How can I find the version of Ubuntu that is installed?

Question

I installed some version of Ubuntu on my VMware, but I don't know what version exactly it is. How can I find it out?

Also related: http://askubuntu.com/questions/5675/i-installed-an-alpha-or-beta-am-i-up-to-date-with-the-final-release-if-i-keep-u — Bruno Pereira, Oct 22 '12 at 08:31
None of the GUI answers are applicable to Ubuntu Studio. Does this mean it would not be a duplicate question to pose it again but specify that the answer be for Ubuntu Studio? — James Bowery, Oct 06 '16 at 03:51
I'm using Linux Mint and 'cat /etc/linuxmint/info' works too. — ℛɑƒæĿᴿᴹᴿ, Mar 18 '19 at 14:17

score 177 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

177

Your version of Ubuntu can be determined by opening System Settings and then opening the System Info or Details (from 12.04) section:

System Info screenshot

This page will also tell you whether you have the 32- or 64-bit version of Ubuntu installed, as well as what processor and graphics you have, the amount of RAM installed, and your disk capacity.

You can get this info from a terminal with the command:

lsb_release -a

Credit in part to htorque and WarriorIng64

[Note: for versions before 11.10, e.g. 11.04 this is not available this way, but see Roland's answer below for workable option (basically use the 'System Monitor' icon instead]

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

Community

1

answered Nov 10 '10 at 13:50

Praweł

6,490

21

Please also give me credit, at least for the screenshot, which I took myself and used originally in this answer. (You can verify for yourself that a large part of this answer was a direct copy-and-paste of my answer by looking at the edit logs.) – Knowledge Cube Jul 21 '12 at 00:06

score 108 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

108

Apart from:

lsb_release -a and
cat /etc/*release ,

you can also see the version in the GNOME System Monitor (press Alt + F2, type gnome-system-monitor, and hit Enter):

enter image description here

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered Nov 10 '10 at 13:59

htorque

64,798

1

It's considered bad practice to recommend commandline first when there's a GUI option. Plus, that answer is, like, six months too stale. ;P – Jjed Jan 08 '12 at 00:35
11

The user asked for a terminal command. Providing a GUI answer is a bonus, not a priority. :) – htorque Jan 08 '12 at 08:47
3

no longer relevant. The tab has been removed. – Anon Apr 14 '14 at 20:37
I like this answer better, as that "cat" tells me that I am running 16.04.1 ... whereas the UIs just say 16.04 ... – GhostCat Nov 15 '16 at 15:39

Knowledge Cube · Answer 3 · 2014-05-05T18:46:33.523

41

In Ubuntu 11.10 onwards, the version of Ubuntu installed can be found by entering System Settings > System Info (in newer versions like 14.04 LTS, this tab might be called Details instead):

System Info screenshot

This page will also tell you whether you have the 32- or 64-bit version of Ubuntu installed, as well as what processor and graphics you have, the amount of RAM installed, and your disk capacity.

edited May 05 '14 at 18:46

answered Nov 24 '11 at 02:30

Knowledge Cube

14,781

3

Perhaps this answer got hijacked by the top answer at some point - but isn't this now just an exact duplicate of the top answer? – icc97 Jul 17 '12 at 16:54
6

@icc97 Thanks for letting me know. My answer apparently did get "hijacked" (in fact, I made this screenshot myself and it was just taken for the other answer's edit). – Knowledge Cube Jul 21 '12 at 00:03
3

Duly upvoted yours and removed my upvote for the other, pretty shocking behaviour – icc97 Jul 21 '12 at 13:28
How do you access this window from the command-line? I'm on Xubuntu and this doesn't seem installed. – landroni May 07 '14 at 05:16
1

@landroni This window is part of GNOME/Unity Control Center, which may not be installed on Xubuntu. You may want to consider asking a separate question for the flavor you are using. – Knowledge Cube May 13 '14 at 02:21

score 33 · Answer 4 · edited May 05 '14 at 14:48

33

$ lsb_release -r
Release:        10.04

$ lsb_release -c
Codename:       lucid

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS
Release:        10.04
Codename:       lucid

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucid

"LSB" means Linux Standard Base, a joint project of several Linux distributions. Its goal is to develop and promote a set of open standards that will increase compatibility among Linux distributions.

edited May 05 '14 at 14:48

Community

1

answered Nov 28 '11 at 11:57

bessarabov

2,002

Great! cat /etc/lsb-release is the only variant that also works in the official Ubuntu Docker base image. – anothernode Jul 26 '18 at 14:12

score 22 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 15 '18 at 22:01

Quite a few ways -

On the command line:

lsb_release -a ▸ exact release name, version, etc.
cat /etc/issue ▸ formal release name
cat /etc/issue.net ▸ cleaner version of previous one
cat /etc/debian_version ▸ will give you the Debian code name
cat /proc/version ▸ will give you quite a lot of information about your kernel, when was it compiled, which GCC version has been used, etc.
uname -a ▸ will tell you about your kernel information, plus architecture (i386 ▸ 32 bit, x86_64 ▸ 64 bit)

If you like a GUI more than the command line, the System page on System Monitor gnome-system-monitor application should give you more than enough information. Release name, architecture variant, cores in the system, RAM available, and the space available on the root file system.

The command line commands very handy. Because on one of my server, the lsb_release wasn't getting identified only. It's the uname and cat /etc/issue that helped me. And I realized that it was CentOS. Thanks — Vinod Tigadi, May 28 '15 at 09:28

score 11 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 31 '11 at 14:26

11

The command to find ubuntu version is,

lsb_release -a

or

cat /etc/lsb-release

or

System > About Ubuntu

answered Mar 31 '11 at 14:26

karthick87

81,947

score 6 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 27 '18 at 11:30

6

You can check it via command line.

Open a Terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T.
Type:
```
lsb_release -a
```
and press Enter.
The Ubuntu version is displayed on the 'Description:' line.

For more details, see here.

edited Oct 27 '18 at 11:30

abu_bua

10,783

answered Oct 22 '12 at 08:15

47dev47null

668

Will this command differentiate the alpha/beta/prod release? – devav2 Oct 22 '12 at 08:24

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 12 '16 at 14:08

If additionally to the version you want to find out your Ubuntu flavor, run the following:

cat /var/log/installer/media-info

The output should be something like:

Xubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)

If you also want to be sure about your Desktop Environment, type:

echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

The output should be something like:

XFCE

score 3 · Answer 9 · edited Oct 22 '12 at 08:25

3

There are GUI ways of checking but I prefer the Terminal.

To check your Ubuntu version using the command line:

Open a Terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T.
Type: lsb_release -a and press Enter.

The Ubuntu version is displayed on the 'Description:' line.

References:

Identifying the version of Ubuntu you are using.

edited Oct 22 '12 at 08:25

devav2

36,312

answered Oct 22 '12 at 08:19

CoalaWeb

3,195

score 3 · Answer 10 · answered May 03 '14 at 15:21

3

This command will also find your installed Ubuntu version,

awk '/^Description: Ubuntu [0-9]/ {print "Ubuntu",$3; exit;}' /usr/share/python-apt/templates/Ubuntu.info

Example:

$ awk '/^Description: Ubuntu [0-9]/ {print "Ubuntu",$3; exit;}' /usr/share/python-apt/templates/Ubuntu.info
Ubuntu 14.04

answered May 03 '14 at 15:21

Avinash Raj

78,556

A bit complex, but I guess it works. – Knowledge Cube May 13 '14 at 02:22
guess? no, it will surely work. – Avinash Raj May 13 '14 at 02:27

score 3 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

3

Ubuntu Touch

If you are using Ubuntu Touch or have the Ubuntu Touch version of System Settings installed, you can find out more about your version information by tapping/clicking the About this phone button near the bottom. The information displayed may vary depending on the device you are using.

Snapshot of button Snapshot of screen

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered May 05 '14 at 18:53

Knowledge Cube

14,781

score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 22 '12 at 08:17

2

This works for most of the linux distros.

cat /etc/issue

Run this in a shell.

answered Oct 22 '12 at 08:17

nikhil

1,472

score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Apr 16 '11 at 13:51

To find this information graphically, open the system monitor. The information you want is on the first tab: (NB: You cannot tell what stage of development it is at!) enter image description here

Also note mine is not saying "development branch", so the best way to tell what state your system was at when you installed it, is to know what you download :)!

score 2 · Answer 14 · edited Dec 06 '17 at 17:19

2

lsb_release -d

Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS

uname -r

4.4.0-62-generic

edited Dec 06 '17 at 17:19

muru

197,895
55
485
740

answered Feb 17 '17 at 21:38

Ivan Grafutko

31

score 2 · Answer 15 · answered Dec 06 '17 at 17:35

2

Run the following command.

hostnamectl | grep 'Operating System'

This will display which Ubuntu version You are using.

The command hostnamectl alone will give much more informations like hostname, kernel version, architecture, etc.

answered Dec 06 '17 at 17:35

Rooney

965

score 1 · Answer 16 · edited May 12 '12 at 06:11

Another way, from 2 starting points:

From the web browser’s address bar: ghelp:about-ubuntu
Run this command (Alt + F2): gnome-help ghelp:about-ubuntu

Both of them have the same effect as using the Main menu > System > About Ubuntu. They open the “Display application and GNOME system help” in a page giving the same information such as https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/about-ubuntu/C/index.html (in the language in which you are using Ubuntu)

How can I find the version of Ubuntu that is installed?

16 Answers16

Ubuntu Touch

Linked

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