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In order to collect some system configuration information, I have been using dmidecode and the related tool lshw to find the information. This works great on most machines, but I have recently got access to a server to test my scripts on. dmidecode gives me the error:

# No SMBIOS nor DMI entry point found, sorry.

and lshw doesn't work as well. If there is a way to fix this, I would appreciate the help. Otherwise, I need to collect the following information without using dmidecode:

  • System manufacturer
  • System model number
  • System serial number
  • The BIOS date
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What's the hardware on this server? –  slm♦ Jul 15 '13 at 17:26
2  
What distro and are you trying to run these commands as root or via sudo? –  slm♦ Jul 15 '13 at 18:45
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1 Answer 1

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It turns out that the reason dmidecode and lshw don't work is because the machines I was testing them on were virtual machines, apparently. It seems that virtual machines don't normally have the required information for dmidecode and lshw to work, so I don't have to fill in these fields for virtual machines.

Thanks for your help everyone.

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Virtual machines do, as hardware is emulated. VZ containers do not. –  jordanm Jul 26 '13 at 13:04
    
These VMs, run on a Xen hypervisor, appear to not have the required information or configuration to access SMBIOS or DMI information. I'm not sure if that has to do with a VM emulating hardware or not. I'm also not sure what a VZ container is. –  zephyrthenoble Jul 26 '13 at 13:12
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