GUI mining - updated Dec 3 with 7970 bugfix, also supports Stratum!

[urizane]

As opposed to trying to fit multiple icons into the same ico file, you can take a single icon of max resolution size for Windows (96x96x256) and build it directly into the EXE when compiled, then reference the EXE for the icon. Windows will automatically downscale an icon from an executable, but wont if it's a standalone .ico file (which is why it requires multiple sizes in the same file).

Change setup.py to have:

Code:

setup(windows=[
        {
            "script": "guiminer.py",                    
            "icon_resources": [(0, "guiminer.ico")]     
        }
    ],

Then, in guiminer.py, in your frame subclass add:

Code:

if os.path.exists("guiminer.exe"):
     self.SetIcon(wx.Icon("guiminer.exe",wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ICO))

Windows should handle it natively after that, as long as the icon is in position 0.

The problem is that the taskbar icon was getting scaled from the wrong size, anyway.  That caused jagged edges on the circle.  When Windows scales a 32-bit icon, it uses nearest neighbor scaling as opposed to bilinear, which looks horrible.  Also, the largest icon Windows supports is 256x256x32-bit, however, since Windows does scale 8-bit icons using bilinear filtering, that may be one way to resolve this issue.  Of course, with an 8-bit icon, the edges can't be alpha blended to enhance smoothness of lower resolution icons, so it would have to be a big icon.  In Windows 7 and Vista, Windows reads multi-res icons in sizes 256x256, 64x64, 48x48, 32x32, 24x24, 16x16, and ignores all other resolutions even if they're present.  If you're going to do a multi-res icon, use only those sizes.  If you do only one resolution in an icon, I would suggest only using sizes divisible by 8.  Other than that, any resolution should be fine.

Also, Windows 7 and Vista support PNG compression for icons within .ico, .dll, and .exe files.  Just in case 256x256x32-bit seems too ridiculous.  Windows XP won't read that icon if it comes across it, but it should still parse the other sizes present in the file.

EDIT:  To help illustrate the problem, do this.  Run the calculator (calc.exe).  Now go to Windows\System32 and right-click calc.exe and select properties.  Look at the taskbar representation for the two programs (Calculator and calc.exe Properties).  If you have use small icons turned on for your taskbar, you should see a significant difference in the clarity of the buttons in these two.  You may also need to turn off always combine to see the properties window in the taskbar, or you could close the system32 window you had opened.  As far as I know, this issue only affects the taskbar when it wants to display a 16x16 icon and the 32x32 icon gets loaded instead.  The same thing happens to the notification tray icons in all versions of Windows, but this has been a known issue.  The taskbar crap is new since Vista.

[Kiv]

Then, in guiminer.py, in your frame subclass add:

Code:

if os.path.exists("guiminer.exe"):
     self.SetIcon(wx.Icon("guiminer.exe",wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ICO))

Windows should handle it natively after that, as long as the icon is in position 0.

Neat, I didn't realize you could create an wx.Icon from an executable.

[MrMagic]

Hi everyone, by popular demand I'm putting up a beta version with support for puddinpop's RPC miners. I don't actually have access to CUDA hardware, so I need testers to see if that part works at all

The link is here:

    guiminer-20110403-pre.exe (self-extracting archive)

To use rpcminer for the backend, pick File -> New External Miner and then point to the miner EXE you want to use (CUDA, 4way, etc). I packaged the latest rpcminer with the GUI but you should be able to point to another version of the EXE if you want.

There's no device dropdown for these miners so to run on multiple devices you'll need to use the standard rpcminer flags.

Let me know if you have any luck and if it seems to be working I'll update the first post.

Thanks for the new version supporting puddinpop's CUDA miner. I didn't try the program before because the CUDA miner gives me a few extra MHash/s compared to poclbm. Anyway everything works find except that it does not record the number of accepted shares at the bottom correctly. It always says 0 accepted even though I can look in the console and see the valid server response. It also displays the last line of the response in the status panel: Listener for "CUDA": Server sent: {"result":true,"error":null,"id":"1"}

Thanks again. Looking forward to an update.

[Kiv]

Thanks, good bug report. It looks like the CUDA version gives a slightly different output format than the other puddinpop miners, so I'll adjust the code for that. I'll have a new version with the fix on the weekend.

It always says 0 accepted even though I can look in the console and see the valid server response. It also displays the last line of the response in the status panel: Listener for "CUDA": Server sent: {"result":true,"error":null,"id":"1"}

Thanks again. Looking forward to an update.

[machine]

Hi,

I have installed it with win 7 64 bits. But it seams not to work. It do not recognize the 64 bits radeon driver.

[BitterTea]

Hi,

I have installed it with win 7 64 bits. But it seams not to work. It do not recognize the 64 bits radeon driver.

I've got it installed on Win7 x64 and it works fine. What version of the Catalyst drivers have you installed?

[Clarithium]

+1 for a great mining program 

[urizane]

I'm running 2011-04-03-pre and the CUDA miner stuff is all working quite well.  Sorry for the slow reply.  I've been messing with all manner of combinations of driver versions and console commands for my 460s and came up with pretty much what I expected from the get-go.  Now with driver version 270.51 and rpcminer-cuda arguments of -gpugrid 128 -gputhreads 128, I get 128.6 MHash/s for my two overclocked 460s.  I'm still thinking that I may not mine for much longer.  It doesn't seem to be worth it on nVidia hardware while paying for electricity.

I've got a question.  Does the console view display both miners crunched together or will it display only one miner at a time?  I'm seeing lines similar to "Line: 64256 khash/s".  If it does display both miners, it would be helpful if the name of the miner was put in the front of the line, like "Primary: 64256 khash/s".

By the way, the balance button is quite nice.

[Kiv]

Does the console view display both miners crunched together or will it display only one miner at a time?  I'm seeing lines similar to "Line: 64256 khash/s".  If it does display both miners, it would be helpful if the name of the miner was put in the front of the line, like "Primary: 64256 khash/s".

Those lines would show individual miners. You can see the hash rate of a specific miner by going to its tab and looking in the status bar; the total hash rate is summed up on the status bar of the Summary tab.

I'm probably going to remove those "Line" reports from the console now that the CUDA seems to be working ok - I'm trying to keep the console output sparse so it's easier to see things like connection errors.

Glad you liked the balance feature

[Dobrodav]

I'm not sure that it is not mentioned above, I`m about multilingual support. It would be great. Especially if done in a way, that allow adding new languages, just by a simple editing of the template file and adding  new language file in specified directory. 
But anyway, my second BTC is going to your wallet. First goes to Momchil  .

[Kiv]

Sure, it should be easy for my program to support multiple languages through GNU gettext. I unfortunately don't know any other languages well enough to do a translation, though.

If you're offering to do a translation then I would be happy to get things set up for you and include your work in the next version.

Thanks for the donation, every BTC is appreciated

I'm not sure that it is not mentioned above, I`m about multilingual support. It would be great. Especially if done in a way, that allow adding new languages, just by a simple editing of the template file and adding  new language file in specified directory. 
But anyway, my second BTC is going to your wallet. First goes to Momchil  .

[arachn1d]

If I'm trying to mine locally, and I have 2x 6950's, should I be creating two miners for device 0 Cayman and Device 1 Cayman or should I just create one pool for 0 Since they're in crossfire?

Right now I have it on just

• Cayman and I'm generating 260 Mhash/s is that good or bad?

[new_in_this]

I'm generating 260 Mhash/s is that good or bad?

I'm not an expert, but i think it's not working fully. I have 1x5850 and average is ~230Mhash/s. (default clocks, no OC at all) Based on that yours should be much higher.

[urizane]

If I'm trying to mine locally, and I have 2x 6950's, should I be creating two miners for device 0 Cayman and Device 1 Cayman or should I just create one pool for 0 Since they're in crossfire?

Right now I have it on just (0) Cayman and I'm generating 260 Mhash/s is that good or bad?

Yes, you do need two miners, one for each card.

[Shienarier]

Today I got this message when starting up the client:

Code:

ERROR:root:Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "guiminer.py", line 1790, in <module>
  File "guiminer.py", line 1379, in __init__
  File "guiminer.py", line 1524, in load_config
  File "json\__init__.pyo", line 267, in load
  File "json\__init__.pyo", line 307, in loads
  File "json\decoder.pyo", line 319, in decode
  File "json\decoder.pyo", line 338, in raw_decode
ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "guiminer.py", line 1790, in <module>
  File "guiminer.py", line 1379, in __init__
  File "guiminer.py", line 1524, in load_config
  File "json\__init__.pyo", line 267, in load
  File "json\__init__.pyo", line 307, in loads
  File "json\decoder.pyo", line 319, in decode
  File "json\decoder.pyo", line 338, in raw_decode
ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded

Does anyone know what the problem is?

[BitterTea]

Sounds like your settings file is corrupted. Try renaming/deleting it and restarting the application.

[Shienarier]

Sounds like your settings file is corrupted. Try renaming/deleting it and restarting the application.

Thanks.
%APPDATA%\poclbm\poclbm.ini was empty.
I deleted it and restarted the GUI, then it worked.

[thelasttrueone]

I am having some trouble. I just upgraded to a new motherboard with a 5870 and 5770. I have them both set up and recognized in CCC. I have SDK 2.3 and CCC 11.3 installed and working fine. I can hash with my CPU through bitcoin client but not through GUIminer. All my cards show up as their codenames and my CPU shows up as its real name.

When I try to mine with anything on GUIminer it says "connected" in the bottom right but never displays a hash rate. Any ideas?

[Kiv]

That seems strange... can you try enabling the console (View -> Show Console) and then pasting me what is shown in the console tab when you try to start a miner?

[thelasttrueone]

Actually I figured it out. Console was saying:

 "more than one platform found, use --platform to select one
 stream[0] - stream sdk
 stream[1] - ati parallel processing"

I was using the --platform command wrong. I fixed it by adding the --platoform=0 argument. Does anyone know what the two choices mean? 0 seems to give me slightly higher hash rate.