Is it possible to uniquely identify a Librem 5 via software? For example by reading out a serial number, or something like that? Just for my own administration.
Not answering the question as such but ā¦ MAC address of WiFi (or Bluetooth)? The card could of course be removed or replaced.
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I just checked the i.MX 8Mās Linux documentation, and it says that the processorās unique ID can be read at /sys/bus/nvmem/devices/imx-ocotp0/nvmem, but there is an option in the kernel to surpress that. I donāt have my Librem 5 with me right now to check if that is suppressed or not. If it is, you can change that option and recompile your kernel.
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While you can use nvmem directly, it gives you all raw bytes as stored in e-fuses. No need to fiddle with them when thereās /sys/devices/soc0/serial_number that gives a properly formatted output already.
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Has this number any value for us?
Unclear on what the question is. Value meaning āworthwhileā or value meaning āthe actual number or string that you getā?
If you had a fleet of identical devices, a unique immutable serial number is worthwhile for management purposes.
There are occasional low level protocols where it is convenient to have such a serial number available but where for some reason MAC or IP address does not suffice.
In general, unique immutable computer-readable serial numbers are considered bad for privacy but
- that doesnāt so much apply in an all open source environment, and
- in any case that ship has probably sailed (e.g. fingerprinting).
If your question is directed at the latter meaning, on my Librem 5 the āfileā that @ādos mentions contains 16 hex digits i.e. a 64-bit number, and it is non-zero. That doesnāt directly answer the question though as to whether it is āsuppressedā.
It is also unprotected i.e. readable to all.
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