It’s good to know which version you are at any given time. But especially when working with Linux servers or systems, as they sometimes don’t have a graphical interface to use.
Knowing your version of Ubuntu will help you better understand which packages or applications you should install. So how can you check in Ubuntu the version in use?
This article will tell you how to check your version information in different ways, through the terminal and command line, and using the graphical interface.
Ubuntu versions explained
releases versions every 6 months. This sounds like a lot, but it makes development more controlled. Versions are usually released in April and October.
Every two years, there is a version LTS (long-term compatible) with support for at least 5 years. The current LTS version is 19.10, released in October 2019. You’ve probably already noticed, the version number is associated with the year and month of release. Which means the next version of LTS will be 20.04if they continue with this numbering.
On the other hand, all other non-LTS releases have fairly short-lived support, limited to testing new features and fixing bugs.
Check Ubuntu version via system details
It is possible to know the version your computer is running from the graphical interface, if you are running it in a desktop environment.
First, you have to start the Ubuntu application and look for the window system configuration.
Navigate the window until you find the section Details and click on it.
With this method you will see a simple window with basic system information. In it, you will be able to see the version of Ubuntu that you are currently running. As you can see in the screenshot, our system uses version 18.04.
But what if we are on a server? What happens if the graphical interface is not available?
Check Ubuntu version via terminal
First you will need to use SSH to access your server. Here is a to remind you how to do it with putty.
There are various options you can choose, some show the version directly and others let you know more information about the system.
The quickest way to find out what version of Ubuntu you’re running is with this command:
lsb_release -a
And that easy you can check the version of Ubuntu on your computer. The result will look something like this:
If you’re looking for a faster description line, use this command line:
lsb_release -d
The result will look like this:
Description: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
As a bonus, you can check your computer’s hardware information by running this command at the command line:
sudo lshw
If the command doesn’t work, you most likely need to install the hardware list feature with the following command:
sudo apt-get install lshw
Other ways to check Ubuntu version via terminal
There are a handful of alternative commands that you can use to check your version of Ubuntu. You can use:
cat /etc/lsb-release
And the result will look 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 how to check the version of Ubuntu you are working on is simple but essential. Not knowing what tools you are working with can complicate your work. You can check the version of Ubuntu through the graphical interface or the terminal and both methods are quick and easy.
Gustavo is passionate about creating websites. He focuses on the application of SEO strategies at for Spain and Latin America, as well as the creation of high-level content. When he is not applying new WordPress tricks you can find him playing the guitar, traveling or taking an online course.
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