Ubuntu DCP Worker

1 Install and register

Fill in your values and the command below updates. Nothing you type leaves this page.

Registration key Earnings account

Or copy the command as-is and replace the two placeholder values before running it.

EARNINGS=0xYOUR_EARNINGS_ACCOUNT
REGKEY=0xYOUR_REGISTRATION_KEY

sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/dcp-worker.service.d && \
printf '[Service]\nExecStart=\nExecStart="/opt/dcp/bin/dcp-worker.sh" --output=console --no-global --earnings-account=%s\n' "$EARNINGS" \
  | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/dcp-worker.service.d/no-global.conf >/dev/null && \
wget -qO- https://apt.distributive.network/apt-setup.sh | bash && \
sudo apt-get install -y dcp-worker && \
sudo -u dcp /opt/dcp/bin/dcp-worker.sh --register="$REGKEY" && \
echo "Waiting 65 s for registration to take effect..." && \
sleep 65 && \
sudo systemctl restart dcp-worker

What it does:

Sets the worker's options in a systemd override: --no-global so it only runs jobs from your own compute groups, and --earnings-account so earnings go to your account. The override survives package upgrades.
Adds Distributive's signed apt repository and installs the dcp-worker package. This creates an unprivileged dcp user, installs under /opt/dcp, and starts the worker service.
Registers the worker to your account, as the dcp user the service runs as.
Waits 65 seconds, then restarts the worker. A new registration takes up to a minute to reach the worker; the restart makes it pick up your compute groups. Without it the worker can run but never get work.

You only do this once per machine. The worker's identity is saved in /opt/dcp/.dcp and reloaded on every start, including after a reboot.

2 Confirm it's running

sudo systemctl status dcp-worker --no-pager

It should show Active: active (running). To watch the logs:

sudo journalctl -f -u dcp-worker

A healthy startup ends with:

* Starting Distributive Worker <worker-id>
. Identity is 0x...
! Leaving the global compute group
* Ready.

When a job from one of your compute groups is available you'll see Slice Started lines. Press Ctrl+C to stop watching (the worker keeps running). To list the compute groups the worker will use:

sudo -u dcp HOME=/opt/dcp /opt/dcp/bin/dcp-worker.sh --show=compute-groups --no-global

3 Stopping and restarting

Stop:

sudo systemctl stop dcp-worker

Start again:

sudo systemctl start dcp-worker

No need to register again; the saved identity is reloaded every time. To change the earnings account or other options later, edit /etc/systemd/system/dcp-worker.service.d/no-global.conf, then run sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl restart dcp-worker.

4 Uninstalling

Remove the worker, keeping its identity:

sudo apt-get purge -y dcp-worker && \
sudo rm -rf /etc/systemd/system/dcp-worker.service.d && \
sudo systemctl daemon-reload && \
(sudo systemctl reset-failed dcp-worker 2>/dev/null || true)

This stops the worker and removes the package and its options. The identity stays in /opt/dcp/.dcp, so reinstalling later brings back the same worker.

To remove everything, run this after the command above. It deletes the worker's identity, the dcp user, and Distributive's apt repository. Back up /opt/dcp/.dcp first if you might want the same worker ID later.

sudo rm -rf /opt/dcp && \
sudo userdel dcp && \
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/distributive.list /etc/apt/keyrings/distributive-pubkey.asc && \
sudo apt-get update

5 Troubleshooting

Running and Ready, but never gets work: check that a job is actually running in one of your compute groups, then restart the worker with sudo systemctl restart dcp-worker. A worker started too soon after registering can miss its compute groups until it restarts.

Service shows failed: see the error with sudo journalctl -u dcp-worker --no-pager | tail -50. A log line saying invalid earnings account means the address in the override is wrong.

Registration fails: check the key was copied completely, and that it hasn't already been used up or expired in your account.