How to build multichain for Raspberry pi? Any build instructions?

Question

I'm trying to build multichain for Raspberry PI. I'm looking for any documentation or build instructions on the same. If anyone tried this? please suggest. I have built multichain on ubuntu 12.04 machine and now trying to cross compile for Raspberry Pi.

Answer 1

Hi Ram,

 

i have successfully compiled and run MultiChain on Raspberry/openSuse 64 bits:

 

- https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:Raspberry_Pi3

- compile instructions:

zypper in -t pattern devel_C_C++
zypper in libdb-4_8-devel
zypper in libopenssl-devel

wget https://github.com/MultiChain/multichain/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip

./autogen.sh
./configure
make

Compilation take some time, so be ready to wait for it.

This was a couple of months ago, so may be it is still compiling or not :-)

 

have fun

 

Sebastien

Comments

This is great - thanks for sharing this!

---

Hi Sebastien,

I am trying to run OpenSuse on Raspberry pi 3 b as per the instructions you shared. I used the Opensuse image file openSUSE-Leap42.2-ARM-E20-efi.aarch64-2017.02.02-Build1.119.raw.xz  downloaded from - https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:Raspberry_Pi3.
I used Etcher tool to flash this image into my SD card. The image flashing is successful but the Board is not booting after that. I am not getting any display once i boot the board. Not sure what is wrong?

Can you please suggest me, which OpenSuse image file you are using? Which Version of RBPi 3 you have? How you are flashing your OS image to SD card? Any issues you faced doing this? etc. I will try the same way and see if it works for me. I didn't find any help related to this in OpenSuse forum.

Thanks in advance.
-Ram

---

Hi Ram,

sorry to hear that.
actually at the time i have used the latest stable image, and flashed it using the 'dd' command on my mac using the shell. no problem with that, and boot was successful. I was using the standard Pi 3 B (1 GB ram)

S.

---

i have spent some time today to try to compile the latest version of MultiChain on a Raspberry Pi 3, here are the steps i have used with success:

# MultiChain on Raspberry Pi 3

## openSUSE install

Get the smallest/lightest  openSUSE image, [Leap 42.2 (JeOS)](http://download.opensuse.org/ports/aarch64/distribution/leap/42.2/appliances/openSUSE-Leap42.2-ARM-JeOS-raspberrypi3.aarch64.raw.xz)

(i tried also the E20 image, but the GUI is really too heavy for the Pi and there is not enough ram left to compile MultiChain anyway...)

## Flash the image to an sd card

On my mac i used these commands in a terminal :

``` bash
diskutil list
```

insert the sd card, then again

``` bash
diskutil list
```

note the name of the new listed device (here let's use /dev/disk3)

``` bash
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3
xzcat openSUSE-Leap42.2-ARM-JeOS-raspberrypi3.aarch64-2017.02.02-Build1.73.raw.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/rdisk3 bs=16m && sync
diskutil eject /dev/disk3
```

Of course you have to use the correct device id (here /dev/disk3) depending on your configuration, or better use a GUI flash tool, it should work.
Don't call me if you flash your boot disk instead of the sd card ;-)

## Boot the Raspberry

insert the sd card, plug an ethernet cable, a keyboard, an hdmi cable attached to a monitor, then the usb power cord.

you should see a boot screen, with a choice: normal boot, failsafe boot, let the default choice automatically happen.

and then ... wait ;-) the screen will go blank for a few minutes, the system is expanding the filesystem and installing some mandatory stuff, just wait a little.

after a few minutes, you should get a login prompt.

## Install the necessary dev dependencies

Log into the system (user=root/password=linux), or better ssh to it using another computer after retrieving the Pi lan address.

install the dependencies, like this:

``` bash
zypper in -t pattern devel_C_C++
zypper in libdb-4_8-devel
zypper in libopenssl-devel
```

this will take a long time, especially the first line, there are a lot of packages to install since we start from a JeOS version.

## Get MultiChain sources

here, i'm using the 1.0-release branch:

``` bash
wget https://github.com/MultiChain/multichain/archive/1.0-release.zip
unzip 1.0-release.zip
```

## Add some swap space

to workaround some very low memory conditions, add some swap space:

``` bash
dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap_1 bs=1024 count=1000000
mkswap /swap_1
swapon /swap_1
```

to get rid of it, reboot the Raspberry after the compilation and

```bash
rm -rf /swap_1
```

## Compile the thing

``` bash
cd multichain-1.0-release/
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
```

I got no error during `autogen.sh` and `configure` execution, and only warnings during the `make`.

Be prepared to wait during the `make` it takes several hours...

##  Install the binary

First strip the binaries to get rid of debug info:

``` bash
strip src/multichaind
strip src/multichaind-cold
strip src/multichain-util
strip src/multichain-cli
```

then copy the binaries somewhere in the path for example :

``` bash
cp src/multichaind /usr/local/bin/
cp src/multichaind-cold /usr/local/bin/
cp src/multichain-util /usr/src/local/bin/
cp src/multichain-cli /usr/src/local/bin/
```

## Enjoy

``` bash
multichain-util create chain1
multichaind chain1 -rpcuser=multichain -rpcpassword=multichain -daemon
multichain-cli -rpcuser=multichain -rpcpassword=multichain chain1 getinfo
```