Linux Walkthrough

#7 
cat os-release 
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="17.10 (Artful Aardvark)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 17.10"
VERSION_ID="17.10"
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
VERSION_CODENAME=artful
UBUNTU_CODENAME=artful
#8

Thanks! You should be able to do sudo apt-get install docker.io. Ubuntu ships with it. You may need to enable universe and multiverse in your sources.list file, if you haven’t already.

#9

can you provide me with a working etc/apt/sources.list ?

#10

Here’s the one I used: https://pastebin.com/zqugkKMe

#11

after rm'ing .blockstack and .blockstack_tmp , I was able to pull the docker images and start.

However, I’m getting the same authentication behavior where a new window is opened instead of redirecting the localhost:8888 page.

#12

Okay, thanks for bearing with me. This might be more related to the way xdg-open is behaving on your system. What happens if you run xdg-open https://www.google.com from your shell.

#13

@jude: These are excellent instructions! Especially with the FAQ.

I think they would be clearer if you actually removed the Debian specific parts though, and rather linked to those instructions along with the Docker-website. Maybe just note that your user should be part of the docker group.

That way there’s no branches, which can be hard to see/understand in prose. The FAQ section is also very helpful based on the questions we’ve seen so far :slight_smile:

#14

opens a new tab with the correct URL. I tested with another site as well.

EDIT: blockstack opens with the URL http://localhost:8888/#coreAPIPassword=off when I do start if that helps.

#15

If you run a Debian-based distro that does not have Docker…

If your distro does not ship Docker (Debian doesn’t, for example), then you’ll have to add the appropriate repository. These instructions may be slightly different for your distro. The instructions below are for Debian. You can find more distro-specific install instructions here.

Add the Docker Repository

This installs some helpful repository-managing tools:

   $ sudo apt-get install \
     apt-transport-https \
     ca-certificates \
     curl \
     gnupg2 \
     software-properties-common

We’ll add Docker’s GPG key:

    $ curl -fsSL "https://download.docker.com/linux/$(. /etc/os-release; echo "$ID")/gpg" | sudo apt-key add -

Next, we’ll add Docker’s repository:

    $ sudo add-apt-repository \
    "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/$(. /etc/os-release; echo "$ID") \
    $(lsb_release -cs) \
    stable"

Now we can install Docker (community edition):

    $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install docker-ce

To check that Docker is running, you can use ps as follows:

    $ ps aux | grep docker
    root      1990  1.6  2.2 779588 46836 ?        Ssl  19:30   1:17 /usr/bin/dockerd -H fd://
    root      2003  0.0  0.5 636304 11224 ?        Ssl  19:30   0:02 docker-containerd -l unix:///var/run/docker/li
    bcontainerd/docker-containerd.sock --metrics-interval=0 --start-timeout 2m --state-dir /var/run/docker/libconta
    inerd/containerd --shim docker-containerd-shim --runtime docker-runc

Add yourself to the docker group

    $ sudo usermod -a -G docker $(whoami)

You will have to either log out and log back in, your start a new session under your username for this to take effect.

You can use the groups command to confirm that you’re in the docker group:

    $ groups | grep "docker"
    ... docker ...

Getting Further Help

Further distro-specific instructions can be found here.

I installed the Blockstack browser on Windows. But I can't sign in with my Blockstack ID
Testing browser blockstack
#16

After successfully running the script pull command I call the start command. After creating a wallet I get the following error:

Status: Downloaded newer image for quay.io/blockstack/blockstack-browser:v0.21.0
83d43143c1ae9f346d2f01a712c866bf03102b5d21f61570bd45316574a5866a
Blockstack-for-Linux-v0.21.0.sh: line 147: sensible-browser: command not found

I am on Arch.

P.S. This tutorial doesn’t mention that the Docker daemon should be started.

#17

Hey @faurehu,

Thanks for the pointer! I’ll update to clarify that docker must be running.

Regarding sensible-browser, you’ll need to have xdg-utils installed. Specifically, you’ll need xdg-open to work. You can test with xdg-open www.google.com to verify that xdg-open loads your preferred web browser and sends it to the given URL.

Testing browser blockstack
#18

xdg-open is available to me but it won’t open www.google.com.

It errors with:

xdg-open: file 'www.google.com' does not exist
#19

Try xdg-open http://aoeu.com.

I wonder where the sensible-browser comes from, that’s a fallback in case xdg-open is not available? I also run Arch Linux and I have no sensible-browser, I think it is a Debianism. :slight_smile:

#20

That worked so sensible-browser must be part of another package. Was your install conventional?

#21

No, I’ve set it up using the Git repos, and have blockstack core in a Python virtualenv. I added the protocol handler manually, and I just npm install-ed all the things for the node server.

So I basically run a dev environment setup.

#22

Hi @odinho ,
I wonder if you did manage to get over the sensible-browser issue you had.
I’m running Ubuntu 16.04 (thought it was the easiest/fastest way to set up a new system) and in my case, xdg-open insists on opening Firefox when ran for the script. If I use it from the CLI, it opens Chromium has it should.

#23

Hello @jude Jude,

thanks for the clarifications on the use of the keys and passwords, but it seems I’m still running into a problem when trying the helloblockstack app.
My installation on Ubuntu 16.04 went OK, and was close to wat I are suggesting in this walk-through. (I used the installation script from the Docker site to install docker)
So, I managed to get the blockstack-browser up and running BUT when I try to run the helloblockstack app, it opens a new tab and then displays a modal dialog saying:
Sign In Request
Loading app details...
but then waits forever.
I suspect there must be some mismatch with keys and access rights, but can’t figure out which one, nor decide where to look to find out.
Any idea?

#24

I have the same problem, been trying to figure it out for 2 days

#25

Hi @jude

Just wondering if the Linux install will be updated? And can we possibly do without the Docker thing?

Pete

#26

We’re recommending that Linux users who can’t use Docker for whatever reason to either use the hosted version at browser.blockstack.org, or to install from source on Github. There are just too many different distro-specific quirks to deal with for us to try and ship a Linux wallet without Docker.

1 Like