HardInfo
HardInfo is a small application that displays information about your hardware and operating system.
If you recently made the switch from MS Windows to Linux, then you probably have used a program called Speccy or something similar to it. Speccy is a fast, lightweight, advanced system information tool for your computer. In Linux, we have a program called HardInfo that is very similar to Speccy.
HardInfo will gather the information about your hardware and operating system and display it in a user friendly interface. This program will also perform system benchmarks on your system and it allows you to save your results. This data can be used to compare your system with others or it can be used to help you diagnose and repair your system when it malfunctions.
HardInfo will gather the information about your hardware and operating system and display it in a user friendly interface. This program will also perform system benchmarks on your system and it allows you to save your results. This data can be used to compare your system with others or it can be used to help you diagnose and repair your system when it malfunctions.
How to Install HardInfo:
1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
2. Type the following command: sudo apt-get install hardinfo
3. Press Enter or Return and type in your password
1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
2. Type the following command: sudo apt-get install hardinfo
3. Press Enter or Return and type in your password
How to Uninstall HardInfo:
1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
2. Type the following command: sudo apt remove hardinfo && sudo apt autoremove
3. Press Enter or Return and type in your password
1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
2. Type the following command: sudo apt remove hardinfo && sudo apt autoremove
3. Press Enter or Return and type in your password
4. Type Y and press Enter or Return
You can start the program by typing hardinfo into your Terminal or it usually can be found in the System Tools submenu.
As you can see in the image below, when HardInfo opens it displays a complete summary of all the hardware in your computer. You will notice on the left side of the program is organized into four categories: Computer, Devices, Network, and Benchmarks. Each of these categories is broken down into multiple subcategories. (You may have to scroll down to see Network and Benchmark categories.)
I will provide you with several screenshots to give you an idea at the information HardInfo gathers on each componet in your system.
Here's an example of the information gathered and displayed about your operating system. You can see what Kernel and distribution you are running on your system.
You can see more detail about your Kernel and the names and descriptions of the modules or code that is loaded into the Kernel. I can see my external wifi driver 8812au (Realtek Wireless Lan Driver) that I have to load each time my Kernel receives an update. It is a very simple process an it doesn't take long.
Here's an example that displays everytime my system was booted (turned on or restarted). As you can see in the image below, on Monday, June 17, 2019 at 5:19 PM my computer got a Kernel update from version 4.18.0-21-generic to 4.18.0-22-generic. This is important data to have because if your system started behaving different or misbehaving you can look at the time it started in the Boots subcategory to tell if it was caused by a Kernel update. If it was, then you can revert back to an older Kernel to make your computer work as it did before the upgrade.
The Display category will provide you with your display resolution. This is great if you are not sure about your screen resolution and you're trying to setup a screen recording software and it's asking you for your screen resolution.
Here you can see information about my old AMD 8 core processor. It was nice back in the days when I built the system to run Windows 7. It still works great with Ubuntu MATE 18.04.2 LTS.
Here you can see the total amount of memory in my old system and how my memory is being used.
Here you can see the data collected by the two sensors inside my system. The temperature of my Radeon video card is 35°C or 95°F.
If you are not getting anything to display in your sensors section or you are only getting one or two sensor readings, then you'll need to install and configure lm-sensors and hddtemp. lm-sensors is a tool for monitoring temperatures, voltage, and fans in your system and hdddtemp is a tool for monitoring the temperature of your hard disk(s).
How to Install lm-sensors:
1. Open your Terminal and enter the following: sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
2. Enter your password and press the Enter or Return key.
3. Answer Y or Yes to the options you want to scan for. If you're not sure select Y, it will not hurt anything if the sensor is not in your system.
1. Open your Terminal and enter the following: sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
2. Enter your password and press the Enter or Return key.
3. Answer Y or Yes to the options you want to scan for. If you're not sure select Y, it will not hurt anything if the sensor is not in your system.
How to Install hddtemp:
1. Open your Terminal and enter the following: sudo apt-get install hddtemp
2. Enter your password and press the Enter or Return key.
1. Open your Terminal and enter the following: sudo apt-get install hddtemp
2. Enter your password and press the Enter or Return key.
You must start the detection of your hardware sensors before you will see anything in the Sensors section of HardInfo. To start the detection process open your Terminal and enter the following: sudo sensors-detect Answer Y or Yes to each component you want to detect. It will not hurt anything if you select Y for a device or sensor you do not have in your system.
While your Terminal is still open, enter the following: sensors You should see a Terminal full of temperature and voltage data for your system.
Now exit the Terminal and reopen HardInfo and click on sensors. You should now see the voltage and teperature data of your system. As you can see in the image below, I must not have the three fan sensors enabled in my BIOS or I don't have fans that supports monitoring their speed. If you still do not have anything displayed, reboot your system and try again.
HardInfo is a greaty little utility for helping you troubleshoot your computer when it malfunctions. You can run multiple benchmarks and save the results and compare the results to benchmarks you have saved when your computer was working great. You can also use the information to post on help forums so that people in the Linux community can help you fix your proble.
If you don't have HardInfo installed, then I highly recommend that you install it.
Take care!
If you don't have HardInfo installed, then I highly recommend that you install it.
Take care!