We have some new hardware in our office which runs its own customized Linux OS.
How do I go about figuring which distro it's based on?
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3 Answers
A question very close to this one was posted on Unix.Stackexchange HERE
Giles has a pretty complete | cool answer for the ways he describes.
# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64 ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.4.4 20100726 (Red Hat 4.4.4-13) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Fri May 20 03:51:51 BST 2011
# uname -a Linux system1.doofus.local 2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri May 20 03:51:51 BST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
# cat /etc/issue
CentOS Linux release 6.0 (Final)
Kernel \r on an \m
cat /proc/config.gz cat /usr/src/linux/config.gz cat /boot/config*
Though I did some checking and this was not very reliable except on SUSE.
# zcat /proc/config.gz | grep -i kernel CONFIG_SUSE_KERNEL=y # CONFIG_KERNEL_DESKTOP is not set CONFIG_LOCK_KERNEL=y
Release Files in /etc (from Unix.com)
- Novell SuSE---> /etc/SuSE-release
- Red Hat--->/etc/redhat-release, /etc/redhat_version
- Fedora-->/etc/fedora-release
- Slackware--->/etc/slackware-release, /etc/slackware-version
- Old Debian--->/etc/debian_release, /etc/debian_version
- New Debian--->/etc/os-release
- Mandrake--->/etc/mandrake-release
- Yellow dog-->/etc/yellowdog-release
- Sun JDS--->/etc/sun-release
- Solaris/Sparc--->/etc/release
- Gentoo--->/etc/gentoo-release
There is also a bash script at the Unix.com link someone wrote to automate checking.
Figuring out what package manager you have is a good clue.
rpm yum apt-get zypper +many more
Though this is by no means foolproof as the vendor could use anything they want. It really just gives you a place to start.
# dmesg | less Linux version 2.6.32.12-0.7-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.3.4 [gcc-4_3-branch revision 152973] (SUSE Linux) ) #1 SMP 2010-05-20 11:14:20 +0200
pretty much the same information as cat /proc/version & uname
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6If you are in a container, beware cat /proc/version will give the host distro, not the container one. Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 20:10
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2Note that this should be
cat /etc/*eleasefor centos unix.stackexchange.com/questions/54987/…– hawkeyeCommented Jul 31, 2016 at 11:48 -
@hawkeye I find ls /etc | grep release to be more effective, as it also will pick up files named release-XX, for example– user6297Commented Aug 9, 2016 at 12:15
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1Note that most of these tell you about the KERNEL, not the distribution. As the files indicated above show, cat /etc/*release is probably the most general way of seeing the distribution.– BradCommented Sep 6, 2017 at 12:21
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I have down voted this because
cat /proc/versiongives wrong answer, e.g. CentOS7 will claim it is "Red Hat 4.8.5". Please upvote the correct answer listed further down:cat /etc/*-releaseCommented Sep 22, 2017 at 11:31
You'll want to use:
$ cat /etc/*-release
You'll get a response similar to this:
$ cat /etc/*-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=11.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=oneiric
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 11.10"
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5This should be the correct answer. Note that stuff in "/proc" tells you about the kernel (or in this case the distribution that the compiler was built with that built the running kernel), not the distribution itself. Since getting this information is in inherently distribution-specific, the /etc/*-release is the most general way.– BradCommented Sep 6, 2017 at 12:19
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The Ubuntu-16.04 on my desktop has an
/etc/os-releasefiles, whereas the CentOS-7 on our number cruncher has an/etc/system-releasefile. At least they got the-releasesuffix in common.– Dohn JoeCommented Apr 3, 2019 at 13:03
As a first guess, try lsb_release -a. E.g. on an Arch Linux system it gives
LSB Version: n/a
Distributor ID: archlinux
Description: Arch Linux
Release: rolling
Codename: n/a
However, this might fail, then you will have to poke around /etc (most likely it is inside a file whose name ends with -release). Also cat /etc/issue might help.
