macabout

macabout presents your Linux machine's hardware in the same format as macOS ("About this Mac...")

If you're on a re-purposed Mac and need to see a simple system summary, this makes complete sense.

Linux Mint	CachyOS

Installing on Linux

Quick install (one-line)

This detects & installs the package for the running distro (debian or arch based)

curl -sSL https://pandawood.github.io/macabout/install.sh | bash

On Debian it fetches the .deb; on Arch-family distros it builds the PKGBUILD.

Manual install

Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin - download the .deb from Releases:

sudo apt install ./macabout_*.deb

Arch, CachyOS, Manjaro, EndeavourOS - build the PKGBUILD:

curl -sSLO https://pandawood.github.io/macabout/PKGBUILD
makepkg -si

An AUR package (paru -S macabout) is planned. New accounts were banned at the time of writing...

Compatibility

macabout reads system information from standard Linux interfaces and therefore works on any modern Linux distro (or macOS). Only the packaging is distro-specific:

Distro family	What the installer does
Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin…	Installs the .deb
Arch, CachyOS, Manjaro, EndeavourOS…	Builds the PKGBUILD
Fedora, openSUSE, …	Not packaged - run from source (see below)

Both packages install a sudoers rule so dmidecode runs without a password prompt. On other distros you'll need to run macabout with sudo to see memory speed/type, the machine model and the serial number.

Why?

I use old Macs with Linux installed and system-info is not presented in the same way; so I found it slightly annoying to understand exactly what Mac I have. Just annoying enough to crack out Claude Code and finally do something useful with it, for probably 10% of users ;-)

Having a Mac isn't compulsory for macabout to work - it's compatible with any hardware, but might not make as much sense.

What macabout shows

Field	Source	Example output
Distro name	/etc/os-release (NAME)	Zorin OS
Version	/etc/os-release (VERSION, parenthesised suffix stripped)	Version 17.1
Machine model	dmidecode -s system-product-name (unlabelled line; hidden if absent or OEM placeholder)	MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)
Processor model	/proc/cpuinfo (model name), cleaned up by family	Intel Xeon W
Processor speed	/proc/cpuinfo (@ X.Y GHz in model name)	3.2 GHz
Core count	/proc/cpuinfo - unique (physical id, core id) pairs	8-Core
Memory size	/proc/meminfo (MemTotal), nearest GB	8 GB
Memory speed/type	dmidecode -t memory	1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics	lspci -nn PCI ID → bundled gpu_lookup.json; falls back to parsed lspci name + AMD sysfs VRAM	Radeon Pro Vega 56 8 GB
Serial Number	dmidecode -s system-serial-number	C02J1234XYZA

Memory speed/type, machine model, and serial number require dmidecode.

Running from source (devs or deviants)

This is also the path for anyone not on a Debian or Arch distro... Replace apt command with your package manager's equivalent.

git clone https://github.com/PandaWood/macabout.git
cd macabout
sudo apt install python3-tk python3-venv python3-pip pciutils dmidecode
make dev
source .venv/bin/activate
make test            # optional: run the test suite
sudo python3 -m macabout

Developing on macOS

If you're on MacOS and don't have a linux machine nearby and desperate to work on it... You'll just need to install tkinter because it ships separately from Python on macOS. Install both via Homebrew, matching the version numbers:

brew install python@3.14
brew install python-tk@3.14

Then setup/run:

make dev
source .venv/bin/activate
make mock     # static Zorin OS sample data (good for UI work)
make run      # real macOS system calls

Distro icon

The icon is fetched from the system's own branding, which varies, so we came up with these checks, in this order:

1. A bundled PNG at macabout/data/icons/{distro_id}.png
2. Otherwise the system's own icon, tried by name in this order:
   • LOGO= field in /etc/os-release (explicit XDG icon name - most authoritative)
   • distributor-logo (FreeDesktop standard, present on most distros)
   • distributor-logo-{id}, {id}-logo, {id} (fallback guesses)
3. A brand-colored circle with the distro's initial letter

To add an icon for a distro, put a PNG named {distro_id}.png (200×200px) into macabout/data/icons/.

Graphics card lookup table

Graphics card names are resolved via macabout/data/gpu_lookup.json, keyed by PCI vendor:device ID (eg "8086:0a26").