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

[bubbAJoe]

Closing:
I am on v2.0.5 on all node machines. I am using headless w/browsers. All 3 nodes machines have good & high quality 16GB MicroSD cards and up-to-date 2TB NVME node cards. So, all's good under the hood there. Thoughts? Maybe a bug?

Cheers!

Curious, what is your BestShare from that 9 on 1 configuration?

[eagleye]

samsung pro plus sdxc 128gb was on sale at the local BB store.
180 mb/sec read 130 mb/sec write
I was looking for any new memory card with video grade speed microsdxc.

[Poker8]

samsung pro plus sdxc 128gb was on sale at the local BB store.
180 mb/sec read 130 mb/sec write
I was looking for any new memory card with video grade speed microsdxc.

Thank you for the help and guidance!!

[fxxd]

Hi guys, I have a full node and the miner running but my connections are stuck at 10. I already opened port 8333 for forwarding on my router and I am using a ethernet connection. Please advise if any of you had the same problem. Thanks!!

[ABCbits]

Hi guys, I have a full node and the miner running but my connections are stuck at 10. I already opened port 8333 for forwarding on my router and I am using a ethernet connection. Please advise if any of you had the same problem. Thanks!!

First of all, check whether other full node actually can initiate connection to your full nodes. You could do that by either using https://bitnodes.io/ or running full node on different device which configured only connect to your full node.

[fxxd]

Hi guys, I have a full node and the miner running but my connections are stuck at 10. I already opened port 8333 for forwarding on my router and I am using a ethernet connection. Please advise if any of you had the same problem. Thanks!!

First of all, check whether other full node actually can initiate connection to your full nodes. You could do that by either using https://bitnodes.io/ or running full node on different device which configured only connect to your full node.

Hi, thanks so much for the reply. I am very sorry, I am very new in mining -- I got the apollo to learn.

How can I find the ip address of my own node on the webapp?

[PennyBit]

Curious, what is your BestShare from that 9 on 1 configuration?

The few times I've had them 9 on 1 the best share was 335B. As I mentioned in the post, I usually allocate them differently in sets of 3.

Cheers!

[bubbAJoe]

Hi guys, I have a full node and the miner running but my connections are stuck at 10. I already opened port 8333 for forwarding on my router and I am using a ethernet connection. Please advise if any of you had the same problem. Thanks!!

Is your node completely synched?  I only had 10 until the node was complete, then it jumped to 32.

[fxxd]

Hi guys, I have a full node and the miner running but my connections are stuck at 10. I already opened port 8333 for forwarding on my router and I am using a ethernet connection. Please advise if any of you had the same problem. Thanks!!

Is your node completely synched?  I only had 10 until the node was complete, then it jumped to 32.

Yes it is. It seems like I am solo mining properly but I'm still stuck at 10 connections.

[Sledge0001]

Hi guys, I have a full node and the miner running but my connections are stuck at 10. I already opened port 8333 for forwarding on my router and I am using a ethernet connection. Please advise if any of you had the same problem. Thanks!!

Is your node completely synched?  I only had 10 until the node was complete, then it jumped to 32.

Yes it is. It seems like I am solo mining properly but I'm still stuck at 10 connections.

Sounds like your port forwarding isn't working on your router.

I would confirm the settings and reboot your router / modem just to confirm its not a setting that didn't stick.

[bubbAJoe]

Curious, what is your BestShare from that 9 on 1 configuration?

The few times I've had them 9 on 1 the best share was 335B. As I mentioned in the post, I usually allocate them differently in sets of 3.

Cheers!

So, to hit a block, we'd need to see a Best Share of 90T-100T (in the ballpark of BTC network hash), correct?

[PennyBit]

Curious, what is your BestShare from that 9 on 1 configuration?

The few times I've had them 9 on 1 the best share was 335B. As I mentioned in the post, I usually allocate them differently in sets of 3.

Cheers!

So, to hit a block, we'd need to see a Best Share of 90T-100T (in the ballpark of BTC network hash), correct?

Some luck wouldn't hurt, either. Miracles happen

Cheers!

[BrokenTractor]

To configure Solo mining I want to use the local Bitcoin Core Wallet as my pay to wallet, so I want to make sure I enter the correct address for the wallet when setting up Solo mining.
Is the below procedure how I would generate an address for the local wallet?
Stop the Apollo node and miner if running. Start the Bitcoin GUI and create the wallet. Hit the “Receive” button and then “Create new receiving address”. This will show a new window with a QR code, a URI and an Address. This Address is what I would use as the Wallet address in the SOLO pool configuration. Is that Correct?

[fxxd]

Hi guys, I have a full node and the miner running but my connections are stuck at 10. I already opened port 8333 for forwarding on my router and I am using a ethernet connection. Please advise if any of you had the same problem. Thanks!!

Is your node completely synched?  I only had 10 until the node was complete, then it jumped to 32.

Yes it is. It seems like I am solo mining properly but I'm still stuck at 10 connections.

Sounds like your port forwarding isn't working on your router.

I would confirm the settings and reboot your router / modem just to confirm its not a setting that didn't stick.

Hi, this morning I got 11/32 connections. Does it mean that it works and there’s just not that many connections available in my area?

Thanks!

[Sledge0001]

Hi guys, I have a full node and the miner running but my connections are stuck at 10. I already opened port 8333 for forwarding on my router and I am using a ethernet connection. Please advise if any of you had the same problem. Thanks!!

Is your node completely synched?  I only had 10 until the node was complete, then it jumped to 32.

Yes it is. It seems like I am solo mining properly but I'm still stuck at 10 connections.

Sounds like your port forwarding isn't working on your router.

I would confirm the settings and reboot your router / modem just to confirm its not a setting that didn't stick.

Hi, this morning I got 11/32 connections. Does it mean that it works and there’s just not that many connections available in my area?

Thanks!

No. Connections to your node are global.

Is your node fully synced?

It still sounds to me like you have something blocking the port forwarding.

[fxxd]

Hi guys, I have a full node and the miner running but my connections are stuck at 10. I already opened port 8333 for forwarding on my router and I am using a ethernet connection. Please advise if any of you had the same problem. Thanks!!

Is your node completely synched?  I only had 10 until the node was complete, then it jumped to 32.

Yes it is. It seems like I am solo mining properly but I'm still stuck at 10 connections.

Sounds like your port forwarding isn't working on your router.

I would confirm the settings and reboot your router / modem just to confirm its not a setting that didn't stick.

Hi, this morning I got 11/32 connections. Does it mean that it works and there’s just not that many connections available in my area?

Thanks!

No. Connections to your node are global.

Is your node fully synced?

It still sounds to me like you have something blocking the port forwarding.

Seems so to me as well. I forwarded the port from my router already. Maybe I did something wrong. Can anyone help me?



EDIT: I got it to work, the problem is you need to set a static IP first before port forwarding. I hope this can help someone else!

[aurel57]

I am waiting on FedEx to drop off my Apollo II full node. Any tips on setting it up that you might have. Should I let the node populate the blockchain before doing anything else?

First thing, make sure both the MicroSD card and the NVME card are seated all the way before you even plug it in. Then after you get it up and running (preferably hard-wired with an ethernet cable) I would let the node sync up fully (could be several days) before trying to mine beyond ECO mode. Besides, you can't mine to your own node until it is sync'd completely - but you can pool mine, just stay in ECO until the node is complete. Anything higher than ECO during the sync really puts a strain on the system. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Here is the full getting started guide on the Futurebit website:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a9c84ac89c172bcf087f4c0/t/662173d150d84b057cb14192/1713468369163/FutureBit-Apollo-II-Guide.pdf

Cheers!

Thanks I will wait for it sync and yes i plan on using ethernet cable

I am glad you recommended checking the MicroSD card but its about 70% sync'd now. It shows 10/32 connections, but the instructions say it should go higher (to the 32 I guess), so will it not go higher until 100% sync'd or do I need to do something.

It's been suggested to forward to port 8333 on your router if you're not getting more than 10. Personally, I've never been able to get my Netgear router to actually accommodate my efforts in this regard (could be my router acting up or just me being stupid). However, I did manually add a few node addresses from https://bitnodes.io/ and after that I can at least can get 12-13. It's obviously a common problem as this issue keeps coming up here and simple port forwarding just doesn't seem to address it in every case. I should state that I don't forward via UPnP as I don't believe it's that secure. In any case, until I get a new router I'll just live with 12 connections.

Cheers!

Thank you PennyBit for the reply. I switched it over to my piggybacked Eero hoping it might change but it looks like i might need to manually add a couple as well. Can you tell me the steps in adding the other connections? I am thinking at the "Bitcoin node configuration" and if so do I just need to add the IP address of some local nodes?

Take a look at a post from Sledge0001 here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5492150.0

About 2/3 of the way down of his pics he gives a good example using the addnode=IPADDRESS and listenonion=0 commands

Cheers!

I wanted to thank you again for your help and give an update. After getting the blockchain totally sync'd I was still only getting 10/32 and sometimes 11/32. I added 7 nodes from bitnodes.io and was only getting 11/32. I had port forward on my Eero to 8333 but wasn't until finding where my port forward on my main modem was able to add the 8333 there and my Appllo started getting 32/32 nodes.  For some reason, i can't access bitnodes.io anymore, I get a 403 forbidden notice, I am not sure what that is about?

[MegatronOHMICAVT]

You need to format the new 2TB drive with the format command in settings. Don't format your old data drive.  Just to make sure all is good.   I did that with my new drive.  Then if you have a usb to pcie adapter, copy your 1TB drive to your new 2TB drive.  takes about 45 mins.  then shutdown, swap and reboot and it should work fine.  THat's my experience.  Keep the 1TB as a backup.  That's what I have.

I did the reindex-chainstate , took longer.  I found it to slow down the process on the raspberry pi. The raspberry cpu isn't fast enough for reindex-chainstate.  Also lack of ram slows the process.    Seems to actually be quicker to start an IBD after a formatted drive and it is quicker.  However, I highly recommend a backup like above.  Once my IBD was complete I copied the drive for a backup.  I also would backup the nvme drive mid IBD download when I was having problems with the raspberry pi crashing mid download.  That made recovery quicker in future crashes.  My hardest part was the IBD.  Once done my system is now running much better.  

I have low trust in the reliability of the included microsd card.  The original is possibly a much older 16GB microsd.   I purchased a new one cheap and with much higher bandwidth and more memory, Cheapest one I could find.  I flashed it and find it more stable than the included card was.

A follow up question about doing IBD and overcoming what seems to be too much stress for the RAM & processor.

I've got a backup NVME with about the first-half of the IBD on it. I would like to see if there's advice on the procedures for starting a node (Apollo BTC installing 2.0.5) by using the backed-up blockchain data.

Its a 2TB NVME drive in the node, with a 1TB NVME connected via USB and a flashed micro SD to install the system.

Questions are things like which folders need to go over and in what order should steps be taken from initial boot. Thank you!

[BrokenTractor]

You need to format the new 2TB drive with the format command in settings. Don't format your old data drive.  Just to make sure all is good.   I did that with my new drive.  Then if you have a usb to pcie adapter, copy your 1TB drive to your new 2TB drive.  takes about 45 mins.  then shutdown, swap and reboot and it should work fine.  THat's my experience.  Keep the 1TB as a backup.  That's what I have.

I did the reindex-chainstate , took longer.  I found it to slow down the process on the raspberry pi. The raspberry cpu isn't fast enough for reindex-chainstate.  Also lack of ram slows the process.    Seems to actually be quicker to start an IBD after a formatted drive and it is quicker.  However, I highly recommend a backup like above.  Once my IBD was complete I copied the drive for a backup.  I also would backup the nvme drive mid IBD download when I was having problems with the raspberry pi crashing mid download.  That made recovery quicker in future crashes.  My hardest part was the IBD.  Once done my system is now running much better.  

I have low trust in the reliability of the included microsd card.  The original is possibly a much older 16GB microsd.   I purchased a new one cheap and with much higher bandwidth and more memory, Cheapest one I could find.  I flashed it and find it more stable than the included card was.

A follow up question about doing IBD and overcoming what seems to be too much stress for the RAM & processor.

I've got a backup NVME with about the first-half of the IBD on it. I would like to see if there's advice on the procedures for starting a node (Apollo BTC installing 2.0.5) by using the backed-up blockchain data.

Its a 2TB NVME drive in the node, with a 1TB NVME connected via USB and a flashed micro SD to install the system.

Questions are things like which folders need to go over and in what order should steps be taken from initial boot. Thank you!

/blocks  &  /chainstate
OK I haven’t done this before but I have been reading about copying the Bitcoin Core blockchain to another system and this is what I plan to do when I receive my Apollo II later this week.
I have a fully synched v22 Bitcoin Core node running on an Ubuntu PC that I’ve been playing with and I will copy it over to the new 2 TB SSD to avoid re-downloading the entire blockchain again, which might take me a week.
Bitcoin is installed on my Ubuntu PC in the home directory in the hidden folder .bitcoin. There are three subfolders within .bitcoin,   /blocks, /chainstate  & /wallets.
/blocks is 699.6 GB
/chainstate is 12.5 GB
I will not be moving over the /wallets folder or the individual files in the .bitcoin folder, files like bitcoin.conf mempool.dat, peers.dat... These are specific to that PC install and I believe the ones on the Apollo II system will already be in place or will be created on statrtup.
So basically I am moving over just two folders under the .bitcoin folder,  /blocks  &  /chainstate. That’s it.
Here’s what I plan to do when I receive the system.
Connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Power on and log into the Apollo system with minimum configurations settings. Stop the miner and node if they are running. Use a file manager on the desktop to make sure the file structure is the same on the SSD,  “cd /media/nvme/bitcoin” to look for the blocks and chainstate folders. If they are there then rename them to oldblocks and oldchainstate just to save them for now. Shutdown the system, remove the SSD and put on a USB/pcie adapter into my Ubuntu PC. I will put a fan blowing on the SSD during this copy as this will probably be the most work this SSD will ever experience, copying 700+ GB to it in one go. Obviously the Bitcoin Core node will not be running on my PC to ensure the files are all closed properly. After a successful copy, shutdown the PC, move the SSD back over to the Apollo II system and power it on and complete the setup.

I think it will work. Maybe someone else can chime in if this process looks reasonable or if I’ve left something out. Hope this helps. Good luck mining...

[MegatronOHMICAVT]

A follow up question about doing IBD and overcoming what seems to be too much stress for the RAM & processor.

I've got a backup NVME with about the first-half of the IBD on it. I would like to see if there's advice on the procedures for starting a node (Apollo BTC installing 2.0.5) by using the backed-up blockchain data.

Its a 2TB NVME drive in the node, with a 1TB NVME connected via USB and a flashed micro SD to install the system.

Questions are things like which folders need to go over and in what order should steps be taken from initial boot. Thank you!

/blocks  &  /chainstate
OK I haven’t done this before but I have been reading about copying the Bitcoin Core blockchain to another system and this is what I plan to do when I receive my Apollo II later this week.
I have a fully synched v22 Bitcoin Core node running on an Ubuntu PC that I’ve been playing with and I will copy it over to the new 2 TB SSD to avoid re-downloading the entire blockchain again, which might take me a week.
Bitcoin is installed on my Ubuntu PC in the home directory in the hidden folder .bitcoin. There are three subfolders within .bitcoin,   /blocks, /chainstate  & /wallets.
/blocks is 699.6 GB
/chainstate is 12.5 GB
I will not be moving over the /wallets folder or the individual files in the .bitcoin folder, files like bitcoin.conf mempool.dat, peers.dat... These are specific to that PC install and I believe the ones on the Apollo II system will already be in place or will be created on statrtup.
So basically I am moving over just two folders under the .bitcoin folder,  /blocks  &  /chainstate. That’s it.
Here’s what I plan to do when I receive the system.
Connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Power on and log into the Apollo system with minimum configurations settings. Stop the miner and node if they are running. Use a file manager on the desktop to make sure the file structure is the same on the SSD,  “cd /media/nvme/bitcoin” to look for the blocks and chainstate folders. If they are there then rename them to oldblocks and oldchainstate just to save them for now. Shutdown the system, remove the SSD and put on a USB/pcie adapter into my Ubuntu PC. I will put a fan blowing on the SSD during this copy as this will probably be the most work this SSD will ever experience, copying 700+ GB to it in one go. Obviously the Bitcoin Core node will not be running on my PC to ensure the files are all closed properly. After a successful copy, shutdown the PC, move the SSD back over to the Apollo II system and power it on and complete the setup.

I think it will work. Maybe someone else can chime in if this process looks reasonable or if I’ve left something out. Hope this helps. Good luck mining...

Thanks for this. Its what I'll be attempting. Except I'll have the drives connected to the Apollo rather than a different PC.