Problem : I want to know what Linux distribution is installed on my machine .
I want to know what Kernel is running on my Linux box .
Solution : There us no answer that works for all distributions .
- Look for /etc/*release* or /etc/*version* files
- command : ls /etc/*version*
- /etc/debian_version
- It is possible to inspect the /etc/motd , /etc/issue, and /etc/issue.net files .
- Example : cat /etc/motd
- Linux istudy.co.il 2.6.18-028stab064.7-PAE #1 SMP Thu Aug 20 21:41:12 MSD 2009 i686
- another command is :
- uname -a
- Linux centos.localdomain 2.6.18-238.12.1.el5.centos.plus #1 SMP Wed Jun 1 11:12:25 EDT 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
- or for examle
- cat /etc/issue
- Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS \n \l