pywallet install help

[morbius55]

I think everything is installed correctly except one component which i believe to be bsddb which is mentioned on the pywallet thread as being required. At the start of my pywallet it says a mandatory component is missing so i'm thinking it is this. Thanks again.

[HCP]

No... that just means you failed to give it a mandatory option like --wallet or --datadir or --dumpwallet etc

Mine does the same thing when I just type "pywallet.py" with nothing else

If you type:

Code:

pywallet.py --version

or

Code:

pywallet.py --help

You'll notice it doesn't give you that message

I'm fairly sure that bsddb is included with Python,  installed by the other components or isn't strictly required. I don't remember ever installing it separately... only the default Python 2.7... and then used the install.bat in the pywallet directory after I extracted the files.

Unless you specifically see an error message that says something like "no module named: bsddb" then I don't think it is an issue. Just try running the recovery and see what output you get.

[morbius55]

I ran another recover but added a couple of variations on the password. This is the result i got but i have a feeling i still won't be able to run the dat file in core, or dump it like before. Notice that as it ran the recovery every one of the keys was shown on screen, but i can't scroll back to top of screen to look at them all. I tried to dump the wallet with the new python and packages installed, but it gave the same result as before. I will try to dump this result later sometime, please see screenshots below for new recovery results. Thanks.











Got recovered wallet to run with "If that doesn't work... try starting Bitcoin Core with -usehd=0 command" but i'm thinking i will have to do a rescan, how would i add that command on to core startup. Thanks. ps no rush i know your busy. (edit again!) i added rescan option and waiting for it to finish.

[HCP]

I ran another recover but added a couple of variations on the password. This is the result i got but i have a feeling i still won't be able to run the dat file in core, or dump it like before. Notice that as it ran the recovery every one of the keys was shown on screen, but i can't scroll back to top of screen to look at them all. I tried to dump the wallet with the new python and packages installed, but it gave the same result as before. I will try to dump this result later sometime, please see screenshots below for new recovery results. Thanks.


Got recovered wallet to run with "If that doesn't work... try starting Bitcoin Core with -usehd=0 command" but i'm thinking i will have to do a rescan, how would i add that command on to core startup. Thanks. ps no rush i know your busy. (edit again!) i added rescan option and waiting for it to finish.

Ok, so it looks like the recovery is working the way it should... I get something similar... a MASSIVE output of all the keys/addresses etc just like your screenshot... So that is a good start

I am still not sure why your --dumpwallet command is not working tho?? PyWallet created the file, I don't understand why it can't dump it out... it is very odd!

Seems you may need to specify the --datadir or actually BE in the same directory as the wallet file? So maybe try:

Code:

pywallet.py --dumpwallet --wallet=C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads\pywallet\recovered_wallet_1511695449.dat --passphrase="YOUR-PASS-PHRASE" --datadir=C:\Users\Catherine\Downloads\pywallet

Anyway, hopefully that won't be necessary since you managed to get it running with the -usehd=0 command... fingers crossed the "rescan" will show *something* for all those keys/addresses.

[HCP]

Any update?

Did you manage to get the recovered wallet loaded into Bitcoin Core?

[morbius55]

Any update?

Did you manage to get the recovered wallet loaded into Bitcoin Core?

There doesn't appear to be any funds in the wallet.dat files that I have recovered . I have another hard drive to check and possibly some usb sticks he has, but it's looking like the wallet was overwritten when my brother-in-law reinstalled windows unless he used the other storage devices as well. There are a couple of litecoin wallet files on this drive, do you know what to add to the command for retrieval? I would like to thank you for helping me to figure pywallet out, and it will be very helpful for trying the remaining last chances of retrieval. If I retrieve nothing, i think this thread will be very useful for others in the same boat. Thanks again and if by a miracle I do find some coins I will definitely throw some your way.

[HCP]

I think that Pywallet also works with the Litecoin wallets... so theoretically you can just do the same thing for the litecoin wallet files... then just load the recovered wallet.dat into Litecoin Core instead of Bitcoin Core... But don't quote me on that...

[StyleForceOne]

Hello,
I have a broken lux wallet, unfortunately nothing comes to me when I enter:
pywallet.py --recover --recov_device=D: --recov_size=4Gio --recov_outputdir=C:\PyWallet
or that:
pywallet.py --dumpwallet --wallet=D:\wallet.dat --passphrase="KEY"
Can you help me?
ps I have tested this now with an old working wallet
see the screenshot:

[bob123]

I have a broken lux wallet, unfortunately nothing comes to me when I enter:
pywallet.py --recover --recov_device=D: --recov_size=4Gio --recov_outputdir=C:\PyWallet
or that:
pywallet.py --dumpwallet --wallet=D:\wallet.dat --passphrase="KEY"

You are supposed to run pywallet on a drive, not on a wallet.dat file directly.
You can either specify the harddrive (in your case D) or move it onto a pen drive and use that.

But make sure to have a few backups of your wallet.dat before you try to recover it.

[HCP]

You are supposed to run pywallet on a drive, not on a wallet.dat file directly.

That's not strictly true... --dumpwallet works on a specified wallet.dat (or uses the defaults).

--recover usually requires a "device"... But can also work on a "file".


I'm not sure why the --recover command that he used didn't work... It looks OK.

The --dumpwallet would have failed because the --wallet argument should be just the filename... Not the path. You specify the path using the --datadir argument:

Code:

pywallet.py --dumpwallet --wallet=wallet.dat --datadir=D:\

[Oldnewbie]

I think when you're using other coins you have to use --namecoin and -- otherversion.

[nowbitco.in]

how and where I can install the pywallet program itself ?

[bob123]

how and where I can install the pywallet program itself ?

You can get it from github (https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet).

On linux install the following dependencies:

Code:

build-essential python-dev python-twisted python-bsddb3

Then run the .py file according to the readme file.


If you are running into trouble installing/using it, read the first 2 pages of this thread.

[HCP]

how and where I can install the pywallet program itself ?

If installing on windows, there are instructions in the first post of the pywallet thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.0

NOTE: PyWallet has not been updated in a long time... It does not handle newer versions of wallet.dat very well (it will generate a lot of "unknown type" errors)

[morbius55]

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.

When trying to dump wallet with private keys to a text file i keep getting a syntax error message I copied the command line shown Thanks if you can help me get it running.

[morbius55]

When trying to dump wallet with private keys to a text file i keep getting a syntax error message I copied the command line shown Thanks if you can help me get it running.

What is version of your Python? Newer pywallet version doesn't support Python 3 completely. Have you tried use Python 2.7 and use older version of pywallet (https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet/tree/b52c955f8c93a75745166ebf281448016e1f22e2)?

Using old version.

[morbius55]

When trying to dump wallet with private keys to a text file i keep getting a syntax error message I copied the command line shown Thanks if you can help me get it running.

What is version of your Python? Newer pywallet version doesn't support Python 3 completely. Have you tried use Python 2.7 and use older version of pywallet (https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet/tree/b52c955f8c93a75745166ebf281448016e1f22e2)?

Using old version.

Do you mean old version of Python, pywallet or both? Anyway, it's better to create new thread rather than hijacking this thread.

Both. It is my thread.

[morbius55]

So I started this thread quite a while ago and was able to recover some wallet.dats by running pywallet. They are all in a folder I named pywallet which is in the Downloads folder and all have the usual timestamp numbers to them. pywallet.py is also in Downloads but a different folder. My problem is that I can't dump any of the wallets, even though I saw the keys and headings etc being generated on screen during recovery, for each of the wallet.dats I recovered. I used the last pywallet before the more recent alterations with Python 2.7 and I am on a Windows 7 Pro computer. I don't know if the command line I am trying is wrong because I keep getting syntax or pywallet.py not recognised or dumpwallet not recognised errors. I really need to dump these wallet.dats so I can go through them and look for valid addresses/private keys. The recovered wallets were tried in Bitcoin core and wouldn't work, so need to try it this way. Thanks, if anyone can help.

[NotATether]

So I started this thread quite a while ago and was able to recover some wallet.dats by running pywallet. They are all in a folder I named pywallet which is in the Downloads folder and all have the usual timestamp numbers to them. pywallet.py is also in Downloads but a different folder. My problem is that I can't dump any of the wallets, even though I saw the keys and headings etc being generated on screen during recovery, for each of the wallet.dats I recovered. I used the last pywallet before the more recent alterations with Python 2.7 and I am on a Windows 7 Pro computer. I don't know if the command line I am trying is wrong because I keep getting syntax or pywallet.py not recognised or dumpwallet not recognised errors. I really need to dump these wallet.dats so I can go through them and look for valid addresses/private keys. The recovered wallets were tried in Bitcoin core and wouldn't work, so need to try it this way. Thanks, if anyone can help.

Is is possible for you to post the stack trace that appears for some of these errors: For example this is a "mock" exception that I made up and want you to look for ones that are printed in this format:

In foo.py, line 13:
    a = string[i+1]
IndexError: Requested index out of range

Now it doesn't have to specifically be IndexError, I am interested in any log on the screen that prevents pywallet from working.

Meanwhile since you can see the private keys are on your screen, you can "capture" the screen output to a file by typing at the end of the command "> screen_output.txt". Try adding it at the end of the dumpwallet command and see if you get any private keys into the file.

[morbius55]

So I started this thread quite a while ago and was able to recover some wallet.dats by running pywallet. They are all in a folder I named pywallet which is in the Downloads folder and all have the usual timestamp numbers to them. pywallet.py is also in Downloads but a different folder. My problem is that I can't dump any of the wallets, even though I saw the keys and headings etc being generated on screen during recovery, for each of the wallet.dats I recovered. I used the last pywallet before the more recent alterations with Python 2.7 and I am on a Windows 7 Pro computer. I don't know if the command line I am trying is wrong because I keep getting syntax or pywallet.py not recognised or dumpwallet not recognised errors. I really need to dump these wallet.dats so I can go through them and look for valid addresses/private keys. The recovered wallets were tried in Bitcoin core and wouldn't work, so need to try it this way. Thanks, if anyone can help.

Is is possible for you to post the stack trace that appears for some of these errors: For example this is a "mock" exception that I made up and want you to look for ones that are printed in this format:

In foo.py, line 13:
    a = string[i+1]
IndexError: Requested index out of range

Now it doesn't have to specifically be IndexError, I am interested in any log on the screen that prevents pywallet from working.

Meanwhile since you can see the private keys are on your screen, you can "capture" the screen output to a file by typing at the end of the command "> screen_output.txt". Try adding it at the end of the dumpwallet command and see if you get any private keys into the file.

Hi and thanks for the reply. What would be helpful is if you gave me a command line to try based on pywallet being the folder where the recovered wallets are, and pywallet.py being in a separate folder, and both being in Users\name\Downloads The recovered wallet dats each have a timestamp number. when i ran the recoveries the found keys scroll through the screen and are not visible once the process is done, well apart from maybe the last 2. I think this is designed that way, and you can't scroll back up to look at the rest or take a screen shot. I could do with the command line for dumping specific wallet dats so I can check addresses and another for adding passphrase to show decrypted private keys based on the file locations mentioned. I'm assuming I would use open command window here, ie in downloads. Please excuse my amateurish computer skills. Thanks.