Installation

Install and synchronize Lava Mainnet, one command at a time.

Mainnet · lava-mainnet-1 · Ubuntu 24.04 / x86-64

Use a normal Linux account with sudo access. Commands assume a new node and the same shell session. Existing operators should use Upgrade.

1. Prepare packages

Refresh package metadata.

sudo apt update

Install dependencies

Install download, build and snapshot tools.

sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl jq git make build-essential golang-go lz4 tar

Install the binary

Select a release

Use the network-approved release. This pinned stable release is the reference, not an automatic upgrade decision.

LAVA_VERSION=v6.2.5

Download lavad

Download the Linux amd64 release asset.

curl -fL "https://github.com/lavanet/lava/releases/download/$LAVA_VERSION/lavad-$LAVA_VERSION-linux-amd64" -o "$HOME/lavad.download"

Check the download

For v6.2.5, this must print OK. A different release needs its own published checksum.

printf "%s  %s\n" e500f73102264a48818ab5ecc1350bf54d663d6d3a4bfb45d9a85833d2b1fded "$HOME/lavad.download" | sha256sum -c -

Install

Place the verified executable in the system path.

sudo install -m 0755 "$HOME/lavad.download" /usr/local/bin/lavad

Verify the binary

Confirm the selected version starts successfully.

lavad version --long

Initialize and connect

Initialize once

Replace MY_NODE with your own moniker. Do not rerun this over an existing validator home.

lavad init "MY_NODE" --chain-id lava-mainnet-1

Download genesis

Save network genesis to the node configuration.

curl -fL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Shoni-O/files/main/mainnet-files/lava/genesis.json -o "$HOME/.lava/config/genesis.json"

Verify the network

Continue only if the file is valid JSON and this check returns true.

jq -e '.chain_id == "lava-mainnet-1"' "$HOME/.lava/config/genesis.json"

Download the address book

Load BlockPro’s published peer discovery file.

curl -fL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Shoni-O/files/main/mainnet-files/lava/addrbook.json -o "$HOME/.lava/config/addrbook.json"

Check the address book

Ensure the download contains peer records, not an HTML error page.

jq -e '.addrs | type == "array"' "$HOME/.lava/config/addrbook.json"

Set minimum gas prices

Set this node’s local transaction admission policy.

sed -i 's/^minimum-gas-prices *=.*/minimum-gas-prices = "0.000000001ulava"/' "$HOME/.lava/config/app.toml"

Set a persistent peer

Use the BlockPro peer published for this network.

sed -i 's|^persistent_peers *=.*|persistent_peers = "[e-mail]:61356"|' "$HOME/.lava/config/config.toml"

Use bounded pruning

Keep the application’s standard pruning policy; archive operation needs more disk space.

sed -i 's/^pruning *=.*/pruning = "default"/' "$HOME/.lava/config/app.toml"

Apply Lava consensus timing

Apply the timings from the official joining guide.

sed -i -e 's/^timeout_commit *=.*/timeout_commit = "30s"/' -e 's/^timeout_propose *=.*/timeout_propose = "1s"/' -e 's/^timeout_precommit *=.*/timeout_precommit = "1s"/' -e 's/^timeout_prevote *=.*/timeout_prevote = "1s"/' -e 's/^timeout_propose_delta *=.*/timeout_propose_delta = "500ms"/' -e 's/^timeout_precommit_delta *=.*/timeout_precommit_delta = "500ms"/' -e 's/^timeout_prevote_delta *=.*/timeout_prevote_delta = "500ms"/' -e 's/^skip_timeout_commit *=.*/skip_timeout_commit = false/' "$HOME/.lava/config/config.toml"

Run with systemd

Create the service

Run the node as the current non-root account, with automatic restart after a process failure.

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/lavad.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Lava Mainnet node
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=$(id -un)
WorkingDirectory=$HOME/.lava
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/lavad start --home $HOME/.lava
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
LimitNOFILE=65535

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Load the unit

Tell systemd about the new service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Enable on boot

Enable the service without starting it yet.

sudo systemctl enable lavad

Restore recent state

Follow Snapshots before starting. The current binary may not replay every historical upgrade from genesis. Choose a snapshot compatible with the installed release.

Start

Start the node after restoration.

sudo systemctl start lavad

Follow logs

Look for advancing blocks; Ctrl+C leaves the service running.

sudo journalctl -u lavad -f -o cat

Check synchronization

Wait for catching_up to become false and compare the height with the explorer.

curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:26657/status | jq '.result.sync_info'

Next: Validator or Useful Commands.

Upstream reference.