Kernel messages

From Linux 101, The beginner's guide to all things Linux.

Sometimes you will want to see what the kernel is doing. This can be important if you've just installed a new kernel, new hardware, or just have a curious mind.

To see the latest messages posted by the kernel, you can use:

dmesg

Using it however, it is often times a good idea to pipe it into less or grep, if you are searching.

Note: Some system configurations may only allow root to run dmesg.

There are also system logs under /var/log. Depending on your actual system logger, the file names might be a little different, so it will be left up to you to see which file contains the information you are looking for.

Note: Sometimes the information you seek will have passed out of the buffers of dmesg, but you should always be able to find the same information in your logs.