Bitcoin node won't start, can't access app in Umbrel

Support and Troubleshooting
1

Hello,

I tried reading all the other threads on this topic and couldn’t find a solution that worked.

My BTC node was first stuck in “starting,” now when I try to select the Bitcoin node app in my Umbrel dashboard it leads to a broken page that says:

This site can’t be reached

http://umbrel.local:2100/ is unreachable.

ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE

The problem began when I moved back in June and didn’t shut down the node properly - just unplugged it and tried to start it back up later.

I tried to SSH in and enact solutions described elsewhere but nothing worked. In most cases, I kept getting a message saying “no such file or directory.” I also saw something in the debug logs about the node being vulnerable, bad warning messages saying the node could be hacked or something. I’m going to shut Umbrel down for now until I can fix everything.

I’ve put the debug logs in a Google doc since I wasn’t able to download them: BTC node logs - Google Docs

Any help would be much appreciated.

(I’m on an M3 Macbook Air, btw.)

2

We will try to help you…

From what you say, everything starts from having incorrectly shut down your node. This, in itself, is a very big risk and causes the system to become corrupted and malfunction.

Then, I have been looking at the log that you shared and what I can see, from the start, is the following error that is repeated from the beginning:

bitcoin_bitcoind_1   | Error: Settings file could not be read:
bitcoin_bitcoind_1   | - Unable to parse settings file /data/.bitcoin/settings.json

What this tells me is that your bitcoin node “starts fine” and then crashes because it is trying to load the “settings.json” file and it fails. This could be because the file has been corrupted most likely by turning off the device while it was running.

Again, this is just a starter. It would be a good idea to start here hoping that this is the only problem.

Let’s try to fix it. I’ll detail it for you.

Let’s review this first:

Via SHH enter the following command.

sudo ls -al /home/umbrel/umbrel/app-data/bitcoin/data/bitcoin/settings.json

This will show us the permissions that the settings.json file has. They have probably changed and prevented the node from interacting with it. Here is an example of one of my nodes. Mine outputs the following.

-rw------- 1 umbrel umbrel 193 Dec  4 13:17 /home/umbrel/umbrel/app-data/bitcoin/data/bitcoin/settings.json

At first you see “-rw” which indicates that it has read and write permissions. I even confirm this by looking at the folder permissions and it shows it to me.

folder permissions
folder permissions866×608 24.5 KB

Now, a question. Do you only have bitcoin core on your umbrel?

I ask because you already have the precedent of incorrectly shutting down the node and it presents errors. If this were my case and I only have bitcoin core mounted, I would reinstall umbrel from scratch. That way I would get rid of any possible errors that there are currently.

Anyway… let us know how the matter went…

3

Hello, thanks a lot for the answer.

I think I will try re-installing Umbrel completely because the only thing I use it for so far is the Bitcoin node.

I found what seems to be a good video on the reinstallation process here, in case anyone viewing this thread has the same problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoQZc6pTolI

I will try it out when I get the chance and report back here.

4

So I got a new micro SD card, flashed Umbrel OS onto it, put the card in my Raspberry Pi, and now when I go to umbrel.local I still get a blank page.

How can this be? I thought I’d be able to re-install Umbrel. Is something wrong with my Raspberry Pi? Everything is connected as usual and it looks the same way it did back when it was working.

Screenshot 2024-12-12 at 9.31.16 PM
Screenshot 2024-12-12 at 9.31.16 PM1566×810 29.1 KB

Edit: I can’t seem to SSH in anymore either, I don’t know the IP address

5

You can check your node’s IP on your own router or by installing, for example, Angry IP Scanner.

6

When I go into my router and look at the network map, the Umbrel isn’t even up. It shows 5 clients running, which are my laptop, phone, printer, Roku streaming stick and iPad.

It’s like the Umbrel isn’t even on, which would explain why I get the “can’t be reached” message when I visit umbrel.local. But everything is plugged in and up and running from a physical perspective. I even tried a different Ethernet port but that didn’t seem to do anything.

What could possibly have happened to make the Raspberry Pi not even connected to the network?

7

From what I understand, you reflashed umbrelos on a new sd and you still haven’t been able to log in via “umbrel.local”. In fact, it doesn’t even show up by IP.

Well, probably something went wrong with the sd. It happened to me many times and I would just re-flash umbrelos and everything was fine. Try reflashing the sd.

It’s one of the problems with sd and raspberry. They are not as stable as they claim.

8

Now my computer won’t even recognize either of the micro SD cards I have. The new one and the old one both don’t show up. I tried everything here: How to Fix SD Card Not Showing Up on Mac [2023 Guide] and I still can’t see it in Finder or Balecha. Last time, re-booting fixed it, but this time that doesn’t work.

9

What a case… I thought these things had only happened to me :smiley:

The same thing happened to me with many sd and because of the “errors” of umbrelos.

I will detail what I did to solve it. I live on Linux and I see that you use MAC (I supose). However, this also works on MAC.

Try this program: GParted

Download the “Live on USB” version and start your mac with this program.

This program will detect the sd even if it is not formatted and will allow you to format it to FAT32. With that, you can restart and your mac and balena will detect it.

Be careful when selecting the SD card because the program will detect all the disks on your computer. Make sure that it is the SD card that you will format.

Here you have a guide on youtube.

If this program does not detect it, then it is damaged.

10

I’m a little confused because that site contains sections on how to use the program on Linux and Windows, but nothing about Mac. Also, the YouTube video shows how to do things on Lineage OS directly in the Raspberry Pi.

I’ll try anything at this point but I already tried re-flashing Umbrel os onto a new SD card and it didn’t work, will doing the same thing again lead to a different result? Is that what happened for you? Sorry if I don’t understand correctly.

Could I try running the Raspberry Pi by itself without Umbrel like the video you cited shows? I’ve never used the Raspberry Pi in this way, if you know a good source on how to do that it’d be much appreciated.

11

Yes. I think you’ve been blinded by the trees. As I explained, I sent you the way to use the program regardless of the operating system you used. You just had to “flash” the installer to a pen drive and boot from the pen drive on your computer.

It’s irrelevant what operating system it is because your computer boots from the pen drive and will load the program itself.

The important thing about the program was not how to do things in Lineage OS directly on Raspberry Pi, but how to use the program to recover your SD cards.

Here is another video specifically showing how to use the program.

Yes. The same thing happened to me with several SD cards. I flashed the SD card without any problems or errors (apparently) and then it didn’t work correctly on the Raspberry when “installing” Umbrelos.

Some SD cards stopped working and being recognized by the computer (like what happened to you) and I had to recover them with this program. Then I flashed Umbrelos again and it worked correctly. Why does this happen? I have several possible causes.

  • Continuously formatting and flashing an SD card degrades it and, depending on the quality of the SD card and the wear and tear it already has, some may even stop working.

  • Problems with the Umbrelos installers (no need to go into this). You’ve already experienced it.

  • Compatibility problems with the computer/operating system you use to flash the SD card.

Anyway, it could be any or all of the above. In the end, I got tired of looking for the causes and I dedicated myself to solving my main problem.

I don’t quite understand this.

Do you mean you don’t want to install umbrelos anymore?

If so, of course you can use the raspberry without umbrelos. You can use the native raspberry system. I’ve tried it and it’s very stable but you won’t be able to do the same thing that umbrelos offers you. Or put another way, you won’t be able to do what umbrel offers you more easily, with 1 or 2 clicks.

12

Understood. Thanks a lot for all your help. I’ll see if I can use this program and will come back if it doesn’t fix things.

Disregard the statement about Lineage OS, I do want to use Umbrel.

13

I was able to re-flash Umbrel OS to both the new and old micro SD cards. tried inserting both of them into the Raspberry Pi and neither worked.

I’m beginning to think the problem could lie with either my network or one of the other hardware pieces. The device is still not showing up on the network. The green and red lights on the pi turn on and stay on, but the lights at the ethernet port don’t flash.

I’ve done some more reading and have seen people fix things by simply restarting their modem/router or wiping the SSD their pi is connected to, so I’ll try those next. I’m open to any other fixes you suggest as well of course.

If the next few things I try don’t work, I’m probably going to give up, as I’ve spent too much time and energy on this thing already. Umbrel OS seemed like such an easy way of running a node while also being able to do things like run GPTs on local hardware, but it’s far too difficult to maintain for someone who has minimal tech experience with this kind of thing. If I want to run a node in the future I’ll opt for using an old laptop instead.