🔥🔥 Complete GUIDE for Lightning Desktop Nodes

[Satofan44]

I got inspired from trying to participate in NotATether's Lightning challenge, and decided to undertake on a big project. I am aware that there are various guides online, documentation and everything but as my experience trying to set up lightning shows, they have issues. Sometimes information is lacking, sometimes they have errors or outdated instructions, and other times they come with different assumptions of user knowledge which are implicit and not warranted or helpful.

My focus will be on desktop wallets, as mobile wallets usually do not require guides or require minimum setup. If you have issues with a mobile application, contact the developers of it. It is likely related to your specific device and OS version configuration. This is an experimental break-down of every wallet that I have attempted to install. The guide will also focus on providing information for a Linux Ubuntu using up to date information. If someone else wants to repeat this process for your own OS, you are very welcome to contribute with that information. If you have suggestions or feedback, feel free to post them here or DM me directly.  

Important Reminders

• Some attempts might not work out, as was the case with my first try using Eclair. But that doesn’t make the guide less valuable, failure is an integral part of this journey. As we figure things out, I’ll update the guide accordingly. There will also be a FAQ section which is very much needed. My personal experience is that sometimes looking up information regarding errors results with no useful information.
• At times basic Linux knowledge is required and expected. If you're new to Linux, make sure you're comfortable with tasks like navigating directories, using the terminal, and more. If you're not sure, check out a guide such as this one: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/30-days-of-linux/. For those that have a GUI, you will have an easier time just using it for basic operations instead of the commands but you are welcome to try and learn.

Part 1: Prerequisites and Installation

The list of LN wallets that are part of this guide:

• eclair: https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair.
• LND: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd
• Core Lightning: https://github.com/elementsproject/lightning

Operating System: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, desktop or server.
Probably any Ubuntu/Debian derivative will work, but I can't guarantee it. You are free to try. To limit duplication of information, a short-guide for Bitcoin Core will be provided in this section.

1. User Account Setup:
For security reasons, you should not run anything as root. It is recommended to create a new user account. I highly recommend that you read more about this here: https://dev.to/despider/why-not-to-use-root-user-317a.
For this guide, we will create a user called lightning and work under it. Open a terminal and run the commands at each step in the order that they are provided. Commands are always shown in code blocks.

1. Create the user called lightning. You will be asked to set a password. For the remaining information that you are asked to input, you don't have to enter anything.

Code:

sudo adduser lightning
sudo usermod -aG sudo lightning

2. To work using this user account you must use this command.

Code:

su lightning

2. Bitcoin Core Setup:
1. Download the latest release from here: https://bitcoincore.org/en/download/. At the time of writing this was v29.0. In most situations where Ubuntu is usually used, you will require the file that is linked as Linux (tgz). Note: If you want to do additional verification on the download, the instructions for several operating systems are found on the same link. I will not reproduce them here. I will work in the /home/ folder but you can work in any location of your preference. In this step, the commands will navigate to the user's home folder, download Bitcoin Core and extract it.

Code:

cd /home/lightning/
wget https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-29.0/bitcoin-29.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar -xvf bitcoin-29.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

2. To be able to start bitcoind and bitcoin-cli from anywhere, it has to be moved to a new location. We do this under /home/lightning/.bin and load the configuration from .profile using the source command to make it work. You will need to use the source command to load the configuration for each new terminal you open (if they are non login terminals like you would have when using Ubuntu Desktop).

Code:

mkdir /home/lightning/bin
mv /home/lightning/bitcoin-29.0/bin/bitcoin-cli /home/lightning/bin
mv /home/lightning/bitcoin-29.0/bin/bitcoind /home/lightning/bin
source /home/lightning/.profile

3. The default data directory is ~/.bitcoin which in our case is /home/lightning/.bitcoin. To keep things simpler we will also use this location. You can change this by specifying --datadir if you want. In this step, we create the directory, the bitcoin.conf files and specify the needed configurations. I will use nano as the text editor as it is more user friendly.  

Code:

mkdir /home/lightning/.bitcoin
nano /home/lightning/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

Use the following configuration options and make sure to specify your own RPC username and password.

daemon=1
server=1
txindex=1
wallet=firstwallet
rpcuser=yourusername
rpcpassword=yourpassword

zmqpubrawblock=tcp://127.0.0.1:29000
zmqpubhashblock=tcp://127.0.0.1:29000
zmqpubrawtx=tcp://127.0.0.1:29001

Information about each option used here is provided in the FAQ. Please read the 3rd post of this thread. Note: You will need 750 GB or more disk space to run a full node.

4. If you have done everything correctly the following things will be done: First start bitcoind, and give it a few seconds of time to run properly. Then use bitcoin-cli to create a new wallet called firstwallet.

Code:

bitcoind
bitcoin-cli createwallet firstwallet

To confirm you have done this successfully, you will receive a response like this:

{
  "name": "firstwallet"
}

Next, a shutdown of the software is done using the -cli and it is started again using the bitcoind. Note: as some system configurations can be slow, always give bitcoind a few seconds of time before running the next command in any code block. If you run commands too fast after startup you will receive a error.

Code:

bitcoin-cli stop
bitcoind

While this step was not entirely necessary as Bitcoin Core will automatically load the created wallet in the current instance, it is provided so that the configuration file can be tested. You want to make sure that your wallet will load when you restart the software as well. To check the currently loaded wallets after doing a restart, use the following command:

Code:

bitcoin-cli listwallets

Again, if you get this response that means you have completed the steps correctly.

{
  "name": "firstwallet"
}

5. The final step is to fully synchronize the blockchain. You can check the status of your node with the following command:

Code:

bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo

You will receive a response like this:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 219242,
  "headers": 895831,
  "bestblockhash": "0000000000000012767dba93bdb63e4a3e0df576e3a2e8439a78c813feb3d792",
  "bits": "1a05a6b1",
  "target": "00000000000005a6b10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
  "difficulty": 2968775.332075074,
  "time": 1359805720,
  "mediantime": 1359804704,
"verificationprogress": 0.01017237324622422,
  "initialblockdownload": true,
  "chainwork": "000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000028fe60976baa91803d",
  "size_on_disk": 6124750373,
  "pruned": false,
  "warnings": [
  ]
}

If you see something like this, that means you have successfully completed all steps so far. Congratulations!   The blocks line tells you how many blocks you have synchronized, and the headers tells you the current block number of the Bitcoin blockchain. Alternatively, you can also follow the progress with verificationprogress which needs to reach 0.99 or wait until initialblockdownload is set to false. It is important to remember that synchronization time is not linear, so if it took you 4 hours to reach 25% of the blocks that does not mean that it will take you just 12 more hours to reach full synchronization.

At this point, I strongly suggest that you take a break and let it synchronize. You have deserved it.


Eclair
Prerequisites: Bitcoin Core and Adoptium OpenJDK.

Adoptium OpenJDK Setup:
1. In the first step, download the Adoptium JDK from Github: https://github.com/adoptium/temurin21-binaries/releases. Then extract it and move it to /home/lightning/bin. The version at the time of writing this guide is 21.0.7+6, so you may need to adjust the wget command if there is a newer version of it is explicitly required by Eclair. This information was sourced from this guide, which I followed to successfully install Adoptium on my own systems. You can consult it if more steps are needed by your configuration.

Code:

cd /home/lightning/
wget https://github.com/adoptium/temurin21-binaries/releases/download/jdk-21.0.7%2B6/OpenJDK21U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_21.0.7_6.tar.gz
tar -xvf OpenJDK21U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_21.*.tar.gz
mv jdk-21.0.7+6 /home/lightning/bin/

2. Export the environment variables by adding them to .bashrc. Using sed, we can append these two lines to the file. Next, force an update on .bashrc with the source command

Code:

sed -i '$a export JAVA_HOME=/home/lightning/bin/jdk-21.0.7+6' /home/lightning/.bashrc
sed -i '$a export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin' /home/lightning/
source /home/lightning/.bashrc

3. Verify that the JAVA variables are set properly:

Code:

echo $JAVA_HOME

You should get a response like this:

/home/lightning/bin/jdk-21.0.7+6

4. To set the default JAVA version for the system.

Code:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /home/lightning/bin/jdk-21.0.7+6/bin/java 1
sudo update-alternatives --config java

You will get a response similar to this depending on your system:

There is 1 choice for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

  Selection    Path                        Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /home/lightning/jdk-21.0.7+6/bin/java   1         auto mode
  1            /home/lightning/jdk-21.0.7+6/bin/java   1         manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice

• , or type selection number:

If you have multiple versions of java, select this one as the default by entering the right number. In this case select 0. With this, the prerequisites are complete and you can start the Eclair installation process.


Eclair Setup:
1. Download the latest version of eclair-node and extract the files to a separate folder. At the time of writing this is Eclair v0.12.0 and we will use a folder located in /home/lightning/. Only the eclair-cli will be moved to another location so that we can access it from anywhere.

Code:

cd /home/lightning/
wget https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/releases/download/v0.12.0/eclair-node-0.12.0-4df8cd0-bin.zip
unzip eclair-node-0.12.0-4df8cd0-bin.zip
mv eclair-node-0.12.0-4df8cd0/bin/eclair-cli /home/lightning/bin

2. Next, create .eclair in the home directory similar to what was required for Bitcoin Core and create a configuration file named eclair.conf. The options in bold are those which you need to edit. Make sure that your API password is strong, and that the RPC configuration data matches that which you have set up in bitcoin.conf.

Code:

mkdir /home/lightning/.eclair/
nano /home/lightning/.eclair/eclair.conf

eclair.node-alias=alias
eclair.server.port=9735
eclair.api.enabled=true
eclair.api.port=8080
eclair.api.password=Password
eclair.bitcoind.rpcuser=YourUsernameFromBitcoin.Conf
eclair.bitcoind.rpcpassword=YourPasswordFromBitcoin.Conf
eclair.bitcoind.zmqblock="tcp://127.0.0.1:29000"
eclair.bitcoind.zmqtx="tcp://127.0.0.1:29001"
eclair.bitcoind.wallet=firstwallet

This is a minimum working configuration. Many more configurations and examples can be found here: https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/blob/master/docs/Configure.md.

3. Next, test that the node can be started. You will see no output, which is good. The test is to just make sure if no errors are thrown. You can exit by pressing CTRL + C.

Code:

/home/lightning/eclair-node-0.12.0-4df8cd0/bin/eclair-node.sh

4. To enable the node to run in the background, a system service needs to be created. To do this, a systemd file must be created.

Code:

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/eclair.service

Copy the following block inside eclair.service:

[Unit]
Description=Eclair Shell Script

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/lightning/eclair-node-0.12.0-4df8cd0/bin/eclair-node.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Afterwards, run the following commands to reload the daemon, enable the service and start it.

Code:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eclair.service
sudo systemctl start eclair.service

5. If you've done everything correctly so far, the eclair node should be runnign by now. To confirm this, run the following command:

Code:

eclair-cli getinfo

You will need to enter your Eclair API password, the one you set up in the file eclair.conf. You will get an output similar to this one, which confirms that your node is successfully running.

{
  "version": "0.12.0-4df8cd0",
  "nodeId": "hidden",
  "alias": "helloLightning",
  "color": "#49daaa",
  "features": {
    "activated": {
      "option_simple_close": "optional",
      "option_route_blinding": "optional",
      "option_dual_fund": "optional",
      "gossip_queries_ex": "optional",
      "option_data_loss_protect": "mandatory",
      "var_onion_optin": "mandatory",
      "option_static_remotekey": "mandatory",
      "option_scid_alias": "optional",
      "option_onion_messages": "optional",
      "option_support_large_channel": "optional",
      "option_anchors_zero_fee_htlc_tx": "optional",
      "payment_secret": "mandatory",
      "option_shutdown_anysegwit": "optional",
      "option_channel_type": "optional",
      "basic_mpp": "optional",
      "gossip_queries": "optional",
      "option_quiesce": "optional",
      "option_payment_metadata": "optional"
    },
    "unknown": []
  },
  "chainHash": "6fe28c0ab6f1b372c1a6a246ae63f74f931e8365e15a089c68d6190000000000",
  "network": "mainnet",
  "blockHeight": 895432,
  "publicAddresses": [],
  "instanceId": "hidden"
}

Congratulations! You are now ready to use Eclair. For more information, visit the official Eclair documentation: https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/tree/master/docs, https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/blob/master/docs/Guides.md, https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/blob/master/docs/FAQ.md.


LND
Prerequisites: Bitcoin Core.

1. Download the latest version of LND and extract the files to a separate folder. At the time of writing this is lnd v0.18.5-beta and we will again use a folder located in /home. If you want to do additional verification on binaries, information is provided directly in the release. As you have already learned how to extract files in previous parts of this guide, multiple operations will be done in this step. Following the information from the documentation, we will move the binaries to a location where the system can find it.

Code:

cd /home/lightning/
wget https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/releases/download/v0.18.5-beta/lnd-linux-amd64-v0.18.5-beta.tar.gz
tar -xvf lnd-linux-amd64-v0.18.5-beta.tar.gz
mv lnd-linux-amd64-v0.18.5-beta/lnd /home/lightning/bin
mv lnd-linux-amd64-v0.18.5-beta/lncli /home/lightning/bin

2. Before starting LND, a configuration file must be provided. To do this, the .lnd folder must be created in /home/lightning/ and a basic configuration must be set in the file lnd.conf. Make sure that your RPC username and password match the ones that you have set up for Bitcoin Core. The configuration only includes the basic necessary configurations and a few recommended lines from the documentation. Please read up on them if you are interested in what they do.

Code:

mkdir /home/lightning/.lnd
nano /home/lightning/.lnd/lnd.conf

bitcoin.node=bitcoind
bitcoind.rpcuser=YourUsernameFromBitcoin.Conf
bitcoind.rpcpass=YourPasswordFromBitcoin.Conf
bitcoind.zmqpubrawblock=tcp://127.0.0.1:29000
bitcoind.zmqpubrawtx=tcp://127.0.0.1:29001
bitcoin.mainnet=true

rpcmiddleware.enable=true
db.bolt.auto-compact=true
alias=ChooseNodeName

3. If you have done everything correctly, LND can be started simply by writing lnd in the console. However, first we will create a systemctl service using the provided sample file.

Code:

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/lnd.service

Copy the following block inside lnd.service:

[Unit]
Description=Lightning Network Daemon

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/lightning/bin/lnd
ExecStop=/home/lightning/bin/lncli stop

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Afterwards, run the following commands to reload the daemon, enable the service and start it.

Code:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable lnd.service
sudo systemctl start lnd.service

4. The final step involves creating a wallet, after which you will be able to use lncli. Set a strong password of your choosing, a passphrase is optional, and make sure to back up the 24 words.

Code:

lncli createwallet

5. Verify that LND is running correctly using the getinfo command. Keep in mind that you may need to unlock your wallet first with lncli unlock.

Code:

lncli getinfo

You will get a response like this, I have removed some lines from it to keep it shorter:

{
    "version":  "0.18.5-beta commit=v0.18.5-beta",
    "commit_hash":  "4ccf4fc24c750d098cf24566ef4bbc0311c7d476",
    "identity_pubkey":  "03da538f07b1bafd88dbee79349ea567f391fc22c4aa65aa6772c880f7d94b2a4e",
    "alias":  "helloLightning",
    "color":  "#3399ff",
    "num_pending_channels":  0,
    "num_active_channels":  0,
    "num_inactive_channels":  0,
    "num_peers":  0,
    "block_height":  895990,
    "block_hash":  "0000000000000000000099c27e6d08fa06abad3b04ceabdc34806511d17987e0",
    "best_header_timestamp":  "1746812177",
    "synced_to_chain":  false,
    "synced_to_graph":  false,
    "testnet":  false,
    "chains":  [
        {
            "chain":  "bitcoin",
            "network":  "mainnet"
        }
    ],

Congratulations! You are now ready to use LND. Please refer to this guide for more information: https://docs.lightning.engineering/lightning-network-tools/lnd/first-steps-with-lnd.


Core Lightning
Prerequisites: Bitcoin Core.
1. Download the latest version of lightning and extract the files to a separate folder. At the time of writing this is v25.02.2 and we will use a folder located in /home. As you have already learned how to extract files in previous parts of this guide, multiple operations will be done in this step. Additionally, libpq-dev must be installed to be able to run this implementation.

Code:

cd /home/lightning/
wget https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning/releases/download/v25.02.2/clightning-v25.02.2-Ubuntu-24.04-amd64.tar.xz
tar -xvf clightning-v25.02.2-Ubuntu-24.04-amd64.tar.xz
sudo apt-get install libpq-dev libsodium-dev

2. To be able to call the lightningd and lightning-cli from anywhere, for this implementation we will create a symlink as it requires many libraries that come extracted with it.

Code:

ln -s /home/lightning/usr/bin/lightningd /home/lightning/bin
ln -s /home/lightning/usr/bin/lightning-cli /home/lightning/bin

3. You can now conduct a test-run by invoking the command that follows. Freely exit with CTRL + C when you are ready.

Code:

cd /home/lightning/
lightningd --network=bitcoin --log-level=debug

4. Now add a configuration file so that lightningd can run in the background.

Code:

touch /home/lightning/.lightning/debug.log
nano /home/lightning/.lightning/config

daemon
log-file=/home/lightning/.lightning/debug.log
alias=HelloCoreLightning

5. Invoke lightningd to start your node.

Code:

lightningd

6. Run a test to make sure it is working.

Code:

lightning-cli getinfo

You should get a response like this:

{
   "id": "yourID",
   "alias": "HelloCoreLightning",
   "color": "039622",
   "num_peers": 0,
   "num_pending_channels": 0,
   "num_active_channels": 0,
   "num_inactive_channels": 0,
   "address": [
      {
         "type": "ipv4",
         "address": "yourIP",
         "port": 9735
      },
      {
         "type": "ipv6",
         "address": "yourIP",
         "port": 9735
      }
   ],
   "binding": [
      {
         "type": "ipv6",
         "address": "::",
         "port": 9735
      },
      {
         "type": "ipv4",
         "address": "0.0.0.0",
         "port": 9735
      }
   ],
   "version": "v25.02.1",
   "blockheight": 896289,
   "network": "bitcoin",
   "fees_collected_msat": 0,
   "lightning-dir": "/home/lightning/.lightning/bitcoin",
   "warning_lightningd_sync": "Still loading latest blocks from bitcoind.",
   "our_features": {
      "init": "08a0880a8a59a1",
      "node": "88a0880a8a59a1",
      "channel": "",
      "invoice": "02000002024100"
   }
}

I have used again a minimal working configuration, many more options are available here: https://docs.corelightning.org/docs/configuration.



Bonus: ThunderHub
ThunderHub is a lightning node manager that lets you manage your LND node through your browser, it is not a lightning wallet. You can only use it if you have installed LND. This is not mandatory, and it is also quite difficult.
Prerequisites: LND, NPM, NodeJS (Version 18 or higher), Git.

1. Check if your system has NPM and Node installed.

Code:

npm -v
node -v

If any of these or both of these return command not found, in that case you need to install what is missing.
2. Install NPM and NodeJS and Git.

Code:

sudo apt install npm nodejs git

3. Verify your versions of NPM and Nod by using the commands from step 1.

Code:

npm -v
node -v

4. Download ThunderHub, install it, do a test run.

Code:

git clone https://github.com/apotdevin/thunderhub.git /home/lightning/thunderhub/
cd /home/lightning/thunderhub
npm install
npm run build

5. Create a symbolic link from inside thunderhub to your .lnd folder and verify that it is there.

Code:

ln -s /home/lightning/.lnd /home/thunderhub/.lnd
ls -la

Within the output of the second command you should see a line like this:

.lnd -> /home/lightning/.lnd

6. Prepare the environment variables. First we copy the file and then edit it using nano.

Code:

cp /home/lightning/thunderhub/.env /home/lightning/thunderhub/.env.local
nano .env.local

You can write the following lines at the beginning of the file. Keep in mind that lines starting with # are commented out on purpose, ignore them.

LOG_LEVEL='debug'
NODE_ENV=production
PORT=3010
ACCOUNT_CONFIG_PATH = '/home/lightning/thunderhub/thubConfig.yaml'

7. Create the YAML account where you will define the account information. The bolded field, password, is one you must set. The underlined fields, serverUrl, macaroonPath, certificatePath, do not need to be changed if you have followed my guide. If you have installed LND somewhere else, just locate the correct paths and adjust this part of the configuration.

Code:

nano /home/lightning/thunderhub/thubConfig.yaml

masterPassword: 'PASSWORD' # Default password unless defined in account
accounts:
  - name: 'MyThunderHub'
    serverUrl: '127.0.0.1:10009'
    macaroonPath: '/home/lightning/thunderhub/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon'
    certificatePath: '/home/lightning/thunderhub/.lnd/tls.cert'
    password: 'passwordHere'

8. Start ThunderHub to check if it is working properly.

Code:

cd /home/lightning/thunderhub
npm run start:prod

If it is working, you should see output that has stuff like this:

{
  message: 'Connected to helloLightning(ID)BTC',
  level: 'info',
  timestamp: 'date-time-here'
}

That is it. If it is working, you can open a browser and navigate to 127.0.0.1:3010 to check it out. You can exit by pressing CTRL + C.
9. In the last step, create a systemctl service so that ThunderHub starts automatically and in the background.

Code:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/thunderhub.service

Paste all of the following:

[Unit]
Description=Thunderhub
Wants=lnd.service
After=network.target lnd.service

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/lightning/hunderhub/thunderhub
ExecStart=/usr/bin/npm run start:prod

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemctl, enable and start the service.

Code:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable thunderhub.service
sudo systemctl start thunderhub.service

Disclaimer: This guide is meant to provide help in the users that decide to install Lightning. I am not responsible for any issues that may lead to you losing any amount of Bitcoin because of this. You are your own bank, and as such you are solely responsible for any losses that occur.

[Satofan44]

Part 2: Opening a Channel

This part of the guide will provide some basic usage instructions for the wallets that were handled in part 1. To start, you can locate nodes on this website https://1ml.com/. What is important to remember is that nodes do not have to advertise their minimum channel size, so you may need to try several before you find one that has an appropriate minimum channel size for you. You will need information that is found from the overview of a node. Here is an example https://1ml.com/node/03c2abfa93eacec04721c019644584424aab2ba4dff3ac9bdab4e9c97007491dda.

03c2abfa93eacec04721c019644584424aab2ba4dff3ac9bdab4e9c97007491dda@13.113.39.53:9735

This is the nodeID@ip:port. You will need this from a node to connect to it.


Eclair
For more usage information about Eclair, refer to the official information here and here. Please keep in mind that the CLI will ask for your API password at every step of the way, that is the password that you have configured in eclair.conf.

1. First create a wallet address in bitcoin-cli and fund it. To do this you need to run the following commands:

Code:

bitcoin-cli getnewaddress

This will return an address to you. Send some BTC to it, for example 150 000 satoshi which is 0.001500 BTC. After you send it, let it get 6 confirmations and then you should check if it was done correctly.

Code:

bitcoin-cli getbalance

If you receive your balance as a response, you have done this correctly and can proceed to the next step.

2. Connect to the node that you have picked, and make sure to input the nodeID@ip:port correctly. The easiest way is to copy information from that lightning explorer previously linked.

Code:

eclair-cli connect --uri=nodeID@ip:port

If it worked, you will receive the response "connected". If not, try other nodes.

3. Open a channel to the node, for this you just need to use the nodeID this time.

Code:

eclair-cli open --nodeId=nodeID --fundingSatoshis=140000

Please make note that if the minimum funding channel size is greater than 140 000 satoshi this will return an error like this:

peer aborted channel funding flow: 'chan size of 0.00140000 BTC is below min chan size of 0.01000000 BTC'.

In this case you have 2 choices. If you wish to create bigger channels and have more BTC, you can increase the -fundingSatoshis= part of the call to the CLI. If not, then you can keep searching for nodes until you find one that has a minimum that is smaller than your funding transaction.

With a successfully opened channel, you are connected to another lightning node and are now able to make payments. If you have an invoice from somewhere you can make a payment using eclair-cli.

Code:

eclair-cli payinvoice --invoice=invoiceHere

LND
1. In the installation part you created a wallet. Now after starting LND you must unlock the wallet.

Code:

lncli unlock

If you have done it correctly, you should see the following:

lnd successfully unlocked!

2. Generate a new native segwit address.

Code:

lncli newaddress p2wkh

3. Send BTC to the address that you have received as a response to the previous command. It should be enough to cover the channels that you want to open and any fees. In our case, send at least 0.001500 BTC to this address. Afterwards, verify the balance using lncli.

Code:

lncli walletbalance

This will return an address to you. Send some BTC to it, for example 150 000 satoshi which is 0.001500 BTC. After you send it, let confirm and then you can check your balance.

Code:

bitcoin-cli getbalance

If you receive your balance as a response, you have done this correctly and can proceed to the next step.

4. Find a node you would like to open a channel with using https://1ml.com/. You will need the nodeID, IP and port from there. In the example below I will use a fee-rate of 10 sat per vbyte, but check the recommended fees using https://mempool.space/ when you attempt this part. What you need to keep in mind is that LND has some more reserve requirements so you may not be able to use your whole balance when opening a channel. Read more about it on this link https://docs.lightning.engineering/lightning-network-tools/lnd/first-steps-with-lnd.

Code:

lncli openchannel --node_key nodeIDhere --connect ipHere:portHere --local_amt 100000 --sat_per_vbyte 10

If you have done this correctly, you should see a response like this:

{
"funding_txid": "TxID"
}

With this step you have successfully opened a channel, are now able to make payments on lightning. If you have an invoice from somewhere you can make a payment using lncli.

Code:

lncli payinvoice lnbc10u1p30rExampleInvoice

Core Lightning

[Satofan44]

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Question: What do the configuration options that are used in Bitcoin Core mean?
Answer:

daemon=1 # This option will start the ./bitcoind as a background daemon.
server=1  # This option enables it to accept JSON-RPC commands.
txindex=1 # This indexes the data of any transaction of the blockchain, it is required for LN.
wallet=wallet1 # This specifies that it should load a wallet called wallet1 on startup.
rpcuser=yourusername # Please specify the RPC username that you will use, this will be needed later when configuring the lightning network.
rpcpassword=yourpassword # Please specify the RPC password that you will use, this will be needed later when configuring the lightning network.

# ZMQ is a lightweight protocol that is needed for lightning. You can read more about it here: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/zmq.md.
zmqpubrawblock=tcp://127.0.0.1:29000
zmqpubhashblock=tcp://127.0.0.1:29000
zmqpubrawtx=tcp://127.0.0.1:29001

Question: I have an error in Eclair that says "mining fee is higher than budget". What does it mean?
Answer: This means that the current fee estimate is higher than the funding amount of your channel. If you are using a reasonable channel size, such as 100 000 satoshi and this keeps happening there is an issue with the fee-estimation of Eclair. You can always check the value of the channel you want to fund and the expected fee: https://www.kraken.com/learn/satoshi-to-usd-converter. To solve this, you must specify another option in the connect call called fundingFeeBudgetSatoshis. In the example below, I set 2000 satoshi which is a budget of $2. The software will pay the appropriate fee itself without going over this maximum. When I did this myself, it only needed to pay 170 sat out of the allocated budget.

Code:

eclair-cli open --nodeId=ID --fundingSatoshis=100000 --fundingFeeBudgetSatoshis=2000

Question: I have an error from Thunderhub Error 14 UNAVAILABLE: No connection established.
Answer: This means that Thunderhub is not able to connect to LND. This can be caused by many things, but we will address the common ones. Make sure that the port in the ThunderHub configuration matches the one that LND is running on. Afterwards, make sure that LND is actually running. LND will shut down it it fails to connect to Bitcoin Core. Bitcoin Core may not be running if you have restarted your system.


More questions and answers coming soon.  

[Mahiyammahi]

I don't know about other LN wallet , but i recently tried to install LND wallet. I faced some issue and these will be most common issue everyone will face if they tried to run one.

1. Bitcoin Core file location(Since everyone just instal .exe file and run no one actually notice this, later for finding bitcoin.conf is gets hard)
2. LND don't run on prune mode(Maxinum user run bitcoin node in prune mode , since it's eat up lot's of storage)
3. Your shared method for LND is for Linux you should mentioned it. Maximum user use Windows for their operating system.
4. Lot of user's are not compatible with Cmd (Command Promt) , In cmd password don't shows even if you type some user may misunderstood like me for the first time that their cmd had stuck.
5. To verify and create wallet we need to open another Cmd portal for it for windows.
6. Windows + R = cmd ; only this command promt worked for me , By searching Cmd on windows and works from there not working for me.
7. For windows only Zip file works , I think you tried for Linux thats why there was tar.zip on your guide

This was the Bitcoin Core node run contest which one had done by lots of forum user since it is easy to run -
🔥 Whale.io [CHALLENGE] Run A Bitcoin Node: 14 Days To 14 Merits
Since your this topic is related to bitcoin core node run, I think you should consider the Windows + prune mode option. Add a solution there for this if you can.

Or try to reach me , I can help you to go through this since you made this thread with a lot's of eefort.

[Satofan44]

1. Bitcoin Core file location(Since everyone just instal .exe file and run no one actually notice this, later for finding bitcoin.conf is gets hard)

Yes, but at least looking up information for this works. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

2. LND don't run on prune mode(Maxinum user run bitcoin node in prune mode , since it's eat up lot's of storage)

I personally don't recommend running prune mode. I either recommend using other wallets as your main wallet, having a fully synchronized node or both. Remember this is a personal recommendation, there is nothing wrong in using pruned Bitcoin Core in principle.

3. Your shared method for LND is for Linux you should mentioned it. Maximum user use Windows for their operating system.

For two reasons:

• I wanted to get one working version online first.
• I generally don't recommend windows. If you have enough money in Bitcoin or you are earning money from something like a signature campaign here you should invest some of that money. You can run a full node on a dedicated server for $35. This will give better security, privacy, uptime and you get to learn Linux simultaneously.

That being said, I understand that a lot of people will not be able to do this or want to do this. That is why I am open to having a version for Windows too. In that case, the whole thread will need to be a bit reformatted. I am still learning how to best do this here, past experience with different forums only helps as much.

Since your this topic is related to bitcoin core node run, I think you should consider the Windows + prune mode option. Add a solution there for this if you can.

Or try to reach me , I can help you to go through this since you made this thread with a lot's of eefort.

I'll take a break after finishing c-lightning, and then we can see. We can collaborate if you are available at that time. All you need to do is provide me information from your journey and I can write it down nicely.


Thanks for the post, good contribution.  

[Satofan44]

I've made some updates. eclair-cli is now globally accessible, I've added eclair usage instructions and I've solved the bug that I had with eclair. Next I will add LND and core lightning usage instructions.

[DYING_S0UL]

Not sure whether this topic belongs in this board because your guide has a lot of technical stuffs that might be complex for new users. 
But as you may be aware that this is Beginning and Help board. I personally haven't read your topic properly but I noticed a lot of terms related to Bitcoin. So I assume this topic may be fit for Technical and Bitcoin based boards (could be wrong though).

[Satofan44]

Not sure whether this topic belongs in this board because your guide has a lot of technical stuffs that might be complex for new users. 
But as you may be aware that this is Beginning and Help board. I personally haven't read your topic properly but I noticed a lot of terms related to Bitcoin. So I assume this topic may be fit for Technical and Bitcoin based boards (could be wrong though).

Thanks for the input. Feel free to report it if you want, maybe a moderator will move it. I wasn't so sure myself, but I decided to post it here for the time being. The nature of lightning network setups is that it can not be much simpler than this, otherwise you are always sacrificing something. For example, I could provide a script file that simply chains all the commands together and simplifies a bit the process. But how does a beginner verify that the script file does not include malicious commands? Sure, there is some kind of trust system here so seniors can aid in this process. But if we encourage beginners to use premade script files from strangers online, they will end up doing it at other places where such system does not exist. Eventually this will lead to a negative outcome.

The guide for Windows should be much simpler, but that will require a some time and assistance from other users. 

[Mahiyammahi]

Not sure whether this topic belongs in this board because your guide has a lot of technical stuffs that might be complex for new users. 
But as you may be aware that this is Beginning and Help board. I personally haven't read your topic properly but I noticed a lot of terms related to Bitcoin. So I assume this topic may be fit for Technical and Bitcoin based boards (could be wrong though).

Belive me it is that level of headache that a pro user may need a guideline for this. I'm running this node it's been 2day. I pulled through the first stage by syncing it. Hardest part one is getting a thunderweb page. I spent a whole day but didn't get any result.

Satofan44 made a great decision by creating a guide for this. I'm looking forward to his next step guide.
DYING_S0UL you should try this , only three member's truly able to sync this on the forum.

I think a bangla translation topic won't be bad for this , After finished Satofan44 work's maybe I should do it.

[DYING_S0UL]

Not sure whether this topic belongs in this board because your guide has a lot of technical stuffs that might be complex for new users. 
But as you may be aware that this is Beginning and Help board. I personally haven't read your topic properly but I noticed a lot of terms related to Bitcoin. So I assume this topic may be fit for Technical and Bitcoin based boards (could be wrong though).

Belive me it is that level of headache that a pro user may need a guideline for this. I'm running this node it's been 2day. I pulled through the first stage by syncing it. Hardest part one is getting a thunderweb page. I spent a whole day but didn't get any result.

Satofan44 made a great decision by creating a guide for this. I'm looking forward to his next step guide.
DYING_S0UL you should try this , only three member's truly able to sync this on the forum.

I think a bangla translation topic won't be bad for this , After finished Satofan44 work's maybe I should do it.

schedule man schedule! I am not able to make up enough time for anything. Going through the busiest phase of my life! Also I am not able to understand some part of the guide! Lets see whether I can run it or not!

Regarding translation, I don't think it is a good idea. This guide is certainly not beginner friendly! You should choose another!

[Satofan44]

Not sure whether this topic belongs in this board because your guide has a lot of technical stuffs that might be complex for new users.  
But as you may be aware that this is Beginning and Help board. I personally haven't read your topic properly but I noticed a lot of terms related to Bitcoin. So I assume this topic may be fit for Technical and Bitcoin based boards (could be wrong though).

Belive me it is that level of headache that a pro user may need a guideline for this. I'm running this node it's been 2day. I pulled through the first stage by syncing it. Hardest part one is getting a thunderweb page. I spent a whole day but didn't get any result.

Satofan44 made a great decision by creating a guide for this. I'm looking forward to his next step guide.
DYING_S0UL you should try this , only three member's truly able to sync this on the forum.

I think a bangla translation topic won't be bad for this , After finished Satofan44 work's maybe I should do it.

schedule man schedule! I am not able to make up enough time for anything. Going through the busiest phase of my life! Also I am not able to understand some part of the guide! Lets see whether I can run it or not!

Regarding translation, I don't think it is a good idea. This guide is certainly not beginner friendly! You should choose another!

As to not understanding a part of the guide, for these kinds of things it is best to follow the steps and then see where you actually get stuck. Once you do, you can post about it here and I'll try to help you. Take your time, when you are more available try it. I would rate this kind of setup as high difficulty, and likely less than 1% of users will ever manage to complete something like this.

It is still worth trying though. Especially if you want to improve your Linux abilities or learn about Lightning.  I have learned a great deal by trying to do this and writing it.  

[Satofan44]

LND instructions added, opening a channel was easy. I also added ThunderHub instructions. The missing piece is instructions how to use c-lightning and after that we can consider other operating systems.

[LoyceV]

I will work in the /home/ folder
~
3. The default data directory is /root/.bitcoin

If you're writing a Beginners guide, please follow best practices! Running software as root is bad terrible practice! Read Why Not to Use Root User? or any of the countless other websites that tell you not to do this. Use sudo apt install when needed, but don't give higher permissions than necessary to anything running on your system. Linux is a multi-user system, learn to use it to your advantage.

Easy solution: create a new user "for instance lightning", and install everything from there. Install in /home/lightning, and don't give root access to anything that doesn't need it.

[Satofan44]

I will work in the /home/ folder
~
3. The default data directory is /root/.bitcoin

If you're writing a Beginners guide, please follow best practices! Running software as root is bad terrible practice! Read Why Not to Use Root User? or any of the countless other websites that tell you not to do this. Use sudo apt install when needed, but don't give higher permissions than necessary to anything running on your system. Linux is a multi-user system, learn to use it to your advantage.

Easy solution: create a new user "for instance lightning", and install everything from there. Install in /home/lightning, and don't give root access to anything that doesn't need it.

There are several things that can be improved here but how much should be included in the guide is the question. Most guides online will not have the information that you are suggesting, and you don't even want to know how most altcoin blockchains run most of their setups. Generally I don't order people to create user accounts, I let them decide how they want to run it. Root or not, they can make their choice. The same goes with folder permissions.


I'll consider it. Someone else is free to help, but I doubt that the more I see things clearly around here. Thanks for the contribution. Just remember, don't let perfect be the enemy of good.  

[LoyceV]

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.  

Using a user-account instead of root is the basics of the basics. What you're recommending isn't "good", it's bad practice. It really doesn't do justice to the effort you put into this topic, and I don't think you fully grasp the imporance: your entire system security is at jeopardy this way, while you're dealing with irreversible digital cash.

I'll consider it.

That's something

For what it's worth: recommending to run anything as root is the reason I didn't drop 42 Merits on your OP.

[Satofan44]

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.  

Using a user-account instead of root is the basics of the basics. What you're recommending isn't "good", it's bad practice. It really doesn't do justice to the effort you put into this topic, and I don't think you fully grasp the imporance: your entire system security is at jeopardy this way, while you're dealing with irreversible digital cash.

I am not saying that my recommendation on running root good, I was trying to say that the guide is good... as for the second part, I see this just a bit differently. Nobody should be denying the fact that it is risky, but it does not necessarily help in dealing with newbies this way. I've dealt with many over the years, and they even get confused about what their current directory is. Then it becomes a balancing act of how you will approach these things in every Linux guide. As I said, most guides do not mention anything about it. There are trade-off between all options.

• Push the user to create user account without a proper explanation. They probably ignore it for other things they do.
• Push the user to create user account and provide a thorough explanation. Each guide will get much bigger which may scare newbies away and they will be repetitive.
• Push the user to create user account with a link to a proper explanation... and so on the list goes.

I will add it with an external link and I hope that they learn though.

I'll consider it.

That's something
For what it's worth: recommending to run anything as root is the reason I didn't drop 42 Merits on your topic.

It was not really my intention to make a recommendation for that  , it is just the way I verified all the commands work and how I managed to get a working configuration (there's no harm doing this on a server that has nothing running and gets shut down when the experiment is over). You see there that I mention we will work in the home folder and then for that part I mention root.

As I explained in the guide, I didn't just go and collect commands to stitch them up into something that may work. In any case, please keep in mind that I am not trying to say that I should not make this correction. I am just demonstrating how it came to be and sharing some thoughts that I generally have on this topic. The first version had even more fragments and root blunders, luckily you didn't see it.   I will redo all the steps myself as a new user to verify that everything works as advertised here, I’d appreciate it if you could take another look then.  

[Satofan44]

I'll consider it.

That's something

My choice of wording here was poor. What I meant to say with consider is rather to review or to evaluate. What I think happened is that I intended to write ~/.bitcoin instead of /root/.bitcoin, but I wrote the latter erroneously because I was working with that configuration and under which they are the same. After that I continued to make errors while editing the commands between my setup and the intended target, as you may have seen that there was a mix of root and home folder being used. However, since such a blunder was already pointed out I considered going with your suggestion of guiding the user to create a new account for this and have everything be done using that. Sudo is only called where needed. I decided not to go with the approach of having a non sudo user, as this would require a lot of switching back and forth and would be probably more trouble than it is worth for most users.

I had to rework different parts to get it working again, and during this process I encountered more errors in the guide which I have corrected. Some other parts were optimized and made more consistent, e.g., now it has full paths instead of mixed use of ~/ and full paths. If you have some spare time, please take another look. Thank you.

If someone finds more issues, please let me know here or by private message.

[Yanghudi]

I got inspired from trying to participate in NotATether's Lightning challenge

i see there it requires us to have some satoshi to make transactions on the node can it still run without having satoshi

[Satofan44]

I got inspired from trying to participate in NotATether's Lightning challenge

i see there it requires us to have some satoshi to make transactions on the node can it still run without having satoshi

You can run a node, but you need money to create channels to others. There's not much point in having a node for LN if you aren't going to use it.