How to Install and Use btop on Ubuntu 20.04?
System monitoring is important to keeping your Ubuntu 20.04 system healthy and performing well. btop is a modern, feature-rich system monitoring tool that displays real-time computer CPU, memory, disk, and network usage statistics. In contrast to traditional tools like htop and top, btop boasts a very friendly and attractive graphic interface with novel functions.
btop (sometimes referred to as btop++) is a command-line utility for resource monitoring that is highly customizable with themes and options. It provides usage statistics for processors, memory, disks, network devices, and processes. btop succeeded earlier tools like bpytop (written in Python) and bashtop (written in Bash), with the latest version created in C++.
Prerequisite Requirements
Before you start installation and use btop, ensure the following:
- Launch an Ubuntu 20.04 server.
- Update the server.
- Create a non-root user with sudo privileges.
- Log into your server as a non-root user.
In this guide, we’ll walk through the installation and usage of btop on Ubuntu 20.04, step-by-step.
Steps to Install btop on Ubuntu 20.04
Let’s have a glance at a few steps to install btop on Ubuntu 20.04!
Install using snap:
sudo snap install btop
Start btop by running:
btop
You should now see the resource graphs and process list populating.
If certain resources aren’t displayed or you encounter errors, connect the following interfaces:
sudo snap connect btop:system-observe sudo snap connect btop:physical-memory-observe sudo snap connect btop:mount-observe sudo snap connect btop:hardware-observe sudo snap connect btop:network-observe sudo snap connect btop:process-control
Usage
General Navigation
btop supports the control of basic keyboard and mouse navigation:
Keyboard: Use the arrow keys and enter key to navigate and activate menu items. Escape or M key calls the main menu where options may be changed, help or controls viewed, and btop exited. Also, exit may be achieved with Ctrl + C or Q.
Mouse: Click the highlighted letters in panel titles to access specific options. For example, if ‘p’ in ‘preset’ is clicked, you can switch between configured presets.
CPU Panel
Core Information: Displays core numbers (C0, C1, C2, etc.), frequency, load average (LAV), and processor name. The current temperature for the CPU and each core are displayed, if available.
Usage Graph: A real-time graph showing CPU usage over time, with spikes denoting higher usage. The refresh rate is shown in the top right corner; this may be adjusted with the + and – keys.
Additional Info: The current time is shown at the top, while the system’s uptime is shown at the bottom left of the panel. Toggle the CPU panel with one on the keyboard.
Memory Panel
Memory Usage: Shows the amount of memory currently used, available, cached, and free. The total available memory will be displayed at the top right corner.
Disk Information: This part lists the disks and hard drives, showing I/O speeds, the percentage of disks used, and the remaining space for each disk. For systems that support I/O, toggle that display with the I key. Pressing key D hides the disk list to increase the space for memory graphs showing more detailed data. To toggle the whole Memory panel, press number 2 on the keyboard.
Network Panel
The network panel features:
Detailed Interface Status: It shows information on network interfaces and their current speeds.
Graphs of Data Transfer: Two graphs represent download and upload speeds—the download graph appears above, and the upload below.
Transfer Statistics: Along the right-hand side, users can see data transfer rates and speeds for download and upload.
IP Address: The main IP address of the server is also being displayed.
To toggle the network panel, press 3 on your keyboard.
Process Panel
By default, the process panel displays a list of all running processes, sorted by CPU usage. Use the column headers or keyboard shortcuts to change the sorting.
C – By CPU usage.
M – By memory usage.
P – By process ID.
T – By time run.
To search for a specific process, type / and the name of the process or the ID. To kill a process, highlight it and press k. To toggle the process panel, press 4 on the keyboard.
Conclusion
btop is an all-in-one and customizable utility for resource monitoring for Ubuntu 20.04 and provides detailed insights into system performance. You have reached the end of this guide, where you saw how to install and use btop to watch your system’s resources.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is btop?
btop is a very versatile command-line utility for monitoring resources like CPU, memory, disks, network devices, and processes, with broad customization options and incredible detail.
What is so much better in btop over htop?
btop has a pretty and well-formed interface, detailed system info, and various features such as network observing and process manager.
Can I install btop on other Linux distributions too?
btop is an application that works on several distributions, including Debian, Fedora, and Arch Linux
Is btop GUI-based?
No, btop runs inside a terminal but provides a fancy media interface with color-coded areas.
How can I change the btop user interface?
Press ESC to open the settings within btop to change things like themes, update intervals, and display preferences.
Is btop resource-happy?
No, btop has been written in such a way that it is highly performance-oriented, and hence, it utilizes very minimal system resources as compared to traditional monitoring tools.
