Unable to Access CPU Model Name in Debian VMWare

Question

I am currently doing my HW using Debian 13 in VMWare fusion pro. I am trying to retrieve information of CPU model name (eg. Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9880H CPU @ 2.30GHz)

I have tried lscpu and cat /proc/cpuinfo but the model name is not shown. I have also installed VMWare Tools, but I did not find a function to show CPU model name.

# lscpu
Architecture:                aarch64
  CPU op-mode(s):            64-bit
  Byte Order:                Little Endian
CPU(s):                      2
  On-line CPU(s) list:       0,1
Vendor ID:                   Apple
  Model name:                -
    Model:                   0
    Thread(s) per core:      1
    Core(s) per socket:      2
    Socket(s):               1
    Stepping:                0x0
    BogoMIPS:                48.00
    Flags:                   fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm jscvt fcma lrcpc dcpop sha3 asimd
                             dp sha512 asimdfhm dit uscat ilrcpc flagm ssbs sb paca pacg dcpodp flagm2 frint
...

# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor   : 0
BogoMIPS    : 48.00
Features    : fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm jscvt fcma lrcpc dcpop sha3 asimddp sha512 asimdfhm dit uscat ilrcpc flagm ssbs sb paca pacg dcpodp flagm2 frint
CPU implementer : 0x61
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part    : 0x000
CPU revision    : 0

processor   : 1
BogoMIPS    : 48.00
Features    : fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm jscvt fcma lrcpc dcpop sha3 asimddp sha512 asimdfhm dit uscat ilrcpc flagm ssbs sb paca pacg dcpodp flagm2 frint
CPU implementer : 0x61
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part    : 0x000
CPU revision    : 0

Did I miss any setup step while installing Debian so I cannot access CPU model name in the VM? Or are there other commands to do so?

Answer 1

This is a normal behavior in VMware. The CPU model name is masked or generalized by the hypervisor for compatibility and migration purposes.

The information provided by VMware (or any other virtualizer) has absolutely no bearing on the machine it's run on. In fact you can move a VM from one physical host to another and the software inside the VM would have no clue that this had happened. That's largely the point of a VM.

The hardware serial number VMware generates (Which is just a GUID in fact) is just specific to that virtual machine, and that serial number is carried around when the VM is moved between hosts.

• CPU ID in VMware environment

• How to get CPU info on a vmware guest

To see the real CPU model, check it on the host using sysctl, lscpu, dmidecode, cpuid, hwinfo or others.

Take also a look at VMware ESXi Commandline:

• VMware ESXi Commandline Get CPU and Memory Information