FAQ

Upgrading from v3, reading an ext4 SSD on Windows, restoring LND data, common Linux commands, setting a fixed IP. Answers to the questions that come up again and again in the Telegram group.

Short answers to the questions that come up most often. If yours isn't here, the Telegram group and the GitHub issues are the two places to ask.

How long does the initial blockchain sync take?

Expect 3-5 days on a Pi 5 with a fast SSD. The bottleneck is not download speed. Bitcoin Core verifies every digital signature in every transaction ever recorded, and that takes time. A slower machine or a spinning hard drive can push past a week.

Once you're synced, catching up after a restart takes minutes, not days. Initial sync is a one-time cost.

Can I get rich by routing Lightning payments?

Nobody really knows. Probably not. Routing fees on a well-placed node cover electricity and a bit of the hardware, not much more. Run a Lightning node because you want payments to work, not because you want a yield-bearing business. Enjoy the ride.

Can I read the Ext4 SSD on a Windows computer?

Ext4 isn't compatible with Windows out of the box. Tools like Linux File Systems for Windows (Paragon, 10-day free trial) let you mount the drive read/write. On macOS, extFS for Mac does the same.

If you just need to copy files off the drive once, plugging it into another Linux box, or the Pi itself, is usually the path of least resistance.

How much disk space do I need?

A 2 TB SSD. The blockchain is around 700 GB as of 2026, growing roughly 7 GB per month. The Electrs index adds another ~70 GB, and the OS takes ~20 GB. A 1 TB drive is basically full on day one. See Hardware for what to buy and which SSD enclosure chipsets to avoid.

Can I migrate an older RaspiBolt to v4?

Not cleanly. v4 is built on Debian 13 "Trixie" with a different package set, a different reverse proxy, and a different layout for secrets and data directories. The safest upgrade is a fresh install, then restore the parts that are hard to recreate.

The things worth keeping from an older node:

LND data (/data/lnd or /mnt/ext/lnd, depending on version)
Static channel backup (channel.backup)
Seed phrase and passwords (you wrote those down, right?)

Back up LND before you start

Never run two LND instances on the same seed

Once you've copied the LND data directory off the old node, move it aside so the old node can't start again by accident. A second LND node broadcasting stale channel state means force-closed channels and, in the worst case, lost funds.

On the old node:

sudo mkdir /mnt/thumbdrive
lsblk -pli
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/thumbdrive/
sudo rsync -rhvPog --append-verify /data/lnd /mnt/thumbdrive/
sudo mv /data/lnd /data/lnd-do-not-start-again

Grab the static channel backup file too, it's cheap insurance against anything going wrong with the full directory restore.

Restore onto the new node

Finish the v4 setup through the Lightning section, but don't create a wallet when LND first starts. Stop LND, mount the thumb drive, and copy the backup into place:

sudo systemctl stop lnd
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/thumbdrive/
sudo rsync -rhvPog --append-verify /mnt/thumbdrive/lnd /data/
sudo chown -R lnd:lnd /data/lnd
sudo systemctl start lnd

LND should come up with your existing wallet, peers, and channels.

What about the Bitcoin blockchain?

Bitcoin Core doesn't need a backup, it can download and verify the entire chain from scratch. That takes a few days on a Pi, so if you want to skip the resync, rsync the old bitcoin data directory across from the old drive before you point the new node at it.

Can I run this on something other than a Raspberry Pi 5?

The guide targets the Pi 5. The Pi 4 with 8 GB RAM works but initial sync and Electrs indexing are noticeably slower. Any 64-bit ARM or x86 board running Debian 13 "Trixie" should be compatible, but is untested. The hard requirements are 8 GB RAM and a fast SSD.

My node was offline for a few days. What now?

Nothing special. Bitcoin Core picks up from where it stopped and catches up with the chain. LND reconnects to channel peers automatically. Give it 30-60 minutes after startup before worrying about anything. Lightning channels stay safe while your node is offline. They just can't route or send payments while it's down.

How do I update Bitcoin Core or LND?

Follow the same install steps, starting from the download section. Stop the service, download and verify the new binary, replace it, and restart. Config files don't change between minor versions unless the release notes say so. Read the LND release notes before upgrading; it occasionally requires a database migration.

What do all the Linux commands do?

A short reference for commands that show up repeatedly in this guide. For any specific one, man <command> has the full manual, type q to exit.

Command	What it does	Example
`cd`	change directory	`cd /home/bitcoin`
`ls`	list directory contents	`ls -la /data`
`cp`	copy	`cp file.txt newfile.txt`
`mv`	move or rename	`mv file.txt moved.txt`
`rm`	remove	`rm tempfile.txt`
`mkdir`	make directory	`mkdir /home/bitcoin/new`
`ln -s`	make symlink	`ln -s /target /link`
`sudo`	run as superuser	`sudo nano textfile.txt`
`su`	switch user	`sudo su bitcoin`
`chown`	change owner	`chown bitcoin:bitcoin myfile.txt`
`chmod`	change permissions	`chmod +x script.sh`
`nano`	edit a text file	`nano textfile.txt`
`tar`	archive tool	`tar -cvf a.tar file1.txt file2.txt`
`exit`	leave current shell	`exit`
`systemctl`	control a systemd service	`sudo systemctl start bitcoind`
`journalctl`	read systemd logs	`sudo journalctl -u bitcoind`
`htop`	live process and resource view	`htop`
`shutdown`	power off or reboot	`sudo shutdown -r now`

Where can I learn more about Bitcoin and Lightning?

A few hand-picked starting points that actually teach rather than pitch:

What is Bitcoin?: Bitcoin Magazine's introduction.
Understanding the Lightning Network: the original walkthrough of payment channels.
Bitcoin resources and Lightning resources by Jameson Lopp.

How do I give the Pi a fixed IP address?

The cleanest answer is to set it in your router, assign a DHCP reservation for the Pi's MAC address so it always lands on the same IP. Every consumer router can do this; the menu is usually called "DHCP reservations" or "static leases".

If your router can't, configure the address directly on the Pi via NetworkManager (the default on Debian 13 "Trixie"):

sudo nmcli connection modify "Wired connection 1" \
  ipv4.addresses 192.168.1.50/24 \
  ipv4.gateway 192.168.1.1 \
  ipv4.dns 192.168.1.1 \
  ipv4.method manual
sudo nmcli connection up "Wired connection 1"

Replace the addresses with values that fit your network, and pick one outside the DHCP range your router hands out, otherwise you'll collide with some other device the next time it boots.

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