Task Manager manages the tasks on Windows-based systems. On Ubuntu, the same purpose is served by the System Monitor (GNOME). As both have the same purpose, the Ubuntu/Linux-based system monitor is also referred to as Task Manager.

Task Manager displays the system-related information which is categorized into three major groups (Processes, Resources, and File Systems). Each group has a specific parameter set, i.e., Process Name, PID, Memory, etc.

Want to dig in further? Read this post to learn the detailed usage of Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04.

• How to Use Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04
  • Processes Tab | Analyzing the Processes
  • Ressources Tab | Monitoring the System Resources
  • File Systems Tab | Info About the File Systems
• How to Customize Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04
• How to Use Ctrl+Alt+Del to Launch the Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04
• Alternatives of the Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04
• Bottom Line

How to Use Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04

Task Manager keeps an eye on the processes, the resources being consumed by these, and the File Systems’ relevant information. Let’s discuss each feature in detail.

Processes Tab | Analyzing the Processes

The process ID displays the processes and the resources used by these processes. Here’s the interface of the Processes Tab:

• Process Name and User: Name of the process and user associated with it.
• % CPU: The percentage of the CPU consumed by each process.
• ID: Unique ID of the process.
• Memory: Amount of memory being consumed by the user.
• Disk read total: Total amount of data read from the start of the process.
• Disk write total: Total data written on the disk from when the process started.
• Disk read: Current data being read from the disk.
• Disk write: The run time data being written on the disk.
• Priority: The priority of the process. Lower or Higher priority defines how much resources are to be allocated/used for/by the process.

Kill, Stop, End, or Continue Process(es)

Apart from this information, you can perform various operations on each of the processes. Right-click on any of the processes, which triggers a list of options. You can either Kill, Stop/Continue, or End any processes. Moreover, you can select multiple processes and perform the operations on all these at once.

Similarly, you can view the files, memory maps, and properties of any of the processes.

Resources Tab | Monitoring the System Resources

System Resources such as CPU, RAM, and Network usage/performance are available in the Resources tab:

• CPU: CPU usage of each core (one graph line refers to the CPU core) is displayed.
• Memory and Swap: Memory and Swap space consumed in the defined time.
• Network: Data Sent/Received and overall Network activity.

You can also change the color of the graph lines as well:

File Systems Tab | Info About the File System

All about the file system only. The File Systems tab shows the details about the partitions/drives associated with the file system. The type of the partition, total allocated/used/available space. The interface is shown below:

How to Customize Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04

Customization refers to changing/modifying the various parameters of the three main tabs of Task Manager. This customization monitors the processes in multiple perspectives which is quite helpful in analyzing and troubleshooting the processes.

To customize the task manager, click on the three parallel bars and you will get a list of customization options, described below one by one:

• Active Processes: Shows only active processes.
• All Processes: Denotes all the processes (irrespective of the state and user).
• My Processes: Represents the processes of the currently logged-in user only.

 

• Show Dependencies: Shows the details of dependencies of the processes as well.

• Search for Open Files: Displays the list of the opened files associated with the processes. Also allows you to search for any opened file.

• Preferences: Here lies the detailed customization of each Tab of the task management, i.e., Processes Tab, Resources Tab, and File Systems.

You can add/remove fields from the Information Fields option and change the Behavior of each field.

You can customize the graphs of the Resources tab:

Similarly, you can set the information of File Systems as well:

• Keyboard Shortcuts: Shorthand keys to operate Task Manager/System Monitor. Here, Keyboard Shortcuts are the real catalyst while using Task Manager:

Note: The Help and About System Monitor shows the documentation and the details of the currently installed version.

For detailed information about each process, you need to super customize (adding more options) the Task Manager options. Right-click on the top bar and add/remove the number of options that you want to keep/leave.

How to Use Ctrl+Alt+Del to Launch Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04

In Windows, the Ctrl+Alt+Del opens a detailed menu containing various options including the opening of the Task Manager as well. You can also set the “Ctrl+Alt+Del” on Ubuntu 22.04 to open the Task Manager:

Step 1: Remove the Default Key Ctrl+Alt+Del

By default, the Ctrl+Alt+Del logs you out of the Ubuntu system. First, we have to remove the Ctrl+Alt+Del association with the log-out feature.

Open the Settings, navigate to Keyboard from the left pane, and then dig into the View and Customize Shortcuts option:

Search for the Ctrl+Alt+Del and click on the option from the search results:

Choose a different shortcut key for Log-out, i.e., Ctrl+L in our case:

The shortcut key “Ctrl+Alt+Del” is vacant.

Step 2: Assign Ctrl+Alt+Del as a Shortcut Key to Task Manager

Open the View and Customize Shortcuts option:

Create Custom Shortcuts:

Add Shortcut:

Name the shortcut and add the command (through which the task manager is launched from the terminal, i.e., gnome-system-monitor), and finally click on the Set Shortcut…:

Key selection windows appear. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to set the shortcut key:

Finally, click on the “Add”:

Now, whenever you press the Ctrl+Alt+Del key, the Task Manager will instantly be launched.

Alternatives of the Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04

Task Manager is a GUI-based utility. Being a strong CLI-based system, Ubuntu does offer command-line utilities to manage/track tasks. Let’s discuss the most used:

top Command

The “top” command (installed by default) provides the list of running processes, and the relevant details as shown in the below image. It even provides more detailed information regarding the processes, such as:

The upper portion of the output:

• How many processes are running, stopped, sleeping, or are zombies.
• Total used/free/available space of RAM and Swap spaces. Same for the CPU.

The lower portion of the output represents the details about each running process. The PID, time, CPU, memory, etc.

htop Command

The htop is the advanced version of the top command. First, you have to install it using the command:

sudo apt install htop

Similar to the top, the upper part shows the generic information about the memory, Swap space, the average load, the uptime, etc.

And the lower portion represents the information about each process.

Bottom Line

Task Manager enables the administrators to keep an eye on the processes, the system resources acquired by the processes, and the basic info about file systems. The resource allocation/consumption can be managed/reduced to use the Memory/CPU in the best possible manner. Like, the conflicting processes can be killed or stopped for a while to streamline the performance.

This post has listed the use cases, functionality, and purpose of Task Manager on Ubuntu 22.04.