Given a machine that may or may not have been through a number of release upgrades, how can I find out the version of Ubuntu that was originally installed? Assuming that logging configuration has not been changed from default.
If you have not done manual modifications, you should see the utilised installation media on the top of /etc/apt/sources.list:
# deb cdrom:[Kubuntu 10.04 LTS _Lucid Lynx_ - Release i386 (20100427)]/ lucid main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
Apport (the Ubuntu bug reporter) uses /var/log/installer/media-info to determine the installation media which contains:
Kubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100427)
This only works if you kept the /var/log/installer folder.
