# Ethereum mainnet solo staking notes with Erigon and Lighthouse

By [NewbStaker](https://paragraph.com/@newbstaker) · 2022-10-10

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Solo staking after the merge is about running an execution client and a consensus client on your own environment.

*   Execution client: Erigon
    
*   Consensus client: Lighthouse
    
*   Environment: Ubuntu
    

Ubuntu setup
------------

Setup a Ubuntu linux server, ssh into it and perform some maintenance.

    sudo apt -y update && sudo apt -y upgrade
    sudo apt dist-upgrade && sudo apt autoremove
    sudo reboot
    

You might want to also install [mosh](https://mosh.org/) to allow long-lived ssh sessions, i.e., sessions that will survive when your computer sleep.

    sudo apt-get install mosh
    

Also you need to able to compile open-source code, install what’s needed:

    sudo apt-get install build-essential
    

### Enable swap space (optional)

Check if swap is enabled:

    free -h
    

Setup swap space:

    sudo fallocate -l 20G /swapfile
    sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
    sudo mkswap /swapfile
    sudo swapon /swapfile
    sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10
    sudo sysctl vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
    

Make it persistent between reboots.

    echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
    

Persist swap params:

    sudo vim /etc/sysctl.conf
    

Add the following to the end of the file:

    vm.swappiness=10
    vm.vfs_cache_pressure = 50
    

Execution client: Erigon
------------------------

[Erigon](https://github.com/ledgerwatch/erigon) is writing in Go. Setup Go in your system:

    wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.19.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
    sudo tar -C /usr/local -xvf go1.19.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
    

Append this line to your _~/.profile_ file to make Go executables available in the command-line:

    export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
    

Apply the change to your bash command-line:

    source ~/.profile
    

Download the actual Erigon source code and build it.

    git clone https://github.com/ledgerwatch/erigon.git
    cd erigon/
    make
    

Start the sync process

    ./build/bin/erigon --prune htc --prune.r.before=11184524
    

By default:

*   data dir (_\--datadir_) will be located in _~/.local/share/erigon_
    
*   default chain (_\--chain_) is _mainnet_.
    

Pruning is enable to limit the disk space needed. Old receipts are not needed for Eth2 and you can safely prune them with _\--prune.r.before=11184524_ in combination with _\--prune htc_.

Be patient, it takes several days to complete.

### Restarting Erigon syncing if there is a problem

Go inside the data folder, here is what you will get:

    -rw------- 1 ubuntu ubuntu     0 Sep 19 11:54 LOCK
    drwxr--r-- 2 ubuntu ubuntu  4096 Oct  3 15:24 chaindata
    drwxr-xr-x 2 ubuntu ubuntu 36864 Oct  3 18:31 etl-temp
    -rw------- 1 ubuntu ubuntu    66 Sep 19 11:54 jwt.hex
    -rw------- 1 ubuntu ubuntu    64 Sep 19 11:54 nodekey
    drwxr--r-- 3 ubuntu ubuntu  4096 Sep 19 11:54 nodes
    drwxr--r-- 4 ubuntu ubuntu 20480 Sep 20 01:10 snapshots
    drwxr--r-- 2 ubuntu ubuntu  4096 Sep 19 11:54 txpool
    

To restart a sync, no need to start from scratch. You can remove the _chaindata_ folder. The sync will start again and re-build from the _snapshots_ folder ([ref](https://github.com/ledgerwatch/erigon/issues/3658#issuecomment-1200429807)).

### Making Erigon a service

Erigon needs to be made a service to be able to restart automatically when the server is rebooted for any reason. Let’s create a service account named _erigon_ with no access to a shell:

    sudo useradd --no-create-home --shell /bin/false erigon
    

### Finishing the first sync

Syncing will be done when this message appear:

    INFO[09-28|14:23:02.909] [2/16 Headers] Waiting for Consensus Layer... 
    

All first 14’999’999 blocks are now downloaded, verified and indexed.

Consensus layer: Lighthouse
---------------------------

Download the linux release [here](https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/releases).

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*Originally published on [NewbStaker](https://paragraph.com/@newbstaker/ethereum-mainnet-solo-staking-notes-with-erigon-and-lighthouse)*