LPIC-1 System Architecture Practice Question
An administrator needs to inspect the hardware inventory of a server, including details about the motherboard, BIOS, and memory banks, in a structured way. Which command provides this information by reading from the DMI/SMBIOS data?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse bus-enumeration commands like lspci or lsusb with firmware-table decoders, when only the DMI/SMBIOS reader exposes motherboard, BIOS, and memory-bank details.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
dmidecode
The DMI/SMBIOS table is firmware-provided data describing the physical platform. dmidecode decodes that table directly, yielding sections for BIOS, system, baseboard, and memory devices including individual slots. Commands that enumerate buses such as PCI or USB describe attached devices instead, and general-purpose inventory tools aggregate data rather than decoding the firmware table itself.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
dmidecode
Why this is correct
dmidecode reads the SMBIOS/DMI table presented by the firmware and decodes it into readable sections describing the BIOS, system, baseboard, chassis, processors, and memory devices. Because the administrator wants structured motherboard, firmware, and memory-bank details, this is the correct tool; it requires root privileges to access the raw table and report the full inventory.
- ✗
lsusb
Why it's wrong here
lsusb lists USB buses and the devices attached to them, showing vendor and product IDs for peripherals. This is limited to the USB subsystem and has no visibility into firmware-provided tables, so it cannot reveal motherboard, BIOS, or memory-bank information. It is the wrong inventory tool for the described hardware survey.
- ✗
lspci
Why it's wrong here
lspci enumerates devices on the PCI bus, such as network adapters, storage controllers, and graphics cards, along with their vendor and device identifiers. It does not read the firmware's DMI/SMBIOS table and therefore cannot report motherboard model, BIOS version, or the population of specific memory banks, which is the inventory the administrator is trying to gather.
- ✗
lshw
Why it's wrong here
lshw produces a consolidated hardware listing by probing many sources, and it can show memory and board information. However, it is a higher-level aggregator rather than a direct decoder of the firmware DMI/SMBIOS table, and its memory output is typically summarized rather than reporting the per-bank detail that the administrator explicitly needs for this inventory task.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official LPI exam blueprint
This LPIC-1 practice question is part of Courseiva's free LPI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the LPIC-1 exam.