As I have mini-PC Elite LIVA Z2V ECS N4100, 4 GB, eMMC 64 GB, , 8TB Internal SSD (Samsung 870 QVO SATA III 2.5-Inch), linked to a router by the cable LAN, all available for experiments I installed and tried Umbrel 1.4.2 to run BTC Knots.
It synced 100% within 5 days with visible progress with CPU 4 threads load variations between 7%-75% and RAM use up to 3 GB from 3,8 available. However after Knots version updated the web UI was lost and the UMBREL 1.2 system became dead …
I decided to try DIY Start9OS 0.3.5.1 on this HW, installed it sucessully, added BTC Knots from community and run.
After the first 24h, it synced for 17%, after 48 → 19,5% after 72h → 21,3%, after 96 h → 22,6%.
It look as it got stuck somewhere and would never finish.
Please share your opinion regarding possible reasons to help in understanding the causes e.g.:
Could it be TOR? (measuring the speedtest in Firefox next tab of Smart9OS web UI showed download/upload 60MB/60MB instead of normal 600MB/60MB for nearby notebook)
Should Wi-Fi service be somehow deactivated ? (it is as it is, normally HW active after Linux type installations, however not used and kept without connections, but I could not find the way deactivate it in Start9OS)
Bitcoin will not work on a 4GB device in 2025. You’d need a computer capable of running Bitcoin, which now has a UTXO set well in excess of 8GB (I’d say 12GB RAM is a good minimum).
Your understanding of available reported RAM is also slightly flawed and has perhaps led to some confusion. For example, if I have have a tiny beer cooler with space for 4 cans of beer and I want to fix a six pack it in, then I have 100% free space since the six pack doesn’t fit. Not a great analogy, but it’s Monday afternoon.
Thanks,
for clarification: The same LIVA miniPC perfectly well run BTC Core and Bitcoin knots after setting Swap File
sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
etc.
So it was proved already for at least one year that this HW configuration is capable to run Core or Knots + LND +Electr.
I’d be happy to help! I’m not clear on the question, from the conversation though. But I’ll take shot.
If you’re going to load an 8+GB UTXO set into 4GB of RAM, you’re going to have severe performance issues. If your drive has very high I/O, you may be able to “get away” with this configuration for the time being. But if you’re setting up new Bitcoin node, the initial block verification and sync will take an unreasonable amount of time.
@Rexter Thanks!
If you can, please share your understanding why the BTC Core & Knows versions were pretty fast on the same HW in UmbrelOS 1.4.2?
It took 5 days to sync the all blocks up to 100%.
Now under Start9OS 351 it has been running already for 5 days reaching 31%.
I don’t know anything about UmbrelOS 1.4.2. But I do know their base server comes with 16GB of RAM. If UmbrelOS works better on that DIY device, you may want to stick with that. I suspect it won’t. There’s an important distinction to be had between “did” and “will.”
@moreloub - I asked the same question and have not received a satisfactory answer. There is something unique to Start9 min requirements that is being shared as a min requirement for all bitcoin nodes which is incorrect…it is a min requirement for Start9 to run Bitcoin, specifically Bitcoin Knots syncing process. I gave up having this same conversation and let my old MacMini sync with Knots with repeated RPC errors, and it took over a month, but now it works great as a Knots node with zero issues. I am still convinced there is an issue here worth looking at that is being portrayed as a problem with min hardware specs for Start9 + Bitcoin + Knots specific to non-standard hardware set up…
On your mini-PC, did it have a wifi controller on it that you are not using (I saw you were also using a LAN cable)? I ask, because my MacMini also had a wifi controller and I do not see a way to disable it in the OS. I was wondering if StartOS was trying to use it despite it not being connected and that is why it kept ‘ramming into a wall’ with RPC errors…just a theory I had.