Light client errors: node-template --light

[nuke-web3]

The substrate binary works as expected with --dev --light but the node template gives the error:

Error: Service(Client(Backend("Unexpected database type. Expected: light")))

---

Also reported that a local chainspec used with the node template doesn't work as expected:

Currently I've got a chain spec generated using node-template build-spec --chain validator_spec.json --disable-default-bootnode > entry_spec.json that i generated from the validators, which runs fine on the validators.. but when I try to use it to run a light client to connect to the entrypoint nodes I get an error

Verification failed.... "Could not fetch authorities at ....: InvalidAuthoritiesSet

Note they are using the https://github.com/substrate-developer-hub/substrate-node-template, not the included one directly here, and if any changes resolve these issues here, the devhub team will pull those into this repo on the next release.

[hirschenberger]

I can't reproduce it, works with both templates.

But I have an Idea what the problem is, you may have a full-node db from an old run in the database directory. Light and full clients share a common dir but are not compatible. Just purge the chain with purge-chain --dev or delete the db-dir.

There's an issue #6880 and I also have a PR, which unfortunately nobody reviewed yet :-( #8658 that stores the database in a role-specific subdirectory.

[shibshib]

@hirschenberger sorry just checked in on this issue again. We abandoned using light clients at the time and now we're trying again. I've tried deleting the db but i still get a bunch of verification errors when it tries to talk to my bootnodes.

[shibshib]

We got past the point of "unexpected database type". Now our errors are purely as follows:

2021-11-07 03:02:31.349  WARN tokio-runtime-worker sync: 💔 Verification failed for block 0xc13b443bcd2e730d4c53f19bc0bed6a99dbdbfaed4906466f3659929c449966e received from peer: 12D3KooWDWw2Ph2JLHFxNUAhLpgGf2HAE2BHjXkoaj7HS9HapKnc, "Could not fetch authorities at 0x882d79eb05d3665b7717089d87f94d3d9a51eba60fcad2407217b05e733edf0c: InvalidAuthoritiesSet"
2021-11-07 03:02:31.357  WARN tokio-runtime-worker sync: 💔 Verification failed for block 0xc13b443bcd2e730d4c53f19bc0bed6a99dbdbfaed4906466f3659929c449966e received from peer: 12D3KooWLBsaS4uf6eEXeAFZAjQt3hqtf6aMs5ssqNTqnL94CGhS, "Could not fetch authorities at 0x882d79eb05d3665b7717089d87f94d3d9a51eba60fcad2407217b05e733edf0c: InvalidAuthoritiesSet"
2021-11-07 03:02:31.357  WARN tokio-runtime-worker sync: 💔 Error importing block 0xa9aac66538572a5d9a27c24c0d496859d6a1eee3e00639a35c68b54c082e16fd: Err(UnknownParent)
2021-11-07 03:02:31.370  WARN tokio-runtime-worker sync: 💔 Verification failed for block 0xc13b443bcd2e730d4c53f19bc0bed6a99dbdbfaed4906466f3659929c449966e received from peer: 12D3KooWASPUokJTdXKKYvBhkcX4JxNVfaN9WUqZuoL33NJQEu7A, "Could not fetch authorities at 0x882d79eb05d3665b7717089d87f94d3d9a51eba60fcad2407217b05e733edf0c: InvalidAuthoritiesSet"
2021-11-07 03:02:31.465  WARN tokio-runtime-worker sync: 💔 Verification failed for block 0xc13b443bcd2e730d4c53f19bc0bed6a99dbdbfaed4906466f3659929c449966e received from peer: 12D3KooWJimaLxH7xo9f3duzDCy9uJnJw9vyf51ydnGtJDYSGyWJ, "Could not fetch authorities at 0x882d79eb05d3665b7717089d87f94d3d9a51eba60fcad2407217b05e733edf0c: InvalidAuthoritiesSet"
2021-11-07 03:02:31.475  WARN tokio-runtime-worker sync: 💔 Verification failed for block 0xc13b443bcd2e730d4c53f19bc0bed6a99dbdbfaed4906466f3659929c449966e received from peer: 12D3KooWHcFQXU36b7hfV29EC59roDHr53mkaekz1hJp65MVgjpU, "Could not fetch authorities at 0x882d79eb05d3665b7717089d87f94d3d9a51eba60fcad2407217b05e733edf0c: InvalidAuthoritiesSet"
2021-11-07 03:02:31.476  WARN tokio-runtime-worker sync: 💔 Error importing block 0xa9aac66538572a5d9a27c24c0d496859d6a1eee3e00639a35c68b54c082e16fd: Err(UnknownParent)
2021-11-07 03:02:31.594  WARN tokio-runtime-worker sync: 💔 Verification failed for block 0xc13b443bcd2e730d4c53f19bc0bed6a99dbdbfaed4906466f3659929c449966e received from peer: 12D3KooWJksrNL9dzBWqw8od4ZAUUjd5khfUZWpPF4sAKdBhAppB, "Could not fetch authorities at 0x882d79eb05d3665b7717089d87f94d3d9a51eba60fcad2407217b05e733edf0c: InvalidAuthoritiesSet"

Our client is based off of the substrate-template-node and we are using this command to run it:

subtensor/target/release/node-subtensor --chain subtensor/specs/nakamotoSpecRaw.json --rpc-external --ws-external --rpc-cors all --rpc-methods=Unsafe --no-mdns -lbdebug=trace --light

[hirschenberger]

@shibshib Sorry, I think I can't help yo here. Your issue seems unrelated to the OP's issue.
Maybe open your own or ask in the Matrix chats to get help.

[bkchr]

Light client support was recently removed anyway from Substrate for the moment. So, I will going to close this issue.

We still support the networking protocol and will also bring native support in Substrate at some point.

[shibshib]

Thanks @bkchr @hirschenberger , in this case do you have any recommendation for running a light client on Substrate?

[bkchr]

@shibshib if you are using Polkadot. You can use smoldot.