You'll also need to install and run your bitcoind of choice (I recommend btc1, because I think segwit2x is the future of Bitcoin) and edit ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf with your bitcoind's RPC username and password (or pass it to p2pool from the pypy run_p2pool.py command line)...
In addition, I highly recommend adding the following two lines to your
bitcoin.conf:
blockmaxsize=1000000
blockmaxweight=4000000
This enables your P2Pool node to mine full blocks. I'm not sure if btc1 changed its defaults, but on Bitcoin Core the default
blockmaxsize and
blockmaxweight values are 750 kB and 3 MB respectively, meaning that if you left your bitcoind to its defaults, your P2Pool node would be mining artificially smaller blocks.
If you decide to use the btc1 (SegWit2x) client, simply double the above values after the 2x hard fork.
Also, I highly recommend connecting your bitcoind to the public FIBRE network. This helps your bitcoind to be notified of new blocks as quickly as possible. And if your P2Pool node finds a new block, this helps propagate the newfound block to the Bitcoin network as quickly as possible, reducing the chances of that newfound block being orphaned.
Instructions for connecting your bitcoind to the public FIBRE network can be found
here.
Yes.