Hdt (Hardware Detection Tool)

The project used to have its own website, now archived.

This document might be partially outdated.

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What is HDT ?

HDT (for "Hardware Detection Tool") is a Syslinux com32 module designed to display low-level information for any x86 compatible system. It provides a command line interface and a semi-graphical menu mode for browsing.

HDT can inspect multiple subsystems:

• CPU (via cpuid)
• PCI
• Memory
  • e820 memory map
  • e801 memory map
  • 8800h memory size
• DMI
  • Memory modules
  • BIOS
  • Motherboard
  • IPMI base board
  • Chassis
  • Batteries
  • CPU
  • System
  • Security
  • System reset
• Disks (work in progress)
• Syslinux
• Linux Kernel modules needed by this host
• PXE environment
• VESA
• ...

Release

Current stable release is 0.3.3 0.5.2.

Current development version is 0.3.4 in the main Syslinux git repository.

Download

HDT is included in the official Syslinux distribution archives.

Projects known to use HDT

• Mandriva Linux since 2009.1 (no longer active since 2015)
• Ultimate Boot CD since version 5.0
• Parted Magic since 0.4.0
• Recovery Is Possible since 8.0 (no longer active since 2012)
• Many others

How can I try HDT ?

Since Syslinux 3.74, HDT is available in the Syslinux archive under the "com32/hdt" directory.

HDT is a com32 module that requires syslinux 3.74 or later. As every com32 module, it can be booted as a kernel like:

LABEL hdt
 KERNEL hdt.c32

Testing using kvm/qemu

Since qemu 0.9.0, it is possible to boot a virtual machine while using a local directory as a local pxe server. This allows a local PXE booting without needing a complete infrastructure (dhcp/tftp).

• Install kvm/qemu.
• Setup you environment by creating a local pxe directory like "~/pxe".
• In this pxe dir, create another directory, named "pxelinux.cfg".
• Within the "pxelinux.cfg" directory, create the following configuration file named "default":

DEFAULT hdt
PROMPT 1
TIMEOUT 5
LABEL hdt
 KERNEL hdt.c32

• Copy the "pxelinux.0" (and "ldlinux.c32") file(s) from the Syslinux archive to the "~/pxe" dir.
• Copy the hdt.c32 file (and the relevant library modules) in the same directory.
• Create a dummy disk file with

dd if=/dev/zero of=~/pxe/dummy.img bs=1M count=5

• Start qemu/kvm to use that local configuration:

kvm -hda ~/pxe/dummy.img -net nic -net user -boot n -tftp ~/pxe -bootp /pxelinux.0

Menu mode

The menu mode will try to do some best effort to manage the little space in which we display so much information.

Screenshots taken on HDT 0.2.6.

Main menu:

Cpu mode:

Starting memtest

Under the memory menu, it is possible to start memtest. To make it successful, you have to:

• Download memtest
• gunzip it
• Setup in your current Syslinux configuration file an entry like

LABEL memtest
 LINUX memtest86+-2.11.bin

Make sure to use the keyword "LINUX", not "KERNEL"!

Then, when selecting the memory test from the memory submenu, the "memtest" label will be launched.

The label name could be changed using the "memtest=<label>" boot option of HDT. The default value is set to "memtest".

How do I configure HDT ?

HDT can be configured by APPENDing parameters, as described in the following sections.

pci stuff

HDT requires very little configuration. To improve the PCI reporting, copy "pci.ids" and "modules.pcimap" in a directory. By default, hdt will search for these files in the root dir of the boot device. If you want to override the directory you can use the following parameters:

• modules_alias=your_path/modules.alias
• modules_pcimap=your_path/modules.pcimap
• pciids=your_path/pci.ids
• memtest=label_name

Optionally, the files can be gzipped.

This can be configured as:

LABEL hdt KERNEL hdt.c32 APPEND modules_alias=images/modules.alias modules_pcimap=images/modules.pcimap pciids=images/pci.ids memtest=mymemtest

The "pci.ids" file can usually be found in the "/usr/share/" directory of a Linux System or just download it from sf.net.

The "modules.pcimap" file is usually available in the "/lib/modules/`uname -r`/" directory of your Linux system.

Warning! When HDT is used with ISOLINUX, the file name must be in an "8.3" format. So if your file is named "modules.pcimap", then the parameter given to HDT must be: "modules_pcimap=path/to/modules.pci".

If these files are not available, HDT will generate some information messages to warn the user.

The memtest=<label> option allows users to override the default entry name in the current config file of Syslinux. The default value is set to "memtest".

CLI mode

HDT supports two modes: a menu system and a CLI (command line interface). The menu system is enabled by default. To enable the CLI mode, just append "nomenu" at startup time like in:

LABEL hdt
 KERNEL hdt.c32
 APPEND nomenu

Syntax of the CLI

This syntax may change in the future.

The main menu displays a "hdt> " prompt indicating the top menu.

Other submenus exist: pci, dmi, cpu, kernel, pxe, syslinux. These topics will be discussed later.

The help command shows the available commands:

clear	: obviously, clear the screen
help	: this help ;o)
show	: the command to display items
pci	: to enter the PCI mode
dmi	: to enter the DMI mode
cpu	: to enter the CPU mode
kernel	: to enter the kernel mode
syslinux	: to enter the syslinux mode
vesa	: to enter the vesa mode
exit	: to return to the top menu

Note that it is possible to use "show" in order to obtain a summary of the given mode, like in:

hdt> show pci
PCI: 17 devices detected
PCI: Resolving names
PCI: Resolving class names
PCI Resolving module names
PCI
 NB Devices   : 17
hdt> 

or:

hdt> show dmi DMI Table version 2.3 found Available DMI modules: base_board bios chassis memory bank<bank_number> cpu system hdt>

The "show dmi" command will display the version of the DMI table and the available modules.

Other examples:

hdt> show cpu CPU Manufacturer : Intel Product  : Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz Features  : 3000 MhZ : x86_64 64bits SMP hdt> hdt> show pxe PXE PCI device no: 15 Manufacturer : Broadcom Corporation Product  : NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express Addresses  : 192.168.3.8 @ 00:13:72:3b:ce:85 hdt> hdt> show syslinux SYSLINUX Bootloader : PXElinux Version  : PXELINUX 3.74 pre1-110-g37bfb1c Version  : 842 Max API  : 35 Copyright  : Copyright (C) 1994-2009 H. Peter Anvin hdt> hdt> show kernel Kernel modules (intel-rng | iTCO_wdt) # (piix | ata_piix) # i2c-i801 # tg3 # sisfb # hdt> hdt> show vesa VESA Vesa version : 3.0 Vendor  : XGI Technology, Inc. Product  : Volari Z7 Product rev. : 1.02.04 Software rev.: Y Memory (KB)  : 16384 Modes  : 32 hdt>

Summary

The "show summary" command reports a global summary of the current host:

hdt>show summary CPU Manufacturer : Intel Product  : Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz Features  : 3000 MhZ : x86_64 64bits SMP System Manufacturer : Dell Computer Corporation Product Name : PowerEdge 850 Serial  : XXXXX Bios Version  : A02 Release  : 10/12/2005 Memory Banks bank 00  : 512 MB DDR2@533 MHz bank 01  : 512 MB DDR2@533 MHz PCI NB Devices  : 17 PXE PCI device no: 15 Manufacturer : Broadcom Corporation Product  : NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express Addresses  : 192.168.3.8 @ 00:13:72:3b:ce:85 Kernel modules (intel-rng | iTCO_wdt) # (piix | ata_piix) # i2c-i801 # tg3 # sisfb # hdt>

PCI mode

From the main menu, type "pci". The prompt changes to "pci> ". The available commands are:

show list

The "show list" command reports the available pci devices like in:

pci> show list 21 PCI devices detected 01: Intel Corporation E7230/3000/3010 Memory Controller Hub # Host bridge # Kmod: unknown 02: Intel Corporation E7230/3000/3010 PCI Express Root Port # PCI bridge # Kmod: unknown [....] 12: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller # IDE interface # Kmod: piix | ata_piix [....]

The first numerical field (01, 02 or 12 in this example) represents the PCI device number followed by the vendor and product names.

The second line displays the device class and the associated kernel module. If no module matches this pci device, the kernel module (Kmod) is reported as unknown. If the device matches one or more kernel modules, the Kmod field shows their name, piix or ata_piix in this example.

show device <number>

The "show device <number>" command reports more detailed information on the selected pci device. Let's see a report for the PCI device number 12 from the previous example:

pci> show device 12 PCI Device 12 Vendor Name  : Intel Corporation Product Name  : 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller Class Name  : IDE interface Kernel module : piix | ata_piix Vendor ID  : 8086 Product ID  : 27df SubVendor ID  : 1028 SubProduct ID : 01b6 Class ID  : 01.01.8a Revision  : 01 PCI Bus  : 00 PCI Slot  : 31 PCI Func  : 01 pci>

The output is pretty obvious, no need to say more about it except about the pxe stuff. If the current device has a running pxe rom, its pxe information will be displayed:

Mac Address   : 00:13:72:3b:ce:85
PXE           : Current boot device

If the device has a valid IRQ, an "IRQ: <irq>" line is displayed.

show irq

HDT can show IRQs set to some PCI devices. Most PCI devices do not really have a legacy IRQ. Only valid IRQs (>0 & <255) are shown.

pci>show irq 17 PCI devices detected IRQ : product ------------- 11  : Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 05  : Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express 03  : Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express pci>

DMI mode

Inside the dmi mode, "show list" displays the available modules.

dmi> show list Available DMI modules: base_board bios chassis memory bank<bank_number> cpu system

Note that only available modules will be displayed by this command. If your system doesn't have a battery, the battery module will not be reported.

To display the content of each module, use "show <module>":

dmi> show system System Manufacturer : Dell Computer Corporation Product Name : PowerEdge 850 Version  : Not Specified Serial  : XXXX UUID  : XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXX Wakeup Type  : Power Switch SKU Number  : Family  : dmi>

Nothing more to say except about the memory module.

memory display

The "show memory" command will display the status of each memory bank reported by the DMI table.

dmi> show memory
Memory Banks
 bank 00      : 512 MB DDR2@533 MHz
 bank 01      : 512 MB DDR2@533 MHz
 bank 02      : Free DDR2@533 MHz
 bank 03      : Free DDR2@533 MHz
dmi> 

As reported by the command, to have more details of a given memory bank, use "show bank<bank number>".

dmi> show bank1
Memory Bank 1
Form Factor  : DIMM
Type         : DDR2
Type Detail  : Synchronous
Speed        : 533 MHz
Size         : 512 MB
Device Set   : 1
Device Loc.  : DIMM1_B
Bank Locator : Not Specified
Total Width  : 72 bits
Data Width   : 64 bits
Error        : Not Provided
Vendor       : C100000000000000
Serial       : XXXXXXX
Asset Tag    : XXXXXXXXX
Part Number  : XXXXXXXX
dmi> 

IPMI base board display

Since 0.2.6, HDT can detect whether an IPMI BMC is present; if it is, it displays the interface type, the version and its address.

dmi> show ipmi IPMI Interface Type  : KCS (Keyboard Control Style) Specification Ver. : 1.5 I2C Slave Address  : 0x10 Nv Storage Address : 0 Base Address  : 0000000000000CA8 IRQ  : 0 dmi>

CPU mode

Inside the CPU mode, use "show cpu" to display the cpu information:

cpu> show cpu CPU Vendor  : Intel Model  : Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz Vendor ID : 0 Family ID : 15 Model ID : 4 Stepping  : 7 FSB  : 800 MHz Cur. Speed: 3000 MHz Max Speed : 3800 MHz Upgrade  : ZIF Socket SMP  : yes x86_64  : yes Flags  : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca Flags  : cmov pat pse_36 clflsh dts acpi mmx sse sse2 ss Flags  : ht acc nx lm cpu>

Kernel mode

The kernel mode features the "show list" command that displays, for each hardware category, the needed kernel modules.

kernel> show list
Mass storage controller : piix ata_piix
Network controller : tg3
Display controller : sisfb
Bridge : intel-rng iTCO_wdt
Serial bus controller : i2c-i801
kernel> 

PXE mode

The PXE mode displays information about the pxe environment.

pxe> show list PXE PCI device no: 15 Manufacturer : Broadcom Corporation Product  : NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express Addresses  : 192.168.3.8 @ 00:13:72:3b:ce:85 pxe>

Syslinux mode

The Syslinux mode displays the current syslinux versions:

syslinux> show list SYSLINUX Bootloader : PXElinux Version  : PXELINUX 3.72 3.72 Version  : 840 Max API  : 30 Copyright  : Copyright (C) 1994-2008 H. Peter Anvin syslinux>

VESA mode

The vesa mode displays a synthesis of the vesa configuration:

vesa> show list
VESA
 Vesa version : 3.0
 Vendor       : XGI Technology, Inc.
 Product      : Volari Z7
 Product rev. : 1.02.04
 Software rev.: Y
 Memory (KB)  : 16384
 Modes        : 32
vesa> 

In this example, the vga card supports 32 video modes. To display them, use "show modes".

Note that "Kernel mode" is the value requested by the "vga=" command line for a linux kernel.

vesa> show modes ResX x ResY x Bits : Kernel Mode : Vesa Mode --------------------------------------------- 800 600 4 770 0x0102 640 480 8 769 0x0101 640 400 8 768 0x0100 800 600 8 771 0x0103 1024 768 4 772 0x0104 1024 768 8 773 0x0105 1280 1024 8 775 0x0107 1600 1200 8 816 0x0130 1600 1200 16 817 0x0131 320 200 15 781 0x010d 320 200 16 782 0x010e 640 480 15 784 0x0110 640 480 16 785 0x0111 800 600 15 787 0x0113 800 600 16 788 0x0114 1024 768 15 790 0x0116 1024 768 16 791 0x0117 1280 1024 15 793 0x0119 1280 1024 16 794 0x011a 320 240 8 818 0x0132 400 300 8 819 0x0133 512 384 8 820 0x0134 320 240 16 821 0x0135 400 300 16 822 0x0136 512 384 16 823 0x0137 320 200 8 824 0x0138 640 400 16 825 0x0139 640 480 32 826 0x013a 800 600 32 827 0x013b 1024 768 32 828 0x013c 1280 1024 32 829 0x013d 1600 1200 32 830 0x013e vesa>

History

Syslinux 3.74 features HDT 0.2.7.

Syslinux 3.75 features HDT 0.2.7 with a fix to prevent hard lock during pci detection.

Roadmap

Release 0.3.0

• Merging Pam's branch to feature the new CLI

Release 0.3.1

• Adding more coherence in the more_printf() usage
• Adding more coherence about screen clearing
• Adding VPD support; commit, commit, commit
• Adding missing dmi chassis in the CLI: done by merging pam's branch in 0.3.0
• When using ISOLINUX default kernel modules file must be modules.pci instead of modules.pcimap: this will solve a common problem reported by users; commit
• Some tools report strings featuring multiple spaces; Removing multiple spaces
• Using NULL to end CLI's structures

Release 0.3.2

• Adding hotkey for VPD (menu)
• Menu: Don't display non populated VPD' items
• Adding hdt> show vpd
• Adding disk's partition detection
• Adding a cli mode for detecting disks
• Using modules.alias to manage kernel modules
• Menu must use 25 lines instead of 24
• Removing dmi> show memory clear screen

Release 0.3.3

• Adding more memory information (mostly integrating memdump.c32) (done with several commits)
• Fixing Backspace behavior
• Cursor is blinking
• Prevent cursor from disappearing
• Optimizing screen usage in "show help"

Release 0.3.4

• Fixing int10/13 conflict
• Improving menu's layout to maximize display usage
• Adding more external benchmark/diagnose tools (cpu/disks/...)
• Adding more Fn keys (F1-F12)
• Memory detection fall-back to dmi type 6 when type 17 isn't available
• Adding filesystem detection
• Adding mbr detection (grab info at (older) [1] or (newer) [2] )

Release 0.4.0

• Adding a saving inventory feature
• Adding IPMI

Development

The development of HDT is here: http://git.zytor.com/users/erwan/hdt.git

Additional changes could be merged directly into the main Syslinux git repository.

Mailing List

You can subscribe to the mailing list and/or read the archives.

Ideas

The following ideas represent possible new features for HDT. If users report which ideas they really need, priorities to develop items could change ;o)

Lua Scripting

HDT currently detects hardware and generates an output using a menu or via a CLI. It could be interesting to add lua support to manage scripting. It could be possible to load a file that describes items that the user wants to detect.

Saving reports

Current versions can't save a report as we can't reach a writable storage. When using PXELINUX, we can imagine using a tftp put method. Using GPXELINUX, we can imagine using some http/ftp put methods.

Improving disks detection

Implementing a simple IDE stack would help in detecting PATA & ATAPI devices. Detecting SATA devices would require implementing specific drivers. The Coreboot project features some; why not doing some teaming on that?

Implementing SMART

Once the previous items would be complete, it could be possible to add a smartmontools-like feature to display smart status of devices.

Adding IPMI

IPMI could give HDT more information about the current hardware like sensors, etc... While using the "open" interface, we can reach the local BMC, but sounds as it needs a lot of code.

Adding VPD

Virtual Product Data displays the following: BIOS Build ID, Product Name, Box Serial Number, Motherboard Serial Number, Machine Type/Model.

Detecting Disk's Partitions

Title is pretty obvious ;o)

Adding more benchmark/diagnose tools

For every kind of component, it could be possible to launch a benchmark/diagnose tool. UBCD has many of them; why not trying to load some from both menu and CLI mode.