Which Linux Distro are you using ??
Here are a few ways to find out which linux distro you are using :
- From the Boot Time messages
Fire up your favourite terminal program and type in the following
dmesg | head -1
The output would be similar to
Linux version 2.6.13-15-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.0.2 20050901 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux)) #1 Tue Sep 13 14:56:15 UTC 2005 - Using /proc/version
In the terminal type
cat /proc/version
The output would be like
Linux version 2.6.13-15-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.0.2 20050901 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux)) #1 Tue Sep 13 14:56:15 UTC 2005 - Using /etc/issue
This method gives the most appropriate answer
cat /etc/issue
The output should be like
Welcome to SUSE LINUX 10.0 (i586) - Kernel \r (\l).
Check out this for a script to find out your Distro.
Cool. I had been wondering about this, since uname -a doesn’t tell you the distro.
Marc
June 11, 2006 at 11:39 am
yeah uname just says that you are using GNU/Linux and your machine architecture
arun
June 11, 2006 at 11:46 am
Ok. Ok. This is for Geeks. I use the simple method.
Look for the name of the CD from which I installed Linux . . . LOL.
And: The name has to be written somewhere. Come on. Not possible that isn’t.
Sukhbir
June 14, 2006 at 9:23 pm
lolzz…the name has to be in the README file insde the CD
Otherwise just boot from the CD and you will get a screen with the name of that Distro in the Installation Screen..
But this method would come to your help if your asked to write a C Program which would tell the user which Distro he is using !!
arun
June 15, 2006 at 7:07 am
Thanks for the info ! I’m running some version of CentOS and was going crazy trying to find a simple command that could tell me the version.
So many wise-asses in the many forums I searched in for the solution who think you always get an install-CD / never update / otherwise say ‘you better know what u r running’
rr
December 17, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Thank you for this. You’d be surprised how many people thing this is a weird question
Jerome Campell
July 29, 2008 at 8:51 am
Most of the solutions above give the version of the Linux kernel that’s running, which is not necessarily the same as the version of the distribution. I find this command (two in one, actually) to be the most useful:
uname -a && cat /etc/*release
Lance E Sloan
August 20, 2008 at 9:53 pm