Finding Out What Distro Is Loaded
 

Our Linux 'guru' recently left the company, and I have no earthly idea what version/distro of Linux he loaded, and he is no where to be found.

I know when it boots, it is running lilo v 22.5.8 (with graphics of Tux, etc... at the top) and once booted the background on the graphical login screen is Debian... but I cannot find a screen shot of a debian boot screen like the one we have.

I bought the most recent images of stable debian "woody" and installed it to see if it was similar, but the lilo is different (22.5)... so I am pretty sure that was not the one loaded.

On the left side of the login form, there is a set of icons for various users, And it has 2 text boxes for user/password and a drop down list for your "session type" also it has 3 buttons on the bottom of the form.

Can anyone help me to locate this and see what distro he used?

Thanks,
Richard Hankins

Depending on if the distro change the systems defaults, the UNAME command should have a switch that tells, but most of the time it just says GNU/Linux.

Worth a try.

Try uname -a and post back the results. Why do you need to know? (the themes used aren't going to be of any help I'm afraid - any distro can be made to looklike any other).

You should find some clues in the /etc directory. It varies a little especially in the case of an rpm or redhat based distro.
good luck.

Well, the distro really does not matter... But I am going to try and load a similar machine for testing purposes...

- Richard Hankins

Did any of that help?

So what information are you looking for then? These two statements are somewhat contradictory. If you want to know the kernel version, run uname as was suggested. If you do actually want to know the distro then run this command:
BTW: the version of lilo has nothing to do with what distro/kernel is installed.

It might have been Debian Serge, Chances are it was running the GMD at login. LILO doesn't matter to much......

Sorry....

I mean, the distro really does not matter... I can load linux and do everything from the command line. But I would like to know the distro to check it out to duplicate the current machine as close as possible.

Yes, it matters and No it doesn't...

They should both work, I was off today so I did not get a chance to check it. I will know for sure tomorrow.

- Richard Hankins

OK - cool and Happy Birthday

Thanks for the help and the birthday wish.

Did you investigate the /etc directory? Happy biirthday as well.
good luck.