toxcore/other/bootstrap_daemon

Instructions

• For systemd users
  • Setting up
  • Updating
  • Troubleshooting
• For SysVinit users
  • Setting up
  • Updating
  • Troubleshooting
• For Docker users
  • Setting up
  • Updating
  • Troubleshooting

These instructions are primarily tested on Debian Linux, Wheezy for SysVinit and Jessie for systemd, but they should work on other POSIX-compliant systems too.

For systemd users

Setting up

For security reasons we run the daemon under its own user.

Create a new user by executing the following:

sudo useradd --home-dir /var/lib/tox-bootstrapd --create-home --system --shell /sbin/nologin --comment "Account to run Tox's DHT bootstrap daemon" --user-group tox-bootstrapd

Restrict access to home directory:

sudo chmod 700 /var/lib/tox-bootstrapd

Copy tox-bootstrapd.conf file to where ExecStart= from tox-bootstrapd.service points to. By default it's /etc/tox-bootstrapd.conf.

sudo cp tox-bootstrapd.conf /etc/tox-bootstrapd.conf

Go over everything in the copied tox-bootstrapd.conf file. Set options you want and add actual working nodes to the bootstrap_nodes list, instead of the example ones, if you want your node to connect to the Tox network. Make sure pid_file_path matches PIDFile= from tox-bootstrapd.service.

Copy tox-bootstrapd.service to /etc/systemd/system/:

sudo cp tox-bootstrapd.service /etc/systemd/system/

You must uncomment the next line in tox-bootstrapd.service, if you want to use port number < 1024:

#CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE

and, possibly, install libcap2-bin or libcap2 package, depending of your distribution.

Reload systemd units definitions, enable service for automatic start (if needed), start it and verify it's running:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable tox-bootstrapd.service
sudo systemctl start tox-bootstrapd.service
sudo systemctl status tox-bootstrapd.service

Get your public key and check that the daemon initialized correctly:

sudo grep "tox-bootstrapd" /var/log/syslog

Updating

You want to make sure that the daemon uses the newest toxcore, as there might have been some changes done to the DHT, so it's advised to update the daemon at least once every month.

To update the daemon first stop it:

sudo systemctl stop tox-bootstrapd.service

Then update your toxcore git repository, rebuild the toxcore and the daemon and make sure to install them.

Check if tox-bootstrapd.service in toxcore git repository was modified since the last time you copied it, as you might need to update it too.

Reload tox-bootstrapd.service if you have updated modified it:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

After all of this is done, simply start the daemon back again:

sudo systemctl start tox-bootstrapd.service

Troubleshooting

• Check daemon's status:

sudo systemctl status tox-bootstrapd.service

• Check the log for errors:

sudo grep "tox-bootstrapd" /var/log/syslog
# or
sudo journalctl --pager-end
# or
sudo journalctl -f _SYSTEMD_UNIT=tox-bootstrapd.service

• Make sure tox-bootstrapd user has write permission for keys and pid files.

• Make sure tox-bootstrapd has read permission for the config file.

• Make sure tox-bootstrapd location matches its path in tox-bootstrapd.service file.

For SysVinit users

Setting up

For security reasons we run the daemon under its own user.

Create a new user by executing the following:

sudo useradd --home-dir /var/lib/tox-bootstrapd --create-home --system --shell /sbin/nologin --comment "Account to run Tox's DHT bootstrap daemon" --user-group tox-bootstrapd

Restrict access to home directory:

sudo chmod 700 /var/lib/tox-bootstrapd

Copy tox-bootstrapd.conf file to where CFGFILE variable from tox-bootstrapd.sh points to. By default it's /etc/tox-bootstrapd.conf.

sudo cp tox-bootstrapd.conf /etc/tox-bootstrapd.conf

Go over everything in the copied tox-bootstrapd.conf file. Set options you want and add actual working nodes to the bootstrap_nodes list, instead of the example ones, if you want your node to connect to the Tox network. Make sure pid_file_path matches PIDFILE from tox-bootstrapd.sh.

Look at the variable declarations in the beginning of tox-bootstrapd.sh init script to see if you need to change anything for it to work on your system. The default values must be fine for most users and we assume that you use those next.

If you have configured the daemon to use any port numbers that are lower than 1024, you need to execute the command below, as by default non-privileged users cannot open ports <1024. The change persists through reboot:

sudo setcap CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE=+eip /usr/local/bin/tox-bootstrapd

Copy tox-bootstrapd.sh init script to /etc/init.d/tox-bootstrapd (note the disappearance of ".sh" ending):

sudo cp tox-bootstrapd.sh /etc/init.d/tox-bootstrapd

Set permissions for the init system to run the script:

sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/tox-bootstrapd

Make the init system aware of the script, start the daemon and verify it's running:

sudo update-rc.d tox-bootstrapd defaults
sudo service tox-bootstrapd start
sudo service tox-bootstrapd status

Get your public key and check that the daemon initialized correctly:

sudo grep "tox-bootstrapd" /var/log/syslog

Updating

You want to make sure that the daemon uses the newest toxcore, as there might have been some changes done to the DHT, so it's advised to update the daemon at least once every month.

To update the daemon first stop it:

sudo service tox-bootstrapd stop

Then update your toxcore git repository, rebuild the toxcore and the daemon and make sure to install them.

Check if tox-bootstrapd.sh in toxcore git repository was modified since the last time you copied it, as you might need to update it too.

After all of this is done, simply start the daemon back again:

sudo service tox-bootstrapd start

Troubleshooting

• Check daemon's status:

sudo service tox-bootstrapd status

• Check the log for errors:

sudo grep "tox-bootstrapd" /var/log/syslog

• Check that variables in the beginning of /etc/init.d/tox-bootstrapd are valid.

• Make sure tox-bootstrapd user has write permission for keys and pid files.

• Make sure tox-bootstrapd has read permission for the config file.

• Make sure tox-bootstrapd location matches its path in the /etc/init.d/tox-bootstrapd init script.

For Docker users:

Setting up

If you are familiar with Docker and would rather run the daemon in a Docker container, you may download the latest official docker image. Check the GitHub releases page for the latest version (e.g. v0.2.11), and run:

docker pull toxchat/bootstrap-node:0.2.11
docker run --rm -it --entrypoint=sha256sum toxchat/bootstrap-node:latest /usr/local/bin/tox-bootstrapd

This will print the SHA256 checksum of the latest binary, which should agree with the SHA256 checksum in the Dockerfile.

If you want to build the bootstrap node from source, check out the latest release:

git checkout $(git tag --list | grep -P '^v(\d+).(\d+).(\d+)$' | \
  sed 's/v/v /g' | sed 's/\./ /g' | \
  sort -snk4,4 | sort -snk3,3 | sort -snk2,2 | tail -n 1 | \
  sed 's/v /v/g' | sed 's/ /\./g')

and run the following from the top level c-toxcore directory:

tar c $(git ls-files) | docker build -f other/bootstrap_daemon/docker/Dockerfile -t toxchat/bootstrap-node -

sudo useradd \
  --home-dir /var/lib/tox-bootstrapd \
  --create-home \
  --system \
  --shell /sbin/nologin \
  --comment "Account to run Tox's DHT bootstrap daemon" \
  --user-group tox-bootstrapd
sudo chmod 700 /var/lib/tox-bootstrapd

docker run -d --name tox-bootstrapd --restart always \
  --user "$(id -u tox-bootstrapd):$(id -g tox-bootstrapd)" \
  -v /var/lib/tox-bootstrapd/:/var/lib/tox-bootstrapd/ \
  --ulimit nofile=32768:32768 \
  -p 443:443 \
  -p 3389:3389 \
  -p 33445:33445 \
  -p 33445:33445/udp \
  toxchat/bootstrap-node

We create a new user and protect its home directory in order to mount it in the Docker image, so that the kyepair the daemon uses would be stored on the host system, which makes it less likely that you would loose the keypair while playing with or updating the Docker container.

You can check logs for your public key or any errors:

docker logs tox-bootstrapd

Note that the Docker container runs a script which pulls a list of bootstrap nodes off https://nodes.tox.chat/ and adds them in the config file.

Updating

You want to make sure that the daemon uses the newest toxcore, as there might have been some changes done to the DHT, so it's advised to update the daemon at least once every month.

To update the daemon, all you need is to erase current container with its image:

docker stop tox-bootstrapd
docker rm tox-bootstrapd
docker rmi toxchat/bootstrap-node

Then rebuild and run the image again:

tar c $(git ls-files) | docker build -f other/bootstrap_daemon/docker/Dockerfile -t toxchat/bootstrap-node -
docker run -d --name tox-bootstrapd --restart always \
  --user "$(id -u tox-bootstrapd):$(id -g tox-bootstrapd)" \
  -v /var/lib/tox-bootstrapd/:/var/lib/tox-bootstrapd/ \
  --ulimit nofile=32768:32768 \
  -p 443:443 \
  -p 3389:3389 \
  -p 33445:33445 \
  -p 33445:33445/udp \
  toxchat/bootstrap-node

Troubleshooting

• Check if the container is running:

docker ps -a

• Check the log for errors:

docker logs tox-bootstrapd