If you prefer a video guide to install RTL on your upgraded Bitcoin Node on Ubuntu Server, here is Ketan’s guide:
Install Ride the Lightning as a GUI for setting up and managing Lightning Channels.
- We will be using instructions from the Ride the Lightning github here: https://github.com/Ride-The-Lightning/RTL/
- One of the requirements is to run node.js. We will find installation instructions for that here: https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/blob/master/README.md#debinstall
- Run this command [curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -]
- Then this one [sudo apt-get install -y nodejs]
- If you want to avoid permission errors for npm installs, do the following command [mkdir ~/.npm-global] and then [npm config set prefix ‘~/.npm-global’]
- Enter [nano .profile]
- At the bottom of that file add this line [export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH]
- Then command [source .profile]
- cd into downloads [cd downloads]
- From this webpage copy the RTL archive and wget that into your downloads directory example: [wget https://github.com/Ride-The-Lightning/RTL/archive/refs/tags/v0.12.3.tar.gz]
- Use this command but keep an eye on your version number [tar -xvf v0.12.2.tar.gz]
- In the example above I installed 12.3, but the command show on the RTL install page doesn’t have that updated, so be aware.
- You can move this to your home directory if you prefer: [mv RTL-0.12.3/ ~] (again, beware of version numbers)
- Go to home directory [cd ~]
- Make a directory for your LND backups with the command [mkdir lndbackup]
- Verify RTL directory is in /home with [ls]
- Rename it with command [mv RTL-0.12.3/ RTL] (beware of version number)
- cd into RTL [cd RTL]
- install this [npm install –only=prod –legacy-peer-deps]
- Check [ls] to view files. You should see a sample .json file
- Copy that file and rename it [cp RTL-Config.json]
- Edit that file using [nano RTL-Config.json]
- You should see the “multiPass”: “password”, line, change the password to one of your choosing. This is how you will login to RTL.
- Confirm that your admin.macaroon file is in /home/<YOURUSERNAME>/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet and you can then paste that into the line that says “macaroonpath”
- The “configpath” line should have the filepath /home/<YOURUSERNAME>/.lnd/lnd.conf
- The “channelbackupath” should be /home/figure8/lndbackup
- Control x, y, enter to save and return to command line
- Start the server with [node rtl]
- Visit <YOURNODEIPADDRESS>:8080 to see if Ride the Lightning is up
- If it is, stop it in terminal using ‘Control c’
- Now we will create a service file to make it start automatically on boot
- There are instructions here: https://github.com/Ride-The-Lightning/RTL/ at the bottom of the page
- Create the service file using [sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/RTL.service]
- Paste the below into that file:
[Unit]
Description=RTL daemon
Wants=lnd.service
After=lnd.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /home/<YOURUSERNAME>/RTL/rtl
User=<YOURUSERNAME>
Restart=always
TimeoutSec=120
RestartSec=30
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
- Make sure you update your username in the above
- Control x, y, enter
- Enable it with [sudo systemctl enable RTL.service]
- Start it with [sudo systemctl start RTL.service]
- Check status with [sudo systemctl status RTL.service]
