System Administration Guide: Basic Administration

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 glean the same 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 IA 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.


# dmesg
Jan  3 08:44:41 starbug genunix: [ID 540533 kern.notice] SunOS Release 5.9 ...
Jan  3 08:44:41 starbug genunix: [ID 913631 kern.notice] Copyright 1983-2002 ...
Jan  3 08:44:41 starbug genunix: [ID 678236 kern.info] Ethernet address = ...
Jan  3 08:44:41 starbug unix: [ID 389951 kern.info] mem = 131072K (0x8000000)
Jan  3 08:44:41 starbug unix: [ID 930857 kern.info] avail mem = 121888768
Jan  3 08:44:41 starbug rootnex: [ID 466748 kern.info] root nexus = 
Sun Ultra 5/10 UPA/PCI (UltraSPARC-IIi 333MHz)
.
.
.
# 

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


# dmesg
Jan  2 07:21:46 naboo genunix: [ID 540533 kern.notice] SunOS Release 5.9 Version ...
Jan  2 07:21:46 naboo genunix: [ID 913631 kern.notice] Copyright 1983-2002 ...
Jan  2 07:21:46 naboo genunix: [ID 897550 kern.info] Using default device ...
Jan  2 07:21:46 naboo unix: [ID 168242 kern.info] mem = 130684K (0x7f9f000)
Jan  2 07:21:46 naboo unix: [ID 930857 kern.info] avail mem = 116547584
Jan  2 07:21:46 naboo rootnex: [ID 466748 kern.info] root nexus = i86pc
Jan  2 07:21:46 naboo rootnex: [ID 349649 kern.info] pci0 at root: ...
Jan  2 07:21:46 naboo genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] pci0 is /pci@0,0
Jan  2 07:21:46 naboo genunix: [ID 678236 kern.info] Ethernet address = ...
.
.
.