Bitcoin Forum

edit-2013-11-24: Version "v0.2-alpha" out.

Introducing CoinDrone

CoinDrone is a USB bootable Operating System used for mining coins (Bitcoins and Altcoins) using GPUs and etc. It is lightweight, stealthy, automated and fast. Currently in ALPHA, bugs are likely to happen. Feedback and suggestion are greatly appreciated

Features

CoinDrone is built upon Arch Linux and include 2 version, AMD and Nvidia in order to maximise compatiblity with all hardwares. It is currently built for X86_64 architecture only and uses cgminer for minting software.

Stealth:

The biggest feature of CoinDrone is how it operate to leave almost no trace on the running computer. The OS will run from RAM and take the config file from the CoinDrone USB drive only. Once rebooted (RAM is cleared), the computer will restart the default OS and no trace of CoinDrone remains.

Since CoinDrone runs from RAM, once the OS is loaded and started, you can then remove the USB drive and the OS will continue to work and mint. This is especialy useful if you don't have much access time to that computer, just plug, run, and leave with your drive. Also useful if you want to run on multiple computer, you just need to boot the drive and go to the next PC. Once you are done mining, just reboot the computer and default OS should boot like normal.

Lightweight and Fast:

CoinDrone only need 1Gb of space on a usb drive. Once booted, the system will take a little less than 1.5GB of Ram. It takes about 45 sec to a minute from the moment the drive is booted to the moment that you are minting coins.

Automation:

Once booted, CoinDrone will automaticaly start to mint coin. It will check for your USB drive (using the linux diskID) for a config file. If the config file exist, it will load that file for minting coins. Else, it will use the default config file and coin minted will be considered a donation.

Disclaimer

Running CoinDrone can and will damage your computer if you do not provide adequate airflow to the computer. CoinDrone will start mining automaticaly once started and will turn your GPUs to max. This will heat your card and may damage them if the heat is not taken care of. CoinDrone is released under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. I AM IN NO WAY reponsible of how you use CoinDrone and the components and the damage it may cause to your Data, Hardware and other. Running CoinDrone with the default configuration will mint coins for a Coindrone account. All coins mined this way will be considered as donation.

Howto Use

Prepare USB Key

You will need a USB drive larger than 1GB. (all data will be erased when installing CoinDrone)

• Download the latest image CoinDrone.v0.2-alpha.img (https://s3.amazonaws.com/coindrone/dist/CoinDrone.v0.2-alpha.img)
• Download and unrar Win32diskimager (http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/)
• Open Win32DiskImager and select both the .img and a UBS key larger than 1GB. Click "Write" to begin the transfer.
   (WARNING: Make sure that you select the right USB since this will erase all data on the USB)

 

The partition will also be of 1GB only. I order to expand that partition, use tools like partedmagic or any partition editor. Warning: When doing modification of the CoinDrone partition, make sure that the DiskID is always : 0xa6c377d7. This value embedded in the ISOs and cannot be changed without recompiling.

Config

Note: If you boot your usb key now, the default config will be loaded and you will mine for the coindrone project. Make sure to edit the config file in order to mine for your account. Coins mined using the default config will be considered a donation to the project.

Current config looks for CoinDrone USB key and for a config file on the root of the drive named : "CoinDrone.conf"
Edit the args variable to reflect your user settings:


Howto Build
Follow instruction on github : Howto-Build (https://github.com/coindrone/coindroneUSB/wiki/Howto-Build)

Future of Coindrone.

Since the OS is currently in ALPHA, feature will be added in the near future and the software may change drastically. Please contact me if you have suggestion, bugs or else.

Here is a short list of expected features:

• Stealthier, make Coindrone impossible to login or redirect the clueless user.(reboot after too many attempt?)
• More configuration.
• Download config from URL.
• Installation Script and Tutorial for persistent OS.

About

Coindrone source code can be found here : https://github.com/coindrone/coindroneUSB
You can contact the coindrone admin at coindroneminer [at] gmail [dot] com

Please donate to get the project going:

BTC : 1Dx5ZDXLHoipXqBZQGfv9Ko5HwDRn6ZHZS
LTC : LaWTZc6Yw46d7zcm9qPtKL63G7dGbtriEP
NMC : NCBzXMQvGFV9kZNCuHbwg6CEL29Ycp3sqU

Really great to hear about this :)

Thanks for sharing!

gpu mining to the moon ??  :o

you invented a great way to destroy all gpu mining.  So 1 minute at a machine and I have it hashing away on the gpu.   or how to kill a machine or how to put another black eye on BTC or how to cook a goose that lays golden eggs. 

 op you  are looking to have a lot of government people come after you by giving that program away.  think back and see what was done to silk road.    look at the various governments that want to support btc make it legit. they will not like your program frying gpus

 To follow up on this post  if you read the op's post then download his program how do you know if he is what is claims to be?  you don't  for all you know  he could be a government  agency trying to entrap you.    He basically has claimed to create a tool that will let you steal from someone else's pc.  He states it will hash and send the btc to your address.  fine it may also send info to an agency of any government and you would be charged with theft of services.    Don't download his program for your own safety's sake.  

This thread is not a scam it is an invitation  to legal trouble.   At least that is the way I read it.

ehm seems nice but :

wen all this is done " the machine"  boots and begins to mining right away ?

how about my own credentials then ?? where to put my credentials ?

these credentials are in this config file L

#CoinDrone Mining Config.
#Uncomment line taht fits your config and edit with your pools/config.

#LiteCoin Config
cgminerargs="--scrypt -o stratum+tcp://stratum2.wemineltc.com:3334 -u coindrone.1 -p x -o stratum+tcp://usa-1.liteguardian.com:3333 -u coindrone.1 -p x -I 13"

#BitCoin Config
#cgminerargs="-o stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3333 -u coindrone_default -p \"\"  -o stratum+tcp://stratum.btcguild.com:3333 -u coindroneminer_default -p \"\" -I 13"



So if you want to use this program remember to chance this with your own credentials ! otherwise your mining for others ..!!

Great idea, if used responsibly. If this wasn't open source, I would say watchout for the obvious botnet infection, but at least we have the source code to look through and may compile it ourselves. Nice of you to share this with the community! Hopefully some of the people with coins to spare, send some your way.

First of all, thanks for your feedback, just what i needed to focus on this.

I just released version v0.2-alpha with additional functionality,documentation and lots of fixes/typos.

Now, Let me clear a few things up that maybe i should have before releasing the project. Yes, if you do not edit the config file, you will mine for someone else. However this open source program was intended for your system and is highly customizable/lightweight. Just remember to edit the config file and you're all set to mine on your personal account. Additional information in the project has been added to help you configure the software. Coins mined using the default config will be considered as a donation to the project.

I'm considering to create a few install script were this OS can also be used as a persistent super lightweight OS. This should broaden the use of Coindrone.

I've also recently added INSTALL page on the github wiki to help people compile from source so that my code can be verified and others to help me write fixes. Information has been added everywhere to warn users to edit config file.

I hope this clear the confusion on where this project is going.
This software is still in ALPHA, feedback is appreciated.

-Coindrone

The persistence feature would be quite nice! Would you be able to do that by just replacing the bootloader, and having it boot coindrone and then whatever the regular OS is?

Thought I'd give this a try on one of my computers to test, a machine an AMD HD3650 video card.

So I put it on a flash drive and edited the config file on the root for the pool I wanted to use. I then booted to USB and got the coindrone interface. Hit enter on the coindrone-amd default menu item....and fail.


It seems like it loads okay at first, but then it just sits at a terminal screen with:

Arch Linux 3.12.1-ARCH (tty1)
archiso login: root (automatic login)
root@archiso ~ #


I check the worker on my pool, and there is no activity and also video card doesn't seem to be getting hot. So it's not working.

What am I doing wrong? While the directions aren't exactly clear, it seemed straightforward enough. Did I miss something?

It is normal behavior that you don't get any output at first. Once booted, the software will start in a screen.

To view progress (or in your case, get info on what is going on) just enter the following in the shell:
This should bring up the cgminer instance that was started. You will then be able to get information on the current cgminer process.

If there is any error message, let me know and i'll try to debug you.

Hope this helps,
-coindrone

"silent miners" like this just scream abuse/botnet to me. You could go to a wifi cafe or a university or whatever and infect all the computers with this program. It sounds very illegal... If you want to mine on something, chances are you WANT TO KNOW it is mining. The only purpose of hiding the fact that a computer is mining is to deceive someone else and prevent them from knowing you are using their computer's resources without their knowledge.

Thanks for the reply

Booted to another machine with an AMD ATI 4550 and using screen -r was able to determine that it is connecting to my pool correctly but the first stat after Started cgminer 3.7.2 is

'clDevicesNum returned error, no GPUs usable'
'No devices detected'

does this mean this amd card doesn't support open cl or is this a different issue?