How To: Run an EtherGem Node on a Raspberry Pi 3

Scibot
5 min readMay 6, 2018

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EtherGem — $EGEM

How To: Run an EtherGem Node on a Raspberry Pi 3

EtherGem, “EGEM,” is a pure community-based coin with no pre mine. True to its roots as a cryptocurrency, the Proof of Work mining community will always be a part of the EGEM future and is the foundation of the EGEM launch. There is no ICO on EGEM and EGEM is its own primary blockchain, not just a token or concept on another chain. Technically EGEM is an Ethereum chain as described in the yellow paper, with EIP150, EIP155, EIP158 applied from block 0

In this article I will run you through the steps to set up an EtherGem Node on a Raspberry Pi 3. Running your own full node will give you direct access to the EtherGem blockchain.

Step 1: Update and Upgrade your System

This part is simple enough. Just enter:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

Step 2: Install build-essential tools

apt-get install -y build-essential

This is required for building Debian packages

Step 3: Install Screen

apt install screen

This will let you manage multiple programs from the command line in one terminal.

Step 4: Install Git

apt install git -y

This installs git, which we will need to clone go-egem and egem-network-intelligence.

Step 5: Download and Install the Go Tools

5.1) wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.10.linux-armv61.tar.gz

This will get the required version for the Pi3

5.2) tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.10.linux-armv61.tar.gz

This unpacks the tools

5.3)

mkdir -p ~/go: echo “export GOPATH=$HOME/go” >> ~/.bashrc

then

echo “export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/go/bin:/usr/local/go/bin” >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

This will set up Go Tools and set the environment variable to point to the directory in which it was installed

Step 6: Clone Go-Egem and Build

6.1) git clone https://github.com/TeamEGEM/go-egem.git

This clones go-egem into your current directory

6.2) cd go-egem && make egem

This will move into the go-egem directory and build go-egem.

Step 7: Start & Sync Go-Egem

/root/go-egem/build/bin/egem — datadir ~/livenet/ — rpc console

This will start go-egem and set up the data directory. You will then see go-egem syncing

You will know when it is finished by typing eth.syncing into the terminal. If syncing is completed, it will return false. If not you will get a response with the current block

Step 8: Restart Node with Screen

exit go-egem with Ctrl+C (or Ctrl+d if that does not work). Then start a new screen with the following:

screen -S go-egem

This will start a screen with the name go-egem. Then just start your node up again:

/root/go-egem/build/bin/egem — datadir ~/livenet/ — rpc console

Now you can press the following to detach the screen

Ctrl+A

THEN

Ctrl+D

This will keep go-egem running. You can type the following to see all screen instances

screen -ls

Then type the following to attach to the screen

screen -r go-egem OR screen -r 10598 (make sure its the Name/# on your terminal)

Repeat the same steps above to detach the screen.

Your EtherGem node is now up and running, but there are a few more steps you need to take to show up on network.egem.io

Step 1: Clone Egem Net Intelligence

You may want to first move to your users home directory

cd ~/

then clone Egem Net Intelligence from github with the following:

git clone https://github.com/TeamEGEM/egem-net-intelligence-api

Step 2: Edit app.json With Your Information

First you will want to move into the net-intelligence directory you just cloned

cd egem-net-intelligence-api

Then you will use nano to edit app.json

nano app.json

Here you can change the instance name, contact details, and other options. When finished save the file and exit nano

Step 3: Set Up PM2 and Install Dependencies

All that is left now is to install npm (if you don’t already have it) and pm2. You may also need to update node depending on what version you are using.

apt-get install npm -y && sudo npm install -g pm2 && npm install && ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node

This should install everything you need to run pm2 and net-intelligence. Now just do the following:

pm2 start app.json

You should now see node-app running, and can view with:

pm2 show <id|name>

You should now be able to see your node on https://network.egem.io/

Scibot’s Pi 3 Up & Running!

That’s all there is to it. The only process that is really different on the Pi 3 is the version of go you will be downloading. A big thanks go out to the devs for helping me set this up. In the next article I will show how to go from here to hosting your own mining pool with open-egem-pool.

If you have any questions feel free to ask here, or join the EtherGem Discord.

EtherGem — $EGEM

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