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Disasterous start with QT wallet on LinuxMint

Hello,
I managed to install the QT wallet on LinuxMint with the help of a script I found.
During the install I was not asked for a pass phrase.
I got an address and bought some Dash (3.9) on bittylicious and the Dash registered on the QT wallet.
However the wallet is already encrypted, but I do not know the passphrase as I never entered one, so these Dash are lost unless someone can help me get the transaction reversed.
The public address I used to request the transfer from bittylicious was XmUWCJz4ucDUW4inq6oYiXwJJ9EM7Pf8Tr

I know it's not a huge amount, but I would be most grateful if someone could get my money back and also figure out why this happened. I will do everything I can to help.

Thanks.
 
Can you link a copy of the script and where you downloaded the wallet from? No way that should happen with the current client from dash.org but iirc I'd had a similar issue with another Bitcoin based Qt wallet a long time back and changing the password with nothing entered for the current password sorted it out.
 
Yep, most likely there is encryptwallet rpc command in the script you found which sets wallet passphrase or smth like that. Pls provide more info about the script.
 
Can you link a copy of the script and where you downloaded the wallet from? No way that should happen with the current client from dash.org but iirc I'd had a similar issue with another Bitcoin based Qt wallet a long time back and changing the password with nothing entered for the current password sorted it out.

This is a copy of the script I used:
#!/bin/bash
sudo -s install -m 0755 -o root -g root -t /usr/local/bin bin/dash-qt
echo "[Desktop Entry]
Name=Dash-Qt
Comment=Dash - Reinventing Cryptocurrency https://www.dashpay.io
Type=Application
Exec=dash-qt %u
Terminal=false
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/dash128.xpm
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/dash
Categories=Applications;Finance;" > ~/Desktop/Dash-Qt.desktop
chmod u+x ~/Desktop/Dash-Qt.desktop
sudo cp ~/Desktop/Dash-Qt.desktop /usr/share/applications/
sudo wget -O /usr/share/pixmaps/dash128.xpm https://github.com/dashpay/dash/raw/master/share/pixmaps/bitcoin128

The wallet was downloaded from dash.org specifically https://www.dash.org/downloads/ choosing
Linux 64 Download tgz Hash PGP

I hope this helps. Sorry for being so slow to reply.
 
This is a copy of the script I used:
#!/bin/bash
sudo -s install -m 0755 -o root -g root -t /usr/local/bin bin/dash-qt
echo "[Desktop Entry]
Name=Dash-Qt
Comment=Dash - Reinventing Cryptocurrency https://www.dashpay.io
Type=Application
Exec=dash-qt %u
Terminal=false
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/dash128.xpm
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/dash
Categories=Applications;Finance;" > ~/Desktop/Dash-Qt.desktop
chmod u+x ~/Desktop/Dash-Qt.desktop
sudo cp ~/Desktop/Dash-Qt.desktop /usr/share/applications/
sudo wget -O /usr/share/pixmaps/dash128.xpm https://github.com/dashpay/dash/raw/master/share/pixmaps/bitcoin128

The wallet was downloaded from dash.org specifically https://www.dash.org/downloads/ choosing
Linux 64 Download tgz Hash PGP

I hope this helps. Sorry for being so slow to reply.

Hmm... it does, everything is right but it doesn't explain how the wallet was encrypted :/ Does the Dash client ask for a decryption password or does your operating system ask for the root password? Usually I just run it as a user application but that script is installing as a system app, I can't see any reason why it would ask for the root password but it's another thing to cross off the list.

You should have a hidden ".dash" folder in your home directory and in that there should be a "backups" folder with automatically generated backup wallets, as far as I know any unencrypted backups should be deleted on encryption but I'd suggest making a copy of that folder and storing it somewhere safe, hopefully UdjinM6 can shed a bit more light on it as I'm a bit mystified how the wallet was encrypted :/
 
I see no way how the wallet would be encrypted by this script. Are you sure the wallet is actually encrypted?
 
The script installs dash-qt into a folder where only root has writing permissions (therefore the 'sudo' command) and creates a desktop icon to start the wallet.
No encryption at all.
So, either your wallet is NOT encrypted, you've encrypted it yourself and successfully forgot about it, or someone else had access to your PC and encrypted the wallet.
 
Hello,
I managed to install the QT wallet on LinuxMint with the help of a script I found.
During the install I was not asked for a pass phrase.
I got an address and bought some Dash (3.9) on bittylicious and the Dash registered on the QT wallet.
However the wallet is already encrypted, but I do not know the passphrase as I never entered one, so these Dash are lost unless someone can help me get the transaction reversed.
The public address I used to request the transfer from bittylicious was XmUWCJz4ucDUW4inq6oYiXwJJ9EM7Pf8Tr

I know it's not a huge amount, but I would be most grateful if someone could get my money back and also figure out why this happened. I will do everything I can to help.

Thanks.
sorry to hear your story.... that's why i always try to learn how to use the OS before putting my money into it... simply because i really do not want to depend on an installation script which i don't even understand what the hell is doing in my machine, especially when money's involved o_O
 
perhaps the dash-qt program needs to be told which wallet file to use. I am just making a general assumption here, but you can have more than one wallet using the same dash-qt as long as they are not launched at the same time. To do that, specify the files to look for. My setup is on a windows machine, so I assume the syntax would be similar for linux. Something like this:
/path/to/dash-qt -datadir=/path/to/datadir/whereWalletIs/Dash -wallet=my.wallet
So, I am just thinking that if the wallet is not in the standard directory, or file-name is different than what is expected for dash-qt, perhaps that is why it is asking for a password. Just a guess. But, worth looking at.
 
Thanks for all your replies and suggestions.

I cannot guarantee that I did not enter a password for encryption, but I have tried every combination I would normally use to no avail.
The script did ask for the system password, but that does not work as the encryption password.
The encrypt button is greyed out and if I try to send money, I am asked for a password. So I guess the wallet is encrypted. However I have no recollection of pressing the encrypt button.
I will set up a virgin Linuxmint system and re-try the install without putting any Dash in it and see what happens. I will let you know the results.

From your comments it would appear that the wallet normally installs un-encrypted. Is this a good idea? I can imagine that lots of wallets would remain un-encrypted.

I think that someone should look at how other digital currency wallets are installed to improve the way the Dash wallet installs.
I have installed both the Blockchain wallet and Bread on my Iphone and both of these handle the process very well ensuring that one starts out with an encrypted wallet from the start with warnings to ensure that one records the pass phrase for safekeeping.

I tried to find a dash wallet for Iphone, but was confused by what I found. Dash cannot afford to ignore the Iphone; there are just too many of them to ignore.

Finally, I believe that there should be a process that can be used to recover lost Dash coins otherwise when Dash stops creating Dash coins they will eventually get used up in losses.
 
Cheers for that, I'm not a dev but first impressions are pure gold for planning improvements :)

Ok, firstly for your decryption password. I'm guessing you've already got a backup of your wallet safely stored but if not... There are a few things you could do to check your wallet really is encrypted and not corrupted in some way but they're on the geeky end of the scale, you could try some of the wallet repair options in the "Tools" window but it sounds like the only real course left at this stage is to brute force the password. There are a good number of tools available for that but I've never used 'em so don't have much to offer, I'd be willing to take a look if need be but seeing as I'm just some relatively anonymous guy on the internet I wouldn't suggest trusting me with your wallet, I'd trust both crowning and UdjinM6 with a wallet of mine containing funds though and I think most of the established members of this forum would second that but I know they're both very busy working on 12.1 at the mo. If I get time I'll have a look at some of the brute forcing tools later, maybe they're simple to use, maybe they're complicated, idk.

Ok, the Qt client. I'd never really thought about the default encryption state but now you mention it, it does seem obvious there should at least be some kind of first-run notification. Basically it's the Bitcoin reference client re-worked to include Dashes functionality and the trouble is any failings of the Bitcoin client end up getting carried over to Dash. it's not so much of an issue with Bitcoin because the damn thing is practically unusable at this stage, let it fall behind a month or two and it will take a few days to process the blockchain and get it up to date so it's more an administrator tool than a user wallet for Bitcoin but with Dash it's still suitable for regular users. Before too long it will be irrelevant for practically all users as there is absolutely no need to download a client with Evolution, it works like logging on to a centralised service but the magic that makes that happen is distributed across the masternodes, it should be a big game changer and that part of Evolution isn't far off but for now a client is needed.

Dash and the iPhone... there are a few options for that but ultimately the thing that will make it happen is users demanding it, Apple are proving very unwilling to let Dash into their walled garden and recently threatened to ban the Jaxx wallet from the app store for including Dash and have banned the Shapeshift app but meanwhile they're perfectly happy to include... well, Amanda explains it better ;)

 
Stan,

Thanks for your comments.

It appears that I have some automatic backups, but I am not sure they will do me any good.

I would be worried if brute forcing the password worked in less than a week.

I did see Amanda's video when it came out. While mildly amusing, I cannot see that it would help Dash's relations with Apple.
If Apple Corp are so against Dash, there must be a reason for it. So someone should be working on resolving that problem.

As regards my inaccessible wallet, I would not expect anyone to expend too much effort for the recovery of 3.90 Dash.
I am treating this as a learning exercise so that "we" can make improvements to future Dash wallets.
 
Mystery SOLVED

Firstly let me apologise for raising this issue as it was entirely my own fault.

It appears that I had installed the Dash Core Wallet previously and then forgotten about it. On that previous install I had encrypted the wallet.

When I installed the Dash Core Wallet anew, it would appear that it treated the install as an update and therefore took on the previous wallet's "identity".

Today, buried in a pile of documents, I found a piece of paper headed Dash Core Wallet with ten words written on it. This was my recorded pass phrase.

With this pass phrase I was able to unlock the Dash Wallet on my Linux PC. Hurray! 3.9 Dash recovered.

Could I suggest that:
1. The install procedure warns the user that an existing install is present.
2. It is made clearer that the wallet is locked when Dash wallet is started so that one does not add funds to a locked wallet unknowingly. By that I mean that had I seen that the wallet was locked when I thought it was a fresh install I would not have added the funds until I had figured out why the wallet was locked when I had not yet encrypted it. Yes, I know now that there is a little padlock symbol in the bottom right corner, but it is not that obvious to the new user in a hurry to try out the new app. Might I suggest colouring the screen a different colour when locked.
3. It should be stressed on a new install that the wallet in NOT encrypted to start with. I would suggest that on startup the wallet takes the user straight to the encryption sequence so that no one operates from an un-encrypted wallet. Alternatively watermark the screen with "Warning Un-encrypted Wallet" until it is encrypted.

I hope this tale may help others in their use of the Dash Core Wallet.

Thanks to all who responded and offered help.
 
That is good news. There is a way to specify the wallet file when launching the program. So, you can use the same stored block chain with different wallets - if you need to. Does that help any? I am not sure that applies to your case. Anyway, an example on windows is to create a shortcut with something like this:
"C:\Program Files\Dash\dash-qt.exe" -datadir=C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Dash -wallet=test.wallet
 
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