Raspiblitz: Raspiblitz installation on a VM

[BlockHackTk]

Hello,
I would like to ask for some help that I didn't get on the Raspiblitz Telegram.

I'm trying to run raspiblitz on a virtual machine. I just bought a Freebox V6 internet box on which you can run a VM in ARM!
Here is a link to a tutorial to install a Bitcoin Core Node

So I tried on a Debian Buster VM to run the wget command
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz/master/build_sdcard.sh && sudo bash build_sdcard.sh

Everything goes well and I'm at the end of the installation, but I have a problem with the HDD.
I have a message that it is not connected (the HDD). I have to connect a HDD in Usb for it to be recognized.

The next problem is that the Network line of the config file is not filled and I have a problem.
If I enter Bitcoin and Main in the file, I manage to move forward, but when I'm asked to download the Blockchain, I get a count from 0 to 200 and then it comes back to the start message to download the Blockchain.

I have some screenshots that I can share with you. I'm going to start again and make a recording of what happens to share it with you.

Maybe with your help I could make a tutorial to share with Freebox Delta S users.

An internet box is always running, H24 7/7 I think it's a good opportunity to run a bitcoin node and get interested in bitcoin.
Free is a french FAI (in french) or ISP (Internet Service Provider)

I hope I wouldn't be the only owner of this box to want to try the adventure? I have the basic knowledge of Linux that I've been using for more than 20 years.

[adevoss]

@BlockHackTk Please try #1297
Possible data partitions are /dev/sdXn and /dev/vdXn (X a-z and n=1..9)

What is the data partition on your VM? Do you use a 'real' usb drive or a virtual drive (file act as drive)
I can test the installation on my VM if that's of any help.
My VM isn't arm but I can rename (link) the data partition to what your data partition is called.

[BlockHackTk]

Next

Thank you for your answers. I managed to move forward a little but now I don't stumble over the same mistake anymore.
This freebox can be used as a NAS, there is the possibility to put 4 3.5" hard disks inside.
For the moment, there are 2 disks, one of 160Gb and one of 750Gb, I put a 500Gb hard disk on the USB-A port, there is also a USB-C port but I don't have the hardware to use it for the moment.
I'm going to invest in two SSDs, especially for the blockchain which will be in USB, it's the only way I can get the disk detected during the installation and I would respect the @Openoms instructions.
The operation is as follows:
we can install distributions, there is the choice and they are .qcow2 files that are downloaded.
We determine a size for the VM system partition.
Sorry I'm new to VM.
I'll try to give you the partition table.
@ChuckNorrison I didn't understand very well what you're asking for

[BlockHackTk]

Now I get to the password request C then I stop here
Generating new Wallet .... Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/admin/config.scripts/lnd.initwallet.py", line 7, in <module> import grpc ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'grpc' FAIL!! -> MISSING seedwords data - but also no err data ?!? CHECK output data above - PRESS ENTER to restart 70initLND.sh

[BlockHackTk]

and now
`* Copy LND Macaroons to user admin *
checking LND wallet ... (can take some time)
manual input
calling: lncli unlock
unkown error

#

Calling: lncli unlock
Please re-enter Password C:
Input wallet password:
[lncli] rpc error: code = Unknown desc = wallet not found
--> OK LND wallet unlocked
ls: cannot access '/home/bitcoin/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon': No such file or directory

FAIL - LND Macaroons not created
Please check the following LND issue:
https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/issues/890
You may want try again with starting ./70initLND.sh`

I think I'll come back when I've invested in SSDs.
and I will give you the information you asked me for.

[BlockHackTk]

`admin@ttets:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/vda: 100 GiB, 107374186496 bytes, 209715208 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 344B7EF9-4A32-4BB5-9356-40E028F26688

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/vda1 2048 206848 204801 100M EFI System
/dev/vda2 208896 209715174 209506279 99.9G Linux filesystem

Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: External
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 1ADBD983-FFD9-4F56-BF44-0568713C381F

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 976773119 976771072 465.8G Linux filesystem
admin@ttets:~$ `

[BlockHackTk]

> Do you use a 'real' usb drive or a virtual drive (file act as drive)
I'm using the :
Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: External
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 1ADBD983-FFD9-4F56-BF44-0568713C381F

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 976773119 976771072 465.8G Linux filesystem

[BlockHackTk]

My debug output
https://termbin.com/cjisz

[adevoss]

@BlockHackTk
What release did you install? Did you use my repository (adevoss/adevoss-more-datadrive-options-ext4)?
My repository is v1.6 with my pull request.
With rootzoll/v1.6 your datadrive MUST be /dev/sda1.
From your debug info:

*** MOUNTED DRIVES ***
/dev/vda2      ext4     103154728 3936848  94995728   4% /
/dev/sda1      ext4     479669928 4213856 451020412   1% /mnt/hdd

Data partition is OK (/dev/sda1) using ext4.
What did you gave as root partition when you first installed? /dev/vda2 should work when you use my repository.
The root partition of a Raspberry Pi is /dev/mmcblk0p2. If you leave that default that could give unexpected results.

[adevoss]

Tested again with both repos. The trick with linking /dev/sda1 did not work.
@BlockHackTk Please test it yourself with my repo.

rootzoll/v1.6:
Had to add this line to /etc/fstab after executing install script.
/dev/vdb2 /mnt/hdd ext4 noexec,defaults 0 2
Where vdb2 is my data partition

adevoss/adevoss-more-datadrive-options-ext4:
Installation went fine.

With both repos LND won't start. Similar errors as https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz/issues/1500#issuecomment-683468323
Can't help you with that. Sorry.

[ChuckNorrison]

In the related issue of your log, LND was not working cause of a small swap partition. Maybe you should try some suggestions on your LND error from this thread:
https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/issues/890

[BlockHackTk]

Thank you for all these ideas.
I order RAM and SSD to match the recommended specifications.
In the meantime I'll explore what you've explained to me and get back to you.
@adevoss Your repo is interesting, I'll take a closer look at it.

[ChuckNorrison]

Iam interested in a RaspiBlitz environment without usage of raspi hardware too :+1: Maybe you can debug the setup steps to the point of first failure and analyze the dependencies on it.

Sounds the /mnt/hdd part worked so far but the lnd macaroons are not created as expected. This should be done while setup lnd from 70initLND.sh

[rootzoll]

Adding this to the v1.7 release .. still a bit as a research topic. But I also like to run RaspiBlitz for Development and with v1.7 I will refactor the setup process anyway - so to look into VM install makes also sense at this point.

But there seems very different "ideas" of running a VM needs to look like. @BlockHackTk you talk aboz a VM running on a Freebox, I would target a VirtualBox VM and @ChuckNorrison whats your target?

Also the question is where to store the blockchain? Would it be still on an external HDD that gets connetced to the VM?

Or @frennkie you liked the option to use an external bitcoind .. can we proxy and external bitcoind locally with all needed interfaces (bitcoin-cli & RPC) so that it looks for the rest of the RaspiBlitz as the bitcoind is running locally. And all the other scripts would need to work that there is no blockchain storage locally. Is all that work, worth of also doing this option?

[nolith]

I was working a on a vagrant setup. My main goal is testing new features on VM before the final test on the real HW.

I have a packer script that builds a vagrant bootable RaspiBlitz VirtualBox VM based on the mentioned PR.

I don;t have my computer with me at the moment, but IIRC one of the base config script was failing and I have to debug why.

It's a bit hard to make use of vagrant development capabilities because RaspiBlitz is designed to copy stuff in the user home, but the home contains also other things and it's not trivial to mount it from the developer machine.

I plan to write a vagrant provisioning script that will install a boot script that simply links files in /vagrant/admin.home/ into /home/admin.

Consider the amount of time I'm investing in this, it could have been cheaper to simply buy an extra rpi4 for development 😂

[ChuckNorrison]

@rootzoll I would like to run the RaspiBlitz in Xen or ESXi virtualization environment. I would like to use Ubuntu 20 LTS for that RaspiBlitz installation. Maybe a docker container setup could be fine to make it more portable.

[rootzoll]

@ChuckNorrison and @nolith how would you do the blockchain storage with the VM?

[ChuckNorrison]

I did a setup of a xen based citrix hypervisor 8.2. I would add a second partition or better a second vhd disk. Currently it is hard-coded to /mnt/hdd. A vhd disk would be configured within the partition table.

Path could be in example /blockchain rather than /mnt/hdd.

Alternatively /mnt/hdd is fine if mapped to NFS share or something.

// mount vhd for blockchain data manually to /mnt/hdd could be a possibility too

// we got some dependencies on the hostname raspberrypi? This host will have a different name.

[nolith]

I have a "working" vagrant VM (virtualbox) for development purpose running on testnet. You can see it https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz/pull/1523

I've declared a secondary disk in vagrant and build my stuff on top of https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz/pull/1297

In my experience there is a bug for my setup on that MR, but I managed to overcome it running the installation scripts manually as I wrote in https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz/pull/1297#issuecomment-689433009