Armory - Discussion Thread

[MoneypakTrader.com]

While I do plan to upgrade my site to https, it's actually necessary for downloads:  the downloads are hosted at
https://code.google.com/p/bitcoinarmory/downloads/list

That's strange, the downloads linked to from the armory download page are different, non-ssl enabled pages:
http://bitcoinarmory.com/get-armory/
I appreciate you being upfront on the DL page about RAM usage and potential HDD usage, I wish the Bitcoin.org people were so forthcoming, that same type information would go great here: http://bitcoin.org/clients.html

[Ploo]

Am I safe to upgrade to 0.8? Should I bother?

[etotheipi]

Am I safe to upgrade to 0.8? Should I bother?

Yes and Yes. 

Armory 0.87.2 works fine with Bitcoin-Qt 0.8.  And Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind 0.8 is an order of magnitude faster than the previous version.  If you've been offline for a week, you'll be re-syncing in 5 min instead of 2 hours. 

[etotheipi]

That's strange, the downloads linked to from the armory download page are different, non-ssl enabled pages:
http://bitcoinarmory.com/get-armory/

You're right!   It doesn't use the https links!  It looks like there's no problem simple swapping http for https, so I'll go back through my scripts and make sure that's done in the future.  Nice catch!

[dollarbill]

Hi K1773R and etotheipi,
I couldn't find the file bitcoin.conf so I created it and added it to the Bitcoin folder with  "listen=1" as its only content.  I also made the changes in the Armory shortcut
target.  Bitcoin still works but Armory still stays in the Offline mode.  Any suggestions?

[the joint]

On one of my computers, armory only loads up to block 101,000.  It will scan the blockchain and eventually say that Armory is "online," however it won't load past block 101,000.  As such, it states that all of my wallet balances are zero when they clearly aren't zero as indicated by my other computer which is also running armory with watch-only copies (the other computer is intended to be an offline computer, however I'm getting used to armory so I'm making 100% sure that I'm familiar with it and that everything checks out before I dump everything into cold storage).

Has anyone else had a problem getting Armory to recognize the entire blockchain?

[etotheipi]

On one of my computers, armory only loads up to block 101,000.  It will scan the blockchain and eventually say that Armory is "online," however it won't load past block 101,000.  As such, it states that all of my wallet balances are zero when they clearly aren't zero as indicated by my other computer which is also running armory with watch-only copies (the other computer is intended to be an offline computer, however I'm getting used to armory so I'm making 100% sure that I'm familiar with it and that everything checks out before I dump everything into cold storage).

Has anyone else had a problem getting Armory to recognize the entire blockchain?

That means that Armory is not finding the entire blockchain.  My guess is that the first blkfile (128 MB) stores 101,000 blocks.  Armory believes that's the only file you have on your system.  Can you please post the listing of your .bitcoin directory (or C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin)?  Inside that directory is a "blocks" subdirectory (if you are using 0.8).  If that directory is there, can you post that too?

Finally, can you send me the logfile?   You can export it from Armory (File menu), or copy it from .armory/armorylog.txt.  Feel free to browse it for any sensitive information to calm your nerves, but it never includes any security-relevent information (but it may contain evidence that you own certain addresses).

[the joint]

On one of my computers, armory only loads up to block 101,000.  It will scan the blockchain and eventually say that Armory is "online," however it won't load past block 101,000.  As such, it states that all of my wallet balances are zero when they clearly aren't zero as indicated by my other computer which is also running armory with watch-only copies (the other computer is intended to be an offline computer, however I'm getting used to armory so I'm making 100% sure that I'm familiar with it and that everything checks out before I dump everything into cold storage).

Has anyone else had a problem getting Armory to recognize the entire blockchain?

That means that Armory is not finding the entire blockchain.  My guess is that the first blkfile (128 MB) stores 101,000 blocks.  Armory believes that's the only file you have on your system.  Can you please post the listing of your .bitcoin directory (or C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin)?  Inside that directory is a "blocks" subdirectory (if you are using 0.8).  If that directory is there, can you post that too?

Finally, can you send me the logfile?   You can export it from Armory (File menu), or copy it from .armory/armorylog.txt.  Feel free to browse it for any sensitive information to calm your nerves, but it never includes any security-relevent information (but it may contain evidence that you own certain addresses).

I actually posted about this yesterday.  Since then, I reverted back to 6.2 (to stay consistent with the other computer).  I deleted blkindex and am currently rescanning the blockchain with bitcoind.  I figured this might do the trick.  I'll post the results.

[MoneypakTrader.com]

I had issues where windows would hang (but not showing high RAM use, possibly I/O congestion) when running bitcoin/armory.
So, I'm upgrading bitcoin to the 0.8 on windows (64bit).
I have the 0.87 armory atm, should I upgrade? if so, which one would perform the smoothest with least probability of hanging the system? (64/32 etc.)
Thanks, I like the coin control.

[lophie]

Reporting a bug. Don't kill me with "not the place". I am sorry for that!

Bitcoin-QT running (v0.8.0)
Armory (v0.87)

Armory always running in offline mode claiming that Bitcoin-QT isnt running or isnt synchronized (it is btw).

Running ubuntu 12.10 64-bit.

Expectations for the problem:
- The binaries from the PPA are buggy and hangs at block-chain download. So I am using the downloaded binaries from bitcoin.org

Maybe Armory checks a "default" location for bitcoind, bitcoin-qt and doesnt find it so it assumes it is not installed? Sorry again didnt get a chance to check the source code .


Alot of sorries are there. And again I am sorry. Just wanted to report this.

[etotheipi]

Reporting a bug. Don't kill me with "not the place". I am sorry for that!

Bitcoin-QT running (v0.8.0)
Armory (v0.87)

Armory always running in offline mode claiming that Bitcoin-QT isnt running or isnt synchronized (it is btw).

Running ubuntu 12.10 64-bit.

Expectations for the problem:
- The binaries from the PPA are buggy and hangs at block-chain download. So I am using the downloaded binaries from bitcoin.org

Maybe Armory checks a "default" location for bitcoind, bitcoin-qt and doesnt find it so it assumes it is not installed? Sorry again didnt get a chance to check the source code .


Alot of sorries are there. And again I am sorry. Just wanted to report this.

This is the right place.  And stop apologizing!  Bug reports are good.  Thank you.

The install location is not the important part, it's the home directory.  It sounds like you're in Linux, so it's looking for /home/<username>/.bitcoin.  This value can be overridden using the "-datadir" arg when running bitcoind/-qt.  If it is different, run Armory with the " --satoshi-datadir=/path/to/new/home" option.

The other thing it needs is the correct port:  Armory expects to find bitcoind/-qt responding on port 8333.  If you changed that, you need to run Armory with the " --satoshi-port=X" option.

If that doesn't help, can you please email or PM me the end of your log file?  You should be able to export it from Armory in offline mode.

[lophie]

Turned out port 8333 was used? Anyway I started bitcoind on a different port (Still cannot figure out what is using port 8333). And used "python /usr/share/armory/ArmoryQt.py --satoshi-port=8330"

Now all peachy thanks. Just a weird thing. Armory is on the main network. shows balances and all good. But on unity it shows the testnet icon (green) with testnet label.

[etotheipi]

Turned out port 8333 was used? Anyway I started bitcoind on a different port (Still cannot figure out what is using port 8333). And used "python /usr/share/armory/ArmoryQt.py --satoshi-port=8330"

Now all peachy thanks. Just a weird thing. Armory is on the main network. shows balances and all good. But on unity it shows the testnet icon (green) with testnet label.

Weird!  I've never seen that before!  Can you send me a log file?  I can't even think of how that is possible without actually being on testnet.  But Armory is very good about not mixing networks -- it's always checking prefix bytes and magic bytes to make sure you're not connected to the wrong thing.

Glad it's [mostly] working for you!  Let me know if you run into anything else.

[lophie]

too lazy to delete my personal info from it so pmed you the whole thing. 

[etotheipi]

Just tried to do a mass import of private keys into Armory today.

I pasted 4068 private keys into the "import multiple keys" window.
It imported (rather quickly btw, kudos for that) around 3500 keys
and then silently ignored the others

I then tried to import a single instance of the keys it had silently
refused to import and it said something along the lines of :

"no valid private key found".

All of these private keys imported fine in the satoshi client.

Strange.  Can you confirm that they aren't all in your wallet, now?  Just to be sure that it didn't silently succeed!  

If 1-3500 succeeded and it failed at 3501, can you try importing just 3502+ and see if it works?  There's certainly no limit on the number of keys that can be imported, I'm just wondering if there's something funky about the first key that failed.  Also, I suppose something like invisble binary characters in the text stream could be the problem.  Can you try copying and pasting just the 64-hex-chars without any trailing or leading whitespace?  

Also, I doubt this is your problem, but if that key is higher than 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFEBAAEDCE6AF48A03BBFD25E8CD0364141, then it's not actually a valid key and Crypto++ chokes on it.  I have run into this before, when I was making fake keys just to test some armory code and "FF"*32 was causing garbage answers (and frequently segfaults!).  Now that I mention it, I don't know why I don't put a check for this in the GUI... 

EDIT: Just to be clear:  of the 2²⁵⁶ 32-byte integers, the top ~2¹²⁸ are not valid ECDSA keys, approximately 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of them -- no one bothers talking about it because the chance of picking an invalid one by accident is nil.  But if you are creating simple keys manually for whatever reason, it's possible to run into this -- I know at least one other user who has done the same thing!

By the way, I saw your extract-keys pull request... I will look at it in a bit... I'm a bit swamped with things.  But I've been meaning to update the app to be a little more flexible with those things...

[Ente]

A minute ago I noticed a tx in Armory still is at 2 confirmations only.
'bitcoind getinfo' says 223646 blocks,
Armory says 'connected 223630 blocks'.
Armory 0.87, bitcoind 80000.

Anything I should do, like pulling a log or something?
Else I'll just restart Armory or shutdown my pc to get some sleep..

Ente

[Piper67]

A minute ago I noticed a tx in Armory still is at 2 confirmations only.
'bitcoind getinfo' says 223646 blocks,
Armory says 'connected 223630 blocks'.
Armory 0.87, bitcoind 80000.

Anything I should do, like pulling a log or something?
Else I'll just restart Armory or shutdown my pc to get some sleep..

Ente

Mine does that every now and then as well. Only solution I've found is to shut down and restart. Would be great to have a "resync" button... but if the plan is to go with a standalone Armory, that might be unnecessary.

[Ente]

..should do fine, with that hardware.
Hey, people are using a Raspberry Pi for Armory offline wallets! :-)

I, personally, switched from Ubuntu to Debian, some years ago. And I think everybody will only give you their personal opinion, so here's mine ;-)
Also, it seems like a lot of people here use Debian too.

Ente

[wachtwoord]

..should do fine, with that hardware.
Hey, people are using a Raspberry Pi for Armory offline wallets! :-)

Well a Raspberry Pi is actually superior to this system

I, personally, switched from Ubuntu to Debian, some years ago. And I think everybody will only give you their personal opinion, so here's mine ;-)
Also, it seems like a lot of people here use Debian too.

Ente

I managed to actually read and found that for offline systems etotheipi made a offline bundle for Ubuntu 10.0.4 specially so I guess I'll use that. Thanks for your opinion though. I am aware for Linux distro preference taste is a big factor, but figured for this specific use case there might be reasons for one over the other.

[wachtwoord]

While Ubuntu is installing on the system that is going to be my offline system I re-read (I read it the last time a few weeks ago) all the documentation on the Armory website. Everything regarding the issuing of offline transactions is explained very well, I don't think I'll have problems with that. I do have four questions remaining:

1) The wallet generated by Armory is deterministic; if you have access to the root key you can generate all public/private key pairs that will ever be generated for that wallet. In essence you have access to all the funds attributable to the addresses in that wallet. So my question is: can you explain how the entropy generation is handled for generating the initial root when I generate a new wallet and how this is secure?

This came up due to the discussions I read about Vanity address generators that were supposedly insecure. In essence, if you searched for the same search-string on similar hardware the same public/private key came out.

2) I recall from generating a wallet on my main system that, when creating an encrypted wallet, the level of encryption is determined by the speed of the system generating the wallet. Since I am using a crappy computer to generate the wallet will it be secure? Also, can I increase the encryption level manually? (I don't care if it will take the system hours to generate a wallet since it will be a one-time event).

3) If I understand correctly, a paper wallet is a direct representation of the root key that can be used to generate all public/private key pairs that will ever be generated in a wallet AND that this is also true for a encrypted wallet. So:

3a) Won't that circumvent the security of the wallet encryption?  If someone physically gains access to my paper wallet he will still be able to take my funds even though I encrypted the wallet?
3b) Is there a way to make an encrypted paper wallet? Restoring such a paper wallet would require typing in the paper wallet and subsequently decrypting it using the encryption key to decrypt it and once again have access to all public/private key-pairs.

4) You linked to a site explaining how to disable autorun of inserted USB devices on Windows. How can this be done in Ubuntu 10.0.4?

Thanks in advance