How to find out Ubuntu version

There are a lot of possible reasons why Ubuntu user may want to find out Ubuntu version installed on his or her computer. And this is not due to short-term memory or something. Many Ubuntu newbies just feel lost in all those Ubuntu codenames e.g. Lucid Lynx or Maverick Meerkat and version numbers like 10.04 LTS, 10.10 etc. There are several ways to find out what Ubuntu version is installed on a computer/laptop. See them below in this post.

The easiest way to get Ubuntu version and codename is to open Ubuntu menu –> System –> About Ubuntu. It will show version number of running that is usually enough for newbies:

Find out Ubuntu version using Command Line

In order to use one of the following ways to identify Ubuntu version you have to open Terminal (go to Ubuntu main menu –> Accessories –> Terminal):

cat /etc/issue

or

cat /etc/issue.net

This will show Ubuntu version number but without codename:

Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS

Here is another command for the same purpose:

lsb_release -a

Sample output (taken at my Ubuntu Lucid Lynx):

Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS Release: 10.04 Codename: lucid

This one shows complete information about version of Ubuntu you run at your computer including codename and release number.

>One more command:

cat /etc/lsb-release

Output:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04 DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucid DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS"

By the way, you might know that Ubuntu is based on Debian Linux distribution codebase so you may want to know what Debian release lies under your Ubuntu:

/etc/debian_version

In most cases the output will be as follows:

squeeze/sid

This means that Ubuntu is based on unstable branch of Debian.

Find out Linux kernel version of your Ubuntu system

In order to get this information type the following command showing complete kernel version details not only in Ubuntu but also in any other Linux distribution:

uname -a

Sample output:

Linux artemn-laptop 2.6.32-24-generic #38-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jul 5 09:22:14 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux