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Topic: Failing at installing Bitcoin on USB linux: "Disk space is low" - crashing (Read 1872 times)

newbie
Activity: 54
Merit: 0
Thank you.  I understand that not all bitcoin clients have to download the blockchain to operate however, something I'm not clear on is whether or not those clients properly sync up a wallet.dat. As I understand it, if I store away a wallet.dat in a vault and then pull it out six months later, it needs to see all the new blockchain transactions to be caught up, and I'm concerned that software that does not download the full blockchain will not provide the necessary transactions to the wallet.dat.  I hope that makes sense.

Nothing is changed in the wallet.dat when you receive or send transactions. The wallet.dat only holds your private keys and that's why you can keep it offline because it doesn't need to be synced. You only need to be synced if you want to know your balance.

simple:
wallet.dat <-- priv keys(access key to your bitcoin adresses)
blockchain <-- transaction history of everyone publicly available for anyone with a internet connection (looks same for everyone independent of the wallet.dat)

wallet.dat + blockchain -> balance can be calculated

The wallet.dat only changes if you add additional addresses to your wallet. It doesn't change if you receive btcs. It's pretty much like with bank account numbers. They also don't change if you receive money.

And that's why lightweight clients work because those 2 things are separated. The wallet.dat is very small and the blockchain is very big. But you only need the blockchain if you want to know your balance so why not keep the wallet.dat for yourself and use the blockchain of someone else? Remember the blockchain is the same for everyone. That's what electrum for example does. It keeps your wallet on your PC so your safe as long as your PC is safe and uses the blockchain of a server. If the server crashes you can also use another server or in 100 years if noone uses electrum anymore download your own blockchain.

Ahh, thanks - that makes sense.  So then I can lock away a wallet.dat and not have to ever worry about opening it up to freshen up the wallet.dat unless that same wallet.dat has elsewhere had more addresses added to it.  That's great news. 

I will look into alternate clients.
zvs
legendary
Activity: 1680
Merit: 1000
https://web.archive.org/web/*/nogleg.com
ok

yah, strange:

main.h:static const uint64 nMinDiskSpace = 52428800;

but I remember trying to put it on an 8GB RAM drive and it said I was low on space... so I just edited out the disk space checks entirely
member
Activity: 85
Merit: 10
Thank you.  I understand that not all bitcoin clients have to download the blockchain to operate however, something I'm not clear on is whether or not those clients properly sync up a wallet.dat. As I understand it, if I store away a wallet.dat in a vault and then pull it out six months later, it needs to see all the new blockchain transactions to be caught up, and I'm concerned that software that does not download the full blockchain will not provide the necessary transactions to the wallet.dat.  I hope that makes sense.

Nothing is changed in the wallet.dat when you receive or send transactions. The wallet.dat only holds your private keys and that's why you can keep it offline because it doesn't need to be synced. You only need to be synced if you want to know your balance.

simple:
wallet.dat <-- priv keys(access key to your bitcoin adresses)
blockchain <-- transaction history of everyone publicly available for anyone with a internet connection (looks same for everyone independent of the wallet.dat)

wallet.dat + blockchain -> balance can be calculated

The wallet.dat only changes if you add additional addresses to your wallet. It doesn't change if you receive btcs. It's pretty much like with bank account numbers. They also don't change if you receive money.

And that's why lightweight clients work because those 2 things are separated. The wallet.dat is very small and the blockchain is very big. But you only need the blockchain if you want to know your balance so why not keep the wallet.dat for yourself and use the blockchain of someone else? Remember the blockchain is the same for everyone. That's what electrum for example does. It keeps your wallet on your PC so your safe as long as your PC is safe and uses the blockchain of a server. If the server crashes you can also use another server or in 100 years if noone uses electrum anymore download your own blockchain.
newbie
Activity: 54
Merit: 0
Thank you.  I understand that not all bitcoin clients have to download the blockchain to operate however, something I'm not clear on is whether or not those clients properly sync up a wallet.dat. As I understand it, if I store away a wallet.dat in a vault and then pull it out six months later, it needs to see all the new blockchain transactions to be caught up, and I'm concerned that software that does not download the full blockchain will not provide the necessary transactions to the wallet.dat.  I hope that makes sense.
sr. member
Activity: 313
Merit: 250

If you can access 32gb it should work... but 4gb total is not enough:
Code:
~/.bitcoin$ du -hs .       
4,0G    .

Maybe it would be good to checkout alternative clients if you run from usb, multibit ( http://multibit.org/ ) or electrum ( http://electrum.ecdsa.org/ ) maybe.
newbie
Activity: 54
Merit: 0
Any idea how to accomplish that with a USB install?  I have 32GB to work with.

Thanks!
hero member
Activity: 792
Merit: 1000
Bite me
I think the block chain is approx 3Gb now so your going to need at least 8Gb probably close to 16Gb for a fully functional linux system also
newbie
Activity: 54
Merit: 0
I am running Slacko 5.3.3

I have installed with a 4GB slackosave.2fs file.

Most of the blockchain loads, but then crashes out to "Warning: Disk space is low!"

However, according to the setup utility for Slacko, my disk space is not low.  I have 2.6GB free out of 4GB.  The USB drive I'm using has another 26GB free outside of that.

According to a GDMap of the filesystem, blk0001.dat is 806.7MB and blkindex.dat is 320.3MB.

Why am I getting this error, and what can I do about it?  I tried to tell Slacko to increase the size of the slackosave.2fs file to 8GB, but it is not working - I suspect because the drive is Fat32.

I'm a linux noob - please help.  I have no idea why this is happening, when I have plenty of space.  I'm totally open to reinstalling the OS or a different distro. 

Thanks in advance! 
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