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Raspberry Pi 4 Installation

Note: This page is left here for archival purposes. As the number of validators on mainnet has increased significantly, so does the requirement for hardware (e.g., RAM). Running Ethereum mainnet on a Raspberry Pi 4 is no longer recommended.

Tested on:

  • Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (4GB)
  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.4.0-1011-raspi aarch64)

Note: Lighthouse supports cross-compiling to target a Raspberry Pi (aarch64). Compiling on a faster machine (i.e., x86_64 desktop) may be convenient.

1. Install Ubuntu

Follow the Ubuntu Raspberry Pi installation instructions. A 64-bit version is required

A graphical environment is not required in order to use Lighthouse. Only the terminal and an Internet connection are necessary.

2. Install Packages

Install the Ubuntu dependencies:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git gcc g++ make cmake pkg-config llvm-dev libclang-dev clang

Tips:

  • If there are difficulties, try updating the package manager with sudo apt update.

3. Install Rust

Install Rust as per rustup:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Tips:

  • During installation, when prompted, enter 1 for the default installation.
  • After Rust installation completes, try running cargo version . If it cannot be found, run source $HOME/.cargo/env. After that, running cargo version should return the version, for example cargo 1.68.2.
  • It's generally advisable to append source $HOME/.cargo/env to ~/.bashrc.

4. Install Lighthouse

git clone https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse.git
cd lighthouse
git checkout stable
make

Compiling Lighthouse can take up to an hour. The safety guarantees provided by the Rust language unfortunately result in a lengthy compilation time on a low-spec CPU like a Raspberry Pi. For faster compilation on low-spec hardware, try cross-compiling on a more powerful computer (e.g., compile for RasPi from your desktop computer).

Once installation has finished, confirm Lighthouse is installed by viewing the usage instructions with lighthouse --help.