Trying to run a node; cannot access Raspberry Pi

[dom5684]

Good evening from Montreal

I'm trying to run a node, but I'm very new to the space; I need guidance.

I bought a Rasberry Pi 4 Model B 8GB KIT and a 1TB SSD.

Via the program Balena Etcher, I flashed the downloaded Umbrel OS zip file on my microSD card.

I plugged in my Raspberry Pi into my router and read it would be accessible by typing "http://umbrel" (on any device that’s connected to the same network as the Raspberry Pi); it doesn't work.

In this case the Umbrel website indicates to use an IP Scanner to find the IP address of my Umbrel and to type that instead of "http://umbrel";
the address is nowhere to be found, I only see my router and my desktop's IP addresses.

I do not use a VPN and I am running windows.


Thank you very much for your time

[bob123]

To be honestly, you probably would be better just installing a proper OS (e.g. the standard raspberry pi OS) and install core by yourself.

The very first line on https://github.com/getumbrel/umbrel says:

Umbrel is currently in beta and is not considered secure. Please see SECURITY.md for more details.

And when looking into the file SECURITY.md, we see for example:

• No signature verification on OTA updates or when pulling Docker images.
• Assuming the local network is secure
• Hardcoded app passwords

This already is enough to actually refrain from installing it for more than just testing or development reasons.

If you want to get your node running, check some tutorials (there are enough available) on how to install on a raspberry pi. It is not as hard as it may seem.
You'd be making yourself a target for no good reason using umbrel.

[ABCbits]

I plugged in my Raspberry Pi into my router and read it would be accessible by typing "http://umbrel" (on any device that’s connected to the same network as the Raspberry Pi); it doesn't work.

In this case the Umbrel website indicates to use an IP Scanner to find the IP address of my Umbrel and to type that instead of "http://umbrel";
the address is nowhere to be found, I only see my router and my desktop's IP addresses.

The correct address is http://umbrel.local, but it should accessible by typing your RPi's IP address. I suggest you to check whether your RPi can boot and connect to router by,
1. Connect your RPi to a monitor.
2. Open router setting and see if RPi is connected.

Or just follow @bob123 suggestion, the repository for Umbrel OS also mention about security risk.

Umbrel is still in an early stage and things are expected to break every now and then. We DO NOT recommend running it on mainnet with real money just yet, unless you want to be really #reckless.

[odolvlobo]

I recommend RaspiBolt. It is a complete guide to building an RPi Bitcoin/Lightning node. RaspiBlitz is another option, but I have not tried it.

[BlackHatCoiner]

umbrel

RaspiBolt

RaspiBlitz

Wow. I had no idea about those. I felt fine with myNode, but these seem much better solutions. Have any of you two tried myNode to tell me if it's worse? I'm looking forward to try them once my vacations end.  

May I ask another question; would you recommend to run Bitcoin Core through Tor? What are the advantages/disadvantages?

There was a discussion about running Bitcoin through Tor (Are you running Bitcoin Core through Tor? Should it be a requirement?). If you don't mind the slowness and don't want to be known that you're running a node, you'd use Tor. I can't think of another reason why you should run a node through Tor.

[ranochigo]

May I ask another question; would you recommend to run Bitcoin Core through Tor? What are the advantages/disadvantages?

Also, is it recommended to follow the instructions from the "Detailed Configuration" part of the "Setup a Full Node" tutorial found on the Bitcoin Core.org website (instructing to add lines to  bitcoin.conf file).

I want to contribute the best way possible to the network.

There isn't a shortage of onion nodes but you can still run a node in Tor. It'll be better if you were to allow more peers to connect to you, by portforwarding and allowing them to connect to you. Tor doesn't require portforwarding, so if you're having problems with that, it might be a better argument.

As for the slowness, it really doesn't matter. Tor is fast enough for most cases such that you don't find it becoming a bottleneck for your node. Especially given the fact that you're running on a Raspberry Pi, your connection will almost never be the primary bottleneck.

[HCP]

Wow. I had no idea about those. I felt fine with myNode, but these seem much better solutions. Have any of you two tried myNode to tell me if it's worse? I'm looking forward to try them once my vacations end. 

I didn't bother with MyNode as I didn't want to pay for the "premium" option as (aside from the support feature) it just gives things which are included in RaspiBlitz and Umbrel by default.

I've tried both RaspiBlitz and Umbrel... RaspiBlitz works quite nicely with a touchscreen for a completely standalone Node setup, but is quite capable of running "headless" (which is how I used it), where you just ssh into the Pi to access the back-end as required, and can use the browser based interfaces for other things (block explorers etc).

I'm currently running Umbrel v0.4... it's pretty nice (previously mentioned security issues aside), and for the most part you can control most of it via the browser (again, you have access via ssh if you need). v0.4 also added some nifty little features like "pi-hole" (ad blocking for you network etc)

Overall, I think Umbrel "looks" more polished than RaspiBlitz and seems slightly more cohesive... and is what I'll probably end up using long-term... but honestly, either of them are fairly solid setups, and as the Umbrel dev's state quite openly, the current security setup isn't quite ready for primetime, so I'm not really committing vasts amount of time/resources to it as yet

If you don't mind the slowness and don't want to be known that you're running a node, you'd use Tor. I can't think of another reason why you should run a node through Tor.

041936]
Both RaspiBlitz and Umbrel support Tor... from memory it has to be explicitly turned on for RB, with Umbrel it's the default setup.

Honestly, there doesn't really seem to be much in the way of slowness really... but then I didn't do the IBD using the Pi (I copied the block and chainstate data from another node)...

[BlackHatCoiner]

where you just ssh into the Pi to access the back-end as required, and can use the browser based interfaces for other things (block explorers etc)

I don't know if you're familiar with Raspberry Pi, but I wanted to make this question to someone, but didn't know who. I don't have a second monitor for my Raspberry and I wanted to install things like Bitcoin Core, ElectrumX, etc by myself and not by a pre-installed implementation such as myNode or Umbrel.

I wanted to somehow make it work as a local VPS, where I can connect remotely via LAN. For example, I'll have burnt the Ubuntu 18.04 to the SD card and once it starts, I could connect via LAN from my main PC and start the installation there. Is this possible?

the current security setup isn't quite ready for primetime, so I'm not really committing vasts amount of time/resources to it as yet

The current security? How can a node, which will be connected with your lightweight client (such as Electrum), be vulnerable to security attacks? I get that you may lose a part of your privacy due to some code exploitations, but your security remains the same unless you get involved with lightning channels, isn't it?

[HCP]

I wanted to somehow make it work as a local VPS, where I can connect remotely via LAN. For example, I'll have burnt the Ubuntu 18.04 to the SD card and once it starts, I could connect via LAN from my main PC and start the installation there. Is this possible?

Sure is... as ETFBitcoin stated, you just use it as a "headless" setup and connect via "ssh" once you've finished creating the SD card and have configured the WiFi/Ethernet networking as per your network setup...

At that point, you need to do everything via the commandline... although, if you really wanted, you can easily use something like VNC to be able to gain access to a GUI environment: https://desertbot.io/blog/headless-raspberry-pi-4-remote-desktop-vnc-setup

The current security? How can a node, which will be connected with your lightweight client (such as Electrum), be vulnerable to security attacks? I get that you may lose a part of your privacy due to some code exploitations, but your security remains the same unless you get involved with lightning channels, isn't it?

If your network isn't secured propery, combined with the fact that Umbrel uses a lot of "default" (and published) passwords for things, could mean that an attacker could gain full access to your node etc. Any funds stored either in the Node itself (Bitcoin Core Wallet or Lightning channels etc) could potentially be at risk.

And the obvious privacy issues that go along with that.

The important thing is being aware of the current limitations of the Umbrel system... hopefully they will be rectified at some point.