Bitcoin Forum

I do not know if this has been asked before. But, I am wondering what it really takes to actually make a coin?

I have some systems that are on 24/7 any ways so thought I would give mining a try, but am wonde4ring if I am wasting my time?

I mean will only a killer 12 core with 4 or 5 high end GPU cards all working together generate coins if it is doing nothing else?

Or are the problems scaled so every one has a more fair chance of making a coin?

Do I need a 10K plus system or an array of systems to really have a shot at ever making a BitCoin?

So 50 are made every 10 min, but honestly what are the odds I will ever get one?

Are you solo mining, or operating in a pool? Solo mining (from what i've read and tried myself) only really works if you have a high end pc, and it's still a gamble.

By mining in a pool (or community), you mine a block with other people and get paid for the amount of work your computer did.

Ok sounds like I should join a pool.

But how would I do that?

Right now I am a real newbi, just downloaded the app to my Linux box. For the most part a few of my stems here are on 24/7 so figured what the heck why not run it. But no real point if I will never get any coins. I happy to work with others, like I said they are always on systems.

The CPU power doesn't make any difference if you have a good GPU. It is the GPU that you should be using for mining since CPUs are MUCH slower; most people don't even bother to use their CPUs.


First you find out the hashrate of your GPU (go to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison)) - then use bitcoin calculator (http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php) to check how long it is going to take to mine coins with your hashrate.

I hope this helps.

How do I make sure it is using my GPU in stead of my CPU? I go in to options but see no setting for that?

Are you using a bitcoin miner program?

Or are you hitting the "Generate Coins" button in the BitCoin Wallet program

I am using the generate coins button on the wallet if that is not what I should be using what program should I get for my Linux box and where from?


Also
Nvidia 8800GTX is my card but not seeing that in the list?

Seems like you have some reading to do. There are a few miners around, it's up to you which one you will want to use. Just check the following threads for information and instructions:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1334.0 (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1334.0)
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1721.0 (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1721.0)
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2444.0 (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2444.0)

GPU mining currently supported only trough special mining clients, not bitcoin client.
You should:
1) Identify you GPU (nvidia/ati, with support OpenCL/CUDA or not)
2) Download mining client
3) Read manual or readme how configure this client and then properly setup it.

Theres is a several mining clients on forum.

m0mchil's GPU miner (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1334.0)
jgarzik's CPU miner (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1925.0)
ufasoft's SSE2 miner (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3486.0)
Diablo's GPU miner (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1721.0)

And if you decided join to pool:

1) Some bitcoin mining clients download page (http://btcmine.com/page/download/)
2) Configuration command strings  (http://btcmine.com/page/help/#minerconfig)

Okay, just a heads up.  The "Generate Coins" button should honestly be removed from the bitcoin wallet. The amount of time it would take to actually generate a coin is a complete waste of electricity.

There are many programs all over the mining catagory in this forum. The one I am currently using is:
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3878.0

Although, it may not be the best for you or your most preferenced.  There are others you should experiment with.

EDIT: They beat me to it. Read the 2 posts above me, they seem to be more helpful  :P

I'm assuming you're on Windows. I'm not a Windows user but the rumor is, Windows frontend for GPU miners is the easiest way to start:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3878.0

I should remind you, the miner will connect to the pool server and not your local client. So, find a pool and join. Configuration options are on their respective front pages. Here are examples:

http://mining.bitcoin.cz/
http://deepbit.net/

There are other pools. :)

1) wrong assuming, you must read this post (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5574.msg81921#msg81921)
2) mining client may used with standard bitcoin client without any problem

http://thedailybitcoin.blogspot.com/2011/04/cpu-mining-no-longer-viable-option.html

I am actually on Linux not Windows.

I have downloaded DiabloMiner from

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/DiabloMiner

But I apparently need a user and pass

usage: DiabloMiner -u myuser -p mypassword [args]
                   
 -D,--devices <arg>    devices to enable
 -d,--debug            enable extra debug output
 -f,--fps <arg>        target execution timing
 -g,--getwork <arg>    seconds between getwork refresh
 -h,--help             this help
 -l,--url <arg>        bitcoin host url
 -o,--host <arg>       bitcoin host IP
 -p,--pass <arg>       bitcoin host password
 -r,--port <arg>       bitcoin host port
 -u,--user <arg>       bitcoin host username
 -w,--worksize <arg>   override worksize
 -x,--proxy <arg>      optional proxy settings IP:PORT<:username:password>

Remember to set rpcuser and rpcpassword in your ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
before starting bitcoind or bitcoin --daemon

But I have no bitcoin.conf file to add it to in the .bitcoin file in my user home dir?

I would recommend using poclbm miner, it's the best and most feature-rich at this moment.

You don't need bitcoin.conf if you are mining in pool. Use your pool's login and password.

Grrr. I should stop assuming "newbie" means Windows user. Sorry about that.


Sure, that's also true. I've seen some people getting confused while switching from the generation option on the client to a pool server and wanted to clarify. Was without success I guess...

regarding poclbm am seeing .exe files when I DL it yet it alks about 3 Linux distros so confused is there a Linux ver some where?

It's a python program with source included. You can just run it with a python interpreter if you have one installed (with it's dependencies).
If you don't see .py files inside, download it from github.

Also you'll need appropriate drivers for your video card and ATI Stream SDK v2.1-2.3, YMMV.

 have DL this one

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Poclbm-mod

in the "binaries-win32" folder I see a bunch of .pyd files

 in the "source" folder I see a 3 . py files setup.py, bitcoiminer.py, and poclbm-mod.py

I am guessing these are the ones I want, but I have no clue how to run them  I search for "python interpreter" in my repo and supposedly already have one installed I think? libpython2.6-devel and Python Imaging Library version 1.1.7 but not sure is that what I need?

Do I just open terminal and say ./setup.py

or am I missing something?

This is mod version, you'd better use poclbm or poclbm-gui, but not the poclbm-mod.
This is the GUI version:
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3878.0
This is original version:
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1334.0

Sorry, but i'm not the linux user. I think that people in those threads will help you with using python.

why not the mod?

What version of linux are you running first of all?

I think most people here are on Ubuntu 10.10.

PCLinuxOS no ver number it is a rolling distro

I would have offered remote assistance, except I am not familiar with linux :( I could read up and help you another time maybe.

For pooling, you gotta sign up at the pool's website

I've never even heard of that one in all my time with Linux, but there are a lot of different distributions.

It looks like it's debian based like Ubuntu.

If you are familiar with the synaptic management tool try searching for python-pyopencl.

Here are instructions for ubuntu. http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2636.0
If PCLinuxOS is debian based, using current packages, and hasn't changed the package names, those instructions could work.

Be aware that your card is quite old. I had a GTS 250 and was only getting about 2.5 Cents a day running at 30 Mh/s. It looks like your card will get in the 20-25 Mh/s range.

Ya but first I need to get the pool app runing

would you all recommend

http://www.bitcoinpool.com/

or

http://mining.bitcoin.cz/

or some one else?

Not debian it uses RPMs but it does use synaptec

My pool @ http://deepbit.net of course :)

no "python-pyopenc" package in the repo what is the actual pac name

best one for newcomers IMO is deepbit pool

ok will try that one if I can ever get the pool app launched

no pool app. you need the poclbm miner though (m0mchil)

It looks like this is the package you're looking for:

nvidia-current-cuda-opencl

Ok the ubuntu instructions say to



but I have already DL and extracted bitcoin-0.3.19-linux.tar.gz so why do Ineed to do it agin, actually did 3.20 but who is counting

I have a setup .py folder but as i said befor it is in the poclbm-mod.03.24.2011/sources/ folder

and it looks like this code it to make a .bitcoin folder I already have on in my home folder why do I want another? and as I said and asked before have no "bitcoin.conf" so do I need to create one with kwrite and if so what do i put in it?

myusername=un
mypassword=pw

or

rpcuser=myusername
rpcpassword=mypassword

the wged lines seem to be to Dl what I already have so why would I re DL what is already on my drive?

python poclbm.py -d 0 --user un --pass pw

confuses me because if I am putting in the user in pass why do I need to create the .config file. This is the user and pass for the pool account right?

when I  try to run "sudo python setup.py install"
it asks me for a password, I put in the pass for my user account. Then it says:

myusername is not in the sudoers file.  This incident will be reported.

Should I take the "sudo" off? or do I need to run this a root? I am sure I am doing something simple wrong  but no clue what?

Forget these instructions. They were only relevant when I thought your system was debian based instead of .rpm. They are for setting up a system to mine by yourself which you don't want to do. You want to join a pool with your card.


You need to run the bitcoin program somewhere, either on this machine or another one to be joined to the network to be able to receive any bitcoins that you make from a pool. You should delete the .bitcoin/bitcoin.conf file

First things first.

cd  to the poclbm-mod.03.24.2011/sources/
do python ./poclbm-mod with no options

what devices does it show?

You don't need to create a config file for your bitcoin client if you are going to do mining in pool.