Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

I want to run a full Bitcoin node (including a whole up-to-date blockchain) from a USB-powered device connected to the router.

Ideally one USB port should be used to run and power the device/s, but it can be two ports.

This far, I had searched and only aware of another (DD-WRT flashable) router with a USB drive or phone/berry device connected to it which is not a solution.

I want to use a proprietary-softwared Technicolor routers, which allow USB devices to be connected as a network storage. If the device I need is using wireless or a LAN port it should be okay as long as it gets all its power from the router (which will be modified to always run in a full power mode).

The routers I’m interested in so far are Technicolor/Thomson/SpeedTouch TG582n, TG587n, and TG797n.  Modified firmware can/will be provided.

TIA for all your suggestions.

Not exactly what your after but a RaspberyPI should be able to do the trick

I googled for TG797n and found this thread
http://forums.modem-help.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=5894

Memory: 61380k/65012k available (1428k kernel code, 3564k reserved, 420k data, 68k init, 0k highmem)
Calibrating delay loop... 297.98 BogoMIPS

64mb ram and 297 bogomips (a core 2 duo does around 5000 bogomips). Running a bitcoin client on such a thing would be ludicrous, it would take a month to load the blockchain if you were able to rewrite Bitcoin to run with less than the 100MB RAM it uses.

If you mean just using USB to power some other network computing device, the USB power limit is 5V @ 500 mA = 2.5 watts. If you compiled an ARM Bitcoin for a $700 Galaxy S3 phone (2GB ram, 1.4 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9, 2000 BogoMIPS if it will stay running at that without melting), you could keep it charged off USB, but you can get a PC cheaper that would actually work.

This thread is full of why?

Just use a old atom netbook from ebay for 100 $ and you're good to go without any hassles

have look this https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76685.0;all (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76685.0;all)

In the DD-WRT solution, you are simply using the USB drive as a storage device.  Initiating connections to other nodes, downloading / uploading the blockchain, and verifying that blocks satisfy the hashes are performed by the Broadcom (MIPS) CPU in the router.  DD-WRT is simply an OS with many router features that the Broadcom CPUs can understand, similar to how Mac / Windows / Linux are OSes for the Intel / AMD CPUs.  Usually, you can take Linux source code and compile with MIPS as the target architecture, then run it in DD-WRT.


Simply plugging in a USB storage device with the blockchain on it does nothing.  You need the CPU to process commands to and from that blockchain.  It sounds like you have two choices: 1. Rewrite the code to reduce memory usage and compile for MIPS, or 2. Have an external CPU like the Raspberry Pi or a phone to do the CPU work.

Here is an elaboration on choice 1 based on my work on rooting and getting apcupsd running on a NAS running busybox:

• Root your router (http://download.modem-help.co.uk/mfcs-B/BT/Home-Hub-2/A/Filesystem/USB-Root-Access-v1-3.7z.php?showFile=Get%20Command%20Execution%2FREADME_Locked_Routers), once you get shell access at busybox, you do not have to install DD-WRT but can just use the default OS already loaded
• Install Ubuntu somewhere and compile bitcoin for MIPS
• Try to run it with your shell access
• Make changes in code and recompile to reduce memory usage

I would be interested in this as well. I've got a Netgear R6300 router using a 600MHz Broadcom chipset running DD-WRT. I can mount external drives using USB for blockchain storage. Has anybody succeeded in getting a full node running directly on a router so far?