It is no longer possible to use a Raspberry Pi 2/3 for SolarCoin, the RAM requirements of the blockchain have exceeded 1GB, however Raspberry Pi 4 may work, try 4GB version for maximum longevity
Instructions to build a SolarCoin full node on Raspberry Pi, for future proofing SBCs with higher RAM may be needed, for a Rock64 install see https://github.com/jegb/solarcoin-legacy/wiki/Rock64-node
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1 - THIS GUIDE ONLY WORKS ON RASPBIAN STRETCH
You will need to be able to open the command line Terminal either using a screen on the HDMI port with a keyboard and mouse, or via SSH. The guide will compile a version of SolarCoin that can only be controlled via the command line.
For instructions on how to flash an SD card: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/
2- Setup Raspbian in the Pi
a) Insert the flashed SD with Raspbian in the Raspberry Pi 2/3.
b) Plug in the USB mouse, the USB keyboard, the HDMI screen, the network cable, and the power cable. You may also SSH to the Raspberry Pi.
The Raspberry Pi will boot for the first time, login with user 'pi' and password 'raspberry'.
sudo raspi-config
You will be presented with the Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool (raspi-config). To navigate in this tool, the useful keys are: The up/down arrow, the Enter key, and the Tab key whenever the up/down arrow keys don’t do the job. Here, we will do next things:
b.1) Expand the Filesystem by choosing Option 1, TAB to Finish, and Reboot. You will get a message Root partition has been resized. If you are on SSH your terminal may abort, if this occurs just close the session and login to the Pi again.
b.2) Select your Proper Time Zone and Change the User Password by choosing option 2. Enter your new password twice. When entering the password, the characters won’t be displayed as a security feature. You will get a message Password changed successfully. After reboot check the time is correct with:
date
b.3) OPTIONAL If you don’t intend to use a display (ie you are on SSH), or output any video media we can free up additional RAM by reducing the amount dedicated to the GPU
sudo raspi-config
Select Advanced Options > Memory Split
Change the entry from 64 to 16
TAB to FINISH and Reboot
b.4) OPTIONAL (not needed if using desktop): If you have a Pi3 with internal Wi-Fi on SSH and would prefer to connect to the Pi via Wi-Fi; then edit the wpa_supplicant.conf file
sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Add the following lines
network={
ssid="YOURWIFISSID"
psk="YOURWIFIPSK"
}
CTRL+X to save, Y to confirm and then hit Enter
sudo reboot
Disconnect the Ethernet cable and find your new IP address in your Wi-Fi router.
3- Update the Raspberry Pi device.
Run the following commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
4- Setting up the Raspberry Pi for compiling SolarCoin
a- Use the following command to change the default swap size:
sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile
Make sure it reads CONF_SWAPSIZE=1024 Use the left/right arrow keys to navigate the file. After change is done, press Ctrl+X followed by Y then Enter key to save the file. Use the following commands to enable the swap file with its new size:
sudo dphys-swapfile setup
NOTE: This may take a few minutes
sudo dphys-swapfile swapon
You can check the new active swap size with next command:
free -m
Reduce the 'swappiness' so as to only use SWAP when absolutely needed:
sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf
add
vm.swappiness=1
as the last line then CTRL+X, Y and Enter to save.
b- Install Required Dependencies with next commands:
sudo apt-get install autoconf libevent-dev libtool libssl-dev libboost-all-dev libminiupnpc-dev libdb-dev libzip-dev libdb5.3++ libdb5.3++-dev git rng-tools -y
We installed rng-tools to give us really good random number generation entropy, we just need to make one change to the configuration file
sudo nano /etc/default/rng-tools
In the file uncomment (remove the # symbol) from this line
HRNGDEVICE=/dev/hwrng
CTRL+X, Enter & Y to save
sudo reboot
** If you are on SSH you will lose connection, log back in to continue **
5- Clone the SolarCoin Github, compile and install the client / node with following commands:
cd
git clone https://github.com/solarcoin/solarcoin-wallet-stable
cd solarcoin-wallet-stable
git checkout compile-revisions
NOTE: ** This will create a new directory /home/pi/solarcoin-legacy **
cd src
sudo make -f makefile.unix -e PIE=1
NOTE: ** This is going to take a long time, go and make a cup of tea **
sudo strip solarcoind
sudo install -m 755 solarcoind /usr/local/bin/solarcoind
cd
6- Start the SolarCoin daemon with:
solarcoind
NOTE ** This will auto-create a new directory /home/pi/.solarcoin which will contain your wallet.dat and blockchain files **
NOTE ** This is not the same as /home/pi/solarcoin that was created in step 5 **
NOTE ** When executing the next commands be careful to use the right one **
NOTE ** If you connected via SSH you may need to close the terminal and login again **
7- You may get a warning and need to create a solarcoin.conf file, don’t worry:
cd .solarcoin
sudo nano solarcoin.conf
Enter the following:
addnode=162.243.214.120
addnode=139.162.244.34
addnode=88.198.92.47
addnode=solarhost.ddns.net
addnode=nlsolarcoin.ddns.net
addnode=94.124.215.192
server=1
daemon=1
rpcuser=solarcoinrpc
rpcpassword= ** enter a secure password **
listen=1 ** if you want a fullnode that listens for connections, you will need to enable port forwarding on your router on port 18188 as we have not complied for UPNP **
Hit CTRL+X, Y and Enter to save the file:
cd
solarcoind
8- To check if SolarCoin is running:
solarcoind getinfo
NOTE ** If you see error: couldn't connect to server, don’t worry, it just means the program is still starting up, keep trying every 30 seconds until it works **
9- OPTIONAL: Move the blockchain/wallet to a USB drive, recommended to reduce wear on the SD card:
NOTE ** Users with a distro that has a desktop, you may find that when you insert a USB drive, this is automatically mounted, probably somewhere in /media, you may want to look at lpninjas instructions in https://github.com/Scalextrix/SolarCoin-Raspberry-Pi-Node/blob/master/StorageonUSBforROKOS.md as a better guide for this section **
Insert a USB drive, then:
solarcoind stop
cd /media
sudo mkdir disk1
sudo fdisk -l
** find an entry like /dev/sda1, could be different on your device **
sudo mount /dev/sda1 disk1
cd
sudo nano /etc/fstab
Add the following underneath the rows already present:
/dev/sda1 /media/disk1 auto defaults 1 2
Hit CTRL+X to save, Y to confirm and Enter
mv .solarcoin /media/disk1
ln -s /media/disk1/.solarcoin .solarcoin
solarcoind
10- IMPORTANT: Encrypt and back up your wallet and keep it on at least one other device!
solarcoind encryptwallet enter your secure passphrase here
** NOTE: Never lose your passphrase or all your coins are lost, forever! Never share your passphrase with anyone or they can steal your coins! Longer passphrases are more secure**
solarcoind walletpassphrase enter your secure passphrase here 9999999
Insert (another if you followed option 9) USB drive:
sudo mkdir /media/usb
sudo fdisk -l
** find an entry like /dev/sdb1, could be different on your device **
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/usb
solarcoind backupwallet /home/pi/wallet.dat
sudo mv wallet.dat /media/usb/wallet.dat ** you will see this message, dont worry "mv: failed to preserve ownership for ‘/media/usb/wallet.dat’: Operation not permitted" **
sudo umount /dev/sdb1
Remove the USB drive
11- Run SolarCoin as a service, this will ensure proper shutdown and startup, and will restart SolarCoin in case of failure
solarcoind stop
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/solarcoind.service
Enter the following in the file:
[Unit]
Description=SolarCoin daemon services
After=tlp-init.service
[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/home/pi/.solarcoin/solarcoind.pid
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/solarcoind
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
User=pi
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
CTRL X, Y and Enter to save
sudo systemctl enable solarcoind.service
sudo systemctl start solarcoind.service
systemctl status solarcoind.service
You should see an enabled service with a 'PID' number
That is it; you now have a SolarCoin node on your Raspberry Pi. You need to wait for the block-chain to sync, this may take several days! If you forget a command
solarcoind help
is useful, or see https://github.com/Scalextrix/SolarCoin-Raspberry-Pi-Node/blob/master/Useful-SolarCoin-Daemon-Commands.md
** Once the block-chain is synced, its advisable to keep regular backups (I do mine monthly) of the SD card image, in this way if you have a hardware or software problem you will be able to get back up and running quickly without re-installing everything, here is a guide: https://lifehacker.com/how-to-clone-your-raspberry-pi-sd-card-for-super-easy-r-1261113524 **
Any tips to my SLR address: 8cESoZyjFvx2Deq6VjQLqPfAwu8UXjcBkK Thanks