Understanding System Information Commands in Kali

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First off, let me explain what these commands do: they give you information about your computer’s hardware and software. Pretty cool right?! But how does it work exactly? Let’s take a look at an example command:

# This script uses the lshw command to gather information about the computer's hardware and software.
# The -C flag specifies the class of hardware to be displayed, in this case, memory.
lshw -class memory

This command tells the `lshw` tool to only show us information related to our system’s memory (RAM). The output will look something like this:


# This command tells the lshw tool to only show us information related to our system's memory (RAM).
# The output will look something like this:



# This segment indicates the type of hardware being described, in this case, system memory.
*-memory
    # This line provides a brief description of the hardware.
    description: System Memory
    # This line specifies the product name of the memory module.
    product: DDR4 SODIMM MEMORY Module 8GB
    # This line specifies the vendor or manufacturer of the memory module.
    vendor: Kingston Technology Company, Inc.
    # This line specifies the physical ID of the memory module.
    physical id: 01
    # This line specifies the slot where the memory module is installed.
    slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
    # This line specifies the size of the memory module.
    size: 8GiB
    # This line specifies the speed of the memory module.
    speed: 3200MT/s
    # This line specifies the width of the memory module in bits.
    width: 64 bits
    # This line specifies the clock speed of the memory module in MHz.
    clock: 1600MHz (1.2ns)

So what does all this mean? Well, it tells us that we have a DDR4 SODIMM memory module with 8GB of capacity and a speed of 3200MT/s. It also has a width of 64 bits and runs at a clock frequency of 1600MHz (which is equivalent to a latency of 1.2ns).

Now let’s take another example command:

# This command uses the lspci utility to list all PCI devices and their corresponding kernel modules, 
# and then filters the output to only show devices with the class code for VGA controllers.
lspci -nnk | grep -i vga

This command tells `lspci` to list all PCI devices and filter out anything that doesn’t have the “VGA” class code. The output will look something like this:


# This command uses lspci to list all PCI devices and filter out anything that doesn't have the "VGA" class code.
# The output will look something like this:

# This line specifies the device's bus, device, and function numbers, as well as its class code and revision.
01:00.0 03:00.0   VGA compatible controller [0302]: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1967 (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

# This line specifies the device's subsystem, which is the specific model or version of the device.
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 84c5

So what does this mean? Well, it tells us that we have an NVIDIA graphics card with the model number “Device 1967” and a revision of “a1”. It also has a programmable interface (prog-if) of type VGA controller.

A brief overview of how system info commands work in Kali. Remember, these tools can be incredibly useful for troubleshooting hardware issues or just getting a better understanding of your computer’s capabilities. So go ahead and give them a try!

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