Re: [dmidecode] does dmidecode accurately report empty cpu sockets?

[Jean Delvare]

Hi Ryan,

On Fri, 06 Jul 2012 22:34:08 -0400, Ryan Sawhill wrote:
> I've found conflicting information about this online and thought I'd 
> post a quick question here before I begin deciphering the source.
> 
> Obviously if I had a system with at least 1 unfilled cpu socket I would 
> know the answer, but alas, I don't at the moment.
> 
> So again, the question is: would the following give me an accurate 
> representation of the number of sockets, whether their filled with a cpu 
> or not?
> 
> # dmidecode -t4 | grep "Socket Designation:" | wc -l

I am running exactly this at the moment: a dual-CPU board with only one
CPU socket filled. And the above command returns "2", as you expected.
So, it works.

If you want the detail of filled vs. empty sockets, you can use:

# dmidecode -t4 | grep "Status: "
        Status: Populated, Enabled
        Status: Unpopulated
# 

That being, said, please keep in mind that on a given system, dmidecode
is only as accurate as its BIOS. If the BIOS fills the DMI table
incorrectly, then the information reported by dmidecode will be
incorrect too.

-- 
Jean Delvare