diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernel.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernel.php
index 9b6a889..8ff1ee5 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernel.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernel.php
@@ -1526,9 +1526,30 @@ protected function getInstallProfile() {
   }
 
   /**
-   * {@inheritdoc}
-   */
-  public function getDistribution() {
+   * Get the name of any discovered profile that is a distribution.
+   *
+   * Scans the filesystem looking for all installation profiles.
+   * Returns the one that has a 'distribution' entry in its info.yml
+   * file.  If multiple  profiles are distributions, an exception will
+   * be thrown.
+   *
+   * This is used in two places:
+   *  1) During installation, if there is a single distribution, then
+   *     the installer will not write the installation profile name
+   *     to settings.php.
+   *  2) Whenever DrupalKernel::getInstallProfile() is called, if there
+   *     is no installation profile name noted in settings.php, then
+   *     it will call this function to determine the distribution
+   *     to use.
+   *
+   * @return string|FALSE
+   *   The machine name of any discovered distribution. FALSE if there are no
+   *   distributions.
+   *
+   * @throws \Drupal\Core\Installer\Exception\TooManyDistributionsException
+   *   Thrown when a site has more than one distribution installation profile.
+   */
+  protected function getDistribution() {
     $listing = new ExtensionDiscovery($this->root);
     $listing->setProfileDirectories(array());
     $info_parser = new InfoParser();
diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernelInterface.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernelInterface.php
index ac21dd2..99a7420 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernelInterface.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernelInterface.php
@@ -139,19 +139,4 @@ public function preHandle(Request $request);
    * Helper method that loads legacy Drupal include files.
    */
   public function loadLegacyIncludes();
-
-  /**
-   * Get the name of any discovered profile that is a distribution.
-   *
-   * If multiple profiles are distributions an exception will be thrown.
-   *
-   * @return string|FALSE
-   *   The machine name of any discovered distribution. FALSE if there are no
-   *   distributions.
-   *
-   * @throws \Drupal\Core\Installer\Exception\TooManyDistributionsException
-   *   Thrown when a site has more than one distribution installation profile.
-   */
-  public function getDistribution();
-
 }
diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Installer/InstallerKernel.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Installer/InstallerKernel.php
index adeb5c5..c149985 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Installer/InstallerKernel.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Installer/InstallerKernel.php
@@ -66,4 +66,10 @@ public function getInstallProfile() {
     return $profile;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * {@inheritdoc}
+   */
+  public function getDistribution() {
+    return parent::getDistribution();
+  }
 }
diff --git a/core/modules/system/src/Tests/Installer/MultipleDistributionsProfileTest.php b/core/modules/system/src/Tests/Installer/MultipleDistributionsProfileTest.php
index 9be2bd4..124e55f 100644
--- a/core/modules/system/src/Tests/Installer/MultipleDistributionsProfileTest.php
+++ b/core/modules/system/src/Tests/Installer/MultipleDistributionsProfileTest.php
@@ -84,7 +84,12 @@ public function testInstalled() {
     // Test that a site will multiple distributions will get an exception when
     // calling \Drupal\Core\DrupalKernel::getDistribution().
     try {
-      $this->container->get('kernel')->getDistribution();
+      $kernel = $this->container->get('kernel');
+      // getDistribution() is protected in the DrupalKernel class.
+      // Call setAccessible(TRUE) so that we can call it to test its behavior.
+      $getDistributionMethod = new \ReflectionMethod($kernel, 'getDistribution');
+      $getDistributionMethod->setAccessible(TRUE);
+      $getDistributionMethod->invokeArgs($kernel, array());
       $this->fail('TooManyDistributionsException exception thrown.');
     }
     catch (TooManyDistributionsException $e) {