pir full
              Decode the details of the PCI IRQ routing table

       -h, --help
              Display usage information and exit

       -V, --version
              Display the version and exit

FILES
       /dev/mem

BUGS
       Most  of  the  time,  biosdecode prints too much information (you don't really care about ad‐
       dresses) or not enough (because it doesn't follow pointers and has no lookup tables).

AUTHORS
       Alan Cox, Jean Delvare

SEE ALSO
       dmidecode(8), mem(4), ownership(8), vpddecode(8)



dmidecode                                   February 2007                              BIOSDECODE(8)