bitcoin core crashes and restarts syncing from beginning #28795

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current behaviour

On multiple Raspberry Pi devices, while synchronizing the Bitcoin blockchain, I'm facing a recurring error:

LevelDB read failure: Corruption: block checksum mismatch

This error consistently occurs at approximately the same blockchain timestamp (around 2016-01-28T16:10:24Z). The specific cause of this error is unclear. Insights into this issue would be appreciated.

Expected behaviour

The Bitcoin full node is expected to synchronize fully without encountering corruption errors.

Steps to reproduce

bitcoin.conf

# [core]
# Specify a non-default location to store blockchain data.
blocksdir=/mnt/usb/
# Run in the background as a daemon and accept commands.
daemon=1

Relevant log output

2023-11-04T23:19:23Z UpdateTip: new best=000000000000000002a06e720b2c2d521c62a700ca0729185f1bcc4cfc4b4b28 height=397732 version=0x00000004 log2_work=84.082876 tx=109224564 date='2016-02-10T15:12:41Z' progress=0.122901 cache=517.2MiB(3856438txo) 2023-11-04T23:19:23Z UpdateTip: new best=00000000000000000641d33199b04d9e2d997bba4a5576578dd64dd21d654114 height=397733 version=0x00000004 log2_work=84.082920 tx=109224565 date='2016-02-10T15:13:10Z' progress=0.122901 cache=517.2MiB(3856439txo) 2023-11-04T23:19:24Z UpdateTip: new best=00000000000000000055df3510182efa1e765d67a37ac4b74f2a869327f7fd24 height=397734 version=0x00000004 log2_work=84.082963 tx=109225641 date='2016-02-10T15:15:54Z' progress=0.122902 cache=517.1MiB(3856394txo) 2023-11-04T23:19:25Z UpdateTip: new best=00000000000000000307f416e26f7d613f2962feeb26e9dfeeb0ec8f5ea6ec31 height=397735 version=0x00000004 log2_work=84.083007 tx=109227498 date='2016-02-10T15:24:54Z' progress=0.122904 cache=517.1MiB(3856199txo) 2023-11-04T23:19:26Z UpdateTip: new best=000000000000000006b7d8476c2db829352e4f22030d2580bac1b5538e152add height=397736 version=0x00000004 log2_work=84.083051 tx=109228974 date='2016-02-10T15:31:09Z' progress=0.122906 cache=517.3MiB(3857666txo) 2023-11-04T23:19:27Z LevelDB read failure: Corruption: block checksum mismatch: /home/pi/.bitcoin/chainstate/018912.ldb 2023-11-04T23:19:27Z Fatal LevelDB error: Corruption: block checksum mismatch: /home/pi/.bitcoin/chainstate/018912.ldb 2023-11-04T23:19:27Z You can use -debug=leveldb to get more complete diagnostic messages 2023-11-04T23:19:27Z Error: Error reading from database, shutting down. 2023-11-04T23:19:27Z Error reading from database: Fatal LevelDB error: Corruption: block checksum mismatch: /home/pi/.bitcoin/chainstate/018912.ldb

How did you obtain Bitcoin Core

Pre-built binaries

What version of Bitcoin Core are you using?

v25.0

Operating system and version

Debian

Machine specifications

raspberrypi
description: Computer product: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.1 serial: 10000000bca1fe28 width: 64 bits capabilities: smp cp15_barrier setend swp tagged_addr_disabled *-core description: Motherboard physical id: 0 *-cpu:0 description: CPU product: cpu physical id: 1 bus info: cpu@0 size: 1500MHz capacity: 1500MHz capabilities: fp asimd evtstrm crc32 cpuid cpufreq *-cache description: L1 Cache physical id: 0 size: 32KiB *-cpu:1 description: CPU product: cpu physical id: 2 bus info: cpu@1 size: 1500MHz capacity: 1500MHz capabilities: fp asimd evtstrm crc32 cpuid cpufreq *-cache description: L1 Cache physical id: 0 size: 32KiB *-cpu:2 description: CPU product: cpu physical id: 3 bus info: cpu@2 size: 1500MHz capacity: 1500MHz capabilities: fp asimd evtstrm crc32 cpuid cpufreq *-cache description: L1 Cache physical id: 0 size: 32KiB *-cpu:3 description: CPU product: cpu physical id: 4 bus info: cpu@3 size: 1500MHz capacity: 1500MHz capabilities: fp asimd evtstrm crc32 cpuid cpufreq *-cache description: L1 Cache physical id: 0 size: 32KiB *-cpu:4 DISABLED description: CPU product: l2-cache0 physical id: 5 bus info: cpu@4 *-memory description: System memory physical id: 6 size: 3793MiB *-pci description: PCI bridge product: BCM2711 PCIe Bridge vendor: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0 version: 10 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pci pm pciexpress normal_decode bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=pcieport resources: irq:30 memory:600000000-6000fffff *-usb description: USB controller product: VL805/806 xHCI USB 3.0 Controller vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0 version: 01 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress xhci bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=xhci_hcd latency=0 resources: irq:33 memory:600000000-600000fff *-usbhost:0 product: xHCI Host Controller vendor: Linux 6.1.0-rpi4-rpi-v8 xhci-hcd physical id: 0 bus info: usb@1 logical name: usb1 version: 6.01 capabilities: usb-2.00 configuration: driver=hub slots=1 speed=480Mbit/s *-usb description: USB hub product: USB2.0 Hub vendor: VIA Labs, Inc. physical id: 1 bus info: usb@1:1 version: 4.21 capabilities: usb-2.10 configuration: driver=hub maxpower=100mA slots=4 speed=480Mbit/s *-usbhost:1 product: xHCI Host Controller vendor: Linux 6.1.0-rpi4-rpi-v8 xhci-hcd physical id: 1 bus info: usb@2 logical name: usb2 version: 6.01 capabilities: usb-3.00 configuration: driver=hub slots=4 speed=5000Mbit/s *-usb description: Mass storage device product: X825 vendor: SupTronics physical id: 2 bus info: usb@2:2 logical name: scsi0 version: 1.00 serial: 202010000096 capabilities: usb-3.00 scsi configuration: driver=uas speed=5000Mbit/s *-disk description: SCSI Disk product: 2115 vendor: ASMT physical id: 0.0.0 bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0 logical name: /dev/sda version: 0 serial: 690000010202 size: 931GiB (1TB) capabilities: gpt-1.00 partitioned partitioned:gpt configuration: ansiversion=6 guid=18ba2d83-2fe8-4a3a-aa32-0294591d70cd logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 *-volume description: EXT4 volume vendor: Linux physical id: 1 bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1 logical name: /dev/sda1 logical name: /mnt/usb version: 1.0 serial: 5014ce6c-5caa-4ba4-8606-5f84501edf55 size: 931GiB capacity: 931GiB capabilities: journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover 64bit extents ext4 ext2 initialized configuration: created=2023-11-02 17:29:55 filesystem=ext4 lastmountpoint=/mnt/usb modified=2023-11-04 13:01:13 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,stripe=8191 mounted=2023-11-04 13:01:13 name=primary state=mounted *-mmc0 description: MMC Host physical id: 1 logical name: mmc0 *-device description: SD Card product: CBADS vendor: Unknown (111) physical id: b368 logical name: /dev/mmcblk0 version: 1.0 date: 06/2018 serial: 2852135273 size: 30GiB (32GB) capabilities: sd partitioned partitioned:dos configuration: logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=88688bda *-volume:0 description: Windows FAT volume vendor: mkfs.fat physical id: 1 logical name: /dev/mmcblk0p1 logical name: /boot/firmware version: FAT32 serial: b49b-c102 size: 511MiB capacity: 512MiB capabilities: primary fat initialized configuration: FATs=2 filesystem=fat label=bootfs mount.fstype=vfat mount.options=rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro state=mounted *-volume:1 description: EXT4 volume vendor: Linux physical id: 2 logical name: /dev/mmcblk0p2 version: 1.0 serial: 6835594d-a5f3-459f-a244-318060e7e0ab size: 29GiB capacity: 29GiB capabilities: primary journaled extended_attributes large_files dir_nlink recover extents ext4 ext2 initialized configuration: created=2023-10-10 04:55:54 filesystem=ext4 label=rootfs lastmountpoint=/ modified=1970-01-01 01:00:03 mounted=2023-11-04 13:01:08 state=clean *-sound description: Headphones physical id: 2 logical name: card0 logical name: /dev/snd/controlC0 logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p *-network description: Ethernet interface physical id: 3 logical name: eth0 serial: dc:a6:32:5f:11:0d size: 1Gbit/s capacity: 1Gbit/s capabilities: ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=bcmgenet driverversion=6.1.0-rpi4-rpi-v8 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.200 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s

You're running Bitcoin Core on a Raspberry Pi which can work with the right setup. Looks like you are storing blocks on an external drive of some kind, but the chainstate database might still be stored on the MicroSD card (?) and got corrupted.

It's a little hard to tell from your output what kind of external drive you have but assuming its a good quality SSD connected by USB3 to the Pi, you might consider mounting it directly to /home/pi/.bitcoin (this is what I do). Then all block, index, chainstate etc files are stored externally by default.

Once your configuration is improved you might try rebuilding the chainstate files with -reindex-chainstate which will NOT download the blockchain again, but will only work if those files (and their levelDB index) are not corrupted as well.

Anything left to do here? I see a thumb-up emoji reaction was done by the issue creator on the last reply.