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With Linux, is there a way to retrieve the processor model without taking information from bios? I don't know which processor is really mounted. I want to set up the right processor timing, but I don't know the processor type. Every time I change the timing for the processor in BIOS another processor type is determined (I should be an Athlon XP +1500, I think, but I don't know really).

I think with

less /proc/cpuinfo

the results depends on the timing that is set in bios.

So could you tell me how I can find out which processor is really mounted?

Sathyajith Bhat
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Martin
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  • What indicator do you have that the processor type is changing? – Joe Internet Jul 31 '11 at 17:54
  • My bios shows the processor type depending on the clock settings and the resulting frequency. If I set the base-timing to 100 MHz the resulting cpu-speed is 1 GHz and the BIOS show "AMD Athlon XP". If I set the base-timing to 133 MHz the resulting frequency ist 1,333GHz the BIOS shows "AMD Athlon XP 1500+". Now I am a bit confused which processor is really mounted. – Martin Jul 31 '11 at 18:40
  • Does `less /proc/cpuinfo` also show different results? – Joe Internet Jul 31 '11 at 19:00
  • yes it does show the same names like the bios shows – Martin Jul 31 '11 at 19:04
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    Ok, what do you get if you run `sudo dmidecode -t processor`? Does it change for each setting, or stay the same? – Joe Internet Jul 31 '11 at 19:12
  • at a first glance it looks good, i will test it tomorrow thanks – Martin Jul 31 '11 at 19:48
  • According to wikipedia, AMD didn't release the Athlon XP at "less than" the 1500+ performance rating...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon#Athlon_XP.2FMP, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Athlon_XP_microprocessors#Athlon_XP_.22Palomino.22_.28Model_6.2C_180_nm.29... so it's probably a situation with the BIOS to "best guess" based on clock rate. Try matching the cpu signature from dmidecode to the AMD model numbers. That should be the correct CPU version. – Joe Internet Jul 31 '11 at 19:58

1 Answers1

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There is some information in /proc/cpuinfo and /sys/devices/system/cpu.

Most of the files in there behave like text file and can be viewed with e.g. cat. They also be fairly easy to parse automatically.

Benjamin Bannier
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  • I know these locations, but I think their contents base on the information gathered from BIOS – Martin Jul 31 '11 at 18:44
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    No, the kernel probes those informations directly from the hardware at startup time. Additional details can sometimes be found in the first lines of dmesg output. – Luke404 Mar 27 '13 at 22:15