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.
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.
- Apollo II with SSH access
- Basic CLI familiarity
- Verified Bitcoin Knots release (see below)
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- 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/SHA256SUMS2.1 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.gpgRefresh the signatures:
gpg --keyserver hkps://keys.openpgp.org --refresh-keysCheck 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 SHA256SUMS2.3 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 SHA256SUMSShould output:
bitcoin-28.1.knots20250305-aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.gz: OKUse 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 minerBackup you existing bitcoind:
sudo cp /opt/apolloapi/backend/node/bitcoind ~/bitcoind.backupUnpack 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/bitcoindUse 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/
sudo vim /opt/apolloapi/backend/node/bitcoin.conf# Block NFT/Ordinal-style junk
rejectnonstdoutputs=1
datacarrier=0
# Optional: block ancient multisig scripts
permitbaremultisig=0Restart 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
Cheers! You’ve now got a filtered, principled Knots-based miner.