Start 9 Server Pure, but Half the Price

Bitcoin
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I published the first of a series of YouTube video tutorials I am working on, related to Bitcoin. For this one, I demonstrate how to set up an alternative to the Start 9 Server Pure, but for half the price. I explain trade-offs, and the differences between the two devices, then walk you through the process step-by-step.

Hopefully you find it useful. Let me know if you have and questions or feedback that I might apply to my future video tutorials.

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I’m going to use the 1Tb nvme that came with the device. It feels a bit strange overwriting the windows 11 that came with it, because I’m sure I paid for it. Is there a way to salvage the windows 11 that came with the device? I have only mac computers so I’m not sure how it works with windows.

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You should be able to make a backup of the Windows license before you erase the NVMe drive during installation.

Step 1: Check Your Windows License Type

First, determine if your Windows license is a digital license or a product key.

  1. Digital License: Linked to the hardware itself. You don’t need a product key.
  2. Product Key: A 25-character code that you need to back up.

To Check:

  1. Open Settings > System > About > Activation.
  2. Look for the message:
  • “Windows is activated with a digital license.”
  • “Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account.”

Step 2: Save Your Product Key (if available)

Even if you have a digital license, it’s a good idea to back up your product key.

  1. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell as Administrator.
  2. Run this command:
wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey
  1. If it returns a key, save it in a safe location.

Step 3: Link to Your Microsoft Account (if not already linked)

If your license is not yet linked to a Microsoft account:

  1. Go to Settings > Accounts > Your info.
  2. Sign in with your Microsoft account.
  3. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation, and check if it says your license is now linked to your account.

This ensures you can reactivate Windows later on the same hardware without a product key.

Restoring Windows

Now you can install StartOS onto the NVMe. If you ever want to return to Windows:

  1. Reinstall Windows from a USB installation media (downloadable from Microsoft’s website).
  2. During installation:
  • If prompted for a product key, choose “I don’t have a product key” if your license is digital.
  • Log in with your Microsoft account to activate Windows automatically.
  • If required, re-enter your product key.
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Thanks Paul.
So this means I have to hook this device up to the internet and go through the Windows setup. And create a microsoft account I suppose?

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Yes. Another option (more complex) would be to make a clone of the NVMe if you have another hard drive and an adapter for connecting it to the MiniPC (plus a USB stick that you can install Linux on, to do the clone from).

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I do, I have a collection of old hard drives and ssds. Even have a toaster to read them. looks like flashing a program called clonezilla to a usb might work.

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You won’t be able to clone the drive from Windows while it is in use. You’ll need a bootable USB thumb drive. I’m not familiar with clonezilla, does it boot from a USB thumb drive? If not, any Linux distro (such as Ubuntu) could be used. I can give you instructions if you go the Linux route.

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According to what I am reading the clonezilla is running on linux and can therefor use a bootable usb. I’ll know in a few minutes…

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Well that clonezilla program seemed to work. It felt like I was trying to load a game on a commodore 64 or something, but I think it did it’s job. Now onto the start 9 install. I anticipate the rest going smoothly.

When booting from USB with Start9 I got the error: " Verifying shim SBAT data failed: Security Policy ViolationSomething has gone seriously wrong: SBAT self-check failed: Security policy violation." But, disabling the secure boot in the bios fixed that.

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Because I had a keyboard and monitor setup to start 9, I accidentally installed and logged in as kiosk mode. Now I have no idea how to access via LAN. Going to start.local doesn’t work. Is there some way to see the special url address? Start 9 is weird, it’s basically a web application that is forced to run via firefox and doesn’t allow you to do anything else but run that instance of firefox.

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From kiosk mode go to (menu) > System > About > LAN, and the name of your server (adjective-noun) will be listed there. On another computer, go to http://adjective-noun.local to download the certificate and get the instructions for trusting it.

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Honestly, I may have thrown this out the window without your help Paul. Thank you.
btc knots is now syncing!

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I have an Acemagician T9Plus running with a 1 TB drive. I have had some issues so I am re-installing knots but the RPC keeps timing out. I think it might be a hardware problem. If I replace the hard drive and I have a backup of S9, What is the process for rebuidling the server? Thanks.

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Cool that device has good specs for a server. It is a step up from the GMKtec g3 N100, which I am using as one of my test servers. Looks like the NVMe size it supports is the 2242 rather than the longer 2280 (hopefully you spotted that when you ordered the replacement).

The cleanest way to rebuild the server (although also the most work):

  1. Save a backup of at least Core Lightning (and Sparrow if you don’t have the seed phrase of your hot wallet backed up)
  2. Remove the old drive and insert the new one.
  3. Plug everything in
  4. Insert the StartOS installation thumb drive, and power up
  5. Go through the normal installation process (use the same master password to avoid confusion)
  6. Install Knots, configure it, and start it
  7. Wait for sync to fully complete
  8. Don’t worry about timeout errors on the Sync healthcheck (that would likely be caused by your slow network). If there are errors on the RPC healthcheck, though, then there is a bigger problem.
  9. (Optional) Disconnect as many devices as you are comfortable with from the network to help speed up the sync process.
  10. Enable SSH and install and configure Datum Gateway. This is a fresh install, so basically all of the steps that I outlined in the video would need to be repeated here again.
  11. Install Electrs, and wait for it to fully sync.
  12. Once Electrs is fully synced, restore Core Lightning (and Sparrow if relevant) from the backup. Don’t install them from the marketplace first. Use the guide here: Start9 | Backup Restore

At this point, if everything seems to be running smoothly, you may need to update the config on your ASIC if your server’s IP address changed.

Note that this way will also result in your server having a new name and a new certificate. If you want to avoid that, there is another way we can do the restore process (easier, but less straight-forward since it could result in already corrupted data on the old drive being transferred, which we would have to clean up after).

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Hi Paul, I followed the steps and things seem to be working. Electrs has a long way to catch up so once that is synced everything should be fine. I am over 900GB on the SSD.

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BTW, anyone following this guide who wants to install Bitcoin Knots instead of Bitcoin Core, you no longer need to side-load it like I did in the video. You can now find it in the Start9 Community Registry and install it like any other normal service.