How to check the Ubuntu version using GUI and CLI?

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 hostnamekernel versionArchitecturecodename, 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

cat /etc/os-release output
Output: etc/os-release

It’sincludes nameversionidid_likepretty_nameversion_idhome_urlsupport_urlversion_codenameubuntu_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
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
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 of cat /etc/issue
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.

  1. Press the super key 
  2. Search for settings
  3. In setting find Details
  4. You will see all the details about your Distribution

Conclusion

In this way, you can check the distribution details, like nameversioncodenameKernel Information, and much.

Please comment down if you know another way to check the distribution version.

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