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3.4.6. Discovering the Hardware
The kernel exports many details about detected hardware through the /proc/ and /sys/ virtual filesystems. Several tools summarize those details. Among them, lspci (in the pciutils package) lists PCI devices, lsusb (in the usbutils package) lists USB devices, and lspcmcia (in the pcmciautils package) lists PCMCIA cards. These tools are very useful for identifying the exact model of a device. This identification also allows more precise searches on the web, which in turn, lead to more relevant documents. Note that the pciutils and usbutils packages are already installed on the base Kali system but pcmciautils must be installed with apt install pcmciautils. We will discuss more about package installation and management in a later chapter.
Example 3.1 Example of information provided by lspci and lsusb
$ lspci
[...]
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
[...]
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01) 02:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 004: ID 413c:a005 Dell Computer Corp. Bus 005 Device 008: ID 413c:9001 Dell Computer Corp. Bus 005 Device 007: ID 045e:00dd Microsoft Corp.
Bus 005 Device 006: ID 046d:c03d Logitech, Inc. [...]
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 413c:8103 Dell Computer Corp. Wireless 350 Bluetooth
$ lspci
[...]
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
[...]
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01) 02:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 004: ID 413c:a005 Dell Computer Corp. Bus 005 Device 008: ID 413c:9001 Dell Computer Corp. Bus 005 Device 007: ID 045e:00dd Microsoft Corp.
Bus 005 Device 006: ID 046d:c03d Logitech, Inc. [...]
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 413c:8103 Dell Computer Corp. Wireless 350 Bluetooth
These programs have a -v option that lists much more detailed (but usually unnecessary) informa- tion. Finally, the lsdev command (in the procinfo package) lists communication resources used by devices.
The lshw program is a combination of the above programs and displays a long description of the hardware discovered in a hierarchical manner. You should attach its full output to any report about hardware support problems.