In this guide, we will show you how you can easily check which version of Ubuntu you have on your system. There are 2 main ways you can achieve this
- Using the Terminal
- Using the GUI
So let’s dive in and see how you can use the above methods to check which version of Ubuntu resides on your system.
1) Using Terminal
This method works regardless of the Ubuntu release or desktop environment you are using.
To check the version, Open your terminal and run the following command
lsb_release -a
Output
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS
Release: 16.04
Codename: xenial
To be more specific you can also run
lsb_release -r
Output
Release: 16.04
Another way you can retrieve the version of your Ubuntu system is by running
cat /etc/lsb-release
Output
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=”Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS”
To gather more detailed information run
cat /etc/*release
Output
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=”Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS”
NAME=”Ubuntu”
VERSION=”16.04.5 LTS (Xenial Xerus)”
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME=”Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS”
VERSION_ID=”16.04″
HOME_URL=”http://www.ubuntu.com/”
SUPPORT_URL=”http://help.ubuntu.com/”
BUG_REPORT_URL=”http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/”
VERSION_CODENAME=xenial
UBUNTU_CODENAME=xenial
In addition, this can also come in handy
# cat /etc/os-release
Output
NAME=”Ubuntu”
VERSION=”18.04.1 LTS (Bionic Beaver)”
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME=”Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS”
VERSION_ID=”18.04″
HOME_URL=”https://www.ubuntu.com/”
SUPPORT_URL=”https://help.ubuntu.com/”
BUG_REPORT_URL=”https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/”
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=”https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy”
VERSION_CODENAME=bionic
UBUNTU_CODENAME=bionic
To get information about the kernel and architecture run
uname -a
Output
Linux ubuntu-16-04-1 4.4.0-57-generic #78-Ubuntu SMP Fri Dec 9 23:50:32 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Also, the hostnamectl command can help you get the version of Ubuntu you are running
hostnamectl
This will give more detailed information such as Operating System, kernel, Architecture and in case the system is virtualized, it will display virtualization type and chassis.
Output
Static hostname: ubuntu-16-04-1
Icon name: computer-vm
Chassis: vm
Machine ID: bc429e3618b24cebbb4ba8e951e20250
Boot ID: 9b1912bef4064d1cb449a009c31fc1c6
Virtualization: kvm
Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS
Kernel: Linux 4.4.0-57-generic
Architecture: x86-64
Lastly, you can run this command on Terminal to give you the version of Ubuntu that you are running.
awk ‘/^Description: Ubuntu [0-9]/ ‘ /usr/share/python-apt/templates/Ubuntu.info
Output
Ubuntu 16.04
2) Using GUI – GNOME Desktop
If you are running Ubuntu from a Desktop environment, checking the version of Ubuntu is quite an easy and straight-forward thing to do.
If you are running Unity Desktop environment, Open ‘System Settings’ from the main menu as shown below
Thereafter, click on the ‘Details’ icon as shown
This is going to open a Window with a lot more information such as
- CPU type
- RAM capacity
- Operating System
- GPU
If you are on GNOME display like in Ubuntu 18.04 and later, click on the drop-down arrow at the top left corner.
This will populate a pull-down menu. Select ‘Settings’ icon s shown
In the next Window, scroll down and click on ‘Details’
This is going to display a ton of information including the OS type, CPU, RAM and system architecture
And that’s how you can check out your Ubuntu version and other System properties! Also, check out the neofetch tool you can easily use to populate system information. We hope this guide has been helpful. Drop your comments and feel free to share on your social platforms.