Oddbean

FFS. Does anyone know a surefire way to get a non-custodial lightning wallet set up on a Linux machine? I spent a good chunk of the day failing. https://media.tenor.com/mPyA6mG41zAAAAAC/that70s-show-kitty.gif First, I tried Alby Hub, as people were saying it is super easy. Got to the last step and it just didn't work. The file will not run as an executable. Permissions say it should. Second, I tried LND. Their tutorial got me through installation, but configuration is getting trickier. I'm pushing the boundaries of my Linux knowledge. Trying to find config files I don't know exist and don't know their location. It's also looking like there are some dependencies I don't understand. I've previously tried a Pi running Start9, but it just failed to download the blockchain repeatedly. I've thought about running a Start9 on a virtual machine on my Linux PC, but got an error during initial set up. #AskNostr #Lightning #FFS

I would install bitcoin-core package from flatpak or snap as a service, let it download the blockchain. Then create a separate user account (without an enceypted home drive) and download/compile/whatever CLN and run it as that user. Use cron to autostart CLN from boot even when the user isn't logged in, this is a poor-man's service (so you don't need to learn systemd). Configure CLN per instructions and connect it to your local bitcoin instance. This may involve putting a long random password in the bitcoin config protecting its control ports. CLN will also need this password to access the bitcoin core daemon. Now you have a basic install, and CLN will create an internal bitcoin wallet. Keep the seed phrase for this secure and backed up with multiple copies on paper and in a safe. This is for your lightning hot wallet, and it resides in CLN (not bitcoin-core). Now you will need to add services to your PC to serve up interfaces to your wallet like LNBits. One simple mobile interface is Zeus. There are also web-server based ones like RTL (ride the lightning). You can also rely on the CLN command line. This is a high-level recommendation and may include errors. ChatGPT can also be a good resource for walking you through various steps.