When Did I Install Linux? (Expanded Edition!)

In the other site’s version of this article, I only had information for Ubuntu. This time, I’ll expand it to cover the major distros. It seems like a good a time as any to fix this. (I’d link to the original article, but that page will now direct here.)

I’m not sure why you’d want to know when you installed Linux. I suspect that reason mostly curiosity that people ask, “When did I install Linux?” The question pops up with some regularity.

It’s really not vital information, and as such, it’s not a generic command that you can run to retrieve the information. There isn’t a whole lot I can do with the answer, except maybe jar a few memories loose. “Oh, yeah… That’s when I installed, so I must have bought the computer around that time!”

Really, this isn’t all that important. Still, it’s a fairly often asked question. If you have found a real use for this information, please feel free to leave a comment and to let us know why you need this information.

Let’s get on with it, shall we!

When Did I Install Linux?

Like many exercises, this one starts with opening up your default terminal. You can use your keyboard, by just pressing CTRL + ALT + T. Once you have the terminal open, you can use the following commands to see when you installed Linux.

Ubuntu/Debian/Derivatives:

ls -lt /var/log/installer

If that doesn’t work, you can also use:

sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sda1 | grep 'Filesystem created:'

NOTE: Change /sda1 to the disk where you installed Linux.

Fedora/RedHat/Derivatives:

sudo rpm -qi basesystem | grep "Install Date: "

Arch/Manjaro/Derivatives:

head -n1 /var/log/pacman.log

And, there you have it. You now know how to check to see when you installed Linux. If you use some obscure distro (or have other ways to get this information) please feel free to leave a comment.

This article was revamped due to a comment from Wiz at Linux.org. They mentioned that they’d used the previous article and that they wanted the information for other distros. So, that feedback does work – even if it may take months to happen. Seriously, leave feedback and I’ll do what I can.

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