Preface
This guide select Electrum and Ubuntu OS to create bitcoin cold wallet USB stick.
Electrum is a light-weight bitcoin wallet, it doesn’t require the bitcoin block chain
data on local and easy to use for newbie.
We trust that the Ubuntu and Electrum downloaded from related official site are
security and reliable.
In the guide,We will create a persistent LiveUsb stick and offline install electrum
wallet.
Requirements
1, One Ubuntu14.04.1 CD. We can download Ubuntu14.04.1 32bits desktop ISO file
and burn it on CD。
2, One USB stick,USB3.0 is better.
3, Ubuntu14.04.1 32bits desktop ISO file from official site.
4, Electrum software from official site.
File list:
File list:
1,file:ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386.iso
md5: a4fc15313ef2a516bfbf83ce44281535
Official web page://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
2,file:Electrum-1.9.8.zip
md5: 0f91f548ba64b1f5776a28b1522f07ec
Official web page:https://www.electrum.org/download.html
The MD5 values of Ubuntu and Electrum can be found on official site.
Download above files,and record MD5 values on text file for verify.
MD5 value verify ways:
Windows user:Download WinMD5Free software to verify file。
Linux user: run md5sum filename .
Creation steps
Ⅰ. USB stick partition
We will create two partitions on USB stick and install OS on the second partition.
Because, Windows doesn’t recognize the second partition. This strategy has extra
protection where the USB inserted in online windows machine carelessly.
1,Boot from Ubuntu CD,select “Try Ubuntu” button, and insert USB stick.
2,Click "Dash Home button"(top-left button)->input "disk"->Click "Disks",create partition on the USB stick。
Ⅱ. Create persistent Live-USB stick
Click "Dash Home button"(top-left button)->input "creator"->Click "Startup Disk Creator",(please select "Stored in extra space" option)。
After persistent Live-USB stick creation completion, Boot form the USB stick on a offline PC.
Select “Try Ubuntu” button on welcome screen.
(For Thinkpad PC, press F12 to open the Boot menu during system post.
The shortcut key is various. it may be F12,F2,F10 or ESC.
if it doesn’t works we need look up the computer reference.)
Ⅲ.System settings.
The following steps all run in the terminal window.
1,Change the password of the default user ubuntu (default password is blank)
run
passwd
sudo vi /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[SeatDefaults]
allow-guest=false
autologin-guest=false
autologin-user=
autologin-user-timeout=0
autologin-session=lightdm-autologin
greeter-show-manual-login=true
sudo rm /etc/init/tty*.conf
sudo vi /media/cdrom/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
default live
label live
menu label ^Try Ubuntu without installing
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash --
Ⅳ. Create normal account and encrypted folder
1,Create normal account richard.
2,Login with new account: richard, create encrypted Private folder
run
ecryptfs-setup-private
Electrum store wallet data in .electrum folder under user home folder by default.( in
the sample is:/home/richard/.electrum)
run:
cd ~/Private
mkdir .electrum
cd ..
ln -s ~/Private/.electrum .electrum
Ⅴ Close system network connection
Commonly, the cold wallet computer must be disconnect from network physically.
Unplug network cable and close WIFI switch if available.
In the step, we disconnect network on software layer.
1,Click "Dash Home button"-> input "startup" -> click "Startup Applications"
2,Add startup program: nmcli nm enable false
Ⅵ Offline Install Electrum
1.Login with new user:richard
2.Copy Electrum-1.9.8.zip file to the new user home folder: /home/richard
(we can use another clean USB stick to copy the file)
3.Verify the file
In terminal window,goto the home folder.
cd ~
md5sum Electrum-1.9.8.zip
0f91f548ba64b1f5776a28b1522f07ec Electrum-1.9.8.zip
4. Install Electrum。
unzip Electrum-1.9.8.zip
cd ~/Electrum-1.9.8
python electrum
Completion.
For novice, the pdf document with screenshots is more easier to understand,
The pdf file download url:
https://mega.co.nz/#!DwAQyYLQ!rugqZ4ZciMOUXhdW5bAB6rz5D354c5cymWeJqTZcNoM
Richard Huang
BTC: 194qRKhLATLoYsF6V9ficUXEh9FVsHXqQA
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
2014-11 Chengdu