Topic: bitcoind for ARM / Cubieboard / Raspberry Pi - page 2. (Read 7033 times)
Awesome, I have a cubieboard 2 I will give this a try many thanks for producing this
It's interesting to know that some people have RAM issues. I also read about a few failed attempts with the Raspberry Pi.
Seriously, get the Cubieboard. A Raspberry Pi with 1 GB RAM (and a slightly faster processor, and SATA) for just a little bit more money makes a fantastic bitcoind server. This is what the .debs were built for, and I assure you it works well in production.
Seriously, get the Cubieboard. A Raspberry Pi with 1 GB RAM (and a slightly faster processor, and SATA) for just a little bit more money makes a fantastic bitcoind server. This is what the .debs were built for, and I assure you it works well in production.
I know a number of people are running bitcoind on odroid U2 http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G135341370451 quite successfully. It's super fast (for an arm), easily 32x faster than the rpi on some workloads, and not terribly expensive either. Quad core cortex-a9 1.7GHz, 2GB dram.
(Odroid now seems to have a new 4x A15 + 4x A7 system, but I've not yet talked to anyone that has one)
(Odroid now seems to have a new 4x A15 + 4x A7 system, but I've not yet talked to anyone that has one)
As said though, I did notice that bitcoind used more than 50% of the available RAM when syncing, and this is a 1 GB box so it might be too much for a Pi. I bet it would eventually sync though (maybe with swap on SSD?) and once it's synced I bet it'll run just fine.
There's no reason you can't sync on a desktop and then copy the data directory over (or just the index files).
I think the main concern would be the available RAM. I've run bitcoind on VPS's with 512mb. They run slow, especially with updating the blockchain. I've also had bitcoind crash randomly every couple of hours, but as soon as I upgraded the ram to 2GB - no crashes.
The idea of a lowcost ARM bitcoind "appliance" would be better based off of something with a bit more power:
Another member's post about https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2743058
http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/utilite-computer-3.jpg
They start at $99.
The other "small boxes" I've thought about running the bitcoind node (and tor gateway box) were:
http://media.memoryexpress.com/Images/Products/MX46361/0?Size=Large
BRIX Ultra Compact PC Kit w/ Core™ i3-3227U, HDMI, DisplayPort
Up in Canada the cost starts around $269+
Lelantos
Hi, gigatux, I was always interested about running bitcoind on raspberrypi. I see you're using a Cubieboard but, maybe it's a first step, interesting too.
What about transaction processing, after synching? Is it fast and smooth or... what ? Did you tried transferring some satoshi?
It's all working just fine here. Transaction processing (after syncing) is pretty quick and seems to be within a second - this is on real Bitcoin coin sending.What about transaction processing, after synching? Is it fast and smooth or... what ? Did you tried transferring some satoshi?
Note that the speed is probably down to a combination of this all running from a SSD (the Cubieboard has a SATA port and bitcoind is I/O intensive) and the CPU being a bit quicker (1GHz vs 700MHz for the Pi). However, I can't see the Pi giving too much trouble.
Hi, gigatux, I was always interested about running bitcoind on raspberrypi. I see you're using a Cubieboard but, maybe it's a first step, interesting too.
What about transaction processing, after synching? Is it fast and smooth or... what ? Did you tried transferring some satoshi?
Thank you!
What about transaction processing, after synching? Is it fast and smooth or... what ? Did you tried transferring some satoshi?
Thank you!
With bitcoind just doing its thing (fully synced), here's an example of usage. It's switched between 1% and 30% each few seconds, so seems to average about 15% CPU.
As said though, I did notice that bitcoind used more than 50% of the available RAM when syncing, and this is a 1 GB box so it might be too much for a Pi. I bet it would eventually sync though (maybe with swap on SSD?) and once it's synced I bet it'll run just fine.
Code:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
2649 bitcoin 20 0 367m 245m 4460 S 31.7 30.1 852:06.47 bitcoind
2649 bitcoin 20 0 367m 245m 4460 S 31.7 30.1 852:06.47 bitcoind
As said though, I did notice that bitcoind used more than 50% of the available RAM when syncing, and this is a 1 GB box so it might be too much for a Pi. I bet it would eventually sync though (maybe with swap on SSD?) and once it's synced I bet it'll run just fine.
When I ran bitcoind on my raspberry pi it took 100% cpu and made the system unusable. It might have been OK after syncing was over, but I didn't have the patience to wait. Would be interesting to hear of some successes.
Thank you. And running the full client on a cheap node is also great for security - you can dedicate the Cubie/Pi to doing this one task alone. When you're storing dozens of Bitcoins, a tiny expense for a dedicated board makes a lot of sense.
Nicely done. Showing that you can run full nodes on really cheap devices could lead to all kinds of interesting ideas.
Dear all,
I've been experimenting with getting the official bitcoind client working on by Cubieboard (a bit like a Raspberry Pi but with SATA and more RAM).
After a fair bit of pain, I've successfully compiled this and am running it with no issues. When building the blockchain, RAM usage was above 512MB so it might not work perfectly on the Pi, but RAM usage after syncing is much lower.
I've targeted this for Debian Wheezy users but it might also work for Ubuntu users. It's compiled for armel so requires a relatively new ARM processor. The debs are basically recompiled (with dependencies slightly tweaked) source packages from Debian Wheezy and the Ubuntu ppa at https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin. The most difficult thing was getting db4.8 working for binary wallet.dat compatibility.
All non-repository .debs, including the bitcoind deb itself have been put up at https://bittylicious.com/downloads/.
Donations not necessary. If you like it, please feel free to link to Bittylicious or otherwise spread the word.
Marc
I've been experimenting with getting the official bitcoind client working on by Cubieboard (a bit like a Raspberry Pi but with SATA and more RAM).
After a fair bit of pain, I've successfully compiled this and am running it with no issues. When building the blockchain, RAM usage was above 512MB so it might not work perfectly on the Pi, but RAM usage after syncing is much lower.
I've targeted this for Debian Wheezy users but it might also work for Ubuntu users. It's compiled for armel so requires a relatively new ARM processor. The debs are basically recompiled (with dependencies slightly tweaked) source packages from Debian Wheezy and the Ubuntu ppa at https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin. The most difficult thing was getting db4.8 working for binary wallet.dat compatibility.
All non-repository .debs, including the bitcoind deb itself have been put up at https://bittylicious.com/downloads/.
Donations not necessary. If you like it, please feel free to link to Bittylicious or otherwise spread the word.
Marc
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