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Topic: NoobHowTo [A soup to nuts newbee system for a secure, portable USB wallet] (Read 2236 times)

hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
Shame on everything; regret nothing.
Thanks like a bajillion for this guide... it's going to be a permanent tab in my open browser for the foreseeable future... :-)
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
I yam what I yam. - Popeye
@smalleyster,

Thanks for the guide, I was unsure about whether to go with linuxcoin, I wondered whether it was worth the hassle of configuring. But you made it seem pretty straightforward. I'll give it a go.

You are most welcome!

It really is straightforward IMHO

All the best!
full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 101
@smalleyster,

Thanks for the guide, I was unsure about whether to go with linuxcoin, I wondered whether it was worth the hassle of configuring. But you made it seem pretty straightforward. I'll give it a go.
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
I yam what I yam. - Popeye
I'll hereby offer few options for anyone to own a secure wallet with Linuxcoin:

1) $8.00; Buy a 4GB Sandisk Cruzer at Walmart for $8 and follow the instructions in my sig on Noob How To

2) $8.00 + 2btc; you download the linuxcoin 2.1b, Unetbootin, at least one persistence file and install Unetbootin. Buy a Sandisk Cruzer at Walmart for $8. I will LogMeIn to your computer and prepare the USB for you.

3) $8.00 + 3btc; Buy a Sandisk Cruzer at Walmart for $8. I will LogMeIn to your computer download the files onto your computer and prepare the USB for you.

4) 4btc; I will send you by USPS Standard mail a prepared and tested 4GB Linuxcoin USB ready for you to create your encrypted folder and build your new wallet in that encrypted folder.

5) 5btc; I will send you by USPS Standard mail a prepared and tested 4GB Linuxcoin USB with an encrypted wallet that contains 1btc. Prefer that you supply the Password or I will prepare a random 12 digit password that is emailed back to prior to shipping.

Other options available. Just post/PM.
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
I yam what I yam. - Popeye
Have *literally* dozens (hundreds if you ignore this post and "go it alone") of hours at your disposal. *Everything* takes forever, especially if you have to "redo", which happens far more often than you might expect, especially when you start typing in Linux commands (the part I detest).
Fuck I wish I had the time, I would seriously format your post to make it easier to read lol.  I want to try this out, but I know I have no time right now, but when I set time aside, if I already have all programs downloaded (but not installed, just basically I have all the 'ingredients'), how long until I pop that working USB Wallet?

Let's say my knowledge of computers is in a 'decent' rage, I am far beyond minimizing a window, but I only think there is two operating systems and Linux isn't one of them, how long would you estimate this process taking?  (and if speed of computer is a factor, let's go worst case on this one, pretend mom is using her eMachine to do this)

LOL like I said any and all suggestions are *highly* appreciated. I'm a geek who gets to the meat without looking at how pretty the plate is and I could use formatting help big time. 8^)

Right now my guesstimate is 3-4 hours for the entire process.

I had a meeting with two reasonably smart guys and we did everything on their computer up to the USB creation with lots of explanation time in about 2 1/2 hours.
hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
Posts: 69
Have *literally* dozens (hundreds if you ignore this post and "go it alone") of hours at your disposal. *Everything* takes forever, especially if you have to "redo", which happens far more often than you might expect, especially when you start typing in Linux commands (the part I detest).
Fuck I wish I had the time, I would seriously format your post to make it easier to read lol.  I want to try this out, but I know I have no time right now, but when I set time aside, if I already have all programs downloaded (but not installed, just basically I have all the 'ingredients'), how long until I pop that working USB Wallet?

Let's say my knowledge of computers is in a 'decent' rage, I am far beyond minimizing a window, but I only think there is two operating systems and Linux isn't one of them, how long would you estimate this process taking?  (and if speed of computer is a factor, let's go worst case on this one, pretend mom is using her eMachine to do this)
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
I yam what I yam. - Popeye
"You can do it too in just 198411 easy steps!"

Wink

Reading it now.

LOL!

That is why I will be selling ready-to-go USB's for those who want a quicker start.
hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
Posts: 69
"You can do it too in just 198411 easy steps!"

Wink

Reading it now.
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
I yam what I yam. - Popeye
Bumping, because the system is finally ready for prime time.

Anyone interested in purchasing ready-to-go USB's please let me know as I would like to gage interest.

Thank You
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
I yam what I yam. - Popeye
NoobHowTo [A soup to nuts newbee system for a secure, portable USB wallet]

The Goal:

If you follow these steps in order within a few hours you too will have:

A Portable and Reasonably Secure BitCoin Wallet System.


I'll hereby offer few options for anyone to own a secure wallet with Linuxcoin:

1) $8.00; Buy a 4GB Sandisk Cruzer at Walmart for $8 and follow the instructions in my sig on Noob How To

2) $8.00 + 2btc; you download the linuxcoin 2.1b, Unetbootin, at least one persistence file and install Unetbootin. Buy a Sandisk Cruzer at Walmart for $8. I will LogMeIn to your computer and prepare the USB for you.

3) $8.00 + 3btc; Buy a Sandisk Cruzer at Walmart for $8. I will LogMeIn to your computer download the files onto your computer and prepare the USB for you.

4) 4btc; I will send you by USPS Standard mail a prepared and tested 4GB Linuxcoin USB ready for you to create your encrypted folder and build your new wallet in that encrypted folder.

5) 5btc; I will send you by USPS Standard mail a prepared and tested 4GB Linuxcoin USB with an encrypted wallet that contains 1btc. Prefer that you supply the Password or I will prepare a random 12 digit password that is emailed back to prior to shipping.

Other options available. Just post/PM.


So far it looks like a USB can only be "Reasonably Secure" due to current technology.

Kind of like your front door of your house any locksmith can pick it, but it keeps the amateurs out. In my opinion this document will allow your wallet to be more secure than your house door but not quite a Ft Knox...yet.


Huge Additional Benefits:

The ability to have a BitCoin Miner operating system on cheap, removable media thereby makng a hard disk not necessary.

The Ability to Surf the Net that leaves no trail on your computer.


Smalleyster's slight enhancements to Dr Green's LinuxCoin is reasonably secure for the average user.

It's as easy as; Plug it in, Turn on your computer, Make the right selection, Type in your Password, view your wallet and/or send payments.


Uh Oh! You misplace your USB! - No Problem.

Get your backup, transfer your funds to a new wallet. The person who finds/steals your wallet technically can crack if they are an expert, but you have plenty of time to move your funds before they have any hope of cracking your password.

If an amateur tries to access your USB it will show a wallet with no funds. If you ever load your USB and it shows no funds you know someone tried to use it and you take the steps to recover your wallet. You should then move your funds and discard that wallet file as it has an extremely remote possibility of having been compromised.


The Secret?

CryptKeeper, and the simple knowledge of how to use its quick and easy GUI.


NOTE:

This will be a work in progress until my wife and mother can make it all work. 8^)

Any and all constructive criticism is appreciated.


NoobHowTo:                  
                  
Before you get started:                  
                  
Have *literally* dozens (hundreds if you ignore this post and "go it alone") of hours at your disposal. *Everything* takes forever, especially if you have to "redo", which happens far more often than you might expect, especially when you start typing in Linux commands (the part I detest).

I hope I have eliminated most if not all of that in this list of instructions and on the USB sticks that I provide to my clients. It seems I can now get a reasonably technically competent person up and running in about 2 hours of instruction.

These instructions will give you all of the necessary steps to create your own
 Smalleyster Linuxcoin Reasonably Secure Bootable USB Wallet
 (that can also mine and surf the web securely).


Before you Start:

Have at least one computer that can boot to a USB memory stick.
                  
Have at least one USB stick that is 2mb or greater AND IS ABLE TO BOOT!

NOTE:
Of the 8 USB's in my possession (on 7/12/11) only two actually work.
* The SanDisk 4GB Cruzers! *

All of the used ones and the *new* PNY 4GB do not boot. GRRRR!


Summary of steps you will be taking, in order.
 (detailed instructions follow below)               
                  
Download bitcoin client                  
Record your payment address                  
Get free bitcoin(s)
Create Secure passwords (lots of them)                  
Create Mining account                  
Create Mining worker                  
Download GUIMiner                  
Set GUIMiner to Account                  
Set GUIMiner to Worker                  
Start Mining                  
Check to see if you have any bitcoins yet                  
Create MtGox Account                  
Create CampBX Account                  
Format USB to FAT32                  
Download LinuxCoin   (takes forever)               
Download Installer                  
Install LinuxCoin on USB                  
Download Persistence                  
Extract persistnece to USB   (takes forever)               
Boot to USB                  
Create secure Password                  
Open bitcoin client                  
Record payment address                  
Shutdown USB                  
boot USB                  
enter password                  
Open bitcoin client                  
verify same payment address, if not persistence did not work                  
go back to first bitcoin client and send bitcoin to new USB address                  
BACKUP wallet.dat NOW!

Diving In:                  
                  
Download bitcoin client
 http://www.bitcoin.org/
                  
Record your payment address
 on paper, in a file, and/or emailed to yourself
                  
Get free bitcoin(s)
 https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/
 http://www.facebook.com/freebitcoins
 http://freebitcoins.net/

Create Secure passwords (lots of them, 10 or more IMHO)
 http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/
                  
Create Mining account
 http://mining.bitcoin.cz/accounts/register/
 Create USERNAME
                  
Create Mining worker   
 http://mining.bitcoin.cz/accounts/profile/worker-edit/
 Create WORKER
 Create Worker's Password
               
Download GUIMiner
 http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=3878.0
                  
Set GUIMiner to Account.Worker   and use Worker's Password
Start Mining
                  
Check to see if you have any bitcoins yet every so often.
 You will do this a lot 8^)
                  
Create MtGox Account                  
Create CampBX Account   
         
Format USB to FAT32
                  
Download LinuxCoin                  
 http://www.linuxcoin.co.uk/downloads/LinuxCoin_0.2.1b/

Download Installer      
 http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
            
Install LinuxCoin ISO file on USB using Unetbootin
 Pick Disk Image
 Pick "..." (for browse, programmers can be so stupid sometimes)
 Pick "linuxcoin...iso" from whatever directory you downloaded it to earlier
 Pick THE CORRECT USB DRIVE LETTER!
 Pick "OK"
                  
Download Persistence   
 http://linuxcoin.co.uk/downloads/persistence/

Extract persistence file to USB
                  
Boot to USB   
 Turn computer off, insert USB,
 Alternate tapping F11 and F12 as you turn the computer on            
 Choose USB at the prompt
 Choose Persistence at the prompt

Pick (B) on lower left
Point at [Accessories]
Pick [Bitcoin Client]
 Relax this can take a *long* time                  
Record payment address                  

Shutdown USB    by Picking the Power (|) icon on the lower right
 Relax this can take a *long* time            
Boot USB                  
               
Open Bitcoin client                  
 verify same payment address,
  (if not persistence did not work)         
         
Go back to first bitcoin client (on the other computer, booted on to hard disk...) and send bitcoin to new USB address   


Now that you have confirmed that the two wallets are communicating time to get Reasonably Secure with CryptKeeper.

(I hope to add photos of these steps soon, how does one screen capture in linux?)

In [Accessories] Pick [Root Terminal]
Open Terminal and either type or cut and paste these three lines in order:
 (Relax each of these can take a *long* time)

 sudo apt-get install cryptkeeper
  
 sudo apt-get install sshfs

 sudo adduser user fuse

Reboot

Just before you do the next function look at the lower right of the screen at the blank just to the left of the time.

In [System Tools] Pick [Cryptkeeper]

Now you see the image of a key just to the left of the time.

In [Accessories] Pick [File Manager]

You should be in the directory: /home/user

On the top menu bar of the File Manager Pick [View] then Pick the box for [Show Hidden]

Some more directories should come into view.

RightClick on the directory .bitcoin and Rename it to ..bitcoin (or any other name you like)

Pick the Key Symbol to the right of the time then Pick [New Encrypted Folder]

In [Name] type in     .bitcoin    

[Save in folder:] should stay set to   user

Pick [Forward]

Enter a secure password into the two boxes and Pick [Forward]

Two new directories will appear ".bitcoin" and "..bitcoin_encfs"

DoubleClick .bitcoin it will be empty

Start another File Manager and Open ..bitcoin which has the original files

Pick [Edit] Pick [Select All] Pick [Cut]

Select the other File Manager window for .bitcoin Pick [Edit] Pick [Paste]

After the move process finishes (~3 mins) there should be no files in ..bitcoin and everything should be in .bitcoin

You can delete ..bitcoin if you like, I leave mine there to confuse anyone who finds and fiddles with my USB.

Launch your BitCoin Client and your wallet should show as before.

Close your BitCoin Client

Shutdown USB

Boot USB

DO NOT OPEN THE BITCOIN CLIENT BEFORE PERFORMING THE NEXT STEP!
 If you (or the person fiddling with your USB) do it will create a new blank wallet and
 you will have some more File Manager dances to do to get your wallet working again

FIRST STEP is to [System Tools]  [Cryptkeeper] then Pick the [Key]

Pick the box for /home/user/.bitcoin

Enter your Password

Open BitCoin

Ta Da!


*********test installer

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/zero-install-injector-install-software-easily-and-without-root-privileges.html

sudo apt-get install zeroinstall-injector

*************** test gpg_gui/

http://www.garyshood.com/gpg_gui/

******************* notes to myself on how to modify the initial login to be more appropriate, will clean them up soon
1) Make the LinuxCoin USB ask for a password before getting to the desktop?
edit /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf
and change AutomaticLoginEnable=true to AutomaticLoginEnable=false.

sudo leafpad /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf

**************
2) Make the default on boot be to Persistence?
Just open up syslinux.cfg and replace everything with
***************

root@linuxcoin:/home/user# sudo find / -iname 'syslinux.cfg'
/live/image/syslinux.cfg
sudo leafpad /live/image/syslinux.cfg

-------------change all to:

default menu.c32
prompt 0
menu title Welcome to Smalleyster's LinuxCoin
timeout 100

label linuxcoin
menu label LinuxCoin Persistent (Changes are Saved)
kernel /live/vmlinuz
append initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live config quiet splash persistent rw vga=791

label ubnentry0
menu label LinuxCoin Transient (Private Browsing, Nothing is Saved)
kernel /live/vmlinuz
append initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live config quiet splash rw vga=791

------------original version of sudo leafpad /live/image/syslinux.cfg------------

default menu.c32
prompt 0
menu title UNetbootin
timeout 100

label unetbootindefault
menu label Default
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit boot=live config quiet splash rw vga=791

label ubnentry0
menu label LinuxCoin
kernel /live/vmlinuz
append initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live config quiet splash rw vga=791

label ubnentry1
menu label LinuxCoin (failsafe)
kernel /live/vmlinuz
append initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live config noapic noapm nodma nomce nolapic nomodeset radeon.modeset=0 nouveau.modeset=0 nosmp vga=normal

label ubnentry2
menu label LinuxCoin Persistent (flash only)
kernel /live/vmlinuz
append initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live config quiet splash persistent rw vga=791

label ubnentry3
menu label memtest - Run memtest
kernel /isolinux/memtest.bin
append initrd=/ubninit -

label ubnentry4
menu label hd - boot the first hard disk
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit -

------------------------end orig----------------------------------------

**************

guiminer

- Use Synaptic or apt-get to install python-wxgtk2.8 (I just searched python wx in Synaptic and clicked the box)
- in root terminal
Code:

git clone https://github.com/Kiv/poclbm.git

(this will create poclbm directory so don't be in /opt/miners/ when you run it)

- cd into the poclbm directory you just created and run
Code:

python guiminer.py


I have no idea how to make an icon or run it without a terminal window but it's a great program for beginners, as long as you're not using remote access.
(rename to file.sh then use chmod x)
**************

Re: how do i add program icons to the panel?
Version 7.5 of smeg will work with hoary if version 8.0 (now called Alacarte) doesn't.

Get it here

http://dev.realistanew.com/smeg/0.7....buntu1_all.deb

download to a directory and from within that directory in a terminal, run

sudo dpkg -i smeg*.deb


*** Coming Next *** Backup ****

Why should you be interested?
How can you make money?
How can you lose money?
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