Ubuntu 21.10 reaches the end of its life. In July 2022, canonical will stop giving official supports to 21.10 (meaning no security and features update). At the same time, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS users don’t have to worry.
Now you get curious why 20.04 LTS users don’t have to upgrade? In the name itself, say LTS, which stands for Long term support, the LTS version has ten years of support over NON-LTS versions.
There are many ways to check the Linux OS version, like using a command line or graphic tool. Let me show you how to do that.
How to check the Ubuntu version?
As I said earlier, there are several ways to get information about the Linux version. Some of the commands will display information like hostname, kernel version, Architecture, codename, and much.
The most common way to check the version in Linux Distribution is as follows:
1. Check Ubuntu version by using /etc/os-release
This is the most common way to check the Linux version in all distributions is by reading the os-release file (contains data that the operating system vendor defines), and you need to pass this command into Ubuntu Terminals by following cat command:
$ cat /etc/os-release
Output
Output: etc/os-release
It’sincludes name, version, id, id_like, pretty_name, version_id, home_url, support_url, version_codename, ubuntu_codename and many other information.
In Ubuntu, every version has a different codename to recognize, and sometimes it may be a handful to know it.
2. Check Ubuntu version by using hostnamectl
You can even leverage the hostnamectl command to check Ubuntu distribution name and a few more information like Kernel Version, Architecture, and Machine ID.
To get detail to pass the below code in the terminal:
$ hostnamectl
Output
Output: hostnamectl
The above command can do more than getting information about computers, read How to set or change the temporary hostname in Linux by using hostnamectl.
3. Find the Ubuntu version by using lsb_release
The lsb_release stands for Linux standard Base. This command will work on all kinds of distribution, pass this command to terminals and get the result:
$ lsb_release -a
The output will be like
Output: lsb_release -a
4. Check Ubuntu version by using /etc/issue
The above command gives you more than the required information. If you are looking for short and sweet output, then /etc/issue will be the best for use.
Like the /etc/os-release all the information to store in a file, to read we will use cat command:
$ cat /etc/issue
The output which you will get on screen
Output: cat /etc/issue
Graphical User Interface
The above steps were reasonable enough to get all the details, and If you have recently switched from Windows, you may get overwhelmed with the commands.
In three simple steps, you will get the information of your system version.
There will be some different steps to check in different Ubuntu-based environments. If you also have a gnome desktop environment, the step will be the same.
The steps are as follows.
- Press the super key
- Search for settings
- In setting find Details
- You will see all the details about your Distribution
Conclusion
In this way, you can check the distribution details, like name, version, codename, Kernel Information, and much.
Please comment down if you know another way to check the distribution version.
A man with a tech effusive who has explored some of the amazing technology stuff and is exploring more. While moving towards, I had a chance to work on Android development, Linux, AWS, and DevOps with several open-source tools.
