@ -66,34 +66,49 @@ Make sure you have the following Hardware and Infrastructure ready for the works
* One or two USB SD card adapters
* One or two USB-C to USB-A adapters
* Some Tape, Marker & Pens come always handy (also for participants to wirte down seed & passwords)
* And eventually some Bitcoin funds (if people dont have their own to start small funding channels)
Participants need at least to bring their laptops.
# Running of the Workshop
The basic structure of the workshop is set by the RaspiBlitz setup process. Simply you just follow that. The following parts should share some experiences and suggestions how you can optimize the time and the mentoring during this process.
*Feel free to share your experience here.*
## Welcome and Intro
TODO
In the beginning it would be great to give a small introduction into Lightning and show the RaspiBlitz GitHub page to let everybody know where to find the basic infos. But try to keeo it in the area of 10min to not waste time.
Also even before the intro take care about the blockchain preparation. If people bring clean HDDs hook them up to your blockchain copy station as soon as possible. If you have to copy on location, plan to bringe the time for some deeper educational intro while the HDDs getting prepared.
## Assembling
TODO
If you hand out hardware kits or people bring their own hardware its time to put it together. If you are in a ready-2-go scenario of course skip this and just hand them out.
## Basic Setup
TODO
Connect everybodies Laptop to the same local network the RaspiBlitzes are connected to. Prepare to explain how to open a terminal - especially windows users need some help here (see README on this).
Then everybody is SSHing into the RaspiBlitz and is following the setup dialog. Hand out paper and pens for people to write down their passwords and the word seed.
## Waiting Time
TODO
After the lightning wallet setup you have the longest waiting time during the workshop - around 30min when you have a presynced ready-2-go or up to 1 hour in the other scenarios. Its he time when the node is syncing up the blockchain and LND is scanning. If you see somebodies blockchain progress under 97% something is wrong - possibly the HDD was not correctly preparred or blockchain is way to old to finish during workshop time.
## Final Setup
Use this time for a more in-depth educational segment on lightning in general. Also this time can be used to demo with one RaspiBlitz that is already on clean-setup (you prepared before the workshop) how the funding, setting up channels and the other features of the RaspiBlitz work. That way people see what are the next steps once their node is ready and even if your workshop time is over by then they can know the next steps to do at home.
TODO
Also this time is good for trouble shooting in individal sessions. If someone is not able to finish the sync on location in time shutdown the Raspiblitz from SSH terminal with CTRL+C and then `shutdown now`. If the device gets connected back up at home it should pickup the sync/scan process (let people know about the wallet unlock).
## Finalizing Setup
Once the RaspiBlitz is ready (LCD shows status screen) and people can SSH into the main menu, let them go into the `SERVICES` section and activate the `RTL WebUI`. Its the best interface to then continue with the peering, funding and channel opening.
## Funding, Channels, API
TODO
Check how much time is left to go thru the next steps of connecting to peers, funding and opening channels. While you wait on funding or channel opening confirmations, its a good moment to try to connect users mobile wallets with the device. But just so that on the local network for demo - dynamicDNS is something people then can try at home with port forwarding on theior routers.
Its also nice to add casual social open-end segment to the end of the workshop. So people can already go into personal conversations, music and beverages while some last nodes sync up, confirmations come in and people sending their first satoshis on some lightning chess or from node to node.
# Organisation Tasks
@ -107,21 +122,64 @@ From experience start ordering two weeks before the workshop (if you need to ass
## Instruct Participants to bring Hardware
If you run the scenario of people bringing their own hardware. Make sure to let them know at least a week before the event so that there is enough time for online ordering. Also make sure that especially the power supply needs to provide 3A and a stable current (big fat with a thick cable is good) - because thats the most often error source if people just reuse some old weak power supply.
In all scenarios make sure people bring their laptops.
## Assemble all the Hardware
Basically you follow the assemble instructions on the RaspiBlitz GuitHUb README. Think of a safe way to transport the assambled devices to the workshop location - HHDs like it soft.
# Prepare HDDs with Blockchain Data
This is the most time consuming part. Try it once to get a feel for how much time you need to prepare one HDD.
This is the most time consuming part of the preparation. Try it once to get a feel for how much time you need to prepare one HDD.
A prepared HDD is formatted in EXT4 and named "BLOCKCHAIN". In folder called `bitcoin` it contains a copy of the following data folders from a running Bitcoin core client (same version on RaspiBlitz).
/bitcoin/blocks
/bitcoin/chainstate
/bitcoin/indexes
optionaly you can add also the testnet data:
/bitcoin/testnet3/blocks
/bitcoin/testnet3/chainstate
/bitcoin/testnet3/indexes
A prepared HDD is formatted in Ext4, named "BLOCKCHAIN" and contains at least the following
The bitcoin core client the folders are from needs to have `txindex=1` in the bitcoin.conf and needs to be stopped while the data is copied to the HDD.
The easiest way to get a "template" of such HDD is to setup a fresh RaspiBlitz (without channel and fundings) and then run the script `/home/admin/XXcleanHDD.sh` and manually delete all rest data from the HDD and just leave those folders.
Once you have that "template" you can make a image from that and write that image to the other HDDs. This works for HDDs that all habe
## Prepare Blockchain Copy Station
At the moment the "Blockchain Copy Station" is just a computer (laptop - not a RaspberryPi) having a image of a "template" HDD (see above) and you can attach (with a USB3.0 Hub) multiple fresh HHDs to it and start writing in the template image to that.
To update the "template" HDD for the next workshop use it for a fresh clean RaspiBllitz setup just days before, sync the blockchain to 100% and repeat the process above.
*This version is not tested, but seems like the easiest to setup so far. Images can have the problem of being too large when some 1TB HDDs are just some bytes smaller. So for the template HDD it would be best to find the smallest 1TB HDD possible or just writing the image to HDDs of the same brand & model.*
Copying the blockchain between RaspberryPis during the workshop is not an option, because the network and its USB2 is too slow and will take 3 to 4 hours.
For former workshops i had a Laptop just with the data and had a script that was formatting and rsyning that data over to a fresh HDD. That took around 1,5 hours per HDD.
*If someone has a better idea for a 'Blockchain Copy Station' - please feel free to contribute.*
## Prepare SD cards with latest RaspiBlitz image
Download the latest RasopiBlitz SD card image from the README page. `Balena Etcher` is the best image writing softare forn thsi usecase because if you have multiple sd card adapters, you can write multiple crads at once - that is cutting down your preperation time.
## Setup Workshop Environment
See hardware checklist what to bring to the workshop in the earlier chapter.
Setup power outlets for everybody. Its always good to be way early at the workshop location for setup, especially if you run the "pre-sync" of the ready-2-go scenario.
Most important is the network setup. Every RaspiBlitz needs a LAN port in the switch and that switch needs to be on the same local network as the WLAN so that participants laptop can SSH into the RaspiBlitz. If that is not the case or you cannot confirm that before the event its best to bring an additional WLAN router. Then you give the WLAN router internet uplink thru the available LAN cable and you put the network switch for the Raspiblitzes behind that router and open an additional WLAN on that WLAN router for everybody to connect to. Its OK to be behind a NAT - its just important for everybody to be behind the same NAT.
## Pre-Sync RaspiBlitzes at Workshop Location
In the ready-2-go scenario you have the RaspiBlitzes already assembled and a recent blockchain copy on the HDD. So one ot two hours before the workshop you setup your environment and already plug all RaspiBlitzes with power & network. You will see on the LCD at the top a pre-sync info and progress .. if its something '99.99..' its good to go. Just leave it running until the workshop starts. You dont need to stop it - just let participents SSH in and they can to the setup.
Its also best practice that you pre-sync all devices before you move them over to the workshop location. You dont need to SSH to shut them down before packing up - just unplug the network cable first, wait until the HDD is stopping to flash and then remove the power.
Christian Rotzoll
6 years ago