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1.4 Configuration

You are now on the command line of your own Bitcoin node. Let's start with the configuration.
Add the admin user (and log in with it)
We will use the primary user admin instead of temp to make this guide more universal.
Create a new user called admin with your password [A]
$ sudo adduser --gecos "" admin
Make this new user a superuser by adding it to the sudo and old temp user groups
$ sudo usermod -a -G sudo,adm,cdrom,dip,plugdev,lxd admin
Logout the existing temp user
$ logout
Repeat Access with Secure Shell but this time login with admin and your password [A]
Delete the temp user. Do not worry about the userdel: temp mail spool (/var/mail/temp) not found message
$ sudo userdel -rf temp
Expected output:
> userdel: temp mail spool (/var/mail/temp) not found
To change the system configuration and files that don't belong to the user "admin", you have to prefix commands with sudo. You will be prompted to enter your admin password [A] from time to time for increased security
Login with SSH keys (optional)
Now, you can start to access it without a password by following the SSH keys bonus guide​
System update
Update the operating system and all installed software packages
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
Do this regularly every few months for security-related updates. If during the update process, a banner appears asking you, "Which services should be restarted?" you can press ENTER and take note of the services that will be restarted, marked with [*]. Example 🔽
It is recommended to keep the default selection and restart all marked items. However, if you want to unmark any of them, select the item and press the spacebar to toggle the mark. Finally, press ENTER to confirm
To be able to use the minibolt hostname instead of the IP address, we must install this necessary software package
$ sudo apt install avahi-daemon
Check drive performance
Performant unit storage is essential for your node.
Let's check if your drive works well as-is.
Your disk should be detected as /dev/sda. Check if this is the case by listing the names of connected block devices
$ lsblk -pli
Measure the speed of your drive
$ sudo hdparm -t --direct /dev/sda
Example of expected output:
> Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 932 MB in 3.00 seconds = 310.23 MB/sec
If the measured speeds are more than 150 MB/s, you're good
If you installed a secondary disk, check and measure the speed with the next command, if not, skip it
$ sudo hdparm -t --direct /dev/sdb
Example of expected output:
> Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 932 MB in 3.00 seconds = 310.23 MB/sec
If the measured speeds are more than 100 MB/s, you're good but is recommended more for a better experience
Data directory
We'll store all application data in the dedicated directory /data. This allows for better security because it's not inside any user's home directory. Additionally, it's easier to move that directory somewhere else, for instance to a separate drive, as you can just mount any storage option to /data.
Create the data folder
$ sudo mkdir /data
Remember that the before command is not necessary if you previously followed Case 1 of Store data in a secondary disk bonus guide, which involves storing the data in a secondary disk. This is because the ("data") folder has already been created. If the prompt shows you: mkdir: cannot create directory '/data': File exists probably is that. Then ignore it and follow with the next command 🔽
Assing to the admin user as the owner of the (/data) folder
$ sudo chown admin:admin /data
1.3 Remote access
1.5 Security
Last modified 9d ago