Bitcoin Forum

I MINE FOR A HOBBY--

This thread will contain notes about mining altcoins.  I do keep a notebook at home, standard pen and paper.  However, if I post a note online, I'll be able to access the note from the web.  Other miners may also read and share the note.  It won't simply gather dust in my old notebook.

I have posted scripts and how-to notes in other threads.  I plan to gather the stuff into this topic over time, keeping my notebook organized.

Nothing to share here but reading material.  The topic is self-moderated; please keep posts to practical mining information.  Ad campaigns, profanity, and abusive posts are not welcome.       --scryptr  

ADD A CPU MINER TO ETHOS--

It is simple to add a CPU miner to ethOS.  A dedicated Linux Operating System (OS), ethOS is built to mine cryptocurrency with GPUs. The ethOS development team has not included a CPU miner with the system, and their support team does not offer advice for the feature.  But modern CPUs can mine really well, and it is a shame not to use their mining capacity.

Traditional advice from gurus like CryptoBadger was to use the low-end CPUs like the AMD Sempron 145 (~$25-$35).    If you wish to keep down hardware component cost, it is sound.  But the Ryzen and Vishera multi-core CPUs rival some top-end GPUs with their mining capacity.  The older 8-core Vishera CPU is now available at low-cost.  A more expensive Ryzen can mine CryptoNight as well as an RX 580.

The method is simple.  The Linux OS will support a CPU miner, even if the ethOS scripts will not monitor and report the CPU hash performance.  We just need to add a few tweaks to ethOS.  I let the CPUs mine as they do, and check their performance at the pool, or watch them with "screen" via SSH.  Here is how to do it:

1)  Get your ethOS rig up, running, and stabilized with your GPUs.  The instructions are at "www.ethosdistro.com/kb".   The support team will help you if you need it.

2)  When things are stable, you can add the CPU miner.  Use the following commands to install the necessary Linux prerequisites:

        sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
        sudo apt update
        sudo devtools-install

The line "sudo devtools-install" runs an ethOS internal script that installs developer necessities.  It will not break ethOS.

3)  Get the miner with "git", the utility is a part of ethOS.  To do this, make a work directory in your home directory with "mkdir Work".  Change into the work directory with the command "cd Work".  Then run the following commands:

        git clone https://github.com/jayddee/cpuminer-opt.git
        cd cpuminer-opt
        ./build.sh

The line "./build.sh" will compile the CPU miner and result in an executable file .  It is a fairly reliable script.  The various prerequisites installed above are being put to use.  When the compilation is finished successfully, you will find an executable file "cpuminer" in the directory.  Test it by typing "./cpuminer -V" within the compile directory.  You should get output printed to the screen that states the current cpuminer version.  You can do this with your system mining on your GPUs with no problem.  Next, type "./cpuminer -h > cpu-help.txt".  You will then find a file "cpu-help.txt" in the directory, with explanations for all the cpuminer command line options.

4)  Change back into the ethOS home directory.  I install "screenie", a small utility to use "screen".  The command "sudo apt install screenie" will add the helper utility to your system.  If you are familiar with "screen", you may not need it.

5)  Configure the CPU miner.  I use a script to launch the miner, and a configuration file within the mining directory.  The launch script is like this:

        #!/bin/bash

        cd /home/ethos/Work/cpuminer-opt
        screen -dmS cpuminer ./cpuminer -c YES.conf

The configuration file needs to be in the cpuminer directory before launch.  Here is my Yescrypt configuration file:

{
    "url" : "stratum+tcp://yescrypt.mine.zergpool.com:6233",
    "user" : "M---your-litecoin-address---",
    "pass" : "workername,c=LTC",
    "algo" : "yescrypt",
    "threads" : "7",
  
    "api-bind" : "0",
    "statsavg" : 20,
    "quiet" : false,
    "debug" : false,
    "protocol" : false
 }

You can customize the configuration file for your pool and coin of choice.  This configuration mines on 7 of 8 threads on an i7 CPU.  It has 4 cores and hyperthreading.
 If you have a 4-core AMD FX 4350, it may be best to set "threads" to "3", as it does not have hyperthreading.  A Ryzen with 12 cores will mine with 24 threads, as it has "Simultaneous Multi-Threading" (SMT).  It is advisable to mine with at least one thread unused.  

Some notes-- Zergpool pays reliably in LiteCoin, but there are many other pools and configurations possible.  There are other CPU miners as well, but CPUminer-Opt is a good general miner.  It is optimized for various CPU architectures with assembly language.

For test purposes, you could simply cut-and-paste both the configuration file and the launch script into nano and separately save them.  Be sure to add your personal LiteCoin address.  If the launch script is in your home directory (mine is), be sure to use "chmod +x cpuminer.sh" after saving it.  That will allow the BASH script file to execute the script commands.

6) Launch the CPU miner!  In the home directory, type "./cpuminer.sh" and press enter.  If the launch script and configuration files have no typographical errors, you should wind up back at the command prompt.  At this point, type "screenie", or just use "screen", to display the miner's output.   I like "screenie", it makes things easier.

If there is no output, check for configuration errors and typos.  Eventually, it will work, as long as the miner compiled correctly and you could read the help file (a good indicator).

Whenever you need to check miner performance, log in locally or by SSH, and view the "screen" output.  Sometimes pools and miners need adjustment.  If you have several configuration files in the miner directory, you need only change the "*.conf" name in the launch script to change the mining algorithm.

Good luck mining...       --scryptr

 
 

 

ADD A MOONLANDER TO ETHOS--

As I stated in the post above this one, ethOS is designed for GPUs.  However, after setting up a Moonlander on my Win7 x64 box, i decided to try the same thing on one of my ethOS mining rigs.  NOTE: General instructions for the use and installation of a Moonlander are well documented on "futurebit.io" and the linked support thread.

I recently purchased a Moonlander 2 from FutureBit. The website "shop.futurebit.io" has the tiny USB stick ASICS for sale.  A single, 1-chip, thumbdrive sized ASIC miner will mine scrypt better than either my 6-card GTX 750ti rig or my 6-card R9 280X rig.  You can also buy Moonlander2s on Amazon or NewEgg.

There is a support thread for the MoonLanders at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2420357.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2420357.0).  There is a separate thread for sales, also, but currently sales are being handled by the "futurebit.io" website.

As before in my post on CPU mining, I am adding an extra on the ethOS mining system.  It is an easy task.   In this case, the mining software is precompiled and only needs to be downloaded.  Here is how to get and set it up:

1)  Change into your Downloads directory (I had to create one on ethOS with "mkdir Downloads" from the "/home/ethos" directory).  Type and execute the following command:

        "wget https://github.com/jstefanop/bfgminer/releases/tag/bfgminer-5.4.2-futurebit2-beta2"

After the download completes, follow with the command:

        "tar xzvf bfgminer*.gz"

you will now have the archive and a similarly named directory in Downloads.  If there is another archive in the Downloads directory named "bfgminer*whatever.gz", you will need to use the full name of the new download just received.  Otherwise, the shortcut is easier.

2)  If there is no "Work" directory in the home directory, make one with "mkdir Work" while in the home directory.  While in the Downloads directory rename the unarchived file directory to "bfgminer" with "mv bfgminer_5.4.2-futurebit2_linux_x86_64  bfgminer".  Then, while still in the Downloads directory, move "bfgminer" to the Work directory with "mv bfgminer ~/Work".  The tilda "~" is a shortcut for the home directory in a Linux OS.  Change to the new bfgminer directory with "cd ~/Work/bfgminer".

3)  You can mine right now!  Copy "start_moonlander2.sh" to something simple like "moon.sh" with "cp start_moonlander2.sh moon.sh" and then edit "moon.sh" to your mining wallet address and worker name.  If you just want to mine right away, type and execute "sudo ./moon.sh" and you will be mining on jstefanop's LiteCoinPool.org account, contributing a few milli-pennies.  I recommend copying the start script to a working name like "moon.sh" so to save the original for reference.  You can quit from the miner by typing "q".

Notice that the miner was started with "sudo".  For some reason the "tty" ports in ethOS are restricted to admin access.  If I find a way around this, I will edit it in here.

EDIT:  The following is a quote from the BFGminer FAQ:

"Make sure you have the required privileges to access the /dev/ttyUSB* devices:
 
    sudo ls -las /dev/ttyUSB*

will give output like:

    0 crw-rw---- 1 root video   188, 0 2012-09-11 13:49 /dev/ttyUSB0

This means your account must have the group 'video' for root privileges.  To permanently give your account the 'video' group:
  
    sudo usermod -G video -a `whoami`

Then logout and back in again."

end quote

Your user account needs to be added to the proper group to launch without the "sudo" command!

4)  Now, so that you can mine in the background and still view the miner with screen, edit the "moon.sh" script like this:

        "screen -dmS moon ./bfgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://us.litecoinpool.org:3333 -u workername.1 -p 1,d=128 -S ALL --set MLD:clock=600"

Don't include the quote marks.  I put a launch script in my home directory very similar to the launch script for CPU mining.  It reads like this:

         "#!/bin/bash
                                                                                                                                                                              
         cd /home/ethos/Work/bfgminer
         sudo ./moon.sh"       (NOTE: "sudo" not necessary if user is in the proper sudoer group.)

Don't include the quote marks.  Save it as "launch.sh", or another name.  Be sure to activate the BASH script with "chmod +x launch.sh".  The script will launch "moon.sh", and subsequently "bfgminer", with the proper permissions to read the Moonlander ports.  If you want to view the miner output with "screen", launch with "sudo screenie", or just use plain "sudo screen -r moon".  The command "sudo" is only necessary for screen if the script was launched with "sudo".

There is plenty of support material for mining with these little gems in the support thread and on the FutureBit website.  Go to FutureBit for detailed support.  A USB hub with several of these miners can be operated in a manner similar to that described above, all while the GPUs are mining away in ethOS.  However, the internal ethOS scripts will not report the ASIC hash to the screen or to the web monitor.  Monitoring BFGminer will be done with "screen".    

Good luck mining...       --scryptr

SRBPOLARIS BIOS EDITOR ON RX SERIES GPUS--

This note was originally posted in the SRBPolaris thread.  LINK: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1882656.msg43193869#msg43193869 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1882656.msg43193869#msg43193869)  I have copied it to this thread.  It consists of two "How-To" posts about modding 2 different AMD RX series GPUs.  The beginning post, "FOLLOW-UP...", is actually the second post of the series.  Notably, the RX 460 can have 2 CU (compute units) unlocked as well as standard BIOS modding.

Perhaps a reader may want to read the lower post first.       --scryptr

FOLLOW-UP WITH RX 460--

I finally started putting my RX 460 cards back into use.  On setting up the rig and placing 1 Sapphire 4GB Nitro RX 460 (Micron memory) in the 16X slot, I booted into ethOS v1.3.1 and followed the same steps as outlined below in my original "how-to" post.  No other programs were running as I extracted, copied, pasted, and modified the BIOS; mining was disallowed.

As I opened the RX 460 BIOS in SRBPolaris, I was surprised to find a new tab in the GUI window, labelled "unlock".  I clicked and unlocked the original BIOS, and saved it as 460-0U.rom".  The original BIOS had been saved as "460-0.rom".  I then opened the "460-0U.rom" file after saving, and went to the memory tab, clicked "Pimp My Straps", and saved this result as "460-0UP.rom".

Copying all three "*.rom"s back to the mining rig, I flashed the single RX 460 (GPU 0) with the "460-0U.rom" BIOS.  Following this, I rebooted, and then allowed mining to restart.  After a brief trial, with no overclocking, the card mined ETH at 11.9MH/s. This was an improvement from the 11.3MH/s with the unmodified card.  Claymore v11.9 reported 16 Compute Units (CU) on the modified card, rather than 14.

I repeated the above procedure with the once-modified card, this time using the "460-0UP.rom" and rebooted.  On reboot,  I allowed mining to restart, and the twice-modded card began to mine ETH at 12.1MH/s.  The Unlocked and Pimped strap further improved the hash rate.

I need to complete the rig; today was just a setup day.  I may report power usage and overclocking results soon.       --scryptr

HOW TO FIX A LINUX BASH SCRIPT CORRUPTED BY DOS/WINDOWS/MAC--

I ran into this problem when re-imaging a Linux mining rig and re-loading some saved scripts from my Win 7 x64 computer.  I found the solution with a Google search, and to give credit, the link is here:

       Original post link-  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14219092/bash-my-script-bin-bashm-bad-interpreter-no-such-file-or-directory (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14219092/bash-my-script-bin-bashm-bad-interpreter-no-such-file-or-directory)

To make it simple, issue the following command in a console window:

       Command- "sed -i -e 's/\r$//' your_script.sh"

Don't include the quote marks.  The command uses sed to clean up the differences between DOS and Unix text formatting  There is a lengthy discussion on the linked page, with several alternate solutions given.  The above command cleaned up my Linux scripts that had been fouled by a Windows editor.       --scryptr  

INSTALL Z-ENEMY ON ETHOS--

There is a top-performing CCminer variant that is closed-source and charges a 1% fee.  It is known as "Z-enemy", and it can be installed to mine on the ethOS mining system with little fuss.  The latest download link (currently v1.22) can usually be found on CryptoMining-Blog, just do a search.  The pre-compiled binaries are on "mega.nz", and you will need to download them with a browser.  Once downloaded, a two-step process for me as I need to transfer the downloaded archive to the mining rig, place the archive "z-enemyXXX.tar.gz" in a work directory for extraction.

I keep a sub-directory beneath my ethOS home directory to setup and compile miners for installation. Z-enemy does not need to be compiled, the archive contains a static-linked working binary.  Be sure to download the correct archive for the nVidia driver installed on your ethOS rig.  The driver version can be checked by running "nvidia-smi" at the command prompt and looking at the top of the output.  NOTE:  If you want to run the latest nVidia drivers, run the command "sudo install-nv-beta".  This will install the latest nVidia Linux driver available for ethOS.    At the time of this posting, the driver is v410.57, and it is CUDA 10/RTX20XX series card capable.

In the work directory, the following steps take place:

    1) Make a directory for Z-enemy with "mkdir z-enemy".  Place the archive in the directory.
    2) Extract the archive with "tar xzvf  z*.gz".
    3) Create a version tag with "./z-enemy -V > version txt".
    4) Create a help file with "./z-enemy -h > z-help.txt".
    5) make a copy of z-enemy with "cp z-enemy ccminer".

Because Z-enemy is a CCminer variant, we can run it as if it was the installed CCminer by Tpruvot.  This allows for normal monitoring and log-keeping by the ethOS system.  The next operations take place in the "/opt/miners" directory of ethOS:

    1) Backup the existing ccminer directory with "sudo mv /opt/miners/ccminer  /opt/miners/ccminer-bak".
    2) Create a new ccminer directory for Z-enemy with "sudo mkdir /opt/miners/ccminer".
    3) Copy the ccminer file in the z-enemy work directory to the new ccminer directory with "sudo cp ccminer /opt/miners/ccminer".  

The version and help files may also be copied for future reference.  The job is done!  Z-enemy will run with a CCminer configuration file, and all of the monitoring and logging functions will run as normal on ethOS.

Here is an example ethos-CCminer configuration file:

loc abc666 rig1
proxywallet <XXYOUR-BTC-ADDRESSXX>
proxypool1 hex.mine.yiimp-clone-pool.com:5135
poolpass1 rig1,c=BTC,d=16
maxgputemp 85
globalminer ccminer
globalfan 90
globalcore +XXX
globalmem +XXX
flags -a hex

Some details above need individual attention.  Good luck mining!       --scryptr

COMPILE AND RUN SGMINER ON ETHOS--

It is possible to compile and run various versions of SGminer on ethOS.  When reading the "README.md" for SGminer on different code repositories, 2 prerequisites generally called for are the AMD APP SDK and the AMD ADL SDK.  These libraries have been removed from the AMD Developers' website.  They can still be found on SourceForge, but are not generally needed on ethOS.

If you have a fresh install of ethOS, or are working with a vanilla install that has not been heavily modded with extra packages, simply perform the following steps at the command line:

    1) sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
    2) sudo apt update
    3) sudo devtools-install

The line "sudo devtools-install" runs an ethOS internal script that installs developer necessities.  It will not break ethOS.

Afterwards, move to a work directory.  Keeping a work directory below the home directory avoids clutter.  It may simply be called "Work", or anything you choose.  Perform the following steps at the command line:

    1) git clone --recursive https://github.com/developername/sgminer.git
    2) cd sgminer
    3) autoreconf -i
    4) CFLAGS="-O2 -Wall -march=native -std=gnu99 -I/usr/include" LDFLAGS="-L/opt/amdgpu-pro/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu"  ./configure --enable-adl
    5) make

Now, provided the developer of the SGminer package adhered to standard procedures, you should have a working SGminer binary called "sgminer". If, after step 4 above, you received a message with "ADL_SDK not found!  GPU monitoring disabled.", the developer did not provide the three standard ADL_SDK headers in the ADL_SDK subdirectory of the SGminer compilation directory.  If this is the case, the three files may be obtained from the SourceForge ADL_SDK download.  Only those three files, all ending in "*.h", need to be copied into the ADL_SDK subdirectory.  They are named "adl_defines.h", "adl_sdk.h", and "adl_structures.h".  This will not affect your ethOS system, but will allow the display of GPU temperatures in the SGminer console.

Test your "sgminer" binary with "./sgminer -V".  This should print the version information to the screen.  It is a good idea to follow this with:

 "./sgminer -V > version.txt" and "./sgminer -h > sgm-help.txt"
  
This yields text files for future reference.

The new binary may be run as an ethOS system miner by placing it in a clone of the SGminer-GM directory.  Back up your SGminer-GM first!  Follow these steps at the command line:

    1) sudo mv /opt/miners/sgminer-gm /opt/miners/sgminer-bak
    2) sudo mkdir /opt /miners/sgminer-gm
    3) cp sgminer sgminer-gm
    4) sudo cp sgminer /opt/miners/sgminer-gm && sudo cp sgminer-gm /opt/miners/sgminer-gm
    5) sudo cp -r kernel /opt/miners/sgminer-gm

The above five commands are all performed within the new SGminer compile directory after a successful compilation.  The third step makes an identical copy of the new SGminer named "sgminer-gm" so that ethOS will find and mine with it.  Both binaries are then copied to the system mining directory.  The two text files generated earlier should also be copied there for future reference.  Copying the "kernel" subdirectory to the SGminer-GM clone directory is required so that any new algorithm will be in place for subsequent mining.

If the new algorithm in the new SGminer is named "bongo", then just edit the "sgminer.stub.conf" in the ethOS home directory, placing the "bongo" algorithm name in the stub file rather than the default algorithm.  Make a backup of the original stub file first.

Mining with the new SGminer just requires stating "globalminer sgminer-gm" in the ethOS configuration file.  The algorithm "bongo" will  be mined at your favorite bongo pool, also stated in your ethOS configuration file.

Good luck mining!       --scryptr

UPDATE TEAMREDMINER ON ETHOS--

Currently, ethOS v1.3.3 has no update in place for TeamRedMiner.  The latest version of TeamRedMiner (v0.3.7 today) supports CryptoNightv8, and this algorithm is unsupported with the version shipped with ethOS.  TeamRedMiner may be updated manually by the user, but the new version of TeamRedMiner breaks hashrate monitoring and hash statistics within ethOS while mining CNV8.  The miner may be monitored with "show miner", and the output is accurate.

Forewarned with the above caveat, the new version makes AMD Vega GPUs perform like a circus horse without the miner himself having to jump through hoops.  My RX Vega 64 GPUs now get 2kH/s apiece, and the software will launch with a standard ethOS configuration file.  Here is mine:

    proxywallet <YOURBTCADDRESS>
    proxypool1 cryptonightv8.usa.nicehash.com:3367
    proxypool2 cryptonightv8.eu.nicehash.com:3367
    poolpass1 rig1
    poolpass2 rig1
    maxgputemp 85
    globalminer teamredminer
    globalfan 90
    globalcore 1536  
    globalmem 1030
    flags -a cnv8 --cn_config 15+15

To actually update the miner, visit the TeamRedMiner github, https://github.com/todxx/teamredminer/releases (https://github.com/todxx/teamredminer/releases) .  Download the latest Linux archive, "*.tgz", and extract the files with "tar xzvf t*.tgz".  Make a backup of the current teamredminer directory, found in "/opt/miners/teamredminer", and substitute the freshly extracted TeamRedMiner files for the old files.  The "sudo" command prefix is required to write/copy/move files in the ethOS "/opt" directory.  Prepare a new ethOS configuration similar to the example above, and reboot.

You may be able to restart mining without rebooting, but I suggest a reboot because I suspect that the GPU initialization sequence performed by TeamRedMiner is the secret for the full-performance Vega hashrate.  Your system may hang otherwise, especially if your clocks are too high for the fresh miner.  If this is the problem, select "start ethOS without overclocking" at the ethOS boot splash screen, then re-adjust your settings.

I have only used TeamRedMiner with CNV8 and my Vegas.  The 2.5% fee seems steep, but my hashrate for CNV8 improved by 700+ H/s per card.  I am not done tweaking the new miner, either.

Good luck mining!       --scryptr

RESERVED

RESERVED

hi,

maybe you can add how to install ETHlargementPill  in ethos