What Will I Learn?
- How to setup your Pi (or other Single Board Computer) ready for compiling
- How to make the compile and get your SBC/Pi syncing the block-chain
Requirements
- Raspberry pi 2 or 3 or other SBC with at least 1GB RAM
- Able to access the terminal from destop or via SSH
Difficulty
- Intermediate
Tutorial Link
Tutorial Text
Gui-SolarCoin-Raspberry-Pi-Node
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
PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH USE OR OTHER DEALINGS.
1 - THIS GUIDE WORKS ON RASPBIAN STRETCH, DOWNLOADS AVAILABLE FROM https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/
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 has a GUI interface via desktop environment.
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 libqrencode-dev libqt5webkit5-dev qt5-qmake libqt5gui5 libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 qttools5-dev-tools libminiupnpc-dev libdb4.8++ 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:
nano solarcoin-legacy/src/net.cpp
Edit the line that reads 'array<int, THREAD_MAX> vnThreadsRunning;'
*TIP; you can search for the line with CRTL+W
make the line so it reads
boost::array<int, THREAD_MAX> vnThreadsRunning;
CTRL+X, Y and ENTER to save the changes
cd solarcoin-legacy
qmake -qt=qt5
make
NOTE: ** This is going to take a long time, go and make a cup of tea **
sudo install -m 755 solarcoin-qt /usr/local/bin/solarcoin-qt
You are done with the terminal window, and can close it, if you are on SSH you now need to start the desktop environment.
6- Start the SolarCoin-Qt by going to the main menu and opening the Run command:
solarcoin-qt
NOTE: Allow the wallet to sync slowly, do NOT use the block-chain snapshot
** 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 **
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