Determining Specs - Revision history

Scellef at 07:39, 21 September 2011

2011-09-21T07:39:44Z

Scellef at 07:37, 21 September 2011

2011-09-21T07:37:19Z

Scellef at 09:27, 15 September 2011

2011-09-15T09:27:58Z

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Scellef at 08:30, 15 September 2011

2011-09-15T08:30:16Z

Scellef: Initial write-up; incomplete

2011-09-14T16:45:21Z

Initial write-up; incomplete

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In order to figure out how to build a laptop, and where it should ultimately go, we need to know what's running under the hood. The following are some different strategies for figuring this out. Ideally, we would use a couple of these methods to corroborate the results of another, but that's not always possible.

{| border="1" fontname="Nimbus Sans" fontsize="12" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="1"
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|width="15%" align="center"|<h2>Methods</h2>
|align="center"|<h2>Notes and Detailed Instructions</h2>
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!BIOS
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Since you should be making a stop in the BIOS anyway, it makes sense to start here. Unfortunately, not all systems will display the information we are looking for. If you don't see any mention of the processor on the main screen, try looking for an option that says something like '''System Information'''. It's always a good idea to double-check whatever the BIOS tells you with another method.
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!Hardware Identification Tool
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← Older revision		Revision as of 07:39, 21 September 2011
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	In order to figure out how to build a laptop, and where it should ultimately go, we need to know what's running under the hood. The following are some different strategies for figuring this out. Ideally, we would use a couple of these methods to corroborate the results of another, but that's not always possible.		In order to figure out how to build a laptop, and where it should ultimately go, we need to know what's running under the hood. The following are some different strategies for figuring this out. Ideally, we would use a couple of these methods to corroborate the results of another, but that's not always possible.
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	=Methods=		=Methods=

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 In order to figure out how to build a laptop, and where it should ultimately go, we need to know what's running under the hood.  The following are some different strategies for figuring this out.  Ideally, we would use a couple of these methods to corroborate the results of another, but that's not always possible.
 {| border="1" fontname="Nimbus Sans" fontsize="12" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="1"
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-|width="15%" align="center"|<h2>Methods</h2>
+|width="15%" align="center"|<h2>Method</h2>
 |align="center"|<h2>Notes and Detailed Instructions</h2>
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 !Booting from LiveCD
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-If your machine is unable to boot from the Network for whatever reason, all is not lost!  We can try using a Live CD to get a linux environment and find out the specs from the commandline.  To boot from the Live CD, make sure the system you're working on has an optical drive (an external drive can sometimes work as well), and throw a Live CD in there.  All we really need is a console login, so if possible, try to avoid a graphical environment by selecting recovery mode or dropping to a TTY ('''Ctrl + Alt + F1''') when the CD loads.
+If your machine is unable to boot from the Network for whatever reason, all is not lost!  We can try using a Live CD to get a Linux environment and find out the specs from the commandline.  To boot from the Live CD, make sure the system you're working on has an optical drive (an external drive can sometimes work as well), and throw a Live CD in there.  All we really need is a console login, so if possible, try to avoid a graphical environment by selecting recovery mode or dropping to a TTY ('''Ctrl + Alt + F1''') when the CD loads.
 As with all things Linux, there are a dozen different ways to get the information we're looking for.  The most reliable, however, is to dig around the <code>/proc</code> directory.  Specifically
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 If you're curious to know what speed RAM you've got, and there's no indication on the stick itself, try plugging in parts of the serial number into Google and seeing what turns up.  If nothing conclusive comes up, or if there isn't even a S/N label on the stick, you can try Googling the memory modules part numbers (the small little black boxes located on the stick) to see if a parts retailer or component manufacturer has any information posted.  Oftentimes, you can infer what the size and speed of the RAM is based on it.
 |}
+=Examples=
 The following are examples of some of the commands mentioned above under '''Live CD'''.