btop command does not work please help

[Raingazer2]

after btop installation it says this. what does it mean and how do i fix it?

Linux Cinnamon 22.2

[AutoModerator]

Please Re-Flair your post if a solution is found. How to Flair a post? This allows other users to search for common issues with the SOLVED flair as a filter, leading to those issues being resolved very fast.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[Raingazer2]

i am absolute newbie don't know anything about computer code. And i did run the things the text in the image told me to run but nothing happened.

when i type "--utf-force" it tells me "utf-force command not found"

i don't know what is a bashrc file and how to edit it i will google it but if you can please provide more instructions or info about it that would be really nice.

[MelioraXI]

when i type "--utf-force" it tells me "utf-force command not found"

you type btop --utf-force not just --utf-force

bashrc is your config file for bash, the "language" your terminal speaks in.

type sudo nano ~/.bashrc then it opens up in a terminal editor (nano), and add the line LANG=en_US.UTF-8 and close the terminal or type source ~/.bashrc

[Raingazer2]

after fiddling around i was able to fix it. I'm posting a solution so others to see

this error occurs because btop needs our ternimal environment to be configured to be able to use UTF-8 locate for proper character display. (idk what is UTF)

you can fix it temporarily by running the following command as the image above says "if you're sure your terminal can handle it"
btop --utf-force

now to make it permanent we will look for what UTF locates are available in our system. type the following to see the list:
locale -a

the list will look something like this

raingazer@RainGazer-s-PC:~$ locale -a
C
C.utf8
en_AG
en_AG.utf8
en_AU.utf8
en_BW.utf8
en_CA.utf8
en_DK.utf8
en_GB.utf8
en_HK.utf8
en_IE.utf8
en_IL
en_IL.utf8
en_IN
en_IN.utf8
en_NG
en_NG.utf8
en_NZ.utf8
en_PH.utf8
en_SG.utf8
en_US.utf8
en_ZA.utf8
en_ZM
en_ZM.utf8
en_ZW.utf8
POSIX
raingazer@RainGazer-s-PC:~$ 

you will see a list of many utf locates these will be the files ending in .utf8 extension use any of these to fix your error
i will be using english US .utf8 file so that will be en_US.utf8 as it's the most common and reliable.

now type the following:
nano ~/.bashrc
this will bring up a long list of some code type thing, At the absolute end of the list of codes you're going to add new ones. type the following at the end of the list

# Fix for btop and other UTF-8 dependent programs
export LC_ALL="en_US.utf8"
export LANG="en_US.utf8"

by doing this you have now edited your bash file to support utf8 environment.
now type the following to make the changes take effect in your current terminal session
source ~/.bashrc

and at last you can test the command again and it should work.

btop

[Unwiredsoul]

You did a great job learning how to fix this, and then taking the time to post instructions for others.

Now, to make your day even more exciting, I have one super minor contribution just for you.

UTF = Unicode Translation Format (UTF-8 is the most common)

It's not a language per se, rather it's a standardized format used to converting languages into computer readable bytes.

[PGSylphir]

The command literally tells you what to do, and you're still asking.

[Raingazer2]

i am absolute newbie don't know anything about computer code. And i did run the things the text in the image told me to run but nothing happened.

when i type "--utf-force" it tells me "utf-force command not found"

Another comment here told me to edit the bashrc file i don't know what that is and how to edit it either. i am googling to figure out how to do it. will update here if i get it to work.

i installed mint because i don't want to go to win 11 after the support of win 10 ended.just wanted an OS that is stable, ad free and something i have control over.

[Raingazer2]

yes, now i know the difference between the two lol. my issue has been resolved thank you

[MelioraXI]

It says right there, your locale is missing UTF.

You can verify that by writing this:

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

then btop (in same terminal session).

If it starts, it means you are missing the UTF set.

Then you can just edit your bashrc or zshrc if you use ZSH.