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Technical FAQs

1. Are the private keys same for Heimdall and Bor keystore?

Yes, the private key used for generating Validator keys and Bor Keystore is the same. The private key used in this instance is your Wallet’s ETH address where your Polygon testnet tokens are stored.

2. List of Common Commands

We currently have an easy to dive-in list for you for the Linux packages. We will keep updating this list regularly for more convenience.

For Linux packages

A. Where to find Heimdall genesis file

$CONFIGPATH/heimdall/config/genesis.json

B. Where to find heimdall-config.toml

/etc/heimdall/config/heimdall-config.toml

C. Where to find config.toml

/etc/heimdall/config/config.toml

D. Where to find heimdall-seeds.txt

$CONFIGPATH/heimdall/heimdall-seeds.txt

E. Start Heimdall

$ sudo service heimdalld start

F. Start Heimdall rest-server

$ sudo service heimdalld-rest-server start

G. Start Heimdall bridge-server

$ sudo service heimdalld-bridge start

H. Heimdall logs

/var/log/matic-logs/

I. Where to find Bor genesis file

$CONFIGPATH/bor/genesis.json

J. Start Bor

sudo service bor start

K Check heimdall logs

tail -f heimdalld.log

L. Check Heimdall rest-server

tail -f heimdalld-rest-server.log

M. Check Heimdall bridge logs

tail -f heimdalld-bridge.log

N. Check Bor logs

tail -f bor.log

O. Kill Bor process

For linux:

  1. ps -aux | grep bor
    
    Get the PID for Bor and then run the following command.
  2. sudo kill -9 PID
    

For Binaries:

Go to

CS-2003/bor
and then run,
bash stop.sh

3. Error: Failed to unlock account (0x...) No key for given address or file

This error occurs because the path for the password.txt file is incorrect. You can follow the below steps to rectify this:

This error occurs because the path for the password.txt and Keystore file is incorrect. You can follow the below steps to rectify this:

  1. Copy the bor keystore file to

    /etc/bor/dataDir/keystore

  2. And password.txt to

    /etc/bor/dataDir/

  3. Make sure you have added correct address in /etc/bor/metadata

For Binaries:

  1. Copy the Bor keystore file to:

    /var/lib/bor/keystore/

  2. And password.txt to

    /var/lib/bor/password.txt

4. Error: Wrong Block.Header.AppHash. Expected xxxx

This usually occurs due to an incorrect installation of heimdall. You can follow the steps below to rectify this:

Run

heimdalld unsafe-reset-all
and start Heimdall services again. You can refer to this guide.

5. From where do I create the API key?

You can access this link: https://infura.io/register . Make sure that once you have setup your account and project, you copy the API key for Ropsten and not Mainnet.

Mainnet is selected by default.

6. Heimdall isn’t working. I’m getting a Panic error

Actual Error: My heimdalld isn’t working. In the log the first line is: panic: Unknown db_backend leveldb, expected either goleveldb or memdb or fsdb

Change the config to goleveldb in config.toml.

7. How do I delete remnants of Heimdall and Bor?

If you want to delete remnants of Heimdall and Bor then you can run the following commands Bor:

For Linux package:

$ sudo dpkg -i matic-bor

And delete Bor Directory:

$ sudo rm -rf /etc/bor

For Binaries:

$ sudo rm -rf /etc/bor

And

$ sudo rm /etc/heimdall

8. How many validators can be active concurrently?

There will be upto 100 active validators at a time. We will bring in more participants if the limit is reached mid-way through the event as well. Note that active validators is mostly those whose uptime is high. Participants with high downtime will be forced out.

9. How much should I stake?

“stake-amount” and “heimdall-fee-amount” - how much it should be?

A minimum of 10 Matic tokens is required for the stake amount whereas heimdall fee should be greater than 10. For example, your stake amount is 400 then the heimdall fee should be 20. We suggest to keep the Heimdall fee as 20.

However, please note that the values entered in stake amount and heimdal-fee-amount should be entered in 18 decimals

For example,

heimdallcli stake --staked-amount 400000000000000000000  --fee-amount 1000000000000000000 --validator 0xf8d1127780b89f167cb4578935e89b8ea1de774f

10. I was selected to become a validator but my ETH address was incorrect. What do I do?

If you have access to the ETH address that you submitted earlier then you can transfer the Test tokens from that account to the current account. And then you can initiate your process of setting up your nodes.

If you don’t have access to that ETH address, we won’t be transferring you tokens separately. You can re-register in the form again with the correct ETH address.

11. I’m getting an error starting the bridge

Error: Object “start” is unknown, try “bridge help”. Is it still ok to ignore this?

Check “which bridge” - if it’s /usr/sbin/bridge you’re not running the right “bridge” program.

Try ~/go/bin/bridge instead (or $GOBIN/bridge)

12. I’m getting dpkg error

Error: “dpkg: error processing archive matic-heimdall_1.0.0_amd64.deb (–install): trying to overwrite ‘/heimdalld-rest-server.service’, which is also in package matic-node 1.0.0”

This occurs mainly because of a previous installation of Polygon on your machine. To resolve you can run:

sudo dpkg -r matic-node

13. I’m not clear on which Private Key should I add when I generate validator key

The Private key to be used is your Wallet’s ETH address where your Polygon testnet Tokens are stored. You can complete the setup with one public-private key pair tied to the address submitted on the form.

14. Is there a way to know if Heimdall is synced?

You can run the following command to check it:

$ curl [http://localhost:26657/status](http://localhost:26657/status)

Check the value of catching_up. If it is false then the node is all synced up.

15. If someone becomes a top 10 staker, how do they receive their MATIC reward?

Stage 1 rewards are not based on stake. Participants with high stake don’t automatically qualify for a reward in this stage.

16. What should the Heimdall version be?

To check your Heimdall version you can simply run:

heimdalld version

The correct version of Heimdall for stage 1 should be heimdalld version is beta-1.1-rc1-213-g2bfd1ac

17. What values should I add in the stake amount and fee amount?

A minimum of 10 Matic tokens is required for the stake amount whereas heimdall fee should be greater than 10. For example, your stake amount is 400 then the heimdall fee should be 20. We suggest to keep the Heimdall fee as 20.

However, please note that the values entered in stake amount and heimdal-fee-amount should be entered in 18 decimals

For example,

heimdallcli stake --staked-amount 400000000000000000000  --fee-amount 1000000000000000000 --validator 0xf8d1127780b89f167cb4578935e89b8ea1de774f

18. What’s the difference between /var/lib/heimdall and /etc/heimdall?

/var/lib/heimdall is the heimdall dir when you use the binary installation method. /etc/heimdall is for the Linux package installation method.

19. When I make the stake transaction, I’m getting “Gas Exceeded” error

This error may occur because of the stake or fee amount format. The values entered during the stake command need to have 18 decimals.

However, please note that the values entered in stake amount and heimdal-fee-amount should be entered in 18 decimals

For example,

heimdallcli stake --staked-amount 400000000000000000000  --fee-amount 1000000000000000000 --validator 0xf8d1127780b89f167cb4578935e89b8ea1de774f

20. When will I get a chance to become a Validator?

We are progressively adding validators throughout the course of Stage 1 event. We will be releasing a list of new external validators gradually. This list will be announced on the Discord channel.

21. Where can I find Heimdall account info location?

For binaries:

/var/lib/heimdall/config folder

For Linux package:

/etc/heimdall/config

22. Which file do I add the API key in?

Once you have created the API key you need to add the API key in heimdall-config.toml file.

23. Which file do I add the persistent_peers?

You can add the persistent_peers in the following file:

/var/lib/heimdall/config/config.toml

24. “Did you reset Tendermint without resetting your application’s data?”

In such a case you can reset heimdall config data and try running the installation again.

$ heimdalld unsafe-reset-all
$ rm -rf $HEIMDALLDIR/bridge

25. Error: Unable to unmarshall config Error 1 error(s) decoding

Error: * '' has invalid keys: clerk_polling_interval, matic_token, span_polling_interval, stake_manager_contract, stakinginfo_contract

This occurs mostly because when there are typos, or some missing parts or an old config file which is still a remnant. You will need to clear all the remnants and then try setting it up again.

26. To stop Heimdall and Bor services

For Linux packages:

Stop Heimdall: sudo service heimdalld stop

Stop Bor: sudo service bor stop or

  1. ps -aux | grep bor. Get the PID for Bor and then run the following command.
  2. sudo kill -9 PID

For Binaries:

Stop Heimdall: pkill heimdalld

Stop Bridge: pkill heimdalld-bridge

Stop Bor: Go to CS-2001/bor and then run, bash stop.sh

27. To remove Heimdall and Bor directories

For Linux packages: Delete Heimdall: sudo rm -rf /etc/heimdall/*

Delete Bor: sudo rm -rf /etc/bor/*

For Binaries:

Delete Heimdall: sudo rm -rf /var/lib/heimdall/

Delete Bor: sudo rm -rf /var/lib/bor

28. What to do when you get “Wrong Block.Header.AppHash.” error

If your node fails with an appHash error, you’ll need to restore it using a snapshot. See the guide available here.

Please make sure you are either using the chain flag in your service file, or the chain flag is set in your config/heimdall-config.toml file.

If you are using Docker, please specify the chain flag in your config/heimdall-config.toml file.

Stay in the know

Keep up with the latest node and validator updates from the Polygon team and the community by subscribing to the announcements made on the Polygon forum.