How to Install and Use btop on Ubuntu 20.04?

Introduction

System monitoring is important to keeping your Ubuntu 20.04 system healthy and performing well. If you want to install btop Ubuntu, you’ll find it’s 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++.

Prerequisites

Before you start installation and use btop, ensure the following:

Launch a server with Ubuntu 20.04.
Update the system packages.
Create a new user and grant sudo privileges.
Log in using the newly created non-root user account.

In this guide, we will walk through the installation and usage of btop on Ubuntu 20.04, step by step.

How to Install btop on Ubuntu 20.04?

Let’s have a glance at a few steps to install btop Ubuntu 20.04!

1. Install using snap:

sudo snap install btop

2. Start btop by running:

btop

You should now see the resource graphs and process list populating.

CPU usage and load averages
RAM and swap memory details
Network activity monitoring
Disk usage information
Active processes with options to sort and filter

3. 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 of btop

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. Esc 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 1 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.

FAQs

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 btop in Linux?

btop is a terminal-based system monitor for Linux that displays real-time information about your computer’s performance, including CPU usage, memory consumption, disk activity, and active processes, all in an easy-to-read, interactive interface.

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.