Doesn't always wait for bitcoind to be fully started up

[markasoftware]

When starting up bitcore-node now, I get the following error:

[2017-03-17T01:14:29.849Z] warn: Activating best chain...
[2017-03-17T01:14:34.855Z] warn: Activating best chain...
[2017-03-17T01:14:39.859Z] warn: Activating best chain...
[2017-03-17T01:14:44.866Z] warn: Activating best chain...
[2017-03-17T01:14:49.872Z] warn: Activating best chain...
[2017-03-17T01:14:54.879Z] warn: Activating best chain...
[2017-03-17T01:14:59.883Z] warn: Activating best chain...
[2017-03-17T01:15:04.895Z] warn: Activating best chain...
[2017-03-17T01:15:04.942Z] error: Failed to start services
[2017-03-17T01:15:04.942Z] error: RPCError: Activating best chain...
    at Bitcoin._wrapRPCError (/home/apg/apg-node/node_modules/bitcore-node/lib/services/bitcoind.js:449:13)
    at /home/apg/apg-node/node_modules/bitcore-node/lib/services/bitcoind.js:779:28
    at IncomingMessage.<anonymous> (/home/apg/apg-node/node_modules/bitcoind-rpc/lib/index.js:107:7)
    at emitNone (events.js:91:20)
    at IncomingMessage.emit (events.js:188:7)
    at endReadableNT (_stream_readable.js:974:12)
    at _combinedTickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:80:11)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:104:9)
[2017-03-17T01:15:10.341Z] error: Failed to stop services: Error: bitcoind spawned process exited with status code: 1

It seems like bitcore is trying to send RPC calls before bitcoind is fully started up, as explained here: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/40583/what-does-it-mean-error-code-28-message-activating-best-chain

[dav1app]

Having the same problem here. :/

[markasoftware]

@jhoutromundo ouch :( unfortunately I never really fixed this issue. I ended up putting a hard-coded timeout in to wait 30 minutes before attempting to connect.

[davidraedev]

I had this error intermittently as well. After some digging it appears to be this line causing the problem.

There is a hardcoded 60 time retry in the initial connect function, and if bitcoind hasn't finished starting up by that point bitcore (wrongly) assumes something has gone wrong.

You should be able to work around this by setting that retry value to something higher.

[davidraedev]

Just changing that one line didn't actually solve it for me, I also changed the other one here and that solved it.

[xelawafs]

@daraeman what actual figure did you set?

[davidraedev]

@xelawafs Looks like I settled on 100,000, but it really just depends on your machine and the state of your data. I think I had it and 10,000 and had to up it since it occasionally still failed.

[xelawafs]

I initially had it at 200, it failed. Bumped it up to 20000 and now it's back to syncing

[charleslcso]

@daraeman

Just changing that one line didn't actually solve it for me, I also changed the other one here and that solved it.

What other parameter did you change? Opening the link you provided goes to the same line at

async.retry({times: 60, ...

[charleslcso]

Got it. Two lines with the same content....

[DaShak]

Thanks to @daraeman and others who commented on increasing the hardcoded values for retries, as it worked for me.

This fix applies to another issue thread: https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore/issues/1434

[NeerajThapliyal]

Thanks to @daraeman you save my day. i have changes in https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore-node/blob/97683d2ff1dd8e84bf9f7f338052cc0ed258961f/lib/services/bitcoind.js#L929 and https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore-node/blob/97683d2ff1dd8e84bf9f7f338052cc0ed258961f/lib/services/bitcoind.js#L884 line. change time to 60 to 200.