Topic: Bitcoin slow to download the block chain? (Read 5331 times)

If it's not too much trouble, could you briefly describe the bug, or point to a thread discussing it?

Please don't turn this into an OS war, I'm sure he meant it as a joke.

Linux is the Bitcoin of operating systems. I have to use it.

Not everybody can (or wants to) buy a Mac.

There are a couple of different problems here:

Problem 1 is that the network is currently destabilizing due to a serious bug. A new emergency release is being prepared, but it will require LOTS of people to upgrade for the network to heal itself. For now, you can work around the instability by running Bitcoin like this:

   bitcoin -connect=69.56.173.164

That will force Bitcoin to use a node I run that is on the latest pre-release version. You should then be able to catch up with the block chain.

Problem 2 is that the Linux binaries aren't compatible with your version of Ubuntu. This is due to the way glibc is versioned, it can be fixed but I guess nobody got around to doing so. One easy solution - don't use Linux

I ran the newest under wine - so you maybe right.

re: "tech-savvy" - LOL, indeed - back in the days when I used to program mass-eprom-writing devices in fuckin BINARY there wasn't so much tech to know. The amount I don't know has grown exponentially since then.

That version of GLIBC_2.11 is available in Ubuntu 10.04 and up. You have 2 clear choices: upgrade to 10.04 or compile it yourself. It may be possible to install a newer GLIBC, but that's dark magic; you're probably better off compiling from source.

I think upgrading the Bitcoin client would probably help get those blocks downloaded.

Good luck.

Which version did you run under wine though?  If it was newer then .21 then it actually indicates that the issue is your routers and port forwarding set up.   Just the upnp added to the newer clients did work to work as intended to help fix that case.

Vodofone is a celluar connection right?  They are sometimes highly filtered on 'odd' ports, so does not really tell us much unless you are sure that is not the case for your service.

Since running it under wine works for you , seems you have your way to work with it for now.

By the way, just want to clarify that I meant no offense when I asked "You're using Ubuntu and can't forward ports?", I was just a bit surprised as Linux users tend to be pretty tech-savvy. But I guess Linux is getting more mainstream, which is a good thing

Done.

Re: Changing the title:

Can a moderator do that? They probably have a better idea of what the most useful title would be than me.

Ah, well, you've made your own bed there by running old software. There's not much we can do for you with respect to running 0.3.23 or anything current or future, and my previous advice still stands. (It's not nearly that disruptive.)

"What is a white-economy merchant?"


A white-economy merchant is something :

 - in a narrow/technical sense that isn't illegal
 - in a slightly broader sense isn't flying under the radar because it's legally or morally dubious
 - in a broader sense, isn't going to be used as an example of "Why bitcoins should be banned"
 - in the broadest sense, something you can cite to the cynical as an example of bitcoins actually working as a legit means of exchange.

You can tell your mother about it in other words.

The router is a dynalink - not sure what the model number is - various stickers on the bottom with 20 digit numbers that are too small to read.

I did have the same problem with the vodafone dongle, and I don't have the problem if I run the client under Wine - so I'd be mildly surprised if it was the router.


As I can get Bitcoin to run under Wine then... fine.


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re: exchange-rate/pay?

If the value of bitcoins goes up 10,000 times in the next year it won't cost me any more to use them, only to "buy one"... but I don't think the point is to buy bitcoins, it's to buy things with bitcoins.


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re: Linux setup.

I'm dual-booting Linux 9.10 and Windows 7 using Grub. For my sins, I'm a developer so do the whole 12.0.0.1 thing - with local web-based image manipulation, accounts/stock-tracking and client-sites... and am (alas) reliant on windows for the giga-tonnage of software needed to do decent video-editing.

So. It takes me about a week to set up a new machine, a large part of which seems to involve copying and pasting things I don't really understand into CLI boxes... until something works - which leaves me with what feels like a delicately balanced card-castle, that's taken about a week to build.

So I ain't going to do anything so traumatic as upgrade my entire operating system. That happens when I get a new machine, or something absolutely catastrophic happens to the current one.

there, fixed that for you.

Actually if you are floating the bit coin rate based on the dollar rate, you are effectivly paying in $ not BTC, you have that reversed.    In any case, it now costs you more shirts to get a btc, so in effect getting a btc costs you more either way if you are floating it based on the $ exchange rate.

Nick, I understand your frustration.  We supporters of Bitcoin should make it known that it's a good idea to download the blockchain before you start your client the first time.  There are actually multiple places you can download it at, most notably at the Bitcoin sourceforge site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/

However, I wouldn't try to download and use the blockchain from a site at this point, since you've already used your client to do a transaction.  Let me repeat: don't use a downloaded blockchain if you've already processed a transaction on your client, unless you know what you're doing.  You'd have to run a rescan and possibly other things.

But don't worry, your transaction will go through.  And once the full blockchain is on your client, transactions are processed much faster.

BTW, cool website.  And thanks for your support of Bitcoin.

PS -- It would be nice if you would change the title to better reflect the situation, but obviously that's your call.

What is a white-economy merchant?  

For what it is worth, you are an early adaptor yet.  It is a 0.3.x software, which means it is not considered ready for the masses.  One of the features to help with this is in the 0.3.21 and later versions, so it does not help you are running a version without the feature to try and help with this issue (which is a router networking issue and not a bitcoin issue per say, it just manifests itself with bitcoin for you).  A year from now these issues should be gone.  There is also a lot of routers still out  there that do not do a good job with NAT.   Maybe it can be fixed with a firmware update, or hard setting the port forwarding for now or maybe not, depends on your exact router being used.

They meant the price of bitcoins will likely go up, as more people are able to learn about them and use them.
A year from now hopefully you will also be very glad to have learned about it as an early user.

This doesn't make any sense.  If a shirt costs $15, then it costs 1 BTC right now.  If BTC goes to $30, then the shirt costs 0.5 BTC, or else I'm paying in $, not BTC.

The "cost" to use bitcoin is the time and effort it takes to understand how to use bitcoin.  This cost needs to come down, not go up.

What is your routers make and model number?