How to install bitcoind (Bitcoin Core) on Ubuntu?

Question

I want to install a command line-only full node bitcoind on a mini PC with 4GB RAM and Ubuntu. What are the steps to do it and how can I check if it works?

Answer 1

1. useradd bitcoin and passwd bitcoin
2. link /home/bitcoin/.bitcoin to external HDD with chown -R bitcoin:bitcoin
3. git clone bitcoin core in /home/USER/GitStuff
4. add bitcoin ppa repository
5. sudo apt install libdb4.8-dev && sudo apt install libdb4.8++-dev
6. /autogen.sh in /home/USER/GitStuff/bitcoin
7. /configure --without-gui (to build without GUI pass --without-gui)
8. make
9. make install
10. su bitcoin
11. start bitcoind (as user bitcoin)
12. curl -sL https://bitnodes.earn.com/api/v1/nodes/me-8333 | jq

Answer 2

Dependencies

To get add-apt-repository, which we will use later to add the bitcoin PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install bitcoind

Configuration

Before starting bitcointd you'll want to create directory and the bitcoin.conf configuration file:

cd ~/

mkdir .bitcoin

cd .bitcoin

vim bitcoin.conf or nano bitcoin.conf

In bitcoin.conf these content are important:

server=1
testnet=1
rpcuser=UNIQUE_RPC_USERNAME
rpcpassword=UNIQUE_RPC_PASSWORD

If you wish to use this installation on the regular bitcoin network, remove testnet=1

Answer 3

The custom apt repository now states it is unmaintained, and to use the snap found here: https://github.com/bitcoin-core/packaging/tree/main/snap

sudo snap install bitcoin-core

Config file wants to live at: /home/yourusername/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

Answer 4

There is a guide in the docs of the bitcoin source code that goes over how to build bitcoin as well as the dependencies needed. Within that same directory of the source (doc/) there are various other guides and explanations that you may find useful as well.

Linux build doc