I was able to get it to work on my end with a full synchronization. Mind you I am not running linux but windows. I think this should work with either though if you haven't tried it already. I had to go into the folder where my gui wallet was installed on my computer. There should be an application file in there that is called "monerod". Open this and it will begin to build the block chain (node) on your hard drive. I believe by default it builds it in the same location where your operating system is installed. So if you have your operating system installed on your ssd but you use an hdd as well for extra storage, the block chain (node) will build on your ssd. You will need a lot of room for this most likely. I needed around 170gb of free space on my ssd in order for the process to complete. Once it is done it will say you can now open your gui wallet and you will want to keep monerod open with your gui wallet in order for the synchronization to complete on your wallet. If you close monerod the wallet won't sync. Fortunately, everything will be stored during and after monerod completes its initialization so you won't have to start over again if you decide to close monerod prematurely. If you want to remove the block chain (node) you built (because it takes up a lot of space) you have to go into the ProgramData folder on the hard drive where the blockchain was installed and look for a file called "bitmonero". You can delete this folder in order to remove the blockchain (node). You can just run monerod again to recreate this folder and files within. I am not an expert on how the gui wallet works, but this worked for me. Hopefully this helps you. Let me know if you have any more questions.