I made this post asking this same question, and got some direction, but I don’t know enough about bash commands to follow the responded advice. I would appreciate any help.

The whole point is to see how much data Linux Mint uses to update and compare it to Windows. It’s for someone that has an internet data cap and is looking for an OS that is more efficient with data usage. I’m almost sure that LM is more efficient, but would like to back it up with actual numbers.

In case it matters, I update Linux Mint via the terminal using the following command:

sudo apt-get update | lolcat && sudo apt-get full-upgrade -y | lolcat && sudo flatpak update -y | lolcat && sudo update-pciids | lolcat && sudo apt-get autoremove -y | lolcat && sudo apt-get autoclean | lolcat

  • @gyroMEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    There is a package called vnstat capable of doing what you want. vnstati is a complementary package that offers a GUI visualization of the data.

    vnstati

    If you need help using the tool let me know.

    errata: vnstati isn’t actually GUI, it just outputs a .png file.

    • BOMBSOPEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      Thank you very much! I got vnstati installed! When I ran it on the terminal, it gave me a menu with a bunch of options. How do I get to the GUI? Also, I will most certainly follow up with a question on how can I use it to calculate the data I used for updates.

      • @gyroMEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        I just read your other thread. It’s like the other user said, if you want to monitor exclusively the data used by udpates, vnstati wouldn’t suffice, you’d have to create a script that parses the log file. You could use any scripting language for that, I’d personally use Python. If you read the python tutorial (up to item 5 is enough) you will have the necessary resources to make it. Of course you could use bash as well.

        to use vnstati:

        1. activate and start the vnstat service with systemctl enable vnstat and systemctl start vnstat
        2. discover the name of your network adapter with ifconfig
        3. wait a month
        4. output the data to a file with vnstati --days --begin yyyy-mm-dd --end yyyy-mm-dd -s -i "name of network adapter" -o ~/file.png.
        • BOMBSOPEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          Thank you!

  • this_is_routerEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    Google open snitch. If I remember correctly it can show traffic per process. And it doubles as application layer firewall.