lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 "network"
The command lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 "network" extracts and displays your
system's wireless network hardware details, specifically revealing its hardware codes
and the Linux kernel driver it is using.
Breakdown
-
lspci: Lists all PCI (Peripherial Component Interconnect) buses and devices attached
to your motherboard (such as GPUs, audio cards, and network adapters).
-
-nn: Along with the textual description, print the numeric [Vendor ID:Device ID]
codes (e.g., [13c5:5178] ).
-
-k: Shows which Kernel driver is handling the device, and which kernel modules are
available for it.
-
| grep -iA3 "network": Pipes the massive list to grep, searches case-insensitively
(-i) for the word "network" (which isolates wireless controllers), and prints the matching line
along with 3 lines of context after it (-A3) to ensure you can see the driver details.
If you execute this on a machine with an Intel wireless card, it will output something like this:
Sample Output
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 [8086:08b1] (rev 73)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 [Wilkens Peak 2] [8086:4470]
Kernel Driver in use: iwlwifi
Kernel modules: iwlwifi
Key Points
-
Hardware Info: The vendor name, model, and revision number/info if it's available.
-
Hardware Ids [8086:08b1]: The first 4 numbers indicate the vendor (8086 is Intel)
and the next 4 represent the hardware chipset/model. If the hardware info isn't
available, an internet search with these will get it.
-
Kernel driver in use: This displays the active driver (like iwlwifi or ath10k). If this
line is missing from your terminal output,your Linux system has not loaded
a driver for your Wi-Fi card.
Depending on what you are working on, one of these similar commands may be useful.
Variants
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