Folk,

I just put a version 2.0b up at the same download link. If you are already using the 2.0, you are fine where you are, but are welcome to use an updated image. It corrects an issue with the reporting of frequencies in the web interface after a reboot. The frequencies are still correctly applied to the hardware, however. Once you select and submit frequencies again, it will correct the web interface.

Thank you,

Jason

I did that. I also tried 3 firmwares including V9, you see the result.
[/quote]

Except it's simply impossible to get into that state unless your flashes are not completing properly.....

Let me try to explain:

Inside the .tar.gz, there is actually another image file.

That image, en whole, is flashed to NAND memory.
It is not flashed in part.


This code says "completely erase the partition /dev/mtd1 and copy uramdisk.image.gz there", followed by "if there is a 2nd partition, copy it there as well", and "if the md5 check does not match, do nothing.".

No where in here is there anything that says "Copy part of the files out of an image and put them in the filesystem."

The entire image is embedded in the one file, uramdisk.image.gz -- the web pages, the cgminer, everything.

It is literally impossible to get in the state you portray unless you have a failed flash.

If you'd like to give me access to login to your machine via teamviewer, I'll be happy to take a look.

Jason

[/quote]

This is now resolved -- local browser cache needed to be cleared to read the new html pages after changing firmware.

Jason

Please flash the factory image again, uncheck 'save configuration'.

[/quote]

I did that. I also tried 3 firmwares including V9, you see the result.
[/quote]

Except it's simply impossible to get into that state unless your flashes are not completing properly.....

Let me try to explain:

Inside the .tar.gz, there is actually another image file.

That image, en whole, is flashed to NAND memory.
It is not flashed in part.


This code says "completely erase the partition /dev/mtd1 and copy uramdisk.image.gz there", followed by "if there is a 2nd partition, copy it there as well", and "if the md5 check does not match, do nothing.".

No where in here is there anything that says "Copy part of the files out of an image and put them in the filesystem."

The entire image is embedded in the one file, uramdisk.image.gz -- the web pages, the cgminer, everything.

It is literally impossible to get in the state you portray unless you have a failed flash.

If you'd like to give me access to login to your machine via teamviewer, I'll be happy to take a look.

Jason

Then you did not downgrade with a full version and I honestly have no idea how you could have possibly gotten to that state. I will try again with the factory firmware on my own in a few minutes just to verify, however.

http://releases.broked.net/antminer-z9-mini-201805262047-500m.tar.gz

That is the original batch1 factory firmware.

I know for a fact that the factory firmware flashes cleanly

I tested very possible combination of upgrade/downgrade/with and without saving configuration.

Please flash the factory image again, uncheck 'save configuration'.

Thank you,

Jason

Hello Fabry1999,

That is an excellent question. I have attempted to address that in the original post, as well as on http://releases.broked.net. I'll copy the note from there to here for posterity below. In short, the Z9 mini value add is about bringing additional features like the per-hashboard overclocking feature to the mini shortly after they are made available on the Z9. This means that voltage control, fan/temperature curve control, etc. will be made available to the mini to provide you with additional control in the management of your unit(s). This has come about upon request by multiple mini owners (I was reluctant to even look at the mini), with the best path forward being to bring feature-set parity.

Just to be clear, this version is not officially supported on the mini as of this post -- that support will be coming in the next couple of days. That said, I know others have used my Z9 firmware on the minis with success, so you are welcome to try (I know that there is an additional failure condition that will retry and continue due to not finding enough ASICs, which is why I am stating that it is not currently supported).

"NOTE: I have been asked by many individuals for firmware on the Z9 mini units. I will be carrying the features for the Z9 forward to the mini units in the near future. The goal for the mini units is consistency in features and unification of the firmware across platforms as many of the features I have planned will work across all units."

Thank you,

Jason

Folk,

For those of you who purchased the previous version before the dev fee version came out, I want to explain the delay.

As of now I only have the dev fee supported version available.

I will be working on the paid version update over the next few days. There is a lot more work necessary on it before I can release, unfortunately.

I am having to do this because folk started selling version 1.x on ebay. I have to now more directly enforce the licensing, which will take me a few more days.

I apologize but want to be open about the reason for the delay.

Thank you,

Jason

Z9 Unlocked firmware version 2.0 is available now at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5036968.0 -- this version is dev fee supported. In addition to the excellent overclock benefits, it also now provides the ability to control the overclock of individual hashboards -- a single slow board doesn't have to slow your whole system down anymore! More features will be coming soon, as well as support for the Z9 Mini.

Thank you!

Jason

Version 2 Z9 firmware is available now at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5036968.0 -- this one is dev fee supported and initially provides you the ability to control individual hashboard frequencies (so a single slow board will not drag the whole system down) in addition to the overclock gains already there on the Z9. Mini support will be coming soon.

-j

All,

Thank you for your support. I have updated the first post in this thread with details on the version 2.0 release. I am sure I have left some things out as it is 3:30AM where I am at. I will catch up on responses/questions/etc, in the morning.

Please see the beginning of the thread and/or http://releases.broked.net to download the image.

Thank you!

Jason

Yes sir, working on it right now... trying to button the image up and fix a couple of last things. It's just after 11PM my time and I normally go to bed around 2-3AM.. so it'll be in the next couple of hours barring anything unusual.

Thank you,

Jason

Please read the top of the thread -- if it isn't for you, that is fine.

Jason

LOL at their noise about honoring patent laws and such. Hey Bitmain, where's the source code to the Z9 series?

Jason

While I do not have an extra board to test it, I believe that yes, it will work. It will be easy enough for you to test!

Thanks,

Jason

Folk,

I am now ready to release version 2.0 of the Z9 firmware. Soon after this, I will be releasing these same features for the Z9 Mini series.

This firmware will be released late Eastern time on 10/23 barring any unforeseen circumstances.

This next release will be available in 2 forms. The current method, and a new dev-fee supported method. The dev-fee supported version will be the first to be released with the prepaid version soon to follow. If you have purchased the previous firmware, you will receive a 2.0 update for free, with no dev-fee included in the near future.

The developer fee version will be configured to mine for 5 minutes every 140 minutes. This means 140 minutes mining for you, and 5 minutes mining to support on-going development. The one exception to this is when the system is first started, it will mine for you for 10 minutes (to give you time to tune frequencies, etc.) and then 5 minutes to support development. After the first 15 minutes, it will continue along the 140 minutes for you, 5 minutes to the development pool.

I have put a lot of time and effort into this and intend to continue to support the community. I firmly believe that anyone who has dealt with me will see that I try to operate in a fair manner and strive to provide excellent support.

I will update this post with more details soon and this image will replace the current 575Mhz Demo version.

Thank you,

Jason

Hmmmm. Ok. I'll add that to the list of things to take a look at as I get closer to making a mini firmware. That should be easy to unlock.

-j

Please do not run the Z9 firmware on the mini.. Yes, I know people are saying it is working, but it really is not working the way you might think. There are certain conditions where during a retry algorithm, it will just stop functioning until the next reboot.  The reason for this is the number of ASICs expected is hard coded in each binary.

Mine works fine with 4 boards, just only 3 are listed.. at least, that's what I expect. Someone else tried it as I only have a Z9 here at the moment and 3 boards.

.. so to answer your question, I expect just the status HTML. You can verify yourself by simply calling the API and/or looking a the logs to see if "4" chains are brought up (0-3) or just 3.

If you are running my 575OC on a Z9 (not mini) and the temps are messed up, then I would like to know about that because you are the very first person to say that out of 1038 downloads (as of this response).

Thank you,

Jason

I have not personally tried it, but I can confirm the code will attempt to initialize 4 boards.

-j

I have been testing the per-hashboard feature for the last 24 hours or so, and it is working as I would expect. There are a couple of pieces i need to finish up before releasing the next revision. These include:

* Adding a user interface to control the frequencies per hashboard
* Updating the frequency reporting to show properly in the webUI
* Updating the default frequencies to better match reality
* Looking into the ability to set frequencies on the fly without restarting the whole 'cgminer'. I think I know how to do this, I just need to test it.
* I have located voltage control, but will not be enabling it yet. That will come in another version in the future, if at all. I need to do a lot more testing on that first.
* Lots more in the future....

Some of the current delay is also associated with folk acquiring the firmware and then selling it on eBay. I will begin enforcing the pre-existing node locks in the next release -- I did not want to have to go to that step. :/ This means the firmware will only work on the number of machines you specified when speaking with me. If this is an area of concern, please contact me ahead of time or downgrade to stock firmware.

... and some of the current delay is just that this has been a lot of work to figure out. Without the source code, it is quite a challenge to add functionality to a binary and I've probably put another 60-80+ hours of work into the next set of features in the last 9 days.

Thank you,

Jason

Folk,

Quick update -- this is a snippet of the startup log from the machine I'm currently working on. Of note here is the part in bold, "freq=". One board is running at 650Mhz, the other 2 are running at 500Mhz. Unfortunately the API that feeds the web interface does not output these numbers, but instead outputs whatever is set for the main frequency.... so the web interface currently is still showing 650.

Regardless -- this is much closer to working now.

...
[2018-10-18 02:51:00] check_every_chain_asic_number
[2018-10-18 02:51:01] check_asic_reg: chain J0 has 16 ASIC
[2018-10-18 02:51:03] check_asic_reg: chain J1 has 16 ASIC
[2018-10-18 02:51:04] check_asic_reg: chain J2 has 16 ASIC
[2018-10-18 02:51:05] calculate_address_interval:addrInterval = 16
[2018-10-18 02:51:08] chainid0 set_frequency_chain freq=650
[2018-10-18 02:51:10] chainid1 set_frequency_chain freq=500
[2018-10-18 02:51:13] chainid2 set_frequency_chain freq=500
[2018-10-18 02:51:14] set_ticket_mask_chain chainID0 ticket_mask = 0x0000000c
[2018-10-18 02:51:14] set_ticket_mask_chain chainID1 ticket_mask = 0x0000000c
[2018-10-18 02:51:14] set_ticket_mask_chain chainID2 ticket_mask = 0x0000000c
[2018-10-18 02:51:14] software_set_address_chain chainID0 asics 16 addrInterval 16
[2018-10-18 02:51:14] software_set_address_chain chainID1 asics 16 addrInterval 16
[2018-10-18 02:51:14] software_set_address_chain chainID2 asics 16 addrInterval 16
[2018-10-18 02:51:14] chainid0 set_core_timeout_chain: core timeout = 00100000
...

Thanks,

Jason

Bliss's firmware was built from source to the best of my awareness.

These modifications are being done in assembly -- so it's a slightly different challenge. If this was in C I'd have had it done a couple of weeks ago.

That said, check out the next post!