pywallet install help

[HCP]

Getting nowhere fast unfortunately.

And some of us work 12 hour shifts... So some patience would be appreciated.

Which folder did the search say pywallet.py was in?

[morbius55]

Getting nowhere fast unfortunately.

And some of us work 12 hour shifts... So some patience would be appreciated.

Which folder did the search say pywallet.py was in?

Not implying that you have to rush an answer back to me, I work 12 hour shifts also. I think I need to set a path in environment variables so that python is "seen" by windows. Sorry if I seem impatient I appreciate any help, just gets a bit frustrating sometimes especially with limited free time. Cheers.

[morbius55]

Hi, no rush for a reply but i sort of managed to get pywallet to scan a usb stick but it gave me an error at the end of the scan. I don't know if i put the output directory wrong or something else. I have included a screenshot. Thanks

[HCP]

Getting closer! At least it is running and attempting to output data

The issue seems to be that PyWallet is not able to create an output file, so that it can begin to output any found keys etc. I suspect this is either a "permissions" issue (the script does not have write permission to that folder)... or that the folder "C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads\Pywallet" doesn't exist.

You need to make sure that folder exists... or you will need to change the "--recov_outputdir" value of the command you entered to a folder that does exist.

It looks like your pywallet.py file is in "C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads"... so either:

- Create a folder called "Pywallet" in the "Downloads" folder and run Pywallet again with exactly the same command that you used previously.
OR
- Run PyWallet again but set the  --recov_outputdir to C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads

[morbius55]

Hi again HCP, these are the results from the scan. Which of these do i try in Bitcoin Core please, i realise it's all a long shot but at least i will have tried. Thanks for any reply. Cheers.








(edit) This is the debug when Core closed with error after trying the recovered wallet file.

2017-11-22 20:22:27 LoadBlockIndexDB: last block file info: CBlockFileInfo(blocks=59, size=48450345, heights=457847...458019, time=2017-03-18...2017-03-19)
2017-11-22 20:22:27 Checking all blk files are present...
2017-11-22 20:22:28 LoadBlockIndexDB: transaction index disabled
2017-11-22 20:22:28 LoadBlockIndexDB: hashBestChain=0000000000000000019a5ed01b75a2d253bedb1ac96db2c2202e482074e01e1c height=457941 date=2017-03-19 08:58:45 progress=0.749998
2017-11-22 20:22:28 init message: Rewinding blocks...
2017-11-22 20:22:29 init message: Verifying blocks...
2017-11-22 20:22:29 Verifying last 6 blocks at level 3
2017-11-22 20:22:29 [0%]...[16%]...[33%]...[50%]...[66%]...[83%]...[99%]...[DONE].
2017-11-22 20:22:31 No coin database inconsistencies in last 7 blocks (10016 transactions)
2017-11-22 20:22:31  block index            9191ms
2017-11-22 20:22:31 init message: Loading wallet...
2017-11-22 20:22:31 nFileVersion = 140200
2017-11-22 20:22:31 Keys: 0 plaintext, 202 encrypted, 0 w/ metadata, 202 total
2017-11-22 20:22:32 Performing wallet upgrade to 60000
2017-11-22 20:22:32

************************
EXCEPTION: St13runtime_error       
GenerateNewHDMasterKey: AddKeyPubKey failed       
D:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe in Runaway exception       

2017-11-22 20:22:37 CDBEnv::EnvShutdown: Error 22 shutting down database environment: Invalid argument

[HCP]

I'm not even sure you CAN load the recovered .dat file into Bitcoin Core... Pywallet is quite old... and doesn't really work with newer wallet files... so I doubt that the wallet files that it generates will work with newer versions unless you upgrade the wallet file, or run Bitcoin Core in the legacy "non-HD" mode.

First, make several copies of the recovered wallet .dat, to save you having to run the pywallet --recover again if anything goes wrong.

- Then make sure that Bitcoin Core is not running
- Then put one copy of the recovered wallet .dat into the Bitcoin Core Data Directory and rename it "wallet.dat"
- Start Bitcoin Core with the -upgradewallet command

If that doesn't work... try starting Bitcoin Core with -usehd=0 command


If both of those fail, then you're going to have to try and extract the private keys from the recovered wallet dat and import them into a wallet manually.

To achieve that, your best option is to probably to use the pywallet "dumpwallet" command... with the recovered_wallet_1511377727.dat file... and just dump the whole thing out to a text file. If you give it the wallet passphrase that you selected when you did the "recovery", it will also include the private keys

To check that the command is working OK and pywallet can dump the wallet:

Code:

pywallet.py --dumpwallet --wallet=C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads\pywallet\recovered_wallet_1511377727.dat

To dump the wallet out to a text file, with private keys encrypted (so you can check the addresses):

Code:

pywallet.py --dumpwallet --wallet=C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads\pywallet\recovered_wallet_1511377727.dat > C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads\pywallet\walletDump-NoKeys.txt

At this point, you should find a "walletDump-NoKeys.txt" file in "C:\Users\Catherine\Dowloads\pywallet" that you can open with a text editor... you should be able to see all the addresses that have been "recovered". I would suggest searching through these to see if you can find addresses that hold coins (input the addresses on a block explorer like www.blockchain.info).



To dump out the wallet INCLUDING your private keys to the screen ONLY:

Code:

pywallet.py --dumpwallet --wallet=C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads\pywallet\recovered_wallet_1511377727.dat --passphrase="YOUR-PASS-PHRASE"

To dump out the wallet INCLUDING your private keys to a text file:

Code:

pywallet.py --dumpwallet --wallet=C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads\pywallet\recovered_wallet_1511377727.dat --passphrase="YOUR-PASS-PHRASE" > C:\Users\Catherine\Dowloads\pywallet\walletDump-withKeys.txt

You should find a "walletDump-withKeys.txt" in the "C:\Users\Catherine\Dowloads\pywallet" that you can open with a text editor... all your "recovered" addresses and private keys should be visible... the private keys are the ones labelled "sec".

Import the private keys, that match the addresses that have coins, into the wallet of your choice.

[morbius55]

Would installing a pre HD Core work?, and could you tell me what the other recovered files are please ie db.001 and the partial recovery. Thanks for all your help.

[HCP]

 the other recovered files are just temporary files that pywallet has created while searching for wallets and processing found keys etc. they're not required for anything and can be safely deleted if you want.

no idea if a pre-HD version will work. I've not tried it. I just dumped the private keys from the recovered wallet. Didn't try loading it into Core. Give it a go and see if it works.

[morbius55]

One thing I don't understand is that on previous posts where someone has scanned a device it would give a result such as x number of wallets, x number encrypted keys passphrase is correct etc. With the results I got it just said the 102 recovered keys are in the folder. Also will the partial recovery result contain anything useful or is it just the larger .dat file? Thanks for your time, I will have another play tonight when I finish work.

[HCP]

Pass... without screenshots and/or actually seeing what the script was doing, it is hard for me to say if it was doing anything "odd"...

During one test run, I saw at one part that it had found 7 wallets... I have no idea how, there was 1 file on the USB stick! I suspect it might have been a previous copy of the file that was deleted. I don't recall seeing that information on previous runs though??!

I believe the partial recovered file, is just the private keys it has been able to find. PyWallet then attempts to build an actual wallet file using both the compressed and uncompressed addresses (and associated compressed/uncompressed WIFs) for all the private keys it has found... as it has no way of knowing which one was actually in use in your wallet file. I believe this is the reason that the partial file is smaller than the "recovered_wallet.dat"

[morbius55]

Had a few attempts but getting errors. Screenshot shown of results. Cheers.

[elzyo8]

I have the same problems with it .

[HCP]

There must be something wrong with the way you recovered the wallet to start with... I do not understand the error about "__db.001"... nor why it is looking in the default Bitcoin datadir for this file... it shouldn't be necessary?

Given you mentioned you got some "odd" output from the --recover option about it finding 102 keys... and not the "usual" output that people get... I'm wondering if the recover process has not worked properly and the recovered_wallet.dat is invalid/broken?

It is possible, given that pywallet mentions that you are missing some libraries (ecsda, pycrypto and libssl) that this may have prevented PyWallet from functioning properly in the first place.

Try the following command:

Code:

C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install ecdsa

Then try running the --recover process again and see if it outputs different info.

[morbius55]

I know that bsddb should be installed with python which I didn't do, I presumed it was included in the pywallet exe maybe that is the problem?

[HCP]

Yes, it would seem that maybe your Python install is not quite "complete"... if you try these commands, what output do you get?

Code:

C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install ecdsa

Code:

C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install pyaes

Code:

C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install pycrypto

If you don't get a message similar to "Requirement already satisfied: pyaes in c:\python27\lib\site-packages", then it is likely that the libraries were missing

After we sort this out, you'll need to run the pywallet --recover command again... I'm interested to see what the actual output of the pywallet --recover is. It is quite possible that the password you provided for it to use was not the correct one and it was unable to actually decrypt the recovered key data.

[morbius55]

Yes, it would seem that maybe your Python install is not quite "complete"... if you try these commands, what output do you get?

Code:

C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install ecdsa

Code:

C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install pyaes

Code:

C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install pycrypto

If you don't get a message similar to "Requirement already satisfied: pyaes in c:\python27\lib\site-packages", then it is likely that the libraries were missing

After we sort this out, you'll need to run the pywallet --recover command again... I'm interested to see what the actual output of the pywallet --recover is. It is quite possible that the password you provided for it to use was not the correct one and it was unable to actually decrypt the recovered key data.

Thanks a lot for your time and help. I will try these next steps as soon as I get time as I have a mountain of jobs to do at home today and family commitments.

[morbius55]

Managed to grab a chance to try your suggestion result below.

[HCP]

Huh... I guess your Python is NOT installed to C:\Python27 then... do you happen to know where is it installed to?

Can you do a search on your computer for pip.exe?

[morbius55]

After re installing python and running those commands i get this.




But with pycrypto i get this at the end of the install attempt.


(Edit) installed visual and pycrypto appears to have installed correctly this time. Will run another recover as soon as i'm able.

[HCP]

Slow but steady progress... hopefully this time, the recover process will actually be able to decrypt the keys it finds in the wallet file... so that the recovered_wallet.dat is able to be dumped properly