Official FutureBit Apollo II/BTC Software/Image and Support thread

[mariojosegallo]

We have bought an Apollo II, we are in Argentina and we still couldn't get it to start, we have flashed memories but it's still the same, can anyone help us?
We have support but we didn't hit the right button either.
The idea is to buy others but we need this equipment to work correctly.

[PegasusNZ]

Added the user to the dialout group? <-- what the heck is a dialout group?
Yes, Standard unit is connected via usb

The dailout group is the group that is allowed to access the USB ports it comes from the old days of modems I guess
Have you restarted the machine since adding your user to the group?

In htop do you have a line starting with
./fututrebit-miner -comport=/dev/tty......

and maybe if you are logged in as root
screen -r
may give you more information?

[PegasusNZ]

We have bought an Apollo II, we are in Argentina and we still couldn't get it to start, we have flashed memories but it's still the same, can anyone help us?
We have support but we didn't hit the right button either.
The idea is to buy others but we need this equipment to work correctly.

What is the light on the front panel doing? Red flashing, Red Solid .....
What is the Apollo II displaying at http://<IP OF APOLLO II>
can you ssh into the Apollo II?

[PennyBit]

We have bought an Apollo II, we are in Argentina and we still couldn't get it to start, we have flashed memories but it's still the same, can anyone help us?
We have support but we didn't hit the right button either.
The idea is to buy others but we need this equipment to work correctly.

Hi Mariojosegallo,

Your question is very difficult to decipher as currently written. I understand there may be a language barrier here but put yourself in the reader's shoes and try to understand the confusion. In other words, the more specific the information you can provide the more helpful we can be . . .

1) Being in Argentina shouldn't be a problem or make a difference with the exception of the power supply and / or language of the interface. Are any of those issues a problem?
2) When you say you can't "get it" to start, what are you referring to? . . . the node, the miner, or the power? Each one of those will have a different approach to fixing.
3) When you "hit a button for support" . . .  what are you referring to? And what was the "wrong" button you clicked? Are you referring to the link to the Futurebit support webpage? If so, you may need to email them.

If you don't quite understand the questions above, perhaps you know someone else close to you that can help to explain the technical problems to us that you're experiencing so that we can be of more help.

Cheers!

[mariojosegallo]

Of course... the start that we are referring to is that it does not start the device. That is, it doesn't show anything on the screen, but if it turns on, the refrigerator can be heard and the network LED blinks.

[PennyBit]

Of course... the start that weinf are referring to is that it does not start the device. That is, it doesn't show anything on the screen, but if it turns on, the refrigerator can be heard and the network LED blinks.

Okay, so what you're saying is the unit is actually turned on and the fans (refrigerator) are running, but the computer screen is just blank, yes? If this is the case, it could be any number of issues. However, let's look at these possible causes . . .

First, are you trying to connect wireless or with an ethernet cable? Can you see your Apollo listed in your network or router? If it's not listed then focus on that problem first. Also, it only works reliably on 2.4GHz wifi networks, not so well on 5GHz or mixed.

Are you using a browser on a separate computer to connect to the Apollo through your network or are you using an attached monitor and keyboard to the Apollo itself? If your using an attached monitor there might be an incompatibility issue. Try using a different monitor or simply use the web interface from another computer to connect to the Apollo using the IP address providing you can see your Apollo listed in your network.

Cheers!

[PegasusNZ]

Of course... the start that we are referring to is that it does not start the device. That is, it doesn't show anything on the screen, but if it turns on, the refrigerator can be heard and the network LED blinks.

If you are using the HDMI out of the the Apollo a black screen does not mean it isn't working
It is more reliable to SSH in using another computer http://futurebit.local might work or find the IP address from your router are just some of the options

 

[mariojosegallo]

Thank you all very much for the support and advice
Let's follow them to see if we solve this problem.
greetings

[LeoFist]

What are you all using to monitor your solo node?  I've been keeping the stats page up via web GUI, but with the frequent SQL crashes, I end up rebooting every other day.
If the SQL bug doesn't actually take the node down, I don't mind leaving it that way but wasn't sure what else I could to do see that it's up and running.

It's just a front end bug nothing in the backend/solo/mining is affected.

Hoping to get 2.0.6 out in the next week or so to address this.

If your logged in via monitor or know how to ssh below commands will bring up the backend services/logs

sudo screen -dr miner  //miner stats
screen -dr node          //node stats (as long as you see getblocktemplate messages your solo mining)
screen -dr ckpool       //solo pool stats

Hi, I don't see any GetBlockTemplate messages but I do see continuous CreateNewBlock() messages. Is that what you meant?

[terra.tec]

 The Apollo II has the genesis block message engraved

[jstefanop]

Node is working but hashboard is not. I have a standard unit connected to the node, and that IS working.
Any steps I can take to get the hashboard in the node to work?
Thanks!

Apollo BTC or Apollo II? Make sure you have flashed the correct MCU image for your device otherwise the hashboard wont work.

[PennyBit]

I hope this is a simple question as I've not been lucky enough to find any answers through the forum search . . . I'm on v2.0.5.

In the first image below, I don't understand why my stat values jump to these laughable odd placement values when I have two Apollo II standard units connected to my Apollo II full node unit. It doesn't occur with a single unit connected to the Apollo II full node unit, only when I have two connected.

https://ibb.co/7kyQGKH

In this second image below, I simply don't know what the "36.97A" is referring to. I have to assume there's no way it's referring to amps. Anyone know?

https://ibb.co/FVty8p1

Thanks for any help.

Cheers!

[eagleye]

Just got my apollo II full node.  The tape on the microsd card I understand for transport but I think it creates issues with card seating in the slot.  I had boot issues until I removed the tape, re seated the card,  then the apollo booted fine.

But here is my issue. Miner started and works fine.  The node started loading and loading fast connected to ethernet with 10 connections.  then about 25% in it crashed.  now I get the error message "Warning: Connection refused.  Your node is not running."

I thought it was the router but then i finally found the debug.log in the bitcoin directory on the nvme drive.  It said my database was corrupted with a write batch wrong count. see below.

2024-09-26T22:34:36Z UpdateTip: new best=000000000000002a66d9c7eb33bad96b675d9a7c4e8ecec6166e9a157152f5df height=233533 version=0x00000002 log2_work=69.887555 tx=16874573 date='2013-04-28T08:24:48Z' progress=0.017003 cache=716.6MiB(5437775txo)
2024-09-26T22:34:36Z UpdateTip: new best=00000000000000bc1bcdf0a8120e78ca915909716d8bb86340060e7ea1f98ed1 height=233534 version=0x00000002 log2_work=69.887606 tx=16874741 date='2013-04-28T08:28:55Z' progress=0.017003 cache=716.6MiB(5437858txo)
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z Fatal LevelDB error: Corruption: WriteBatch has wrong count
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z You can use -debug=leveldb to get more complete diagnostic messages
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z *** System error while flushing: Fatal LevelDB error: Corruption: WriteBatch has wrong count
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z Error: A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z tor: Thread interrupt
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z addcon thread exit
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z torcontrol thread exit
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z opencon thread exit
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z Shutdown: In progress...
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z ERROR: ProcessNewBlock: ActivateBestChain failed (System error while flushing: Fatal LevelDB error: Corruption: WriteBatch has wrong count)
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z net thread exit
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z msghand thread exit
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z UPNP_DeletePortMapping() returned: 0
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z mapport thread exit
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z DumpAnchors: Flush 2 outbound block-relay-only peer addresses to anchors.dat started
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z DumpAnchors: Flush 2 outbound block-relay-only peer addresses to anchors.dat completed (0.00s)
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z scheduler thread exit
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z Writing 0 unbroadcast transactions to disk.
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z Dumped mempool: 1.3707e-05s to copy, 0.00195496s to dump
2024-09-26T22:34:45Z Flushed fee estimates to fee_estimates.dat.

multiple restart attempts return the same error
2024-09-26T22:35:36Z Using obfuscation key for /media/nvme/Bitcoin/blocks/index: 0000000000000000
2024-09-26T22:35:37Z ERROR: LoadBlockIndexGuts: failed to read value
2024-09-26T22:35:37Z : Error loading block database.
Please restart with -reindex or -reindex-chainstate to recover.
2024-09-26T22:35:37Z Aborted block database rebuild. Exiting.
2024-09-26T22:35:37Z Shutdown: In progress...
2024-09-26T22:35:37Z scheduler thread exit
2024-09-26T22:35:37Z Flushed fee estimates to fee_estimates.dat.
2024-09-26T22:35:38Z Shutdown: done

Ok so what I did was make a backup folder in the bitcoin nvme directory. Move all the files in the bitcoin directory to the backup directory in case I needed them.  Virtually deleting the database.  Then I restarted the node and now the Node is downloading the chain from the beginning.  If this works I can delete the backup database later.

Would there have been a way to recover the database through a --reindex command line?  If so what would that have been?

Quick update.  While loading the node and blockchain.  I get the random same error message "connection refused: node not running"  Each time I hit start node and the node connects and continues on.  Any reason why it keeps crashing?  This time the log only shows the last successful data block completed.

[PennyBit]

Just got my apollo II full node.  The tape on the microsd card I understand for transport but I think it creates issues with card seating in the slot.  I had boot issues until I removed the tape, re seated the card,  then the apollo booted fine.

But here is my issue. Miner started and works fine.  The node started loading and loading fast connected to ethernet with 10 connections.  then about 25% in it crashed.  now I get the error message "Warning: Connection refused.  Your node is not running."

Quick update.  While loading the node and blockchain.  I get the random same error message "connection refused: node not running"  Each time I hit start node and the node connects and continues on.  Any reason why it keeps crashing?  This time the log only shows the last successful data block completed.

I hate to sound like the person on the typical "help line" . . . but honestly, it sounds like you may just need to reformat the node drive via the web based UI with the Format Node SSD selection under SETTINGS / EXTRA. Give it enough time to format (there's no status bar). Once formatted you can either start node (if it doesn't start automatically) or reboot. Personally, I prefer a fresh reboot. That should do it (unless the actual drive has went bad or maybe it's not seated all the way).

That's my best guess. Sorry.

Cheers!

[PegasusNZ]

Would there have been a way to recover the database through a --reindex command line?  If so what would that have been?

The reindex option is coming in a future update

I would reformat the drive and start a fresh system

[Joelnolan]

Has anyone rented Hash power and pointed it to their own node? I've been thinking about doing that but I've been seeing that a lot of them need to be pointed to a solo pool with high differential and I have no idea what that means or how to check and adjust the differential of my Apollo node.

Any insights?

[ergos]

Hello all,
I just plugged in for the first time my Apollo II, and when I log into the web interface, it asks me to input a password in order to sign in.
Do you know if there is a standard admin password for initial set-up?
Thx!

[PegasusNZ]

Hello all,
I just plugged in for the first time my Apollo II, and when I log into the web interface, it asks me to input a password in order to sign in.
Do you know if there is a standard admin password for initial set-up?
Thx!

Read message 1 the setup guide?
Once it reaches the login screen, type in "futurebit123" as the password.

[mariojosegallo]

Hello, we already tried that image that you highlighted in this last message, but it is the same one that we tried the first time. The 1.93 GB MCU2 version. And it does the same...

 And the version of etcher is v1.18.11
The same one that happened to us
 The failure is very rare... and after several tests it remains the same...

[MakerAZ]

Hello!

Will FutureBit consider supporting the emerging DATUM protocol soon?
I wish my FutureBit Apollo II Full Node BTC Miner to use DATUM.

https://ocean.xyz/docs/datum