Linux Wallet.dat files compatibility problem with Mac?

[LevelUP]

Hi all,

I'm having problems getting Mac Qt clients to acknowledge wallet.dat files created in live Linux usb environments. I've tried moving the wallet.dat file over directly from the ~/.bitcoin/ subdirectory onto a usb drive and from there I've rebooted into OSX and replaced the existing wallet.dat file... no luck.

Is this only me? What am I missing?

[SlidingHorn]

Hi all,

I'm having problems getting Mac Qt clients to acknowledge wallet.dat files created in live Linux usb environments. I've tried moving the wallet.dat file over directly from the ~/.bitcoin/ subdirectory onto a usb drive and from there I've rebooted into OSX and replaced the existing wallet.dat file... no luck.

Is this only me? What am I missing?

Have you verified that the file is owned by the correct user?  e.g. do you use the same user name to log into both systems?

[LevelUP]

This is my exact process:

1. Boot into Linux Ubuntu 13.10 from a USB Drive (Trial mode)
2. Insert a second USB drive with bitcoin-0.8.6-linux.tar
3. Extract the files to the desktop
4. Run the Bitcoin Qt
5. Export the public addresses to a .csv file and onto the USB drive
6. Navigate to ~/.bitcoin/ subdirectory and copy the wallet.dat file to the 2nd USB drive
(7. I would install Truecrypt and create a secure vault at this point but the process isn't working so I've cut this step for now)
7. Reboot into Mac OSX 10.9.1
8. Insert the USB drive and copy the public address from the .csv file
9. Open Bitcoin Qt and send a small amount of Bitcoin to the public offline wallet address
10. Wait for one confirmation by searching the public address on Blockchain.info
11. Close the Qt client, navigate to the Bitcoin directory in Application Support/Bitcoin
12. Copy the offline wallet.dat file created in Linux into the Bitcoin directory, in the process replacing the existing file.
13. Reboot the Bitcoin Qt, allow the network to sync (seems to happen pretty quickly)
14. Voila! Nothing.

I hold alt coins also and so I've been trying to establish a universal technique for offline storage that doesn't depend on offline paper wallets, Armoury, Electrum etc.

[LevelUP]

Hi all,

I'm having problems getting Mac Qt clients to acknowledge wallet.dat files created in live Linux usb environments. I've tried moving the wallet.dat file over directly from the ~/.bitcoin/ subdirectory onto a usb drive and from there I've rebooted into OSX and replaced the existing wallet.dat file... no luck.

Is this only me? What am I missing?

Have you verified that the file is owned by the correct user?  e.g. do you use the same user name to log into both systems?

No I don't. The Linux environment is live and so every time I boot from the USB it's a new OS

[SlidingHorn]

No I don't. The Linux environment is live and so every time I boot from the USB it's a new OS

Since Mac is unix based, I'd assume it has a terminal?  Open one, navigate (cd) to the directory containing the imported wallet.dat file and enter the following

Code:

ls -al

Please paste the results in "CODE" tags here.

[LevelUP]

No I don't. The Linux environment is live and so every time I boot from the USB it's a new OS

Since Mac is unix based, I'd assume it has a terminal?  Open one, navigate (cd) to the directory containing the imported wallet.dat file and enter the following

Code:

ls -al

Please paste the results in "CODE" tags here.

Sure, I've been trialing my cold storage with peercoin right now so please bear that in mind. I've done this with Litecoin and Bitcoin already and the results have been the same, i.e. loss of 0.01 units of coin because I can't make the wallet hot.

Code:

total 566392
drwxr-xr-x  17 ViZion  staff        578 Feb 28 12:07 .
drwx------+ 33 ViZion  staff       1122 Feb 28 00:26 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 ViZion  staff       6148 Feb 28 12:07 .DS_Store
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff          0 Feb 27 22:29 .lock
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff      24576 Feb 28 12:07 __db.001
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff     999424 Feb 28 12:07 __db.002
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff   32776192 Feb 28 12:07 __db.003
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff    1179648 Feb 28 12:07 __db.004
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff    4653056 Feb 28 12:07 __db.005
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff      40960 Feb 28 12:07 __db.006
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff     700416 Feb 28 12:37 addr.dat
-rw-------  11 ViZion  staff  150878826 Feb 28 12:35 blk0001.dat
-rw-------  11 ViZion  staff   98258944 Feb 28 12:35 blkindex.dat
drwx------   4 ViZion  staff        136 Feb 28 12:37 database
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff        162 Feb 28 03:50 db.log
-rw-------   1 ViZion  staff     387137 Feb 28 12:37 debug.log
-rwxrwxrwx   1 ViZion  staff      77824 Feb 28 12:35 wallet.dat

[SlidingHorn]

Oh wait...I think I just remembered the solution to this.  We were skipping something...:

1.  Back up any old wallet.dat files you may have on the mac to a different directory
2.  Close the qt wallet
3.  Delete the contents of the ~/.bitcoin/ directory
4.  Paste the linux-generated wallet.dat file in the folder
5.  Restart the qt wallet & give it time to rebuild the block chain - this may take a while

If all goes according to plan, you'll start seeing your coins coming in as the chain reloads. 

Important:  This method is only suggested if you have NO coins in the mac-generated wallet to start.

[LevelUP]

Oh wait...I think I just remembered the solution to this.  We were skipping something...:

1.  Back up any old wallet.dat files you may have on the mac to a different directory
2.  Close the qt wallet
3.  Delete the contents of the ~/.bitcoin/ directory
4.  Paste the linux-generated wallet.dat file in the folder
5.  Restart the qt wallet & give it time to rebuild the block chain - this may take a while

If all goes according to plan, you'll start seeing your coins coming in as the chain reloads. 

Important:  This method is only suggested if you have NO coins in the mac-generated wallet to start.

ok great. Ill try this and post the results here.

[LevelUP]

Oh wait...I think I just remembered the solution to this.  We were skipping something...:

1.  Back up any old wallet.dat files you may have on the mac to a different directory
2.  Close the qt wallet
3.  Delete the contents of the ~/.bitcoin/ directory
4.  Paste the linux-generated wallet.dat file in the folder
5.  Restart the qt wallet & give it time to rebuild the block chain - this may take a while

If all goes according to plan, you'll start seeing your coins coming in as the chain reloads. 

Important:  This method is only suggested if you have NO coins in the mac-generated wallet to start.

ok great. Ill try this and post the results here.

It worked out nicely bro. Thanks.

I did some more searching for a solution that doesn't involve downloading the entire Blockchain and you can use the following command in terminal to rescan the blockchain and update balances without having to download anything or use bitcoind etc. (change the app name and directory to reflect your Qt client) 

Code:

cd /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt.app/Contents/MacOS/
./Bitcoin-Qt -rescan

[SlidingHorn]

It worked out nicely bro. Thanks.

I did some more searching for a solution that doesn't involve downloading the entire Blockchain and you can use the following command in terminal to rescan the blockchain and update balances without having to download anything or use bitcoind etc. (change the app name and directory to reflect your Qt client) 

Good, I'm glad it worked.

I'll make a mental note of the -rescan option.  I think I remember seeing that somewhere, but I must have forgotten it. 

Cheers!