Linux show kernel version install#
Linux show kernel version software#

Linux show kernel version install#

The inxi utility is used to get system information which also includes the kernel version.īut the inxi is not part of the default packages and has to follow the given command to perform the installation: sudo apt install inxi So your dmesg command to get the kernel version will be as follows: sudo dmesg | grep Linux Using inxi Utility Since the dmesg will omit hundreds of lines related to the system, its output must be filtered for our specific use case. While dmesg is considered a powerful tool to write kernel messages, it can also be used to fetch important details about the system. Neofetch can do much more and you can customize it to your liking. Unlike me, if you prefer the plain text and required info only (for neofetch only), you can use the grep command to filter results: neofetch grep -i kernel Once you're done with the installation, you can get the system details, including the kernel version by the following command: neofetch It does not come pre-installed on Ubuntu and can be installed pretty quickly by given command: sudo apt install neofetch Neofetch is a small command line utility that beautifully shows the system information. The other details include details such as who compiled your kernel, the compiler used to compile your kernel ( GCC) and its version, and the time when it was compiled (11 Aug). It may sound complex but you just have to view the contents of /proc/version file. You can use the grep command to filter unnecessary results as given below: hostnamectl | grep -i kernel Using /proc/version fileĪs Linux follows the 'Everything is a file' philosophy, you'd find files under the /proc directory containing information on the running system.

Linux show kernel version software#

When the hostnamectl command is used without any options whatsoever, it will print basic details related to hardware and software as given: While the hostnamectl command is primarily used to change the hostname, it can also show the kernel version.

But do you know that your Ubuntu systems have more than one kernel version installed at a time?īut wait, there are other interesting ways to get the kernel version and I'm going to discuss them one by one. This way, you get to know the currently used kernel. If you're on the Ubuntu server edition, it would be server instead of generic. For Ubuntu, it means I’m using the desktop version.

generic - It's a distribution-specific string.

So my kernel version is 5.15.0-47-generic (in broad terms, I'm running Kernel 5.15). Where uname is a utility to print system info and when used with the -r option, it gets us the kernel version only.īut have you ever wondered what the entire string of Linux kernels indicates? Let me break it down for you. It may not seem big of a deal at first glance but the newer kernels are known to bring hardware compatibility for new hardware and improvements.Īnd using the uname command with the -r option is by far the most popular way of printing kernel version: uname -r 'Linux is an Operating System' and I find myself in an unanswerable situation as Linux is the kernel, not OS itself.