It’s good to know which version your Ubuntu is at any given time. But especially when working with virtual servers or Linux systems, as sometimes they don’t have a graphical interface for you to use.
Every two years, an LTS (Long Term Support) version is released, with support for at least 5 years. The current LTS version is 20.04, released in April 2020. Ubuntu version numbers refer to the year and month of release.
Every 6 months between LTS releases, Ubuntu releases an interim release. This may seem like a lot, but it makes development more controlled. Versions are usually released in April and October, the latest being 19.10.
On the other hand, all other non-LTS versions have fairly short support and their goal is limited to testing new features and bug fixes.
Knowing your version of Ubuntu will help you better understand which packages or applications you should install. So how do you check your Ubuntu version?
This article will teach you how to check your Ubuntu version information in different ways, through the terminal and command line, and using the graphical interface in a desktop environment.
How to Check
Ubuntu Version Through
System Settings It is possible to know which version of Ubuntu your computer is running from the graphical interface if you are running it in a desktop environment
.
- First, we need to launch the Ubuntu application and open the System Settings
- Scroll to the bottom and find and click on the Details section.
.
You should now see a simple window with the basic system information. In it, we can see, the version of Ubuntu that we are running at the moment. As you can see from the screenshot, our system is running Ubuntu 18.04.
How to check Ubuntu version
via
terminal
There are several command options we can choose from for an Ubuntu version check. Some show the version directly and others give more Ubuntu description information. First, open your terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and then continue.
The quickest way to know which version of Ubuntu
you are running is by using
this command line in your terminal: lsb_release -a The output will look
something like
this:
If you are looking for a cleaner description line of what version your Ubuntu is, use the following command
: lsb_release -d
The output of your Ubuntu version will look like this:
Description: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS As a bonus, we can verify the Ubuntu hardware information of the
computer by running this command on
the command line: sudo lshw
If the command doesn’t work, you will most likely have to install the list hardware utility with the following command:
sudo apt-get install lshw
Other ways to check Ubuntu version via terminal
There are a handful of alternative commands you can use to check your Ubuntu version and information. Let’s take a look at the command jack. You can use
: cat /etc/lsb-release With the Ubuntu version looking like this: DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_RELEASE=18.04 DISTRIB_CODENAME=bionic DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=”Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS”
Or just typing this command
: cat /etc/issue
The output of this command will look like this:
Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS \n \l
Conclusion
Knowing different ways to check
the version of
Ubuntu you are working on is simple but essential. Not knowing your tools, information, and system configuration can complicate your job.
To summarize, you can check your Ubuntu version through the following methods:
Check your Ubuntu version
- in the GUI settings Use the lsb_release -a or lsb_release -d command line Use the command line
cat /etc/lsb-release or cat /
etc/issue We hope this article helped you verify your Ubuntu version information through the graphical interface or terminal, and both methods are quick and easy. If you have any questions or advice, feel free to leave us a comment in the section below.
