SEO

#1 (**permalink**) 02-16-2008, 07:24 AM

Hello

I am trying to find a way of obtaining some unique numbers or
information based on the system hardware, so that I know a certain
hardware configuration is relevant.

I can obtain the serial number from the hard-drive with atactl, but is
there any other way (apart from MAC address which can be changed) to
obtain a serial number from the CPU or RAM etc.. ?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Richard

#2 (**permalink**) 02-16-2008, 07:24 AM

R J Thompson <rjt@linuxworks.co.uk> wrote:
> Hello
[...serial number...]

First step will be to enable cpu serial number in the BIOS. By
default it's usually switched off.

On some *bsd O/S it's displayed by the boot mesages -- i.e.
lood in obsd somewhere like /var/run/dmesg.boot or use the "dmesg"
commant if not too far into uptime.

Some VM utilities also print out whatever internal register on the x86
(or whatever) the cpu serial is in.

On x86 chips there's a CPUID instruction. If you put 3 in EAX first,
it returns the chip serial no. Happy "asm(...)" or assembly hacking.

#3 (**permalink**) 02-16-2008, 07:24 AM

Hi Russell

Thanks for the reply, I'll try that, haven't done any ASM for years but
could come in useful now

Richard

russell kym horsell wrote:
> R J Thompson <rjt@linuxworks.co.uk> wrote:
>> Hello
> [...serial number...]
>
>
> First step will be to enable cpu serial number in the BIOS. By
> default it's usually switched off.
>
> On some *bsd O/S it's displayed by the boot mesages -- i.e.
> lood in obsd somewhere like /var/run/dmesg.boot or use the "dmesg"
> commant if not too far into uptime.
>
> Some VM utilities also print out whatever internal register on the x86
> (or whatever) the cpu serial is in.
>
> On x86 chips there's a CPUID instruction. If you put 3 in EAX first,
> it returns the chip serial no. Happy "asm(...)" or assembly hacking.

#4 (**permalink**) 02-16-2008, 07:24 AM

"R J Thompson" <rjt@linuxworks.co.uk> wrote in message
news:9fydnefYDZhpfFjZnZ2dnUVZ8s-dnZ2d@giganews.com...
>
> Thanks for the reply, I'll try that, haven't done any ASM for years but
> could come in useful now

On -current, you can use sysctl hw.serialno (CTL_HW, HW_UUID).

-- Nicholas.

#5 (**permalink**) 02-16-2008, 07:24 AM

"Nicholas Marriott" <nicNOSPAM@ufie.org.invalid> wrote in message
news:44c728cf@212.67.96.135...
> "R J Thompson" <rjt@linuxworks.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:9fydnefYDZhpfFjZnZ2dnUVZ8s-dnZ2d@giganews.com...
> >
> > Thanks for the reply, I'll try that, haven't done any ASM for years but
> > could come in useful now

>
> On -current, you can use sysctl hw.serialno (CTL_HW, HW_UUID).

Er, make that HW_SERIALNO.

-- Nicholas.

#6 (**permalink**) 02-16-2008, 07:24 AM

Thanks Nicholas

I am running 3.8, do you know if this feature can be back-ported at all?

On another note I have noticed dmidecode in the ports which prints out
some useful information also.

Richard

Nicholas Marriott wrote:
> "Nicholas Marriott" <nicNOSPAM@ufie.org.invalid> wrote in message
> news:44c728cf@212.67.96.135...
>> "R J Thompson" <rjt@linuxworks.co.uk> wrote in message
>> news:9fydnefYDZhpfFjZnZ2dnUVZ8s-dnZ2d@giganews.com...
>>> Thanks for the reply, I'll try that, haven't done any ASM for years but
>>> could come in useful now

>> On -current, you can use sysctl hw.serialno (CTL_HW, HW_UUID).
>
> Er, make that HW_SERIALNO.
>
> -- Nicholas.
>
>

#7 (**permalink**) 02-16-2008, 07:24 AM

R J Thompson <rjt@linuxworks.co.uk> wrote:
> Nicholas Marriott wrote:
>> "Nicholas Marriott" <nicNOSPAM@ufie.org.invalid> wrote in message
>> news:44c728cf@212.67.96.135...
>>> On -current, you can use sysctl hw.serialno (CTL_HW, HW_UUID) [to
>>> get a id unique to a computer - Joachim]
> I am running 3.8, do you know if this feature can be back-ported at all?

Probably not worth the effort, the sensors framework is quite a bit of
code that was added in 3.9 - there is very little trace of it in 3.8.

Of course, I'm neither a coder nor familiar with the code in question -
it just might integrate very easily. But upgrading to 3.9 will probably
be easier.

Joachim

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

SEO

Unique hardware references in OpenBSD