Set-up an I2p-enabled node

To connect to I2p network we use the socks5 proxy provided by I2pd

Note: This page is a general guide for i2p nodes in the DarkFi ecosystem and is applicable to other apps such as taud and darkfid. We use darkirc as our main example throughout this guide. Commands such as ./darkirc and configuration filenames need to be adjusted if using different apps. If you're using another app, the network configurations remain the same except for the seed nodes you connect to.

Generating configuration files

After compiling, you can start the application so it can spawn its configuration file. We use darkirc as the application example going forward.

% ./darkirc

darkirc creates a configuration file darkirc_config.toml by default in ~/.config/darkfi/. You will review and edit this configuration file for your preferred network settings.

Configure network settings

Modify the network settings located in the ~/.config/darkfi directory. This configuration allows your node to send and receive traffic only via I2p.

Note: As you modify the file, if you notice some settings are missing, simply add them. Some settings may be commented-out by default. In the example configurations below, you will find the a placeholder youraddress.b32.i2p which indicates you should replace them with your i2p address.

First, you must install I2pd. It can usually be installed with your package manager. For example on an apt based system we can run:

% sudo apt install apt-transport-https
% wget -q -O - https://repo.i2pd.xyz/.help/add_repo | sudo bash -s -
% sudo apt update
% sudo apt install i2pd

Outbound node settings

These outbound node settings for your i2p node configuration is only for connecting to the network. You will not advertise an external address. Make sure i2pd is running, and it's socks5 proxy is listening on 127.0.0.1:4447 before running darkirc.

## connection settings
outbound_connect_timeout = 60
channel_handshake_timeout = 55
channel_heartbeat_interval = 90
outbound_peer_discovery_cooloff_time = 60

## Whitelisted transports for outbound connections
allowed_transports = ["i2p", "i2p+tls"]

## Seed nodes to connect to 
seeds = [
    "i2p://6l2rdfriixo2nh5pr5bt555lyz56qox2ikzia4kuzm4okje7gtmq.b32.i2p:5262"
]

## Outbound connection slots
outbound_connections = 8

## I2p Socks5 proxy
i2p_socks5_proxy = "socks5://127.0.0.1:4447"

Inbound node settings

With these settings your node becomes an I2p inbound node. The inbound settings are optional, but enabling them will increase the strength and reliability of the network. Using I2p, we can host anonymous nodes as I2p eepsites(hidden services). To do this, we need to set up our I2p daemon and create a hidden service. The following instructions should work on any Linux system.

After installing I2pd, Now we can set up the hidden service. For hosting an anonymous darkirc node, go to /var/lib/i2pd/tunnels.d and create a file darkirc.conf with the following contents:

[darkirc]
type = server
host = 127.0.0.1
port = 25551
keys = darkirc.dat

Then restart i2pd:

% systemctl restart i2pd

Find the hostname of your hidden service by running the following command:

% curl -s http://127.0.0.1:7070/?page=i2p_tunnels | grep -Eo "[a-zA-Z0-9./?=_%:-]*" | grep "25551"

The above configuration saves the i2p hidden service key in /var/lib/i2pd/darkirc.dat, you might want to back it up.

Note your .b32.i2p address and the ports you used while setting up the hidden service, and add the following settings to your configuration file:

## Addresses we want to advertise to peers
external_addrs = ["i2p://youraddress.b32.i2p:25551"]

## P2P accept addresses
inbound = ["tcp://127.0.0.1:25551"]

## Inbound connection slots
inbound_connections = 64

Connect and test your node

Run ./darkirc. Welcome to the dark forest.

You can test if your node is configured properly on the network. Use Dnet and the ping-tool to test your node connections. You can view if your node is making inbound and outbound connections.

Troubleshooting

Refer to Network troubleshooting for further troubleshooting resources.

The DarkFi Book