I've noticed (using nethogs), that /usr/lib/apt/methods/http has multiple processes, which consume ALL of my bandwidth. I want to disable the process(es).
I've tried everything: trickle, killall, etc., but nothing has worked.
How can I solve this problem?
It is because, in Ubuntu 16.04 when there are security updates available for it, it automatically downloads and install them without notifying the user.
To disable this functionality you can visit Software & Update and under Update tab, change when there are security updates to Display immediately.
apt does have (or at least, did have) configurable options for this. Run this from a terminal.
sudoedit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/76download
And paste in the following:
Acquire
{
Queue-mode "access";
http
{
Dl-Limit "50";
};
};
That will limit apt-get (over HTTP) to 50KB/s but just change the Dl-Limit value to whatever suits your circumstances best. Save the file and you're done.
Probably the software updates are downloaded in the background, you can disable this feature in the settings of the Update Manager.
Update
Looks like you can set metered connections:
My bandwidth (15GB / month) was getting killed by this as well. Major usage, like 2-3 GB per day. It costs me $35USD per 5GB.
I had nothing else to lose, and was unable to determine which process was attempting to use those files. various attempts at using netstat -tup, nethogs, iptraf, lsof, etc.
####
# could break stuff, not sure of the side effects.
# However, it killed the process using up all my bandwidth
####
sudo mv /usr/lib/apt/methods/https /usr/lib/apt/methods/old.https
sudo mv /usr/lib/apt/methods/http /usr/lib/apt/methods/old.http
What I found was that the _apt user was the culprit, haven't found a solution to make it stop. So, still have the files renamed.
side effects
sudo apt-get install will fail to work, just mv the files back
metered connection in wifi settings.
– yurenchen
Aug 14 '23 at 16:08
metered connection be checked on ubuntu22， it still eat bandwidths. so I say it's EVIL. and user can't disable security updates easily.
– yurenchen
Aug 15 '23 at 04:32
To find the culprit, get the PID of the /usr/lib/apt/methods/http (pick one), then use pstree with -s (show parent processes) and -p (show PIDs):
$ pstree -sp 4976
systemd(1)───apt.systemd.dai(4920)───apt.systemd.dai(4926)───apt-get(4958)───http(4976)
Then use ps to get the details of parent processes:
$ ps 4958 4926 4920
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
4920 ? Ss 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily update
4926 ? S 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily lock_is_held update
4958 ? S 0:00 apt-get -qq -y update
finally i found a solution for this problem: this solution work fine for me
cd /usr/lib/apt/methods and paste it into terminal and hit entersudo mv https https_renamed paste it into terminal and hit enterAnd BOOM The Program not runing any more
we renamed the file 'https' so it can't run, i don't know what is the consequences. but i got no problems.
meet the same situation (on ubuntu 22.04),
and try to find out who's behind the scenes.
// check packages about automatic installation
$ apt list cron-apt unattended-upgrades
unattended-upgrades/jammy,jammy,now 2.8ubuntu1 all [installed,automatic]
// stop & disable
sudo systemctl stop unattended-upgrades.service
sudo systemctl disable unattended-upgrades.service
I'll observe for a while and give feedback
ref: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=337534
// check services
systemctl status apt-daily apt-daily-upgrade
systemctl status apt-daily.timer apt-daily-upgrade.timer
I have not try this yet.
I'll disable it if ➊ not work
I have encountered this process
if disable auto update check,
maybe you need manually check update.
$ update-manager
After some tries I'm a little tired,
I want to find out who's behind the scenes.
I repalce /lib/apt/methods/http with my script, to log the caller.
and I only found this (on ubuntu 22)
2023-08-17T23:23:33: ------- /usr/lib/apt/methods/https
systemd,1 splash
└─packagekitd,85361
└─https,158496 /usr/lib/apt/methods/https
├─https,158497 /usr/lib/apt/methods/https
│ └─pstree,158500 -alc -hps -UC age 158496
└─tee,158498 -a /run/test/apt_https.out
I think it's packagekit.
so I stop it when I use mobile network.
systemctl stop packagekit
systemctl status packagekit
when I run update-manager, I also got
2023-08-18T01:10:22: ------- /usr/lib/apt/methods/https
systemd,1 splash
└─systemd,2166 --user
└─update-manager,184012 /usr/bin/update-manager --no-update --no-focus-on-map
└─https,184791 /usr/lib/apt/methods/https
├─https,184792 /usr/lib/apt/methods/https
│ └─pstree,184795 -alc -hps -UC age 184791
└─tee,184793 -a /run/test/apt_https.out
when I run apt update or apt install, I got
2023-08-19T01:27:29: ------- /usr/lib/apt/methods/http
systemd,1 splash
└─systemd,2166 --user
└─python3,3405 /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator
└─bash,3426
└─sudo,186528 apt update
└─sudo,186529 apt update
└─apt,186530 update
└─http,186532 /usr/lib/apt/methods/http
├─http,186533 /usr/lib/apt/methods/http
│ └─pstree,186536 -alc -hps -UC age 186532
└─tee,186534 -a /run/test/apt_https.out
I don't remember what trigger this
2023-08-19T01:11:07: ------- /usr/lib/apt/methods/https
systemd,1 splash
└─aptd,184875 /usr/sbin/aptd
└─https,184886 /usr/lib/apt/methods/https
├─https,184887 /usr/lib/apt/methods/https
│ └─pstree,184890 -alc -hps -UC age 184886
└─tee,184888 -a /run/test/apt_https.out
If you want to kill the process simply run the following command:
sudo kill PID
Replace PID with the process ID that you can find in nethogs or top.
But as you know this process is for updating Ubuntu and killing it will not upgrade your system and you should manually run sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade later on.
