Bitcoin keeps stopping syncing. Seems like a TOR issue?

Support and Troubleshooting
1

I just installed. v.26 Bitcoin core is not syncing. It intially starts and just stops at blockchain size = 293 bytes. Not sure why. I don’t have ufw on my linux box, so it should be clear sailing. I’ll let it sit for a day or two and see if it starts syncing. So, it seems I have some kind of Linux docker issue? Anyone know what it might be?

System Info: Debian XFCE, ip of umbrel.local = 10.0.2.0 . Running Bitcoin core 25.0 raw download, outside of Docker, works fine.

**Update: I got to 3% synced and 110MB It keeps stopping. I do see some TOR errors in the Umbrel logs. I suspect it has something to do with that. I’ll look around for other forum posts about that. 6 hours later I got a little more up to 4.34% I don’t know why it just goes a little and then stops for a long time. **

tor_proxy    | Feb 29 17:09:38.000 [notice] Failed to find node for hop #1 of our path. Discarding this circuit.
tor_proxy    | Feb 29 17:09:38.000 [notice] Our circuit 0 (id: 80) died due to an invalid selected path, purpose Hidden service: Pre-built vanguard circuit. This may be a torrc configuration issue, or a bug.
tor_proxy    | Feb 29 17:12:12.000 [notice] Failed to find node for hop #1 of our path.

I wonder if this is it?

…Tor by default doesn’t bind to all interfaces (as in 0.0.0.0) which doesn’t play nicely with Docker.

This can be fixed by adding SocksPort 0.0.0.0:9050 to the /etc/tor/torrc.

I’ll investigate the contents of /etc/tor/torrc if the Umbrel containers will allow me to look inside. Is there a “known issue” with Umbrel on fresh installs of Debian? I suspect it’s a problem with binding to the net interface.

I will try installing just a regular Ubuntu on my device and try it that way. Maybe there is just something wierd about my Debian installer. If that works, I will reply here.

2

Unless you’ve specified bitcoin core use Tor exclusively it is also finding other bitcoin core nodes via the clearnet.

3

Sorry to hear about your issue here.
When you open the Bitcoin app UI, how many connections does it say you have open? You should still be able to sync your node without TOR working.

Also, can you please navigate to the settings dashboard on umbrel.local, select START under troubleshooting and share the resultant logs here.

4

After further experimentation, I found the cause of the problem.

CAUSE: Instead of letting the Umbrel install script install Docker, I pre-installed it myself before running the Umbrel install script. This caused some sort or routing issue from Umbrel out through my system. The fix was to completely uninstall Docker and then let the Umbrel script create it.

POSSIBLE FIX: Change the install script to warn users who have done this.