Network troubleshooting
If you're having network issues, refer to this page to debug various
issues. If you see inconsistencies in the docs: always trust
bin/darkirc/darkirc_config.toml or whichever respective apps' repo
config file. Documentation updates are a current WIP.
The default location for config files is ~/.config/darkfi
Note: throughout this page we generally assume you are using
darkirc since it's our main p2p app currently. If you're
using a different app such as darkfid or taud, the same
instructions will follow but the app name will change (for example,
if using taud, the config file .config/darkfi/darkirc_config.toml
would become .config/darkfi/taud_config.toml)
Common net problems
The most common problem in connecting to darkirc is the following:
[ERROR] [EVENTGRAPH] Sync: Could not find any DAG tips
[ERROR] Failed syncing DAG. Exiting.
Error: DagSyncFailed
This generally indicates that we were unable to establish any P2P connections, and thus couldn't retrieve the message history required to sync our messages locally within the time limit (DAG sync failed).
There are two main reasons why we would fail to establish a P2P connection:
- Seed node is down or rejecting our connection
- Our node does not have sufficient peers
If the seed node is down, you will see this message in the debug output:
ERROR] [P2P] Network reseed failed!
[WARN] [P2P] Unable to connect to seed [tcp+tls://lilith1.dark.fi:5262/]: IO error: connection refused
If it's a problem related to nodes, you will typically see a successful seed connection like so:
[INFO] [P2P] Connected seed [tcp+tls://lilith1.dark.fi:5262/]
[INFO] [P2P] Disconnecting from seed [tcp+tls://lilith1.dark.fi:5262/]
Followed by multiple connection failed messages, like so:
[INFO] [P2P] Unable to connect outbound slot #5 [tcp+tls://dasman.xyz:26661/]: IO error: connection refused
[INFO] [P2P] Unable to connect outbound slot #6 [tcp+tls://[2a02:aa13:8342:1400:8972:cc07:ae3:8676]:26661/]: IO error: host unreachable
Seed node is down
If you get an error like this:
[WARN] [P2P] Unable to connect to seed [tcp+tls://lilith1.dark.fi:5262/]: IO error: connection refused
This means you are failing to establish a connection to the seed node.
Please note: the IO error might not always read connection refused
but could be some other error such as host unreachable. Please note
this IO error as it is useful debugging info.
Here's what to do next:
It's my first time connecting to the network
If it's your first time connecting to the network, you local node does not have a record of other peers it can connect to in case the seed node is down. Please do the following:
- Take careful note of the
IO errorthat is written afterUnable to connect to seed. - Refer to
Error reportingsection below. - You can set a peer such as
tcp+tls://example_peer:26661/in your config file. Ask in the telegram community channel for an active peer (here we are using a fake peer calledexample_peer. Then open the config file at.local/config/darkirc_config.tomland modify thepeersfield with the provided peer as follows:
peers = tcp+tls://example_peer:26661/
It's not my first time connecting to the network
If it's not your first time connecting to the network, you should be able to establish connections to peers even if the seed node is down.
This is possible via a list of hosts that your darkirc node keeps locally. You can inspect the hostlist as follows:
cat .local/darkfi/darkirc/hostlist.tsv
If the list is empty, open .config/darkfi/darkirc_config and ensure
that the hostlist field is set with a path of your chosing.
For example:
hostlist = "~/.local/darkfi/darkirc/hostlist.tsv"
Then follow the steps in the above section It's my first time connecting to the network.
If the hostlist is not empty, retry the darkirc connection and carefully
note the connection errors that are happening from peers. See Error reporting
section below to report errors.
It might be simply the case that there are not enough peers on the
network, or perhaps there is another issue we are not aware of.
You can also check the liveness of peers using the ping tool.
To access the ping tool, in the ~/darkfi/script/ping directory run
cargo run main.rs. Once completed, you can now use the ping tool in
the ~/darkfi/script/ping/target/debug directory.
Ping the peers located in your hostlist
$ ./ping tcp+tls://example_peer:26661
If the peers are reachable, you'll receive a Connected! output
Cannot establish peer connections
If you're able to connect to the seed but are failing to establish peer
connections, please retry the darkirc connection and carefully note the
connection errors that are happening from peers. See
Error reporting section to report errors.
dnet
dnet is a simple tui to explore darkfi p2p network topology. You can use dnet to gather more network information. dnet displays:
- Active p2p nodes
- Outgoing, incoming, manual and seed sessions
- Each associated connection and recent messages.
To install and learn to use dnet, go here.
You can use dnet to view the network topology and see how your node
interacts within the network. dnet log information is created in bin/dnet/dnet.log
Ping tool
You can ping any node to make sure it's online by using the provided
ping tool.
To access the ping tool, in the ~/darkfi/script/ping directory run
cargo run main.rs. Once completed, you can now use the ping tool in
the ~/darkfi/script/ping/target/debug directory.
Ping the peers located in your hostlist
$ ./ping tcp+tls://example_peer:26661
If the peers are reachable, you'll receive a Connected! output
Inbound
To see if your address is reachable to others in the network, you'll need
to use separate device to ping your external address.
Generate an external address here.
For example purposes, let's assume your external address is
jamie3vkiwibfiwucd6vxijskbhpjdyajmzeor4mc4i7yopvpo4p7cyd.onion.
ping your generated external address from a separate device.
$ ./ping jamie3vkiwibfiwucd6vxijskbhpjdyajmzeor4mc4i7yopvpo4p7cyd.onion
If your external address is reachable, you'll receive a Connected! prompt
Check tor connection
You can verify if your local node is running over Tor. Execute this
command in ~/darkfi/script. You'll need to install pysocks
pip install pysocks prior to running tor-test.py the first time.
$ python3 tor-test.py
If your local node is running Tor, the response should be an IP address. An error will return if Tor isn't running.
You can also verify if your node is running over Tor with
dnet. If you run ./dnet and if you see onion addresses
as outbound connections, and localhost connections as inbound
connections, this means you're connected to Tor.
Helpful debug information
If you're looking to debug an issue, try these helpful tools
Logs in debug mode
You can run any app in debug mode as follows:
./darkirc -vv
Alternatively, modify the config file at `.config/darkfi/darkirc.toml' as follows:
# Log to file. Off by default.
log = "/tmp/darkirc.log"
# Set log level. 1 is info (default), 2 is debug, 3 is trace
verbose = 2
Config file
Your config files are generated in your ~/.config/darkirc directory.
You'll have to run each daemon once for the app to spawn a config file,
which you can review and edit. There is also helpful information within
the config files.
Node information script
If you're looking for information about your node, including inbound,
outbound, and seed connections, execute this command in ~/darkfi/script
$ python3 node_get-info.py
Hostlist issues
If you receive DAG sync issues, verify:
- a hostlist is set in the config file of the respective app.
- There are hosts in the hostlists (you should get hostlists from the
default seed on the first run). You can find the hostlist files within
the respective apps' repo. For example darkirc's default hostlist location
is
~/.local/darkfi/darkirc/hostlist.tsv
Error reporting
If you're receiving errors and need to report them, report using darkirc first. If you cannot connect, you can report these errors on the community telegram (t.me/darkfichat).