RAM-Reduction & Backup Center Testing (version 0.89.99.16)

[etotheipi]

I just tested on a fresh install of 13.10 online, and it works great.  I am not sure if the offline bundle will work with 13.10 offline though. 

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[shapemaker]

I see. So that's already 28 gigabytes of HD space wasted. This is getting ridiculous.

It is ridiculous, but it's what we had to do to get the new version working.  It also maximizes security and leaves open the possibility of having remote bitcoind/bitcoin-qt instances, etc.

That I could live with. Remote instance would be most useful so I could just dump the bitcoind (and the blockchain) to my server. Please tell more.

[K1773R]

I see. So that's already 28 gigabytes of HD space wasted. This is getting ridiculous.

It is ridiculous, but it's what we had to do to get the new version working.  It also maximizes security and leaves open the possibility of having remote bitcoind/bitcoin-qt instances, etc.

That I could live with. Remote instance would be most useful so I could just dump the bitcoind (and the blockchain) to my server. Please tell more.

you can use a remote bitcoind already (with any armory version AFAIK):
mount the blockchain with NFS (for example)
expose RPC to public and limit to given ip (if you dont want that, no need for it) and use SSL on it (if this is possible with armory)

[DBordello]

The link to the windows installer appears to be dead.

Edit:  Only in the first post.

[etotheipi]

Ack, somehow that file didn't make it to S3.  I'll have to check the script to see if it was being excluded from the upload or if there was an error.

Thanks for catching that... the data behind the link is now there, so the previous link should work again.

[keewee]

The .16 testing version, unfortunately, is pretty much unusable on my Mac. It's a recent model iMac (Core i5 3.2GHz, 8G RAM, no SSD). Scanning the blockchain brings the system to a crawl and makes doing anything else very frustrating. And this is exacerbated by the fact that once this completes Armory will usually crash within a short while so it has to rescan the blockchain every time it starts. I ran it from the command line and I can see something that I wonder could be part of the problem. There are leftover references to picobit's system in the errors it displays in Terminal. For example:

  File "/Users/joeschmoe/BitcoinArmory/osx_picobit/workspace/Armory.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/Twisted-13.1.0-py2.7-macosx-10.4-x86_64.egg/twisted/internet/base.py", line 824, in runUntilCurrent


If there's any information I can provide to help fix this then I'd be glad to help

[etotheipi]

The .16 testing version, unfortunately, is pretty much unusable on my Mac. It's a recent model iMac (Core i5 3.2GHz, 8G RAM, no SSD). Scanning the blockchain brings the system to a crawl and makes doing anything else very frustrating. And this is exacerbated by the fact that once this completes Armory will usually crash within a short while so it has to rescan the blockchain every time it starts. I ran it from the command line and I can see something that I wonder could be part of the problem. There are leftover references to picobit's system in the errors it displays in Terminal. For example:

  File "/Users/joeschmoe/BitcoinArmory/osx_picobit/workspace/Armory.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/Twisted-13.1.0-py2.7-macosx-10.4-x86_64.egg/twisted/internet/base.py", line 824, in runUntilCurrent


If there's any information I can provide to help fix this then I'd be glad to help

Interesting!  Each next version seems to work less and less reliably on OSX.  And for sure, that absolute path reference is ... not right. 

Luckily, picobit just messaged me to let me know that he may have a solution (a variant of the current build recipe).  I'm going to try it out tonight and see what happens.

[keewee]

The .16 testing version, unfortunately, is pretty much unusable on my Mac. It's a recent model iMac (Core i5 3.2GHz, 8G RAM, no SSD). Scanning the blockchain brings the system to a crawl and makes doing anything else very frustrating. And this is exacerbated by the fact that once this completes Armory will usually crash within a short while so it has to rescan the blockchain every time it starts. I ran it from the command line and I can see something that I wonder could be part of the problem. There are leftover references to picobit's system in the errors it displays in Terminal. For example:

  File "/Users/joeschmoe/BitcoinArmory/osx_picobit/workspace/Armory.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/Twisted-13.1.0-py2.7-macosx-10.4-x86_64.egg/twisted/internet/base.py", line 824, in runUntilCurrent


If there's any information I can provide to help fix this then I'd be glad to help

Interesting!  Each next version seems to work less and less reliably on OSX.  And for sure, that absolute path reference is ... not right. 

Luckily, picobit just messaged me to let me know that he may have a solution (a variant of the current build recipe).  I'm going to try it out tonight and see what happens.

Great! Looking forward to getting this working. The recent rise in the value of btc has me nervous every time I fire up Bitcoin-qt 

[etotheipi]

Luckily, picobit's build script is pretty easy, so it's not too hard to make new releases when I update the code.  Though they will likely need extra testing, since OSX has a few quirks.  I'm hoping he'll see this and try scanning his own package for hardcoded directories and figure out what's wrong (though, he is a busy guy...)

I got a few more polishing activities (actually, mainly updating the website and replacing the dead links in the app), and then I'll at least release the Windows and Linux versions.  Perhaps early next week.  But I won't post the OSX packages to the website as-is, since they are basically unusable...

[Red Emerald]

OS X app crashes for me on Mavericks after a few minutes of use, too

[pvz]

Install 12.10 deb on 13.10 works.
On my system Ubuntu 13.10 v.99.16 seems to have a 'wait/watch' issue in transition from updating blockchain (bitcoind) to scanning the blockchain.
This is already happening a number of builds ago.
If all the blocks are already downloaded and Armory is started, Armory continues after this check.
When there are new blocks and the 'wait/watch' issue seems to be there, the --debug last info is: "(INFO) ArmoryQt.py:3781 - Switching Armory functional mode to "Offline" ".
Visually: Qt states "Synchronizing with Network x blocks" with x > 0 and stays that way. Now more counting down. Just continue to display only this information.
When only <10 new blockchain blocks, Armory does continue, with 92 blocks (last time I got this error) Armory gets in the 'wait/watch' modus.
Maybe only happens when there is a new block file?

I can try a rescan or a reinstall of bitcoind and Armory, but maybe you prefer some more error analysis before I do that or to try another build first.

Please let me know.

[EDIT] Today (11/25) Armory did not stop when it started with 152 blocks to download (bitcoind). The number of blocks to download is not the variable triggering the freeze.

[sflicht]

Hi,

Just a minor bug report. I'm running Ubuntu 13.04 64 bit. I managed to install 0.89.99.16 today (it's building the database now, and I'm looking forward to using the new version!). However I had a lot of headaches getting the installation to work. I downloaded the OfflineBundle but running the very simple install script f***ed up my package dependencies. I managed to resolve this by NOT installing the libqtwebkit4 in the bundle. I already had what I assume is the same version of this library, but installing the one in the bundle with dpkg somehow ran me into the following Launchpad bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/qtwebkit-source/+bug/1175902. Ultimately I escaped from the resulting dependency hellhole by using  dpkg -i --force-overwrite to get back to the version of the deb in my apt cache.

I don't think this is an Armory bug per se, and I assume others have managed to install the 0.89.99.16 fine using the bundle on the website, but I thought I'd post this as a heads up in case anyone else runs into the same issue.

[Zomdifros]

I installed the Windows 64 bit .16 version over the .14, though not in C: but in a different drive. When I do this, the copy of the blockchain is deleted and I have to wait an hour for the database to build again. After this is done, my wallets are completely gone and I can't seem to find a good way of getting them back easily without resorting to paper backups. I'm not sure if this is default behaviour, but I can imagine this will scare the shit out of some people.

Edit: to clarify, it was originally installed in C:, the second time in a different drive. In both cased I had symbolic links made in AppData\Roaming\ to both the Armory and Bitcoin folders, located on a different drive. Oh and for some reason it takes about 15 minutes for Armory to get the database build each time I start it.

[gortonc]

Windows 7 32bit lenovo T60 with 2 gig Ram. I am surprised that it runs at all! It does occasionally lock up, but it is usable.  I am using the same machine with a TAILS USB for offline use. It seems to work fine in that environment.

I am thrilled! I can drop my watching wallets on the hard drive directly into the Windows Armory and my TAILS USB never needs to touch the Windows OS.

At some point I hope to write up a tutorial on how I set it up. It is a little tedious as I have not been able to make Armory persistent in TAILS yet and am reinstalling as needed. I keep the .armory in the Persistent archive.

[cp1]

I installed the Windows 64 bit .16 version over the .14, though not in C: but in a different drive. When I do this, the copy of the blockchain is deleted and I have to wait an hour for the database to build again. After this is done, my wallets are completely gone and I can't seem to find a good way of getting them back easily without resorting to paper backups. I'm not sure if this is default behaviour, but I can imagine this will scare the shit out of some people.

Edit: to clarify, it was originally installed in C:, the second time in a different drive. In both cased I had symbolic links made in AppData\Roaming\ to both the Armory and Bitcoin folders, located on a different drive. Oh and for some reason it takes about 15 minutes for Armory to get the database build each time I start it.

You must not be doing the symlinks correctly.  It's probably best to avoid that, just use the satoshidir and datadir switches.

[goatpig]

You must not be doing the symlinks correctly.  It's probably best to avoid that, just use the satoshidir and datadir switches.

Definitely this. Try with the command line arguments (make a shortcut if you have to) and let us know.

[Zomdifros]

You must not be doing the symlinks correctly.  It's probably best to avoid that, just use the satoshidir and datadir switches.

You mean the switches in the Armory settings themselves? I tried that, but it didn't work. See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=299684.msg3616125#msg3616125

I made the links following this instruction: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=63844.msg748224#msg748224

[goatpig]

Code:

parser.add_option("--settings",        dest="settingsPath",default='DEFAULT', type="str",          help="load Armory with a specific settings file")
parser.add_option("--datadir",         dest="datadir",     default='DEFAULT', type="str",          help="Change the directory that Armory calls home")
parser.add_option("--satoshi-datadir", dest="satoshiHome", default='DEFAULT', type='str',          help="The Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind home directory")
parser.add_option("--satoshi-port",    dest="satoshiPort", default='DEFAULT', type="str",          help="For Bitcoin-Qt instances operating on a non-standard port")
parser.add_option("--dbdir",           dest="leveldbDir",  default='DEFAULT', type='str',          help="Location to store blocks database (defaults to --datadir)")
parser.add_option("--rpcport",         dest="rpcport",     default='DEFAULT', type="str",          help="RPC port for running armoryd.py")
parser.add_option("--testnet",         dest="testnet",     default=False,     action="store_true", help="Use the testnet protocol")
parser.add_option("--offline",         dest="offline",     default=False,     action="store_true", help="Force Armory to run in offline mode")
parser.add_option("--nettimeout",      dest="nettimeout",  default=2,         type="int",          help="Timeout for detecting internet connection at startup")
parser.add_option("--interport",       dest="interport",   default=-1,        type="int",          help="Port for inter-process communication between Armory instances")
parser.add_option("--debug",           dest="doDebug",     default=False,     action="store_true", help="Increase amount of debugging output")
parser.add_option("--nologging",       dest="logDisable",  default=False,     action="store_true", help="Disable all logging")
parser.add_option("--netlog",          dest="netlog",      default=False,     action="store_true", help="Log networking messages sent and received by Armory")
parser.add_option("--logfile",         dest="logFile",     default='DEFAULT', type='str',          help="Specify a non-default location to send logging information")
parser.add_option("--mtdebug",         dest="mtdebug",     default=False,     action="store_true", help="Log multi-threaded call sequences")
parser.add_option("--skip-online-check", dest="forceOnline", default=False,   action="store_true", help="Go into online mode, even if internet connection isn't detected")
parser.add_option("--skip-version-check", dest="skipVerCheck", default=False, action="store_true", help="Do not contact bitcoinarmory.com to check for new versions")
parser.add_option("--keypool",         dest="keypool",     default=100, type="int",                help="Default number of addresses to lookahead in Armory wallets")
parser.add_option("--rebuild",         dest="rebuild",     default=False,     action="store_true", help="Rebuild blockchain database and rescan")
parser.add_option("--rescan",          dest="rescan",      default=False,     action="store_true", help="Rescan existing blockchain DB")
parser.add_option("--maxfiles",        dest="maxOpenFiles",default=0,         type="int",          help="Set maximum allowed open files for LevelDB databases")

List of Armory switches, as seen in the source. I am currently working on unicode support in Windows and the 'dir' arguments work just fine.

[cp1]

You mean the switches in the Armory settings themselves? I tried that, but it didn't work. See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=299684.msg3616125#msg3616125

I made the links following this instruction: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=63844.msg748224#msg748224

No, sending them as arguments to the windows shortcut:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Armory-testing\ArmoryQt.exe" --satoshi-datadir=I:\bitcoin --datadir=I:\armory

[Zomdifros]

@goatpig, @cp1

I tried starting Armory using this command line, in settings the default dir was changed that way. Loading seemed somewhat faster in one instance, in others it was equally slow as starting Armory the regular way.

With a little patience I can get Armory to work however, so it isn't a pressing problem. I am worried though that other people might lose their wallet if they have moved the blockchain or install folder in a similar fashion, although I am not sure if a good solution is available.