# Prepare the system

## Update the system

```
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
```

## Disable SSH Password Login

In the SSH configuration, make sure password login is disabled (`PasswordAuthentication no`)

```
sudo cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep PasswordAuthentication
```

## Setup a firewall

We need to setup a firewall to restrict inbound traffic for our node.

First we install it:

```
sudo apt install ufw
```

By default `ufw` denies all incoming traffic so we must allow inbound SSH traffic before we enable it:

```
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
```

Now we can enable the firewall:

```
sudo ufw enable
```

We can check the status with those commands:

```
sudo ufw status
```

```
sudo ufw status verbose
```

## Install Tor

Install Tor:

```
sudo apt install tor
```

Add your user:

```
sudo usermod -a -G debian-tor your-user
```

You must log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.

Finally we can enable Tor at boot and start it:

```
sudo systemctl enable tor
```

```
sudo systemctl start tor
```

## Install Bitcoin Core dependencies

The following packages will be needed to install Bitcoin Core:

```
sudo apt install git automake autoconf autotools-dev build-essential cmake make pkg-config protobuf-compiler libminiupnpc-dev libprotobuf-dev libdb++-dev libzmq3-dev libsqlite3-dev libboost-thread-dev libboost-test-dev libboost-all-dev libevent-dev libtool libssl-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-filesystem-dev capnproto libcapnp-dev
```

{% hint style="danger" %}
If you get the error `Error: Unable to locate package libdb++-dev` then you must specify the version number. Run `apt search 'libdb.*++-dev'`and install the latest version displayed. Example: `libdb5.3++-dev`
{% endhint %}

## Install Node.js

{% hint style="info" %}
This is only required if you plan to install [BTC RPC Explorer](https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorer).
{% endhint %}

The steps to install Node.js 23 are detailed [here](https://github.com/nodesource/distributions?tab=readme-ov-file#using-ubuntu-nodejs-23).

Install curl:

```
sudo apt install curl
```

Download the setup script:

```
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_23.x -o nodesource_setup.sh
```

Run it:

```
sudo -E bash nodesource_setup.sh
```

Install node:

```
sudo apt install nodejs
```

Verify the installation:

```
node -v
```

And also update npm to the latest version:

```
sudo npm install -g npm@latest
```

## Install Rust and Cargo

{% hint style="info" %}
This will be needed by the Electrum server if you plan on installing it.
{% endhint %}

Install dependencies:

```bash
sudo apt install -y clang cmake
```

Install Rust and Cargo:

```bash
curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh
```