qubic - node

Qubic Node Source Code - this repository contains the source code of a full qubic node.

MAIN (current version running qubic)

DEVELOP (current version we're working on)

Prerequisites

To run a qubic node, you need the following spec:

Bare Metal Server/Computer with at least 8 Cores (high CPU frequency with AVX2 support). AVX-512 support is recommended; check supported CPUs here
At least 500GB of RAM
1Gb/s synchronous internet connection
A USB Stick or SSD/HD attached to the Computer (via NVMe M.2 or USB)
UEFI Bios

You will need the current spectrum, universe, and contract files to be able to start Qubic. The latest files can be found in our #computor-operator channel on the Qubic Discord server: https://discord.gg/qubic (inquire there for the files).

Prepare your USB Stick/SSD/HD

Your Qubic Boot device should be formatted as FAT32 with the label QUBIC.

# sample command in linux
mkfs.fat -F 32 -n QUBIC /dev/sda

If you have a disk and want to use partitions, this is possible too. use gdisk.

gdisk /dev/sda

# remove all existing partition with d command
# add the qubic partition with n command
# it is recommended to use <1TB of partition size; the start sector and the end sector can be specified with size. eg: 200G.
# set the type of partition to ef00

echo -e "o\nY\nd\nn\n\n\n+200G\n\nt\n\nef00\nw\nY" | gdisk /dev/sda

We recommend to have the following structure on the disk.

/contract0000.XXX
/contract0001.XXX
/contract0002.XXX
/contract0003.XXX
/contract0004.XXX
/contract0005.XXX
/spectrum.XXX
/system
/universe.XXX
/efi/boot
/efi/boot/Bootx64.efi
/efi/boot/startup.nsh
/efi/boot/Qubic.efi

contract0000.XXX => must be the current contract #0 file. XXX must be replaced with the current epoch. (e.g. contract0000.114)
contract0001.XXX => must be the current contract #1 file. XXX must be replaced with the current epoch. (e.g. contract0001.114). Data from Qx.
contract0002.XXX => must be the current contract #2 file. XXX must be replaced with the current epoch. (e.g. contract0002.114). Data from Quottery.
contract0003.XXX => must be the current contract #3 file. XXX must be replaced with the current epoch. (e.g. contract0003.114). Data from Random.
contract0004.XXX => must be the current contract #4 file. XXX must be replaced with the current epoch. (e.g. contract0004.114). Data from QUtil.
contract0005.XXX => must be the current contract #5 file. XXX must be replaced with the current epoch. (e.g. contract0005.114). Data from MyLastMatch.
Other contract files with the same format as above. For now, we have 6 contracts.
universe.XXX => must be the current universe file. XXX must be replaced with the current epoch. (e.g universe.114)
spectrum.XXX => must be the current spectrum file. XXX must be replaced with the current epoch. (e.g spectrum.114)
system => to start from scratch, use an empty file. (e.g. touch system)
Bootx64.efi => boot loader
startup.nsh => UEFI start script
Qubic.efi => the compiled qubic node code (efi executable)

The content of your startup.nsh could look like this:

timezone -s 00:00
ifconfig -s eth0 dhcp
fs0:
cd efi
cd boot
Qubic.efi

timezone -s 00:00 sets the timezone to UTC
ifconfig -s eth0 dhcp tells the efi to get an ip address from DHCP; if you want to set a fixed ip you can use ifconfig -s eth0 static <IP> <SUBNETMASK> <GATEWAY>
fs0: changes to drive 0
Qubic.efi starts qubic

If you have multiple hard drives, the fs0: must changed to meet your environment.

To make it easier, you can copy & paste our prepared initial disk from https://github.com/qubic/core/blob/main/doc/qubic-initial-disk.zip

If you have multiple network interfaces, you may disconnect these before starting qubic.

Prepare your Server

To run Qubic on your server you need the following:

UEFI Bios
Enabled Network Stack in Bios
Your USB Stick/SSD should be the boot device

General Process of deploying a node

Find knownPublicPeers public peers (e.g. from: https://app.qubic.li/network/live)
Set the needed parameters inside src/private_settings.h (https://github.com/qubic/core/blob/main/src/private_settings.h)
Compile Source to EFI
Start EFI Application on your Computer

How to run a Listening Node

To run a "listen-only" node, just add IP addresses of 3-4 known public peers to the code (including your own IP).

static const unsigned char knownPublicPeers[][4] = {
};

Compile with RELEASE.

How to run a Computor Node

Add your Computor Seed(s)

static unsigned char computorSeeds[][55 + 1] = {
    "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
};

Add your Operator Identity. The Operator Identity is used to identify the Operator. The Operator can send Commands to your Node.

#define OPERATOR "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Add static IPs of known public peers (can be obtained from https://app.qubic.li/network/live). Ideally, add at least 4 including your own IP.

static const unsigned char knownPublicPeers[][4] = {
  {12,13,14,12}
};

The clock of the node needs to be in sync. We recommend to synchronize a Linux / Windows / MacOS machine with NTP permanently and run qubic-cli -synctime from that machine regularly, for example once a day with a cronjob.

License

The Anti-Military License. See LICENSE.md.

Installation and Configuration

Please refer to https://docs.qubic.org

Limited Support

We cannot support you in any case. You are welcome to provide updates, bug fixes, or other code changes by pull requests, see here.

qubic/core