# docs / 11
Questions and problems
Questions
Is the operating system really on the blockchain? Yes. Every byte of every file is inside Solana transactions. There is no link to a file server, no IPFS, no cloud bucket. You can check: chainboot pull solinux talks only to the RPC endpoints you configured.
Then what do I download when I install chainboot? The program that reads the chain: one JavaScript file of under 500 kB, plus Node.js if you do not have it. On Windows and macOS also a small Linux environment to run machines in. The systems you run come from the chain.
Why do I need my own RPC endpoint? Because there is no chainboot server, and that is the point. An endpoint is your door to the network. Free plans are enough.
Is it slow? No. Programs run directly on your processor. Download speed depends on your endpoints: one to three seconds for Ubuntu minimal (22 MB) through one endpoint with an API key, and about a hundred seconds through the public endpoint alone.
What does it cost? Running and reading: nothing. Publishing or saving: 0.000005 SOL per transaction, about 0.0013 SOL per megabyte. See Networks and costs.
Can I delete something I published or saved? You can remove it from your catalog or stop pointing at it. You cannot erase it from the ledger. Saves are encrypted, and so are the images you publish unless you publish them with --public: what is encrypted stays unreadable for everyone else, also after you stop pointing at it.
Is Solinux an official Ubuntu? No. It is Canonical's official Ubuntu base archive, unchanged, plus for the larger edition packages installed from Ubuntu's own repositories. The packaging on chain is this project's and is not affiliated with Canonical.
Can I run graphical programs? A machine is a command-line system. Programs that offer a web interface work (the machine shares your network).
Does it work offline? Machines you already have start without any network. Downloading, saving and restoring need your endpoints.
Which wallets work? Any wallet that supports the Wallet Standard with message signing: Phantom, Solflare, Backpack and others. Or a keypair file.
I lost access to my wallet. Can I get my saves back? Only with the wallet's key, or with the folder ~/.chainboot/vault from a computer where you were signed in. There is no recovery service, because nobody else has your key.
Problems
No RPC endpoint is configured yet Add one: chainboot rpc add <url>. See Getting started.
none of the configured RPC endpoints is usable Run chainboot rpc test. It shows for each endpoint whether it answers and which network it serves. Typical causes: a typo in the API key, a mainnet URL while chainboot is on devnet, or a used-up free quota ("rate limited").
this image has /etc as a symbolic link, so it cannot be started safely chainboot sets a machine up before the machine has a root directory of its own, and creates things in /etc, /proc, /dev and a few other directories of the image while doing so. An image in which one of these is a link to somewhere else would lead that setup out of the machine, so it is refused. Ordinary distributions never have this.
… is busy in another process (starting, stopping, saving or restoring) Another chainboot command is working on the same machine. It ends by itself; if a command was killed, its lock is noticed as abandoned and the next command goes ahead.
the newest 12000 transactions under … are all by other keys Somebody is sending transactions that mention the address your catalog or save is found under, to bury it. Nothing of yours is changed or lost. Keep the pointer in an account, where nobody else can write: chainboot accounts on, then publish or save once more.
Downloads are slow You are probably using only a public endpoint. Add an endpoint with an API key, or several.
image "…" was not found in the catalog of … Check the name with chainboot list. Images of other publishers need the address: chainboot run <address>/<image>. Also check chainboot network: images live on one network.
these tools are needed but not installed: unshare … Install util-linux and coreutils with your package manager.
sudo asks for my password every time Starting a machine mounts a file system, which normally needs administrator rights. Run chainboot engine rootless once: it sets your computer up to run machines without them, and no password is asked after that (Machines). If you stay with sudo, it remembers the password for a few minutes.
A server inside the machine cannot use port 80 or 22 Without administrator rights, programs cannot listen on ports below 1024. Use a higher port (8080, 2222), or run machines through sudo (chainboot engine sudo).
I have no administrator rights on this computer at all Machines then need the rootless way to be ready: chainboot engine tells you what is missing. On most distributions nothing is; on Debian and Ubuntu an administrator has to install the uidmap package once (and, on recent Ubuntu, allow user namespaces).
systemctl says "System has not been booted with systemd" An ordinary machine starts with a shell only. Create one that boots (chainboot run solinux --boot --name server), or turn it on for an existing machine with chainboot boot <machine> on (Machines).
Can I run it on a real computer, without chainboot? Yes. chainboot disk <machine> disk.img writes a machine out as a bootable disk with its own kernel, for a PC or a virtual machine with UEFI firmware (Machines).
A server inside the machine does not start The machine shares your computer's network. If the port is already used by your computer (port 22 by its own SSH server, for example), choose another port inside the machine.
chainboot status says "vault needs SOL" chainboot fund 0.05 (or with --keypair). chainboot whoami shows the balance.
chainboot status says "waiting for you" The save would cost more than automatic saves may spend. chainboot save <machine> shows the cost and asks.
… was saved from another computer after this one last synced Two computers changed the same machine. Take the version on chain with chainboot restore <machine>, or keep the local one with chainboot save <machine> --force.
could not decrypt: wrong wallet or key, or the data was changed You are signed in with a different wallet than the one that made the save, or with a wallet app that signs messages in a different format. Sign in with the same wallet app.
The page of chainboot ui says it is "not connected any more" Each start of chainboot ui creates a new secret link. Use the link it just printed.
On Windows: chainboot needs WSL 2 Open PowerShell as administrator, run wsl --install --no-distribution, restart.
On macOS: needs a Linux engine Install OrbStack, Docker Desktop, Podman or Lima and run the command again.
Something else Run the command with the environment variable CHAINBOOT_DEBUG=1 to see where the error comes from, and open an issue with that output or write to hello@chainboot.dev. Never paste your endpoint URLs or key files.