Please look at the error collection code in the automated QA tests.

Please look at the error collection code in the automated QA tests.

You can check on meta/lib/oeqa/utils/dump.py, these classes dumps qemu and the host doing the automated tests.

In addition to the limited information collected by dump.py, my thought was to supplement that with a script that would collect additional information - primarily for actual target h/w, as opposed to a qemu target.

If someone wanted to pursue this in the future, a very nice script is 'inxi', available here:  https://github.com/smxi/inxi. For our use, it would need to run under ash, as provided by busybox, as well as bash. I started looking at this and it would not be a difficult task, and if done, the script author is willing to accept patches to include busybox support in the upstream code base.

Here is a sample runtime report from inxi on MinnowMax.
We have a mechanism to auto deploy and run Yocto images on real hardware and collect reports about the state of the system.    

System:    Host: intel-corei7-64 Kernel: 4.4.26-yocto-standard x86_64 (64 bit) Console: tty
           Distro: Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro) 2.1.2
Machine:   Device: unknown System: Circuitco product: VALLEYVIEW A0 PLATFORM v: A0
           Mobo: Circuitco model: MinnowBoard MAX v: REV A
           UEFI: Intel v: MNW2MAX1.X64.0076.R01.1412081258 date: 12/08/2014
CPU:       Dual core Intel Atom E3825 (-MCP-) cache: 512 KB 
           clock speeds: max: 1333 MHz 1: 1329 MHz 2: 1322 MHz
           CPU Flags: 3dnowprefetch acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon bts clflush cmov
           constant_tsc cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts ept erms est flexpriority fpu fxsr ht
           lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx monitor movbe msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pclmulqdq pdcm
           pebs pge pni popcnt pse pse36 rdrand rdtscp rep_good sep smep ss sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
           syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid xtopology xtpr
Memory:    Using dmidecode: dmidecode is not installed.
Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
           Display Server: X.org 1.18.0 drivers: intel (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa)
           tty size: N/A Advanced Data: N/A for root out of X
Audio:     Card Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.26-yocto-standard
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] driver: iwlwifi
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: NA (-)
           ID-1: USB /dev/sda model: File size: 7.7GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: KINGSTON_SMS200S size: 30.0GB
           Optical: No optical drives detected.
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Unmounted: ID-1: /dev/ram0 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-2: /dev/ram1 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-3: /dev/ram2 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-4: /dev/ram3 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-5: /dev/ram4 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-6: /dev/ram5 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-7: /dev/ram6 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-8: /dev/ram7 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-9: /dev/ram8 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-10: /dev/ram9 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-11: /dev/ram10 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-12: /dev/ram11 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-13: /dev/ram12 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-14: /dev/ram13 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-15: /dev/ram14 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-16: /dev/ram15 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-17: /dev/sda1 size: 0.54G fs: FAT (32 bit) label: N/A uuid: B537-D597
           ID-18: /dev/sda2 size: 3.04G fs: ext4 label: N/A uuid: 99082d33-4cbe-4390-85d5-07f25f4853a6
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Repos:     Error: No repo data detected. Does inxi support your package manager?
Info:      Processes: 0 Uptime: 0 min Memory: 71.5/1906.3MB Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5
           Client: Unknown : dropbearmulti inxi: 2.3.8