Hello!
I appreciate any help on this topic.
I am trying to connect my Sparrow wallet to my node running Start9 OS using Electrs. When I try to connect, the connection fails and Sparrow wallet gives me the following error:
SOCKS server general failure. Check if the proxy server is running.
Can anyone help me understand what this error means? Any suggestions on what I can try and do to remedy this issue?
Thanks!
Follow this guide carefully to connect Sparrow to Electrs. electrs-startos/docs/integrations/sparrow/guide.md at master · Start9Labs/electrs-startos · GitHub
Rick,
Thank you for your reply. I followed the steps in the guide. It seems that all my server information is input identically and I still see this error:
SOCKS server general failure. Check if the proxy server is running.
I have also tried turning “use proxy” on and off. Still the same issue.
Do you have any other suggestions on how to fix?
Thanks!
Did you set up Tor to run in the background of your system? If not you will need to set up Tor on each device you want to connect to Electrs. On this guide select the OS of the device you are using and it will walk you through the process. Start9 | Connecting Remotely
Rick,
I believe I did a while ago. I used to use Umbrel and connect to my Umbrel device via Tor remotely. I know I have the Tor browser, but I’m not 100% sure I have Tor running in the background. I think I do, but I’m unsure. How can I go about verifying this?
Thanks!
How you’d verify if you’ve ever set up Tor to run as a service on your computer would depend heavily on which OS you’re using.
Windows
sc query tor
Mac OS
brew services list | grep tor
Linux
systemctl status tor
But these will usually not be enough to know whether Tor is actually connected correctly, for that you’d need to look at what is connected to what ports then test access to .onions
It’s generally not recommended that people run Tor as a service unless they know what they’re doing and they need to make sure they have constant Tor access. The guides say to just use Tor Browser for most things. So you might not have actually set up Tor in the past.
What’s you client OS? we’d need to look at ports next.
My recommendation is that if you are running Tor in the background and don’t need it then you should get rid of it. Then if you’re just using Sparrow, it has its own Tor built in and this should just work. How you’d disable a previously set up system-wide tor would depend on your client OS.
The good thing about using Tor within individual apps that support it and within Tor Browser is that should Tor fail to connect on the client side, you have a graphical interface to display it to you. Whereas with tor as a service, you need to manually check Tor is working right on both the server and the client, with no way of know which is the problem without checking.
Rick and StuPleb,
Thank you for the input. I am running windows 10 on my PC.
I did an “sc query tor” command in command line on my PC and got the following result:
[SC] EnumQueryServicesStatus: OpenService FAILED 1060:
The specified service does not exist as an installed service.
I assume this means that I an not running tor as a a service on my PC. Rick mentioned that I will need to have Tor running in the background of my system to connect it via Electrs to my Start9 OS node. Can either of you help me do this? Do I really need to do this to connect? StuPleb’s response seems to contradict what you’re saying, Rick. I appreciate the help from both of you!
Thanks,
Smooosh
Yes, it looks like you’re not running Tor as a background service. If you wanted to do this, you’d follow the guides in our documentation but as those guides say, it’s not the preferred way to get you or anyone else set up as it’s tricky for non-technical users to do and keep on top of… which is why we recommend using other options instead, such as applications with built in Tor connectivity or Tor Browser.
You mention Sparrow specifically, which has Tor built in. The guide linked to by Rick is correct, and that guide defaults to the built in Tor. If you were using a system-wide Tor setup, you’d toggle the option for the Proxy.
Some time ago we noticed that unlike Mac and Linux, Sparrow on Windows wasn’t using a unique port but was using the common port that other software like Tor Browser was using. This means if you had Tor running at the same time, Sparrow would fail to connect. If you’ve previously had Tor Browser installed and running, or you have it open and running now, turning on that toggle and clicking to test might result in a connection.
If all attempts to connect to your server fail, then the issue might be on your server side. Under System->Tor logs, you can look to see if there are constant bootstrapping attempts. If so, System->Experimental Features->Reset Tor will be your friend.
StuPleb,
Thank you.
I will try this ASAP.
System → Tor logs and System → Experimental Features → Reset Tor are found within the Tor Browser is that correct? Or is this something that I need to accomplish using command line?
Once I try this I will update you with my findings.
Thanks!
You only need to restart Tor on your server if the logs show that something is wrong with Tor… it might not be completely obvious, but typically when Tor is really bad, you’ll see it “bootstrapping” over and over. There’s nothing to do via the command line on your server. To do something via the command line on your server you’d need to set up SSH.
If there’s nothing like “bootstrapping” towards the end of the logs or repeated over and over, then the issue is with your client machine instead.
StuPleb,
Thank you. I looked at the logs and the bootstrapping finishes at 100% and then connects correctly using the Tor browser.
Just out of curiosity I again tried to connect to my node. This time I am away from home connecting remotely so I am using a different network. Not sure if that matters or not to be honest. Anyway, when I tried this time, instead of the SOCKS server general failure error I received the following message:
Could not connect:
Retries exhausted
This seems like progress although I’m not totally sure why. As far as I can tell the only thing that has changed so far is that I am at a remote location and not at home. Sorry, I know these errors are very generic and making troubleshooting difficult. Any other ideas after receiving the information above? Should I try connecting to my node outside of Sparrow to do some troubleshooting?
Thanks!
Smooosh
Are you talking about an error inside Sparrow?
Did you try toggling Proxy while having Tor Browser open?
Via command line…
netstat -ano | findstr :9051
and
netstat -ano | findstr :9050
would be interesting to see the results off. If everything is closed, yet those ports are in use, restart your computer, open Sparrow without opening anything else and see what happens.
StuPleb,
You are correct. When I “tried this time” I meant trying to connect via Sparrow and that was the error message I receive within Sparrow Wallet.
I opened Tor Browser and tried toggling “Use Proxy” on to connect. With Tor Browser open and “Use Proxy” on, I get the error message:
Could not connect:
Connection refused: connect. Check if the proxy server is running.
The above error message is received with “Use Proxy” turned on for both port 9050 and 9051. Tor Browser is open and running in both cases.
With “Use Proxy” turned off, the error message states:
Could not connect:
Retries exhausted
This error message is received both when Tor Browser is open and running and also when it is not.
I have attached an image of my command line with the two commands you suggested.
Thanks!
Smooosh
