Errors when running bitcoind at startup

Question

Hi i've built bitcoin core 0.15 from source and am trying to get it to run at startup.

I've used the bitcoind.conf file found in the bitcoin core repository https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/init.md

I'm also running Ubuntu 16.04 and am trying to test my upstart script i've placed in /etc/init by running service bitcoind start however I get the following error:

Failed to start bitcoind.service: Unit bitcoind.service not found.

The only thing i've changed in the example script is user to my user (sudo privileges) and the group to sudo.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

Answer 1

The same problem occured on my Ubuntu 16.04 with Bitcoin v0.15.1.

After some investigation, I found the reason is that the file(init.md) is out of date. Ubuntu has used systemd instread of upstart since 15.10, while the section of ubuntu in that file don't update in time.

It's sure that the lastest modification is 2015-08-04, which is before the release date of Ubuntu 16.04.

$ git blame -L94,97 doc/init.md
234bfbf6 (Adam Weiss   2014-07-31 11:56:17 -0400 94) 4c) Upstart (for Debian/Ubuntu based distributions)
234bfbf6 (Adam Weiss   2014-07-31 11:56:17 -0400 95)
fc25a874 (unsystemizer 2015-08-04 14:10:51 +0800 96) Drop bitcoind.conf in /etc/init.  Test by running `service bitcoind start`
234bfbf6 (Adam Weiss   2014-07-31 11:56:17 -0400 97) it will automatically start on reboot.

The section, "4a) systemd", is valid, which works on me.

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Reference

• What's New in Ubuntu 16.04 : The systemd Init System
• How to identify which init system you are currently booting with