Context
Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots both appear as interchangeable on StartOS 0351 and this is both intentional and a result of a missing feature.
By design, because we aim to facilitate seamless switching between similar services that share most of the same data, ensuring that users can transition without needing to resync the entire Bitcoin blockchain from scratch. With this “hack” both Core and Knots will be able to utilize the same already downloaded blocks without you needing to uninstall one and then install the other.
Due to a missing feature because, until we have the feature available in v040, the only way to allow the two services to share the same data on v035 is to allow StartOS to think they are the same service. So, as a temporary solution, StartOS treats the two services as if they are the same, which can lead to some confusion. For instance, if you have one installed, StartOS may indicate that the other is also installed. Additionally, you might receive update notifications for the flavor you do not use. This is a necessary tradeoff for the time being.
If you prefer not to switch between the two, please ensure that you only click to upgrade the version of Bitcoin you wish to keep. Upgrading Knots while running Core has on occasion resulted in a switch to Knots, and vice versa. We added a check to prevent this, but it’s still better to refrain from doing so.
Switching from Bitcoin Core to Bitcoin Knots
If you are running Core and you’d like to start running Knots, you’d follow the steps below. (Reverse the names to switch from Knots to Core)
- Hit stop on the flavor of Bitcoin you already have installed (i.e. Core)
- Go to System and scroll to the “Manage” heading.
- Click on the heading “Manage” five times to activate the ‘secret’ developer mode in StartOS
- To the the Marketplace, then to the Community Registry, click on Knots
- Click “Resinstall”
It will say Reinstall rather than Install, remember, because StartOS sees Core and Knots as the same thing, so detects Core as installed so displays Knots and installed. Reinstalling one when you have the other will overwrite the previous install without removing the already synced blocks.
Dependencies
Services that depend on a flavor of Bitcoin should be happy with either. If you are running LND or CLN, switching should not cause you any issues other than your lightning implementation potentially failing to route payments while the switch is happening.
All services that depend on Bitcoin should continue to work normally, but if they don’t, then it’s likely that the RPC credentials were changed and not picked up. To fix this, open each service that has stopped working, click on the config button and then immediately hit save without doing anything.
Also keep in mind that some services specifically require a flavor of Bitcoin. Datum will only work with Knots. Dojo will only work with Core. Because of the missing feature that causes both services to appear as one, it may not be clear what the real dependencies are, but it is mentioned in the descriptions/guides for those services… which you always read in full, right?