If you prefer video and don’t need help to install your own BTCPay Server instance on Ubuntu server, see this video for instructions. Use the below text as a way to help when you run in to something you don’t understand.
Install BTCPay Server
- Go to https://freedomnode.com/blog/how-to-setup-btc-and-lightning-payment-gateway-with-btcpayserver-on-linux-manual-install/ as we will be relying heavily on instructions from there. In fact you could probably just use that page for everything except the lightning stuff.
- cd into your downloads directory with command [cd downloads]
- We need to install some software using the command
wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/22.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb -O packages-microsoft-prod.deb
- Install more software with:
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
- Remove a file that you no longer need:
rm packages-microsoft-prod.deb
- Check for software updates:
sudo apt-get update
- Install this package:
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https
- Check for updates to that package with:
sudo apt-get update
- Install the .net package
sudo apt-get install -y dotnet-sdk-6.0
- Next we install a database
sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib
- Change to user postgres with:
sudo -i -u postgres
- Create a new user with:
createuser --pwprompt --interactive- You will be prompted to enter a username for this. Use whatever you’d like and make sure to take note of it.
- You will be prompted to enter a password. It should be a secure password that you will remember.
- You will be asked if this should be a ‘superuser’ – say no.
- You will be asked if this user should be able to create a database – say yes.
- You will be asked if this user should be able to create new roles – say no.
- Create two databases, one for BTCPay Server and one for NBXplorer
createdb -O <the username you picked above> btcpayserver
createdb -O <the username you picked above> nbxplorer
- Type command [exit] to get out of that username. You should be back in your downloads folder.
- cd into your home directory with [cd ~]
- Clone NBXplorer with the command:
git clone https://github.com/dgarage/NBXplorer
- cd into NBXplorer with:
cd NBXplorer
- Build NBXplorer with:
./build.sh
- Create data directory in your home folder
mkdir -p ~/.nbxplorer/Main
- cd into that using
cd ~/.nbxplorer/Main
- Create a settings file
nano settings.config
- Past this into the file:
btc.rpc.auth=<bitcoind rpc user>:<bitcoind rpc password>
port=24445
mainnet=1
postgres=User ID=<your db user>;Password=<your db password>;Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=nbxplorer;- Change the bitcoin user to your bitcoind username, same with password. Also fix the postgres username and password you setup above. Control x, y, enter to save and exit
- Back to the NBXplorer directory using: [cd ~]
- Then cd into nbxplorer directory using [cd NBXplorer]
- Run it using
./run.sh
- You should see NBXplorer syncing up
- Hit ‘control c’ to close it
- Now we make a file to auto-start NBXplorer whenever the machine boots
- cd into [cd /etc/systemd/system]
- Paste this command into terminal:
sudo wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/mariodian/de873b969e70eca4d0a7673efd697d0a/raw/acfc70c5694cd53d8a3df7ff54a35ff2caba7532/nbxplorer.service
- Edit that file with command
Sudo nano nbxplorer.service
- Edit the line that starts with ExecStart and find that part that says “netcoreapp2” to “net6.0”. Also remove the word /source from the filepath. Ensure username is accurate. Freedomnode uses ‘satoshi’ as the username, you may have changed that.
- An example of that line: ExecStart=/usr/bin/dotnet “/home/<username>/NBXplorer/NBXplorer/bin/Release/net6.0/NBXplorer.dll” -c /home/<username>/.nbxplorer/Main/settings.config
- Change User and Group to your username.
- Control x, y, enter to save and leave
- Enable this using:
sudo systemctl enable nbxplorer.service
- Start it:
sudo systemctl start nbxplorer.service
- Check status:
sudo systemctl status nbxplorer.service
- You should see a green dot showing NBXplore is up and running
- Now we install BTCPay Server
- Open a new terminal window and login to your node
- In your home directory install BTCPay server
git clone https://github.com/btcpayserver/btcpayserver.git
- cd into btcpayserver using:
cd btcpayserver
- Build it with:
./build.sh
- Make another directory:
mkdir -p ~/.btcpayserver/Main
- cd into it:
cd ~/.btcpayserver/Main
- Create a config file:
nano settings.config
- Add these lines to it and change your username and pass to match what you entered for the postgres install:
network=mainnet
port=23001
bind=0.0.0.0
chains=btc
BTC.explorer.url=http://127.0.0.1:24445
#BTC.lightning=type=lnd-rest;server=https://127.0.0.1:8080/;macaroonfilepath=~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon;certthumbprint=<finger print>
postgres=User ID=<yourusername>;Password=<your db password>;Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=btcpayserver;- Go to home directory using
Cd ~
- cd into btcpay server folder using
cd btcpayserver
- Run it
./run.sh
- Use a web browser to visit your ip address with :23001 at the end to see btcpay server running
- Now we edit a service file
cd /etc/systemd/system
- Now we download BTCPay service file:
sudo wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/mariodian/07bb13da314e2a321784b380f543651a/raw/6cef554d9e8311e683a017d5e63a07822dee7642/btcpayserver.service
- Edit the file using
sudo nano btcpayserver.service
- Fix the file path to remove the /source part
- Fix the username in the file path also
- Fix the user to match what you made
- Fix the group to match you username
- Enable the service:
sudo systemctl enable btcpayserver.service
- Start it
sudo systemctl start btcpayserver.service
- Check status:
sudo systemctl status btcpayserver.service