the bitcoind daemon doesn't respond to commands

1

For some reason, the daemon doesn't accept commands neither RPC, nor command-line. I'm running the prebuild 64 version of the bitcoind. It already downloaded all blocks etc and as is happyly running in the background, however it doesn't allow any commands to be sent. For example:

./bitcoind getinfo
error: couldn't connect to server

I tried with a config file having only the rpc user and pass, then I extended it with different params, and of course have restarted the daemon each time. Still - no luck.

The debug.log is not telling anything either. It just dumps the normal intensive communication, like…

 2013-12-07 22:01:40 received getdata for: tx  
 593f4528895f75bcd3df12fb09eedb7e5e6659a7a8a999d7e127eb131afde417)

but no trace from my attempts to call a simple command.

I tried to google the problem without luck.

Dimo

Posted 2013-12-07T22:06:43.377

Reputation: 11

Answers

1

In bitcoin.conf, make sure you have the following lines:

rpcuser=your-userid
rpcpassword=your-password
server=1

ScripterRon

Posted 2013-12-07T22:06:43.377

Reputation: 2 023

Hi. My current confi file looks like this:
rpcuser=xxxxxxxxxxxxxx rpcpassword=yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy rpcallowip=127.0.0.1 rpcport=8332 rpcthreads=10 server=1

I started only with the first two lines, and then trying to fix it, added the remaining onese. But without luck. – Dimo 2013-12-07T22:19:32.940

That should work. The only thing I can think of is your bitcoin.conf is not in the correct directory. It should be in the bitcoin data directory (this directory contains wallet.dat as well as the blocks and chainstate subdirectories).ScripterRon 2013-12-07T22:25:11.910

It uses this config file for sure. If I rename the file and restart the daemon, it throws an error. E.g. mv bitcoin.conf xxx.bitcoin.conf kill ####### ./bitcoind -daemon Bitcoin server starting Error: To use the "-daemon" option, you must set a pcpassword in the configuration file: /home/thebitco/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf It is recommended you use the following random password: ....Dimo 2013-12-07T22:32:48.367

Sorry for the bad formatting of the above, I still haven't learned how to put new lines and format code.Dimo 2013-12-07T22:34:44.047

Have you tried issuing netstat to see if bitcoind is listening for connections on port 8332? If it is, then I don't have any other suggestions.ScripterRon 2013-12-07T22:38:16.897

See here. It's listening to 8333, not 8332. Is it a problem?<br/>

netstat --ip -lpa | grep bitcoin

(Not all processes could be identified, non-owned process info will not be shown, you would have to be root to see it all.) tcp 0 0 :8333 :* LISTEN 1020484/./bitcoind – Dimo 2013-12-07T22:49:24.433

8333 is the port used to listen for incoming connections from peer nodes. 8332 is the port used to listen for RPC connections. So that explains why you can't issue commands. A possible cause is bitcoind isn't authorized to listen on port 8332. Does your firewall or operating system restrict who can listen on particular ports?ScripterRon 2013-12-07T23:41:19.580

While I'm checking the 8332 port issue with my hosting provider, I pointed the daemon against testnet, to check 18332 port (it's listening), but still no luck with sending commands to the daemon :(

netstat -lp | grep bitcoin

tcp 0 0 localhost:18332 : LISTEN 448674/./bitcoind tcp 0 0 :18333 : LISTEN 448674/./bitcoind tcp 0 0 :18333 : LISTEN 448674/./bitcoind – Dimo 2013-12-08T11:45:08.693

Does it need an opened port to accept commands from the prompt actually?Dimo 2013-12-08T11:48:07.707

Yes, the RPC commands are issued using the HTTP protocol over port 8332. Try removing the rpcallowip, rpcport and rpcthreads lines in bitcoin.conf. I have been successful using just rpcuser, rpcpassword and server (I'm on Windows 7 though).ScripterRon 2013-12-08T14:37:19.463

the daemon is now listening on 8332, but no luck accepting a command. i changed the .conf file to contain only rpcuser, rpcpassword, and server=1.

Anyway. Thanks for your time trying to help me! – Dimo 2013-12-08T15:18:59.573