Building your own Monerobox

MoneroBox is a zero-config, plug-and-play Monero full node box running on a Single-Board-Computer Rock64 with a SSD. Users can monitor the box with web UI and use the box as a remote node for mobile wallets. Software such as monero command line tools and web UI will be updated automatically.

Although you can buy a Monerobox directly from https://monerobox.store/, you can build your own Monerobox if you want as the software of Monerobox are open source.

Hardware list

Here is the list of stuff you need to build your own Monerobox:

• Rock 64 (1GB, 2GB or 4GB), USB 3.0 to SATA adapter, Power supply and heat sink, from https://www.pine64.org.
• a 2.5 inch SSD, from newegg, amazon, etc…
• a Monerobox case of your favourite colour out of 16 combinations, from https://monerobox.store/product/monerobox-case/
• A micro SD card (only for flashing the SPI memory to make Rock64 able to boot from SSD)

Hardware list

Software installation

Rock64 contains an onboard SPI flash memory which can be flashed with U-Boot to enable boot from USB which is connected to SSD. Since SSD has a much faster accessing speed, we can expect a better system performance when we put OS image on and boot from it. It is a little risky because failure in flashing the SPI may brick your board.

1. Download u-boot-flash-spi-rock64.img.xz from here and use Etcher to write to the micro SD card.
2. Download OS image “Armbian Binoic legacy kernel” and use Etcher to write to the SSD.
3. Insert the SD card into Rock64 and boot it. It will automatically flash the SPI memory. Wait until the white LED on Rock64 blink once per second. Wait for some more time just to ensure the writing is done and then remove the SD card and power off the board.
4. Connect network cable to Rock64 and attach the SSD to USB 3.0 port(blue) and then boot Rock64. You should see the blue LED on the USB to SATA adapter is ON constantly. Wait for two minutes, if the red LED on the adapter flash sometimes it means Rock64 is accessing the storage and it booted successfully. Booting from USB 3.0 failed miserably sometimes, reboot Rock64 if you did not see the red LED flash. If it still does not work after some retries, read instructions here to fix the failure.
5. Login to your router(IP is usually 192.168.1.1) and find out the IP address of host “rock64”

Login to router and find the IP of rock64

6. Armbian Bionic Linux comes with default user “root” and password “1234”. Now SSH to the rock64 with the following command:

ssh root@192.168.1.117

You will be asked to accept the key finger print, type “yes” to accept.

7. After successfully login, you will be asked to change password for user “root”. Then you will be asked to create a new user, please create a user “rock64”. Then logout root user with the following command:

exit

8. Login again with user “rock64” and clone the monerobox repo and run the install script:

git clone https://github.com/monero-ecosystem/monerobox.git
cd monerobox && git checkout container
sudo ./base_image.sh

8. The script will install required software and download packages to make your Rock64 a Monerobox. The box will reboot after the installation is done.

9. Login with user “rock64” after reboot and run the following script:

cd monerobox && ./start_manager.sh

10. After running the script you should see a container named “manager” is running if your run command “docker stats”. The manager will download and start other services such as tor, monero daemon and web services.
It will take some time to download the docker images.
you should be able to see services mentioned above in “docker stats” command and you should be able to access Monerobox web UI with “http://monerobox.local” using the browser on your pc or laptop if you are running Ubuntu or MacOS. If you are using Windows, you may need to use the IP address “http://192.168.1.117”. You should see a web UI similar to the demo page except that you can use the admin functions.

Assembling the box

The software installation is done, it is time to assemble to box.

1. Put the SSD and adapter into the base of the case. Note: you can use acrylic foam tapes as shown here to make the SSD fits into the base better.

SSD and adapter in the base

2. Secure Rock64 board on the plate with 4 M2.5 x 6 mm black screws that come with the case.

Rock64 on the plate

3. Put the plate on the top of the SSD

plate on the top of SSD

4. Put the top of the case on the base and secure the box with 4 M3 x 6 mm stainless screws that come with the case.

done assembling and connecting all cables

It usually take about 30 hours for a Rock64 2GB / 4GB to sync the blockchain from scratch and Rock64 1GB 40 hours or even longer as the syncing speed also depends on the network.

Monerobox has a User Manual that detail the monitoring and admin functions of the web UI and how to connect with wallets.

References:

ayufan-rock64/linux-build

monero-ecosystem/monerobox