Ubuntu installs outdated Zcashd (6.0.0)

Technical Support
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I want to flag an issue that’s affecting anyone installing Zcashd on Ubuntu. When you run sudo apt install zcash, Ubuntu installs Zcashd 6.0.0 (or older). This version is outdated and can’t sync the chain reliably. I just spent last few gours troubleshooting this while deploying my lightwalletd + zcashd backend. Zebra works fine, but anyone using Zcashd via apt might gets stuck at block 0 with no clear error message. I followed the docs, installed Zcash via apt, and still got an old broken version. Can someone from ECC confirm whether the Ubuntu PPA is still maintained? If yes, can the package be updated to the current version? If no, can it be officially deprecated so operators know to avoid it? This would save others from hitting the same wall I did.

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If you need extra help or have questions my DM’s are open. Can also find me on discord. Love that you are running a node, thank you!

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Probably related Post your technical support queries here - #301 by gladiator

These are the build instructions but I’m not sure if they’re up to date

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I do need some extra help. I’ve tagged in an issue i am currently deal with

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Thanks. is zcashd getting deprecated? If yes, would Zebra + lightwalletd deployment be the most reasonable thing to do and would it have download.sh script that will allow the download of a snapshot?

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Yes and Zebra+Lightwalletd will do fine. There is a replacement in development for Lightwalletd called Zaino so keep an eye for that.

By snapshot, do you mean the server stack or the blockchain? I would assume there are scripts that install and set it all up, there are certainly dockers that do this (one of the benefits of Zaino is that it’s written Rust i.e. no GO and so it’s a lot easier to deploy than lightwalletd, excited!).

If you mean the blockchain, then no there are no officially hosted instances of the blockchain. The point of syncing up the chain is to verify its all correct. The second best alternative would be to get a copy from a friend.

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Hi @ola_olu

Thanks for reporting this issue. I need to clarify an important point:

We do NOT maintain an Ubuntu PPA (Personal Package Archive). PPAs are specific to Ubuntu’s Launchpad system. If you installed via apt install zcash on Ubuntu without adding our repository, you may be getting an unofficial or outdated package from Ubuntu’s default repositories.

What we DO maintain is a Debian package repository at https://apt.z.cash/ for Debian-based distributions (Bullseye and Bookworm). The official documentation is here: Debian Binary Packages Setup — Zcash Documentation 6.10.0 documentation

Could you please clarify:

  1. Did you add our official apt.z.cash repository before installing, or did you just run apt install zcash directly?
  2. What does apt-cache policy zcash show? This will tell us which repository the package came from
  3. What’s in your /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zcash.list file (if it exists)?

If you didn’t add our repository and just installed directly via apt install zcash, you likely got an outdated third-party or Ubuntu-maintained package that we don’t control.

To get the correct version:

  1. Follow our official instructions: Debian Binary Packages Setup — Zcash Documentation 6.10.0 documentation
  2. Or use binary tarballs: Binary Tarball Download & Setup — Zcash Documentation 6.10.0 documentation
  3. Or build from source: Building Zcashd & Zcash-cli on Debian/Ubuntu — Zcash Documentation 6.10.0 documentation

This should get you running with the latest version (6.10.0+).

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I initially installed Zcash using Ubuntu’s default command sudo apt install zcash without adding the apt.z.cash repo first. This package turned out to be a very old Ubuntu-maintained version, not the current ECC release. It synced extremely slowly and stalled at height 0, causing several hours of “what am I missing rollarcoaster” during my backend setup.

After switching to the official apt.z.cash repo, Zcashd behaved correctly.

I’d suggest that the documentation should explicitly warn that Ubuntu’s default zcash package is not maintained by ECC and may be outdated. Most users reasonably expect apt install zcash to install the official release, so this can easily mislead new node operators.

Happy to run apt-cache policy zcash if that helps diagnose the source package on Ubuntu.

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Thanks for sharing your experience. I’d just add an important clarification:
there is no “zcash” package in Ubuntu’s official repositories or on Launchpad, neither currently nor historically.

You can verify it here:

Because of that, what you encountered is somewhat unusual — Ubuntu should not install any “zcash” package by default. This suggests the package may have come from an external or previously configured repository, or possibly a non-official mirror.

In any case, we’ll review the instructions on Read the Docs to see if there’s any section that could be interpreted ambiguously. As it stands, the guide does outline the process step-by-step and does not instruct users to install Zcash with apt install zcash without first adding the official repository, but we’ll check whether this can be made even clearer to prevent confusion for new users.

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Thanks for clarifying @y4ss

What happened in my case what that I ran apt install zcash on a fresh Ubuntu server, expecting it to either install the official package or fail. Instead, it installed an outdated, broken build that looked like Zcashd but didn’t work. Infact I tried different seemingly presumed official package with similar behavior.

The server may have had a preconfigured mirror or inherited a repo from the hosting provider, I don’t know, but I’ll investigate. But the key issue is: apt install zcash appears to succeed while actually installing an unusable node unless the official repo is added first.

Your documentation update suggestion makes sense going forward though. A simple warning would help new users for sure.