Finding out isn't always just curiosity; getting the details of your computers innards can help you get the right drivers and tweak the hardware for peak performance.
In Ubuntu (or any flavor of Linux), there's an easy way to get the scoop. It's a terminal command called lshw or a graphical program called lshw-gtk.
If you don't have them installed, you can them quickly with Synaptic, or with the terminal commands:
sudo apt-get install lshwsudo apt-get install lshw-gtk
Once you've installed them, you can open either from the terminal:
sudo lshworgksudo lshw-gtk
Use sudo (or gksudo) because you need root privileges to get all of the information.
For a quick look, the command-line version is a little easier. The lshw commans gives you the full story, every device, model and setup.
If you'd prefer a summary, use:
sudo lshw -short
It's a little easier to digest. There are some other options at the end of the post.
The graphical program is nice, but it takes a little getting used to. When you first run it, it will open with just one description. In my case, it said "Notebook" in the left column and had a brief (really brief) description in the right-most column.
To get more information, look for little arrows and words in boldface. Double clicking on them opens up more details. When the words are in regular type, you've hit the last level of detail. Just click on the words to get the full description.
I copied the output of lshw into Tomboy and created a little wiki with all of the hardware information. Now when I need some details, I can just click through the notes.
With the command-line version, you can tailor the output to fit your needs.
