How to find out which Distro I'm running?

SentralOrigin · 02-16-2007, 08:09 AM

How do I find out which distribution I am on my machine?

camorri · 02-16-2007, 09:51 AM

Some systems give you a splash screen when they boot. You can also try the command 'uname -a' and that will give you a line of information, mostly about the kernel. Some distros will give you a clew here, for example Mandrivas kernels show 2.6.12-12mdk, the mdk part tells you it is a stock mandriva kernel. Not all distros tell you that way, but it is a place to start.

SentralOrigin · 02-16-2007, 11:19 AM

Linux SentralOrigin 2.6.17.13 #1 Sun Feb 11 15:36:54 EST 2007 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 processor 3.47GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

pengStudent · 02-16-2007, 11:59 AM

Go to the /etc directory. In there you might see a version file. That file should tell you what distro is installed.

PTrenholme · 02-16-2007, 12:54 PM

Following pengStudent's suggestion, something like this:

Code:

$ for x in $(ls /etc | grep release);do if [ -f /etc/$x ];then echo $x;cat /etc/$x;echo;fi;done
fedora-release
Fedora Core release 6 (Zod)

redhat-release
Fedora Core release 6 (Zod)

alienux · 02-16-2007, 02:18 PM

One of these two commands will usually give you the info you want on most distributions:

Code:

cat /etc/issue

Code:

cat /proc/version

SentralOrigin · 02-16-2007, 02:45 PM

This is \n.\O (\s \m \r) \t

reddazz · 02-16-2007, 02:50 PM

Most distros have a release file located in /etc/. Usually its named /etc/release or /etc/{DISTRO}-release. On some distros its called /etc/{DISTRO}-version. Those are the files that you really need to look out for if you want to find out what distro you are running.