apollo2knots

Upgrading FutureBit Apollo II to Bitcoin Knots

This guide walks you through safely replacing Bitcoin Core with Bitcoin Knots on the FutureBit Apollo II (Orange Pi-based) miner without reflashing or breaking mining functionality.

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⚠️ Warning

This process replaces a production node binary. You must stop the node and miner before replacing any files. Failure to do so could lead to corruption or node failure.

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✅ Requirements

• Apollo II with SSH access
• Basic CLI familiarity
• Verified Bitcoin Knots release (see below)

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🔒 Step 1: Download & Verify Bitcoin Knots

SSH into your apollo.

Adjust URLs to what version you want, obvioulsy. You'll need the aarch64-linux-gnu tarball:

wget https://bitcoinknots.org/files/28.x/28.1.knots20250305/bitcoin-28.1.knots20250305-aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

2. Also download these:

wget https://bitcoinknots.org/files/28.x/28.1.knots20250305/SHA256SUMS.asc
wget https://bitcoinknots.org/files/28.x/28.1.knots20250305/SHA256SUMS

2.1 Download developer signatures and import them:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitcoinknots/guix.sigs/knots/builder-keys/chrisguida.gpg
gpg --import chrisguida.gpg

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitcoinknots/guix.sigs/knots/builder-keys/luke-jr.gpg
gpg --import luke-jr.gpg

Refresh the signatures:

gpg --keyserver hkps://keys.openpgp.org --refresh-keys

Check fingerprints like this:

gpg --fingerprint "Luke"

Expected (for Luke Dashjr):

pub   ed25519 2023-02-25 [SC] [expired: 2025-03-25]
      1A3E 761F 19D2 CC77 85C5  502E A291 A2C4 5D0C 504A
uid           [ expired] Luke Dashjr (Codesigning) <luke-jr+git@utopios.org>

2.2 This ensures the SHA256SUMS file hasn’t been tampered with:

gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.asc SHA256SUMS

2.3 Verify the download: This checks the actual file (bitcoin-28.1.knots20250305-aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.gz) against the signed hash — this is the most important step to prevent supply chain attacks.

sha256sum -c --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS

Should output:

bitcoin-28.1.knots20250305-aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.gz: OK

🛑 Step 2: Stop Miner and Node

Use the Apollo II web interface to stop both:

• The Bitcoin Node
• The Miner

Wait for full shutdown before continuing.

Make sure, the processes are not running:

ps aux | grep -i bitcoind
ps aux | grep -i miner

💾 Step 3: Backup Existing Binary

Backup you existing bitcoind:

sudo  cp /opt/apolloapi/backend/node/bitcoind ~/bitcoind.backup

💾 Step 4: Replace Core binary with Knots

Unpack the tar.gz, replace core bitcoind with knots bitcoind and set x bit:

tar -xf bitcoin-28.1.knots20250305-aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
sudo cp bitcoin-28.1.knots20250305/bin/bitcoind /opt/apolloapi/backend/node/bitcoind
sudo chmod +x /opt/apolloapi/backend/node/bitcoind

🏁 Step 5: Start Node via GUI

Use the Apollo II web interface to start the node.

You should now see the new version reported in the GUI as: /Satoshi:28.1.0(FutureBit–Apollo–Node)/Knots:20250305/

🛠️ Step 6: Tweak your bitcoind.conf with knots options:

sudo vim /opt/apolloapi/backend/node/bitcoin.conf

# Block NFT/Ordinal-style junk
rejectnonstdoutputs=1
datacarrier=0

# Optional: block ancient multisig scripts
permitbaremultisig=0

Restart node via web gui for changes to take effect.

This config:

• Lets you stay fully on-chain
• Ensures your mempool won’t relay garbage
• Prevents your miner from including these TXs
• Keeps you in consensus with rest of network

🍺 Have a Beer.

Cheers! You’ve now got a filtered, principled Knots-based miner.