How to provide information about peripherals with dmesg
You want to see how your Linux system reacts to a certain peripheral being plugged in (smartphone, monitor, USB stick etc.).
dmesg
can provide that information, but one needs to separate it from previous messages.
Here's how:
- Make sure the device in question is unplugged.
- Open a terminal, maximise it.
- Enter
dmesg -w
or --follow (wait for new messages). - Some systems require elevated privileges for
dmesg
, if so prependsudo
or become superuser first. - After
dmesg -w
spat out lots of stuff and has hopefully settled down (if it hasn't that could point to a different problem), press <Enter> until your terminal window is blank. - Now insert the peripheral you want information about and wait a few seconds.
- Copy all the new output that is visible now.
This can also be insightful when removing peripherals and in many other situations.