System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems

Displaying Device Configuration Information

Three commands are used to display system and device configuration information.

Command	Man Page	Description
`prtconf`	prtconf(1M)	Displays system configuration information, including total amount of memory and the device configuration as described by the system's device hierarchy. The output displayed by this command depends upon the type of system.
`sysdef`	sysdef(1M)	Displays device configuration information including system hardware, pseudo devices, loadable modules, and selected kernel parameters.
`dmesg`	dmesg(1M)	Displays system diagnostic messages as well as a list of devices attached to the system since the last reboot.

For information on the device names that are used to identify devices on the system, see Device Naming Conventions.

`driver not attached` Message

The following driver-related message might be displayed by the prtconf and sysdef commands:

device, instance #number (driver not attached)

This message does not always mean that a driver is unavailable for this device. This message means that no driver is currently attached to the device instance because there is no device at this node or the device is not in use. Drivers are loaded automatically when the device is accessed and unloaded when the device is not in use.

Identifying a System's Devices

Use the output of the prtconf and sysdef commands to identify which disk, tape, and CD-ROM devices are connected to the system. The output of these commands display the driver not attached messages next to the device instances. Since these devices are always being monitored by some system process, the driver not attached message is usually a good indication that there is no device at that device instance.

For example, the following prtconf output identifies a device at instance #3 and instance #6, which is probably a disk device at target 3 and a CD-ROM device at target 6 of the first SCSI host adapter (esp, instance #0).

$ /usr/sbin/prtconf
.
.
.
 
esp, instance #0
            sd (driver not attached)
            st (driver not attached)
            sd, instance #0 (driver not attached)
            sd, instance #1 (driver not attached)
            sd, instance #2 (driver not attached)
            sd, instance #3
            sd, instance #4 (driver not attached)
            sd, instance #5 (driver not attached)
            sd, instance #6
.
.
.

You can use the following command to display only the devices that are attached to the system.

$ prtconf | grep -v not

You can also glean device information from the sysdef output.

How to Display System Configuration Information

Use the prtconf command to display system configuration information.

# /usr/sbin/prtconf

Use the sysdef command to display system configuration information that include pseudo devices, loadable modules, and selected kernel parameters.

# /usr/sbin/sysdef

Examples—Displaying System Configuration Information

The following prtconf output is displayed on a SPARC based system.

# prtconf
System Configuration:  Sun Microsystems  sun4u
Memory size: 128 Megabytes
System Peripherals (Software Nodes):
SUNW,Ultra-5_10
    packages (driver not attached)
        terminal-emulator (driver not attached)
        deblocker (driver not attached)
        obp-tftp (driver not attached)
        disk-label (driver not attached)
        SUNW,builtin-drivers (driver not attached)
        sun-keyboard (driver not attached)
        ufs-file-system (driver not attached)
    chosen (driver not attached)
    openprom (driver not attached)
        client-services (driver not attached)
    options, instance #0
    aliases (driver not attached)
    memory (driver not attached)
    virtual-memory (driver not attached)
    pci, instance #0
        pci, instance #0
            ebus, instance #0
                auxio (driver not attached)
                power, instance #0
                SUNW,pll (driver not attached)
                se, instance #0
                su, instance #0
                su, instance #1
                ecpp (driver not attached)
                fdthree, instance #0
.
.
.

The following sysdef output is displayed from an x86 based system.

# sysdef
* Hostid
*
  29f10b4d
*
* i86pc Configuration
*
*
* Devices
*
+boot (driver not attached)
memory (driver not attached)
aliases (driver not attached)
chosen (driver not attached)
i86pc-memory (driver not attached)
i86pc-mmu (driver not attached)
openprom (driver not attached)
options, instance #0
packages (driver not attached)
delayed-writes (driver not attached)
itu-props (driver not attached)
isa, instance #0
	motherboard (driver not attached)
	pnpADP,1542, instance #0
	asy, instance #0
	asy, instance #1
	lp, instance #0 (driver not attached)
	fdc, instance #0
		fd, instance #0
		fd, instance #1 (driver not attached)
	kd (driver not attached)
	kdmouse (driver not attached)
.
.
.

How to Display Device Information

Display device information with the dmesg command.

# /usr/sbin/dmesg

The dmesg output is displayed as messages on the system console and identifies which devices are connected to the system since the last reboot.

Examples—Displaying Device Information

The following dmesg output is displayed from a SPARC based system.

Apr  2 13:26:19 venus genunix: [ID 540533 kern.notice] SunOS Release 5.9 Version Generic ...
Apr  2 13:26:19 venus genunix: [ID 943905 kern.notice] Copyright 1983-2003...
Apr  2 13:26:19 venus genunix: [ID 678236 kern.info] Ethernet address ...
Apr  2 13:26:19 venus unix: [ID 389951 kern.info] mem = 65536K (0x4000000)
Apr  2 13:26:19 venus unix: [ID 930857 kern.info] avail mem = 57688064
Apr  2 13:26:19 venus rootnex: [ID 466748 kern.info] root nexus = 
Sun Ultra 1 SBus (UltraSPARC 167MHz)

The following dmesg output is displayed from an x86 based system.

# dmesg
Dec 17 16:32:10 naboo unix: [ID 930857 kern.info] avail mem = 1037565952
Dec 17 16:32:10 naboo rootnex: [ID 466748 kern.info] root nexus = i86pc
Dec 17 16:32:10 naboo unix: [ID 406534 kern.info] ACPI detected: 2 13 0 0
Dec 17 16:32:10 naboo rootnex: [ID 349649 kern.info] pci1 at root: isa 0x0
Dec 17 16:32:10 naboo genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] pci1 is /pci@1,0
Dec 17 16:32:10 naboo pcplusmp: [ID 637496 kern.info] pcplusmp: ...
Dec 17 16:32:10 naboo pci: [ID 370704 kern.info] PCI-device: ...
Dec 17 16:32:10 naboo genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] cadp1601 ...
Dec 17 16:32:13 naboo scsi: [ID 193665 kern.info] sd5 at cadp1601: ...
.
.
.