How to synchronize the GUI wallet using the blockchain bootstrap

Question

I'm having trouble trying to sync the GUI wallet with the blockchain. I'm trying to use an old 2008 Macbook which I had lying around, with OS X El Capitan (HDD, 8gb RAM, 200gb free storage). I've tried several times now but the furthest I have got is about 50% before it freezes and will not continue (even after restarting all processes). I suspect the Macbook is a bit too old to cope.

So instead, I've now downloaded the blockchain bootstrap from https://downloads.getmonero.org/blockchain.raw

How do I now use this with the GUI wallet? Can I drag and drop it into one of the folders in /Users/your username/.bitmonero ? If so, where? Is there anything else I need to do?

(I'm not very familiar with the CLI I'm afraid).

Answer 1

I have a working Monero (internal) node running on a 2010 Mac mini with 8 GB RAM and a slow 5400 rpm disk (which is the bottleneck I have read), so probably quite similar specs as your 2008 MacBook.

If you've installed the GUI in the Applications folder, then you should be able to import that raw blockchain into the daemon's LMDB database with the commands below.

However, you'll need to open the Terminal for that. Once in there, I suggest you first remove any failed earlier attempt, and then start the import:

# Clean-up first.
rm -r ~/.bitmonero

# Import the file.
/Applications/monero-wallet-gui.app/Contents/MacOS/monero-blockchain-import --input-file ~/Downloads/blockchain.raw --dangerous-unverified-import 0 --database lmdb#fastest

Note that this import took about 10 hours on my system. You'll end up with a ± 11 GB data.mdb file in the directory ~/.bitmonero/data.

Once that is complete, you can restart the GUI and the daemon. Hopefully, it should be able to continue for the last few blocks since the blockchain snapshot was made, and stay up-to-date.