Check Hardware Information on Linux Graphically With Hardinfo

There are ways to get hardware information about your system in Linux. And majority of them are command line based solution.

As a desktop Linux user, if you feel more comfortable with a graphical application, let me tell you about a tool that you can use to get information about your system hardware.

The tool is called Hardinfo (short for hardware information). It is a system profiler and benchmark for Linux systems. It displays hardware (and some software) information in a neat GUI tool.

Hardinfo provides you hardware information on your Linux system — Hardinfo interface

Install Hardinfo on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions

Hardinfo is a popular application and it should (hopefully) be available in all major Linux distributions’ repository.

On Ubuntu, Hardinfo is available via the universe repository. Normally it should already be enabled but no harm in verifying it:

Add repositories in Ubuntu — Make sure to enable universe repository

With Universe repository enabled, you should find it in the Software Center. Just search for Hardinfo and you should see an application named System Profiler and Benchmark. That’s actually Hardinfo. You can click install here.

Hardinfo Ubuntu Software Center — Hardinfo in Ubuntu Software Center

Alternatively, if you prefer installing applications via command line, you can use the following commands to enable universe repository and then install Hardinfo:

sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt install hardinfo

You should be able to find Hardinfo in your distribution’s software manager. You can easily install it via the package manager on your system. Please check and verify it.

Using Hardinfo to get hardware information on Linux

Once installed, you can start the application by looking for it in the menu:

Hardinfo in Gnome Menu — Search for Hardinfo in application menu

Once you start it, you should see various parameters in the left sidebar and if you choose them, you can see related information on the right side.

hardinfo_5-4920586 — A summary of system hardware

For example, you can see the processor information:

hardinfo_2-1-5752237 — Processor Information

You can see what networking interfaces are available for your system:

hardinfo_4-6904602 — Network Interface Information

You may also check the CPU temperature among other things:

sensor temperature via hardinfo in Linux — Sensor temperature

All these information can be found in command line, specially from the /proc directory. But is is always good to have a tool that gives you all this information in one user-friendly interface. Don’t you think so?

I know there are other tools for getting system hardware information on Linux. If you prefer some other tool, which one is it?