wallet: bitcoind fails to auto-load a non-empty external-signer wallet

hebasto commented at 1:25 pm on May 11, 2021: member

When a non-empty wallet with the WALLET_FLAG_EXTERNAL_SIGNER flag is supposed to be auto-loaded, i.e., it is mentioned in the settings.json file, and binaries are built with the --disable-external-signer configure option, the bitcoind fails:

 0...
 12021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] Using SQLite Version 3.31.1
 22021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] Using wallet /home/hebasto/.bitcoin/testnet3/wallets/coldcard_t
 32021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] init message: Loading wallet…
 42021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 52021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 62021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 72021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 82021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 92021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
102021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] [coldcard_t] Setting spkMan to active: id = c2fe2eddfccf102a74da940e282062adc8c13fbd28d00477644d3fcd1f6efe5d, type = 0, internal = 0
112021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] [coldcard_t] Releasing wallet
122021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] 
13
14************************
15EXCEPTION: St12out_of_range       
16map::at       
17bitcoin in AppInit()       
18
19
20
21************************
22EXCEPTION: St12out_of_range       
23map::at       
24bitcoin in AppInit()       
25
262021-05-11T12:07:20Z [init] Shutdown: In progress...
272021-05-11T12:07:20Z [scheduler] scheduler thread exit
282021-05-11T12:07:21Z [shutoff] FlushStateToDisk: write coins cache to disk (0 coins, 0kB) started
292021-05-11T12:07:21Z [shutoff] FlushStateToDisk: write coins cache to disk (0 coins, 0kB) completed (0.00s)
302021-05-11T12:07:21Z [shutoff] FlushStateToDisk: write coins cache to disk (0 coins, 0kB) started
312021-05-11T12:07:21Z [shutoff] FlushStateToDisk: write coins cache to disk (0 coins, 0kB) completed (0.00s)
322021-05-11T12:07:21Z [shutoff] [w20191120] Releasing wallet
332021-05-11T12:07:21Z [shutoff] [watch-only] Releasing wallet
342021-05-11T12:07:21Z [shutoff] [default wallet] Releasing wallet
352021-05-11T12:07:21Z [shutoff] Shutdown: done

The reason is the CWallet::Create throws an exception that is not caught in https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/e175a20769b5a7b98ee3082d89f9d4f31a4503d6/src/wallet/load.cpp#L117-L120

With the following diff

 0--- a/src/wallet/load.cpp
 1+++ b/src/wallet/load.cpp
 2@@ -117,6 +117,9 @@ bool LoadWallets(interfaces::Chain& chain)
 3     } catch (const std::runtime_error& e) {
 4         chain.initError(Untranslated(e.what()));
 5         return false;
 6+    } catch (const std::exception& e) {
 7+        chain.initError(Untranslated(e.what()));
 8+        return false;
 9     }
10 }
11

the bitcoind output is:

 0...
 12021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] Using SQLite Version 3.31.1
 22021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] Using wallet /home/hebasto/.bitcoin/testnet3/wallets/coldcard_t
 32021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] init message: Loading wallet…
 42021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 52021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 62021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 72021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 82021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
 92021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] [coldcard_t] LoadDescriptorScriptPubKeyMan: Compiled without external signing support (required for external signing)
102021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] [coldcard_t] Setting spkMan to active: id = c2fe2eddfccf102a74da940e282062adc8c13fbd28d00477644d3fcd1f6efe5d, type = 0, internal = 0
112021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] [coldcard_t] Releasing wallet
122021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] Error: map::at
13Error: map::at
142021-05-11T12:18:21Z [init] Shutdown: In progress...
152021-05-11T12:18:22Z [scheduler] scheduler thread exit
162021-05-11T12:18:22Z [shutoff] FlushStateToDisk: write coins cache to disk (0 coins, 0kB) started
172021-05-11T12:18:22Z [shutoff] FlushStateToDisk: write coins cache to disk (0 coins, 0kB) completed (0.00s)
182021-05-11T12:18:22Z [shutoff] FlushStateToDisk: write coins cache to disk (0 coins, 0kB) started
192021-05-11T12:18:22Z [shutoff] FlushStateToDisk: write coins cache to disk (0 coins, 0kB) completed (0.00s)
202021-05-11T12:18:23Z [shutoff] [w20191120] Releasing wallet
212021-05-11T12:18:23Z [shutoff] [watch-only] Releasing wallet
222021-05-11T12:18:23Z [shutoff] [default wallet] Releasing wallet
232021-05-11T12:18:23Z [shutoff] Shutdown: done

Noted while reviewing https://github.com/bitcoin-core/gui/pull/4.

hebasto added the label Bug on May 11, 2021

hebasto added the label Wallet on May 11, 2021

Rspigler commented at 9:45 pm on May 11, 2021: contributor

Doesn’t it need to be built with --enable-external-signer in order to load the wallet?

hebasto commented at 9:33 am on May 12, 2021: member

Doesn’t it need to be built with --enable-external-signer in order to load the wallet?

If so, it is a UX flaw because the --enable-external-signer should not be required if a user is going to check his wallet without signing new transactions.

Rspigler commented at 7:40 pm on May 12, 2021: contributor

Hm, I don’t know @Sjors

Sjors commented at 7:45 pm on May 12, 2021: member

Presumably this applies to any mandatory wallet flag that’s not supported? See also https://github.com/bitcoin-core/gui/pull/236

I’ve had to delete settings.json countless times :-)

The flag is mandatory. Although in this case there’s no harm in loading it, see #21928. But in general it’s not safe to open a wallet with a mandatory flag we don’t understand.

Sjors commented at 4:27 pm on May 14, 2021: member

I added a commit that makes this behave better in #21935.

meshcollider commented at 9:04 pm on June 9, 2021: contributor

Fixed in #22173

meshcollider closed this on Jun 9, 2021

fanquake referenced this in commit 7c561bea52 on Jun 17, 2021

DrahtBot locked this on Aug 18, 2022

wallet: bitcoind fails to auto-load a non-empty external-signer wallet #21919