Modules Board

Board

Print motherboard name and other information

Module type	board
Default order	7 (only used by --gen-config)
Module source	src/modules/board/board.c
Detection source	src/detection/board/

Prints the motherboard or baseboard product name, with its version in parentheses when the firmware reports one.

Board: B650M AORUS ELITE AX (x.x)

Platform support

Platform	Implementation	Notes
Linux	board_linux.c	DMI sysfs, falling back to device-tree (/sys/firmware/devicetree/base/)
Android	board_android.c	Android system properties
FreeBSD / MidnightBSD / DragonFly	board_bsd.c	kenv
NetBSD	board_nbsd.c	machdep.dmi sysctls
macOS	board_windows.c on Intel, board_apple.c on arm64	IOKit
Windows	board_windows.c	SMBIOS type 2 (Baseboard Information)
Solaris / illumos / Haiku	board_windows.c	SMBIOS type 2 as well
GNU/Hurd	board_nosupport.c	Reports Not supported on this platform

Configuration

Key	Type	Default	Description
key	string	module name	Module key. A single space hides the key and the separator.
keyColor	color	–	Overrides display.color.keys.
keyWidth	integer	–	Overrides display.key.width.
keyIcon	string	built-in glyph	Printed when display.key.type includes the icon bit. Any glyph works; "" prints none.
outputColor	color	–	Overrides display.color.output.
format	string	–	Custom output format (see below).
condition	object	–	Show the module only if the conditions match.

There are no module-specific keys.

Format string

Run fastfetch -h board-format for the authoritative list.

Variable	Description
{name}	Board name
{vendor}	Board vendor
{version}	Board version
{serial}	Board serial number

JSON output

{
    "type": "board",
    "result": {
        "name": "B650M AORUS ELITE AX",
        "vendor": "Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.",
        "version": "x.x",
        "serial": ""
    }
}

Examples

{ "type": "board", "format": "{vendor} {name}" }

{ "type": "board", "key": "", "format": "{name}" }

Pitfalls

• {serial} is normally empty on Linux for an unprivileged user. The kernel exposes /sys/class/dmi/id/board_serial with mode 0400, so a normal user gets a read error and the field stays empty; the module reports that as an empty string rather than as an error. Running fastfetch as root fills it in.
• An empty name aborts the module. board_name is not set. — a white-box board that leaves the DMI placeholder To be filled by O.E.M. in place has its value cleaned away and the module prints nothing at all.
• On Apple Silicon {name} is a board ID, not a product name. board_apple.c prefers the IORegistry board-id property and only falls back to the registry entry's name, so the output is an opaque identifier unless you rename the key.
• {vendor} is often Apple Inc. or the OEM, never the actual board maker, on Macs and on many laptops where the ODM's name is not in the DMI table.
• The Linux device-tree fallback can swap fields. When only /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/compatible is readable, the string vendor,model is split on the comma: the part before it becomes {vendor} and the part after it becomes {name}.

Implementation

Linux

The primary path is DMI sysfs, read through ffGetSmbiosValue() with /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/ preferred and /sys/class/dmi/id/ as the fallback: board_name (the mandatory field), board_serial, board_vendor and board_version.

Three device-tree fallbacks follow, tried in order, and the first one that yields a name wins:

1. /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/smbios/smbios/baseboard/product, with …/baseboard/manufacturer read into {vendor} when present.
2. /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/board, trimmed of trailing whitespace.
3. /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/compatible, split at the first comma as described above.

Device-tree strings are NUL-terminated within a fixed-size cell, so every read is followed by ffStrbufTrimRight(…, '\0') — without that the value would carry the padding.

Windows, Intel macOS, Solaris, Haiku

ffGetSmbiosHeaderTable() is used to locate SMBIOS type 2, which is walked as a packed FFSmbiosBaseboard. The four string fields (Manufacturer, Product, Version, SerialNumber) are resolved with ffSmbiosLocateString() and passed through ffCleanUpSmbiosValue(), which maps the usual firmware placeholders — To be filled by O.E.M., To be set by O.E.M., System Product Name, None, … — to an empty string. A field whose string index is 0 resolves to nullptr, which ffStrbufSetStatic() stores as an empty string, so missing strings are not an error.

The struct is padded out to ContainedObjectHandles with a static_assert on offset 0x0F; that field and the following variable-length array are never read, but asserting the offset catches any compiler that would pack the structure differently from the SMBIOS definition.

macOS (Apple Silicon)

IOServiceGetMatchingService(IOServiceMatching("IOPlatformExpertDevice")) is opened once. {name} comes from the board-id property, and only if that is missing from IORegistryEntryGetName(). The IOKit version and manufacturer properties fill the other two fields. There is no separate board serial on this path, so {serial} stays empty.

Android, BSD

Android reads ro.product.board and falls back to ro.board.platform. It fills only {name}, so {vendor}, {version} and {serial} are always empty.

FreeBSD uses the kenv OIDs smbios.planar.product, .serial, .maker and .version — note that serial is populated here, unlike on Linux, and that every value goes through ffCleanUpSmbiosValue().

NetBSD reads the machdep.dmi.board-{product,version,vendor,serial} sysctls, cleaning each value only when the lookup succeeded.