Today's article is another 'back to basics' kinda article...

[KGIII]

Today, we're just going to be covering the 'lspci' command. There's quite a bit to it, as compared to some others. However, the ways you're most likely to use the command are covered, just like the other articles of this nature.

A Little About The 'lspci' Command • Linux Tips

Today's article is going to be another article where we get back to the basics, where we'll learn a little about the 'lspci' command.

linux-tips.us

Yes, they're interspersed with other articles. That just seemed like the best idea. I do love me some feedback.

 

[osprey]

Hello KGIII. I'm writing to report some differences between the outputs of the commands in the article and those on this debian (bookworm) system:

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci |grep Network    <<- no output.

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci |grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 210] (rev a2)

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci -class display    <<- outputs "invalid option" message.
lspci: invalid option -- 'c'
Usage: lspci [<switches>]
Basic display modes:
-mm             Produce machine-readable output (single -m for an obsolete format)
-t              Show bus tree
<snip>

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci -class network   <<- outputs "invalid option" message.
lspci: invalid option -- 'c
<snip>

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci -class memory     <<- outputs "invalid option" message.
lspci: invalid option -- 'c'
<snip>

In the manpage there is an option for the use of the "class" variable in relation to output info on devices thus:

lspci -d [<vendor>]:[<device>][:<class>[:<prog-if>]]

but on my system one doesn't use the term "class" in any form that I can find. To get the info one needs to know the class ID, and for that the manpage refers the reader to the file: /usr/share/misc/pci.ids, where one discovers that the class ID for the Network controller is: 02, and the subclass ID of ethernet is: 00, so the
command for info is as follows:

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci -d ::0200
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

or one can use the variant: lspci -d *:*:200, to get the same result where * means any vendor and any device. More info is available from a command such as:

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci -nnkd ::200
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0c)
        Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Onboard Ethernet [1458:e000]
        Kernel driver in use: r8169
        Kernel modules: r8169
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 06)
        Subsystem: TP-LINK Technologies Co., Ltd. TG-3468 Gigabit PCI Express Network Adapter [7470:3468]
        Kernel driver in use: r8169
        Kernel modules: r8169

A different approach is to use grep to select info which is included on nearby lines from lspci output. The following gather relevant info for the graphics card and ethernet:

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci -nnk | grep -i -A 3 vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 210] [10de:0a65] (rev a2)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. GT218 [GeForce 210] [1043:8354]
        Kernel driver in use: nouveau
        Kernel modules: nouveau


[[email protected] ~]$ lspci -nnk | grep -i -A 3 network
        Subsystem: TP-LINK Technologies Co., Ltd. TG-3468 Gigabit PCI Express Network Adapter [7470:3468]
        Kernel driver in use: r8169
        Kernel modules: r8169

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci -nnk | grep -i -A 3 eth
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0c)
        Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Onboard Ethernet [1458:e000]
        Kernel driver in use: r8169
        Kernel modules: r8169
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 06)
        Subsystem: TP-LINK Technologies Co., Ltd. TG-3468 Gigabit PCI Express Network Adapter [7470:3468]
        Kernel driver in use: r8169
        Kernel modules: r8169

I'd be interested to know which version of lspci was used for the article. The following output shows from where the one used for the above commands came:

[[email protected] ~]$ apt policy pciutils
pciutils:
  Installed: 1:3.9.0-2
  Candidate: 1:3.9.0-2
  Version table:
 *** 1:3.9.0-2 500
        500 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Using sudo made no difference to the above outputs.

 

[KGIII]

Using sudo made no difference to the above outputs.

Weird... I dunno what to think, at this point - and I just watched the Niners win a playoff game (which means I'm not gonna be all that helpful tonight).

[email protected]:~$ apt policy pciutils
pciutils:
  Installed: 1:3.6.4-1ubuntu0.20.04.1
  Candidate: 1:3.6.4-1ubuntu0.20.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 1:3.6.4-1ubuntu0.20.04.1 500
        500 http://ubuntu.mirrors.pair.com/archive focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:3.6.4-1 500
        500 http://ubuntu.mirrors.pair.com/archive focal/main amd64 Packages

Now that I look at it, I think I may have ended up taking my notes from *lshw* in the middle of it. That seems to be what I did. I'd have to go to the computer - but I bet I somehow started typing in lshw commands or mixing the notes up for the two of them. That one was written straight from my notes I think - which are usually pretty solid.

Alas, I wrote it days ago in prep for my busy days.

I'll have to tear into it and fix it tomorrow. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

 

[osprey]

This command in the amended page doesn't output anything here, as mentoned in post #2:

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci | grep Network

lspci appears to be more interested in devices, so it produces output with:

[[email protected] ~]$ lspci | grep -i eth
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

lspci is quite happy to provide a lot of info without sudo, unlike lshw.

 

[KGIII]

lspci appears to be more interested in devices, so it produces output with:

Yeah, I made a quick edit today to get rid of a chunk of stuff. I'm horribly occupied today and will be for the next few hours and then for another hour or so after that. (Mecum auction. I made some very costly decisions.)

 

[KGIII]

Also, and yeah, I was able to go back through the terminal history in a VM where I was poking while writing the article. For some reason, I switched to LSHW for like half the commands and conflated it with the other half.

That doesn't normally happen, but after 300+ articles I'm bound to make a mistake eventually!

 

[osprey]

I'm reminded of the Robin Sharma aphorism: "There are no mistakes in life, only lessons". It gets me by most of the time

 

[KGIII]

LOL Even the pros throw an interception now and again.

I've been pretty distracted since like January 4th. It's the largest/longest Mecum auction.

It's over now. Finally...