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Requirements

• nodejs versions 8.x to 12.x are supported
• npm usually installed with nodejs (only for distribution and easy install of this software, we do not use ANY external NPMs for security reasons)
• Linux (though macos does works and Windows kind of works)
• xz (xz-utils apt package) to be able to download and extract updated Linux binaries
• setcap (apt: libcap2-bin, rpm: libcap) to be enable lokinet to not need to run as root on Linux

Why use the launcher over DEBs

The goal of the launcher is to make it easier to run a service node, however the DEBs installation and upgrade process can be much easier if you're running a debian-based OS. However we do have some additional advantages:

• Safer, we have additional checks in configuration, like to make sure you don't create port conflicts. We also have other checks that can detect unwanted patterns of behavior between apps and be able to take action
• Easier config management, one config file to manage all 3 binaries, also reduces the chance of you having to resolve config conflicts during upgrades
• Firewall Notification, lets you know if you're blocking any required ports. DEBs will open them in ufw but this won't help if you're using an different or external firewall.
• NAT support, Launcher automatically configures your outgoing interface and public IP. DEBs you have to manually set up your network interface and public ip. Neither will help you set up port forwarding though.
• Prequal tool, know for sure your situation meets our minimum requirements
• Easy to downgrade path: if an upgrade is causing you problems, you can manually pull older releases off github and replace the binaries in /opt/loki-launcher/bin and simply restart the launcher with the older binary until your node is stable.
• Diveristy of the network, in the highly unlikely event that Debian ever gets a serious bug, we want the service node network to be diverse enough to not be largely effective. Being able to support multiple operating systems is good for the Loki ecosystem.
• Robust distribution system: Launcher relies on Microsoft/GitHub infrastructure, the DEBs are ran by our developer on his server. You could argue Microsoft/GitHub has more people keeping an eye on security and availability of their system. (And while we use NPM to distribute loki-launcher we do not use any NPM modules in this project)
• Interactive client sessions, so you don't have lokid start up delays for each command you want to run
• Unified subsystem reporting, get the status or versions of all 3 subsystems (blockchain, storage, network) from one command

Launcher is maintained at cost of the Loki Foundation and if it's not found to be of use, maybe unfunded. Please consider supporting this great tool by using it.

How to do a fresh service node install

This will use npm to install the launcher

sudo npm install -g loki-launcher

This will create any needed directories and make sure everything has the proper permissions to run as a specified user such as snode in this example

sudo loki-launcher set-perms snode

Now make sure sure you running the following commands as the user specified or you may run into permission problems (EPERM).

After it's installed, you can ask to prequalify your server to be a service node

loki-launcher prequal

you can also ask it to download the Loki binaries if you don't already have them

loki-launcher download-binaries

How to use without systemd

loki-launcher start

Running it once should start the suite of services into the background or give you a message why it can't. This isn't recommended for long term uses as there is nothing to restart launcher if it dies/exits.

Running loki-launcher client, will give you an interactive terminal to lokid (the copy running from the current directory if you have multiple). exit will stop your service node. If you just want to exit the interactive terminal, please use ctrl-c.

You can pass most command line parameters that you would give to lokid to loki-launcher start

You can make a launcher config file in /etc/loki-launcher/launcher.ini and change various settings, Check our wiki for details on options.

How to keep the launcher up to date

Update your launcher without systemd

Stop your service node if it's running (you can use loki-launcher status to check)

loki-launcher stop

Update the launcher

sudo npm install -g loki-launcher

And be sure to make sure you restart your service node (if it's staked) by

loki-launcher start

Get the latest Loki software versions

loki-launcher download-binaries

And be sure to make sure you restart your service node (if it's staked) by

loki-launcher start

Other

upgrading from lokid 3.0.6 with systemd to use the launcher

Popular linux distribution instructions to install NodeJS

CentOS NodeJS installation:

curl -sL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo bash -

Ubuntu/Debian NodeJS installation:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo bash -

then

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Software the launcher manages

• lokid
• lokinet
• loki-storage

To get the required software you can run loki-launcher download-binaries and they will be placed in /opt/loki-launcher/bin

or

You can download the loki binaries (faster) from each above page's release section

or

You can build from source. Make sure you select the correct repos/branches/versions as not all versions will work with each other.

And if you don't have the dependencies to build from source check out contrib/dependency_helper/

Release Notes

Changelog items are now available here

For more indepth details, be sure to check out our weekly dev reports