sparrow cant connect to signet node running on localhost

[7hacker]

I have a signet node running with server=1 in bitcoin.conf

I boot sparrow with -n signet and -l DEBUG

In the preferences Sparrow's test connection works fine, a banner is displayed and a wallet is also created by sparrow in the bitcoin datadir:

2021-03-04 21:37:05,257 INFO Using signet configuration
2021-03-04 21:37:26,384 DEBUG Configuring bwt: {"network":"signet","bitcoind_url":"http://127.0.0.1:38332","bitcoind_dir":"/Users/nirmal/code/bitcoin/src/signet-custom/","bitcoind_wallet":"sparrow","create_wallet_if_missing":true,"verbose":2,"electrum_addr":"127.0.0.1:0","electrum_skip_merkle":true,"require_addresses":false}
2021-03-04 21:37:26,385 DEBUG Booting bwt
 DEBUG bwt::app > Config { network: Signet, verbose: 2, timestamp: false, bitcoind_wallet: Some("sparrow"), bitcoind_dir: Some("/Users/nirmal/code/bitcoin/src/signet-custom/"), bitcoind_url: Some("http://127.0.0.1:38332"), bitcoind_auth: None, bitcoind_cookie: None, create_wallet_if_missing: true, descriptors: [], xpubs: [], addresses: [], addresses_file: None, rescan_since: Now, force_rescan: false, gap_limit: 20, initial_import_size: 350, auth_cookie: None, auth_token: None, auth_ephemeral: false, print_token: false, electrum_addr: Some(127.0.0.1:0), electrum_skip_merkle: true, poll_interval: 5s, broadcast_cmd: None, startup_banner: false, unix_listener_path: None, require_addresses: false, setup_logger: true }
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc > JSON-RPC request: getblockchaininfo []
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc > JSON-RPC request: getnetworkinfo []
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc > JSON-RPC request: loadwallet ["sparrow"]
2021-03-04 21:37:26,388 DEBUG Syncing 100%
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc > JSON-RPC error for loadwallet: RpcError { code: -18, message: "Wallet file verification failed. Failed to load database path \'/Users/nirmal/code/bitcoin/src/signet-custom/signet/wallets/sparrow\'. Path does not exist.", data: None }
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc > JSON-RPC request: createwallet ["sparrow",true,true]
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc > JSON-RPC request: getwalletinfo []
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc > JSON-RPC request: getnetworkinfo []
 INFO  bwt::app        > bwt v0.2.1 connected to /Satoshi:21.99.0/ on signet at height 1672

Then immediately after exiting the preferences pane, Sparrow logs cant connect to the signet node anymore :

 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc                   > JSON-RPC request: getblockchaininfo []
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc                   > JSON-RPC request: getnetworkinfo []
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc                   > JSON-RPC request: loadwallet ["sparrow"]
2021-03-04 21:37:39,106 DEBUG Syncing 100%
 DEBUG bitcoincore_rpc                   > JSON-RPC error for loadwallet: RpcError { code: -35, message: "Wallet file verification failed. Refusing to load database. Data file \'/Users/nirmal/code/bitcoin/src/signet-custom/signet/wallets/sparrow/wallet.dat\' is already loaded.", data: None }
 WARN  bwt_jni                           > JSON-RPC error: RPC error response: RpcError { code: -35, message: "Wallet file verification failed. Refusing to load database. Data file \'/Users/nirmal/code/bitcoin/src/signet-custom/signet/wallets/sparrow/wallet.dat\' is already loaded.", data: None }
2021-03-04 21:37:39,114 ERROR Failed to start BWT
dev.bwt.libbwt.BwtException: JSON-RPC error: RPC error response: RpcError { code: -35, message: "Wallet file verification failed. Refusing to load database. Data file \'/Users/nirmal/code/bitcoin/src/signet-custom/signet/wallets/sparrow/wallet.dat\' is already loaded.", data: None }
        at [email protected]/dev.bwt.libbwt.daemon.NativeBwtDaemon.start(Native Method)
        at [email protected]/com.sparrowwallet.sparrow.net.Bwt.start(Bwt.java:129)
        at [email protected]/com.sparrowwallet.sparrow.net.Bwt.start(Bwt.java:80)
        at [email protected]/com.sparrowwallet.sparrow.net.Bwt$ConnectionService$1.call(Bwt.java:302)
        at [email protected]/com.sparrowwallet.sparrow.net.Bwt$ConnectionService$1.call(Bwt.java:240)
        at javafx.graphics/javafx.concurrent.Task$TaskCallable.call(Task.java:1425)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
        at javafx.graphics/javafx.concurrent.Service.lambda$executeTask$6(Service.java:725)
        at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:391)
        at javafx.graphics/javafx.concurrent.Service.lambda$executeTask$7(Service.java:724)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1130)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:630)
        at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:832)
 DEBUG bwt_jni                           > shutdown signal received

Restarting sparrow and going back to the preferences pane to test the connection leads to a failure.

The only way to re-establish the connection is to delete sparrow's wallet in bitcoin core's datadir and the ~/.sparrow/ directory where I imagine more state is stored.

[craigraw]

Strange, I can't reproduce this. On my side, everything proceeds as described in your logs, but on the second connection, after the debug message with Bitcoin Core failing to reload the wallet "Wallet file verification failed. Refusing to load database. Data file \'....../Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/signet/wallets/sparrow/wallet.dat\' is already loaded." bwt continues on to the getwalletinfo call as normal.

There are two differences from my setup that are visible though:

1. You are using a custom signet chain, although it seems unlikely this is the cause
2. You have compiled a custom version of Bitcoin Core later than the 0.21.0 release - more likely the cause?

ccing @shesek (the author of bwt) for further thoughts.

[7hacker]

hi @craigraw Yes I imagine a custom signet chain shouldn't matter, since the Signet PR that was merged recently didn't seem to contain anything that would distinguish the default network from a custom one, but I could be wrong on that.

Yes I am running bitcoin core master as of 02/05 and I'll try this again with the 0.21.0 branch

[shesek]

This is indeed because you're running a newer Bitcoin Core release. The error code for the 'wallet already loaded' message was recently changed (following a request made by myself, actually) and didn't get updated in bwt yet, so it doesn't recognize the error. I was planning to update this when v0.22 gets released, but I'll look into doing this sooner.

[7hacker]

Hi @shesek , thanks very much

[shesek]

@7hacker As a temporary workaround, you can unload the wallet before connecting Sparrow with $ bitcoin-cli unloadwallet sparrow. This will make the loadwallet command succeed instead of returning the 'already loaded' message.

[7hacker]

Thanks @shesek , I'll use this workaround since another issue is that the bitcoin-core 0.21.0 branch doesn't have the tools to mine nodes on a custom signet

[shesek]

@7hacker A fix was released in bwt v0.2.3 (but note that you'll only get it when Sparrow is updated to use the new bwt release).

[craigraw]

Sparrow has been updated to use bwt 0.2.3. Thanks @shesek!

[shesek]

@craigraw That was fast! 🔥

[7hacker]

woo! Thanks @craigraw @shesek I'll be sure to re-run this flow and report back if i find any issues. Closing for now