Finding PC uptime from first day until now

Question

I need to find PC uptime from the day of installation until now.

Is this logged somewhere? Does any file log this cumulative uptime?

@jippie I need to find PC uptime from first ubuntu installation day until now for loggin in my Company. — Chalist, Dec 26 '12 at 11:01

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 26 '12 at 09:03

9

As log-files are usually deleted after some time, the total up-time is difficult to get.

If the hard disk is as old as the PC, the RAW value (last number) of

smartctl  -a /dev/sda | grep Power_On_Hours

could give a rough estimate how many hours the PC was used.

answered Dec 26 '12 at 09:03

jofel

26,758

I tried. Not worked. – Chalist Dec 26 '12 at 09:16
@chalist As you're using Ubuntu, you'll also find this information via the GUI Disk Utility, but it will give you the uptime since manufacture, not since installation. – Bernhard Dec 26 '12 at 09:27
@Bernhard I will PC uptime not Disk creation time. – Chalist Dec 26 '12 at 11:14
@chalist I know, therefor my remark, but I commented because it adds something to the answer given by – Bernhard Dec 26 '12 at 11:30
Power_On_Hours--0x0032--095--095--000--Old_age--Always---4583. Which is PC uptime ? – Chalist Dec 26 '12 at 12:26
95 hours or 4583(as minute)? – Chalist Dec 26 '12 at 12:27
2

@chalist As I wrote in my answer: The last number in the line shows how many hours your harddrive was on. Therefore: 4583 hours = ~ 191 days. – jofel Dec 26 '12 at 17:13
-Use it with sudo, this just because the permissions...
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda | grep Power_On_Hours
– Joke Sr. OK May 27 '15 at 13:53

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 23 '13 at 12:44

5

If you want to keep track of this -from now on- you can use uptimed

It's available as package in Ubuntu and Fedora and probably other distributions as well.

answered Feb 23 '13 at 12:44

foo

336
1
2

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 27 '15 at 14:54

3

If you have some server, use commands like:

$ uptime 
$ w
$ last

HDD SMARTCTL is also good try.

Also from installation could be information about date created of some files in filesystem. Think about, which files were created with installing of your system?

If you have linux, look at the date of creation of your /root/ directory. If you have windows, it will be worse...

edited May 27 '15 at 14:54

chaos

48,171

answered Dec 28 '12 at 01:33

MIrra

1,257

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 27 '15 at 13:47

1

Install tuptime, since that moment, you will have a track of the system uptime.

https://github.com/rfrail3/tuptime

answered May 27 '15 at 13:47

PeterPage

11

Indeed, is the better tool to find the historical uptime. – rfmoz Dec 19 '17 at 21:09

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

0

Depending on the filesystem, the superblock might have the date the filesystem was created. You'd want to check the root filesystem. There is more information here

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community

1

answered Dec 28 '12 at 05:48

Tim B

781

Not really related to the asked uptime. – manatwork Dec 28 '12 at 08:18
1

I inferred that he meant the time the system was installed, since he kept referring to installation. The actual uptime is easily obtained. – Tim B Dec 30 '12 at 01:25

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 15 '21 at 09:27

0

I would use this command to find the very first moment of the system creation:

sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sda | grep 'Filesystem created:'

answered Aug 15 '21 at 09:27

Laith Leo Alobaidy

191

Finding PC uptime from first day until now

6 Answers6