How to Check System Information and Hardware Specs in Ubuntu

When you are troubleshooting a slow computer, buying upgrades, or installing complex software, you need to know exactly what is under the hood of your machine. In Windows, you might open the Task Manager or System Information panel. In Ubuntu Linux, while there are graphical tools available, the terminal provides much faster, more detailed, and more reliable hardware information.

Here are the most essential commands to check your system information and hardware specifications in Ubuntu.

1. Get a Complete Hardware Summary (lshw)

If you want a massive, comprehensive list of every piece of hardware connected to your motherboard, the “List Hardware” command is your best friend.

sudo lshw

Note: Because this command probes deep into your system architecture, it requires sudo (administrator privileges).

This command outputs a long, scrolling wall of text. A much better way to view this information is to use the -short flag, which prints a clean, easy-to-read table showing your processor, memory, disk, and network interfaces.

sudo lshw -short

2. Check Your CPU Specs (lscpu)

If you only need to know about your processor (such as how many cores you have, the architecture type, or the clock speed), you don’t need the full lshw output.

lscpu

This command (List CPU) will instantly tell you if you are running a 32-bit or 64-bit system, the exact model name of your Intel or AMD processor, and the number of active CPU cores.

3. Check Available Memory (free)

If your system is running slowly, the first thing you should check is whether you are running out of RAM.

free -h

The free command shows total, used, and available memory. The -h flag stands for “human-readable,” which forces the terminal to display the numbers in familiar Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB) instead of raw bytes.

4. Check Hard Drive Space (df and lsblk)

To see how much storage space is left on your hard drives, use the “Disk Free” command:

df -h

This will list all mounted partitions, showing their total size, how much space is used, and the percentage available.

If you want to see the physical layout of your hard drives (e.g., to see if the system recognizes a newly plugged-in USB drive), use the “List Block Devices” command:

lsblk

5. Check the Ubuntu Version (lsb_release)

Before installing certain software packages or following tutorials, you need to know exactly which version of Ubuntu you are running (e.g., 20.04 LTS vs 22.04 LTS).

lsb_release -a

This will output the Distributor ID, Description, Release number, and Codename (like “Jammy Jellyfish”).

Conclusion

The Linux terminal might look intimidating, but commands like lscpu and free -h are incredibly simple to memorize. They provide immediate, accurate answers about your system’s hardware without ever needing to install third-party diagnostic tools.