How to Set Up and Use btop on Ubuntu 20.04 July 5, 2025

In this guide, we have explained how to install and use btop on Ubuntu 20.04.

Monitoring your system resources is crucial for maintaining optimal performance and identifying issues promptly. On Ubuntu 20.04, “btop” offers a powerful, modern, and interactive way to track CPU, memory, disk, and network usage all from the terminal.

Unlike traditional monitoring tools like top and htop, btop (also known as btop++) provides an enhanced graphical interface, customisable themes, and advanced features for process and system monitoring.

What is btop?

btop is a resource monitor written in C++, designed to replace earlier tools like “bashtop” and “bpytop.” It is:

• It is fully terminal-based with an animated and colour-rich interface.
• Capable of monitoring CPU, memory, disk I/O, network, and processes.
• Lightweight and highly customisable with themes and keybindings.

Follow the guide:

1. To install btop through snap on Ubuntu 20.04, execute the following command:

   sudo snap install btop

   This will download and install the latest version of btop on your system.

2. After installation, start btop using:

   btop

3. You will see a visually rich interface displaying graphs and real-time usage statistics for:
   1.  CPU and load averages
   2. RAM and swap memory
   3. Disk usage
   4. Network activity
   5. Active processes with sorting and filtering
4. Optional – Connect Additional System Interfaces (Recommended)
   To allow btop full access to system resources and prevent permission-related issues, run the following commands to connect the required Snap 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

   These permissions allow btop to display detailed system statistics.

5. Once btop is running, you can personalise its interface and behaviour by following the steps:
   1.  Press “M” to open the settings menu.
   2. Modify themes, update intervals, sorting preferences, and keybindings.
   3. Use the arrow keys and Enter to navigate through the options and apply changes

From the above article, we can conclude that btop is an excellent tool for system monitoring on Ubuntu 20.04. Its graphical interface, real-time performance insights, and customisation options make it a great upgrade from older tools.

For such informative articles, do visit our knowledge base section regularly.

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