BIOSDECODE(8)                                                                                                      BIOSDECODE(8)



NAME
       biosdecode - BIOS information decoder

SYNOPSIS
       biosdecode [OPTIONS]


DESCRIPTION
       biosdecode  parses  the  BIOS memory and prints information about all structures (or entry points) it knows of. Currently
       known entry point types are:

       o SMBIOS (System Management BIOS)
         Use dmidecode for a more detailed output.

       o DMI (Desktop Management Interface, a legacy version of SMBIOS)
         Use dmidecode for a more detailed output.

       o SYSID

       o PNP (Plug and Play)

       o ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)

       o BIOS32 (BIOS32 Service Directory)

       o PIR (PCI IRQ Routing)

       o 32OS (BIOS32 Extension, Compaq-specific)
         See ownership for a Compaq ownership tag retrieval tool.

       o SNY (Sony-specific, not decoded)

       o VPD (Vital Product Data, IBM-specific)
         Use vpddecode for a more detailed output.

       o FJKEYINF (Application Panel, Fujitsu-specific)


       biosdecode started its life as a part of dmidecode but as more entry point types were added, if was moved to a  different
       program.


OPTIONS
       -d, --dev-mem FILE
              Read memory from device FILE (default: /dev/mem)

       -h, --help
              Display usage information and exit

       -V, --version
              Display the version and exit


FILES
       /dev/mem

BUGS
       Most  of  the time, biosdecode prints too much information (you don't really care about addresses) or not enough (because
       it doesn't follow pointers and has no lookup tables).

AUTHORS
       Alan Cox, Jean Delvare

SEE ALSO
       dmidecode(8), mem(4), ownership(8), vpddecode(8)



dmidecode                                                 February 2007                                            BIOSDECODE(8)