Step by step tutorial for a full node on Raspberry Pi needed?

[saljut7]

Hi all,

I run a full node with since several weeks now based on Bitcoin Core and bfgminer on an ARM system (Cubietruck). I couldn't find any complete tutorial for this that's why I had to write my own (I started with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGh3X2e8J2Y which is part 1/2 but there was never a part 2/2).  It is quite long but has examples for every step (so not only the commands you have to run).

Does it make sense to publish it here or are there enough tutorials which I simply didn't find?

Best regards
sj7

[1715229625]

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[onnz423]

Hi all,

I run a full node with since several weeks now based on Bitcoin Core and bfgminer on an ARM system (Cubietruck). I couldn't find any complete tutorial for this that's why I had to write my own (I started with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGh3X2e8J2Y which is part 1/2 but there was never a part 2/2).  It is quite long but has examples for every step (so not only the commands you have to run).

Does it make sense to publish it here or are there enough tutorials which I simply didn't find?

Best regards
sj7

I think that simply mining anything on raspi is not worth it. If that is what you meant, you could get Powered USB hubs and some SHA-256 ASIC's, which you would connect via the powered USB hub to raspi.
Was that your question or?

[jackg]

Hi all,

I run a full node with since several weeks now based on Bitcoin Core and bfgminer on an ARM system (Cubietruck). I couldn't find any complete tutorial for this that's why I had to write my own (I started with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGh3X2e8J2Y which is part 1/2 but there was never a part 2/2).  It is quite long but has examples for every step (so not only the commands you have to run).

Does it make sense to publish it here or are there enough tutorials which I simply didn't find?

Best regards
sj7

Any tutorial will be quite helpful to beginers in bitcoin.

Hi all,

I run a full node with since several weeks now based on Bitcoin Core and bfgminer on an ARM system (Cubietruck). I couldn't find any complete tutorial for this that's why I had to write my own (I started with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGh3X2e8J2Y which is part 1/2 but there was never a part 2/2).  It is quite long but has examples for every step (so not only the commands you have to run).

Does it make sense to publish it here or are there enough tutorials which I simply didn't find?

Best regards
sj7

I think that simply mining anything on raspi is not worth it. If that is what you meant, you could get Powered USB hubs and some SHA-256 ASIC's, which you would connect via the powered USB hub to raspi.
Was that your question or?

Actually, he is asking whether to produce a part 2 of his tutorial. If you read the OP, you'd understand this.
Anyway, mining on a raspberry pi is a very good way to work out how you'd configure an operating system to be able to mine and actually if you plug in usb hubs into the rasberry pi, you'd need very high efficiency of hub busses and a large number of them in order to make what you do profiable anyway. But just using the CPU of the Pi on it's own can be quite helpful guidance asto how you'd configure it on say a debian server later on.

[mustangy]

creating a raspberry pi 3 bitcoin full node
i m at new york city with verizon fios internet so i dont have internet limit problem and just bought and raspberry pi 3 just make a node just for i was wondering it might help the community at least during aug 1segwitx2 against miners and jihan wu and keep bitcoin in satoshi way not the rothschild of bitcoin way.
whatever microsd card comes rasbian pre installed

but bitcoin core is now 140gb and usb i already have are each 128gb (256gb are $70.00 +)
how to add 2 usb each 128gb because when using both of them rasbian refuse to download entire core 140gb
any have a solution for this ?
http://raspnode.com/diyBitcoin.html
thanks  

[HCP]

creating a raspberry pi 3 bitcoin full node
but bitcoin core is now 140gb and usb i already have are each 128gb (256gb are $70.00 +)
how to add 2 usb each 128gb because when using both of them rasbian refuse to download entire core 140gb
any have a solution for this ?

Go and buy a 1TB External USB Drive... Get the Portable USB3.0 ones that don't require external power... or maybe even one of the desktop ones that comes with it's own power adapter if your Pi is power limited.

I think that is a much more cost effective solution than attempting to use thumbdrives... Externals start at around US$55 on Newegg and Amazon... and will last for quite a while before you start running out of space for blocks.

Trying to "pool" USB thumbdrives in some sort of RAID array does not appear to be a robust or easy solution and seems to require the use of slightly less common file systems... especially given the requirement for your pooled storage space to effectively be in the same directory (as all the blockchain files need to be in the same directory).

[mindrust]

This stuff is extremely tricky if you aren't familiar with raspberry/linux.

I somehow managed to make it work but it took days. Just one thing I'll tell you: Keep one eye on the red led of your pi. It should be on, always. No red led= Low voltage, Blinking = Voltage drops. Those will make your Pi freeze after some time.

Today I ordered a second PSU, a cooling fan, a new pi3 case because my pi was freezing. I thought maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the PSU, maybe it was the backfeeding (my USB Hub), maybe it was my HDD, maybe it was my Chinese made Pi3... I wasn't aware of my red led was blinking, I had no idea about low voltage stuff.

Then I changed my fucking Usb cable with another one from my old android phone. Everything is solved.*

I followed this guide btw: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6c78ln/full_node_bitcoin_core_v0141_uasfsegwit03bip148/

*It wasn't solved, check the message below.

[systemv]

Interesting project, Pi is a tough little machine. I wonder if installed wallet (with qt) would be even useful due to speed/memory constraints....

[Shermand100]

Hi there, I'm the author of the guide you followed on reddit.

I had the same issue with struggling to find a complete guides that were in date and maintained when I made mine a couple of months ago.

Since then I had a go at making others and have made more guides as I went. They can all be found here:

http://pinode.co.uk  How to guides for making nodes on the Raspberry Pi


I also have the ability to give author privileges so you could add your own guide to my site if you've found a different/better method. I don't claim to make my nodes the best way, just another way that works that I hope is easy for beginners. So with everything in the bitcoin world being community led I hope this can be another. It's annoying that the top google search results are no longer maintained and so out of date. Perhaps this can help.

Also any problems you encountered/troubleshooting (such as the led status lights) are important as I've not considered mentioning them. Feedback like that would be great for building a troubleshooting page.

Dan

**edit: Also concerning the storage of the blockchain, I've got a small HARDWARE tab there with info on using 2.5" SATA HDD with an inexpensive adapter for the Pi, they're soooo much cheaper than external HDDs.

[systemv]

Wow, thank you for putting it all together in a such organized way! I still keep wondering how good usability of a qt client can be and during chain download it will probably bottleneck CPU on indexing. But after initial sync, should be ok I guess.

[Shermand100]

My Pi has sync'd from scratch whilst running the LXDE environment GUI and chrome browser in kiosk mode, it handles it fine.

I've not tried the wallet GUI on the display, but I can't imagine it being any more intensive, the CPU is ok for its size and I always boost the RAM with a 1GB swapfile.

Back to your original post though...would you want to make the video version of a raspberry pi guide? (Not necessarily one of mine) I'd still happily link to it on my site, some people may be put off by my wordy guide and cope better with the visual method of following a video (that stuff about different learning styles etc). I'm committed to making it as easy as possible to get involved in bitcoin (and others) either mining, nodes, just spending etc.

[mindrust]

I mentioned that I had problems with my node but it seems It wasn't a hardware issue at all. It wasn't my pi, It wasn't my hdd, heat, power adapter, usb hub, sd card or anything else. Running my node since yesterday without a problem.

It was the outdated raspbian img file from the tutorial and me being noob and lazy.

It was also a bit hard to follow stuff because reddit's layout is a pain in the ass.

Luckily the creator of that tutorial has an update.
http://pinode.weebly.com/bitcoin-segwit-with-display.html

My biggest advice is that you should start from step 1. Don't take any shortcuts like me. Do everything he says step by step.

I can only add 2 things to the tutorial above*;

1- Stop your node with this command when you need to;

Code:

bitcoin-cli -datadir=/home/pi/bitcoinData stop

2- Before you use the command

Code:

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

use

Code:

umount /dev/sda1

Other than those, that guide is perfect.

*I don't know if he added those when I write this message.
** They are added great! 

[mustangy]

Hi there, I'm the author of the guide you followed on reddit.

I had the same issue with struggling to find a complete guides that were in date and maintained when I made mine a couple of months ago.

Since then I had a go at making others and have made more guides as I went. They can all be found here:

http://pinode.co.uk  How to guides for making nodes on the Raspberry Pi


I also have the ability to give author privileges so you could add your own guide to my site if you've found a different/better method. I don't claim to make my nodes the best way, just another way that works that I hope is easy for beginners. So with everything in the bitcoin world being community led I hope this can be another. It's annoying that the top google search results are no longer maintained and so out of date. Perhaps this can help.

Also any problems you encountered/troubleshooting (such as the led status lights) are important as I've not considered mentioning them. Feedback like that would be great for building a troubleshooting page.

Dan

**edit: Also concerning the storage of the blockchain, I've got a small HARDWARE tab there with info on using 2.5" SATA HDD with an inexpensive adapter for the Pi, they're soooo much cheaper than external HDDs.

Shermand100 this is look like an awesome source  and as you said yes google top searches  outdated and spent a lot times with those most them stuck at some point as soon as has time will try this source also
and western digital pi hdd which stacked at the bottom with screen really look cute
my solution was amazon 256gb usb
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JHLJBO8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Shermand100]

[...]

It was also a bit hard to follow stuff because reddit's layout is a pain in the ass.

[...]

1- Stop your node with this command when you need to;

Code:

bitcoin-cli -datadir=/home/pi/bitcoinData stop

2- Before you use the command

Code:

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

use

Code:

umount /dev/sda1

Other than those, that guide is perfect.

*I don't know if he added those when I write this message.

Yes those lines have been added to the bitcoin node guides. Just the litecoin and dogecoin to update, they're nearly identical.

And the difficulty of making clear guides on reddit was a major drive to split and collate them all to one place. Especially as it was quite well received there.