Hi Everyone,

I have come into some old VIA Epia M10000 motherboards which only consume 21 Watts of energy and have 1 PCI slot.  I have been able to PXE boot this system without a hard drive running LTSP under one of my Ubuntu 64-bit mining servers with all the ATI OpenCL SDK and fgrlx drivers installed on the 32-bit VIA Epia M10000 image.  I have also installed all the necessary Python and OpenCL software.  I was able to use a PCI to PCIe X1 slot adapter and plug in an ATI HD Radeon 5830 which boots and is seen by the OS using aticonfig.  My only roadbock seems to be that the VIA Epia M10000 CPU does not support the SSE2 and SSE3 instructions.  That is where my problem begins.   It appears that even though I only need GPU mining, AMD in their wisdom compiled the ATI Stream SDK using SSE3 instructions.  When I try to run clinfo it gives me an illegal instruction.  If I run the image from the 64-bit server in a chroot environment clinfo runs correctly so it definitely seems to be the VIA EPIA not liking the compiled version of the ATI Stream SDK.  If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it.  I just wish there was an Open Source OpenCL I could compile without SSE3 and run against the ATI GPU.  I highly doubt that if I wasted my time and put in a support call to AMD they would recompile the ATI Stream OpenCL SDK for the Epia CPUs anytime in my lifetime.  

-Dukejer

[P2P Forums]

Hi Everyone,

I understand that Bitcoin itself is a distributed P2P system which makes it difficult to attack as a whole but other services that Bitcoin depends on for day to day functions can be attacked with Denial of Services or other hacking methods which are causing Bitcoin some pains lately.

Here are just some thoughts from random neurons that have been firing in my head lately.

P2P Forums
P2P Forums like the days of Usenet dedicated to Bitcoin.  What is Bitcoin with out some type of communication among Bitcoin users?  With forum.bitcoin.org being unreliable lately I think a p2p forum method could possibly work.  Maybe posts/threads could work like namecoin/bitcoin and send messages from peer to peer along with having some small fee to stop spammers.  Even though it would mostly be pseudo anonymous posts could also be authenticated with public/private keys.

P2P Exchanges
A P2P exchange may be able to be set up with the bids and asks sent into the p2p universal consciousness.  A trust rating system could be established to rate sellers and buyers.  Exchange of funds could be through outside services like direct cash, dwolla, paypal, Western Union, etc.



-Dukejer

Hi Everyone,

I just added 2 more 5830s to my rig today for a total of 4 5830s now.  I was able to overclock the GPUs to 925 Mhz and underclock the Memory to 300 Mhz and remain stable.  Each card is hashing at 287 M/hashes now.  The whole rig is running at 690 Watts using a 750 Watt PSU.  I could probably reduce the power consumption a little more by removing the CDROM and extra hard drives.  Booting Linux using PXE boot over the LAN could drop all the hard drives and run Linux out of memory.

In order to do this I loaded Unetbootin onto my Ubuntu Laptop and reformatted a 1GB USB Flash Drive to Fat16 and used Unetbootin to install FreeDos.  I also loaded atiflash.exe onto the USB Flash Drive.  After that I was able to boot off the USB Flash Drive on my mining rig into FreeDos safe mode and save a copy of all my 5830 Bioses using atiflash.exe.  This allowed me to bring the flash drive back to my latptop and edit the bioses with Radeon Bios Editor, (RBE), and overclock the GPUs higher then aticonfig would allow me.  RBE will run under Linux using Wine and winetricks to load the vb6run.  After the bioses were edited with the new clock settings I booted off of the USB Flash Drive on my mining rig again and uploaded the new enhanced bioses.

RBE Help from post


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=11746.0

Also see my post about bitcoin and running linux headless.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9239.0


If you find this post helpful feel free to donate to address: 19oQLN2v1auiGqBDFfxSDUfu8Ax6ooT6xs

- Dukejer.

[NOT]

Hi Everyone,

I was able to repurpose an existing computer now running headless in text console mode only with two new AMD Radeon HD5830's cards over clocked to 875MHz.  The GPUs are running at a stable 86 degrees Celsius and average 519 Mhash/s between the two HD5830's.

*** Warning this may cause irreparable damage to your computer system, harm yourself and your family, burn down your house, neighborhood and city, generate untold amounts of carbon dioxide at your electric company and harm the polar bears and baby seals in the Arctic Circle.  I am NOT responsible if you try this or for any errors that may exist within this post.

Load a fresh Ubuntu Natty 11.04 64-bit Desktop with the latest updates and log into system with a user that has sudo permissions.
   sudo apt-get remove nvidia-common
   sudo apt-get install libqtgui4

Load python and other development tools
   cd ~
   sudo apt-get install python-setuptools python-numpy subversion g++ libboost-all-dev

Download and install ATI Driver 11.5 for Linux 64bit.
   cd ~
   wget http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-11-5-x86.x86_64.run
   sudo sh ati-driver-installer-11-5-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/natty
   sudo dpkg -i *.deb
   sudo apt-get -f install
   sudo aticonfig -f --initial --adapter=all
   sudo reboot

Verify that the ATI Driver is setup and running
   cd ~
   DISPLAY=:0 sudo fglrxinfo

Download and install bitcoin
   cd ~
   wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/bitcoin/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.3.21/bitcoin-0.3.21-linux.tar.gz
   tar xzvf bitcoin-0.3.21-linux.tar.gz
   chmod +x bitcoin-0.3.21/bin/64/bitcoin*
   mkdir -p ~/.bitcoin
   echo "rpcuser=user" >> ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
   echo "rpcpassword=password" >> ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

Install python-jsonrpc
   cd ~
   svn checkout http://svn.json-rpc.org/trunk/python-jsonrpc
   cd python-jsonrpc/
   sudo python setup.py install

Download and install AMD APP SDK 2.4 for Linux 64bit.
   cd ~
   wget http://download2-developer.amd.com/amd/APPSDK/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64.tgz
   tar xvzf AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64.tgz
   echo export AMDAPPSDKROOT=${HOME}/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64/ >> ~/.bashrc
   echo export AMDAPPSDKSAMPLESROOT=${HOME}/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64/ >> ~/.bashrc
   echo 'export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${AMDAPPSDKROOT}lib/x86_64:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}' >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc
   cd /
   sudo tar xfz $AMDAPPSDKROOT/icd-registration.tgz

Download, Compile and Install pyopencl-0.92
   cd ~
   wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/p/pyopencl/pyopencl-0.92.tar.gz
   tar xzvf pyopencl-0.92.tar.gz
   cd pyopencl-0.92
   ./configure.py --cl-inc-dir=${AMDAPPSDKROOT}include --cl-lib-dir=${AMDAPPSDKROOT}lib/x86_64
   make
   sudo make install

Download and Install Phoenix Miner 1.48
   wget http://svn3.xp-dev.com/svn/phoenix-miner/files/phoenix-1.48.tar.bz2
   tar xvf phoenix*.bz2

Verify that OpenCL is setup and running
   cd ~
   cd AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64/bin/x86_64
   ./clinfo

Create a startminer script using code from below.  Make sure to substitute the correct home directory path, miner pool server, miner user and miner password.
   cd ~
   sudo touch /usr/local/bin/startminer.sh
   sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/startminer.sh
   sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/startminer.sh

      # ${1} is used as a variable for the username, password and for the gpu device number.  Ex. mineruser0, minerpass0, Device=0 or mineruser1, minerpass1, Device=1
      HOMEDIR=/home/user
      MINERSERV=btcmine.com:8332
      MINERUSER=mineruser@miner${1}
      MINERPASS=minerpass${1}

      export AMDAPPSDKROOT=${HOMEDIR}/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64/
      export AMDAPPSDKSAMPLESROOT=${HOMEDIR}/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64/
      export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${AMDAPPSDKROOT}lib/x86_64:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}

      #Overclock GPU to 875Mhz
      DISPLAY=:0 aticonfig --od-enable --adapter=all
      DISPLAY=:0 aticonfig --od-setclocks=875,1000 --adapter=${1}
      cd ${HOMEDIR}/phoenix-1.48
      echo "Startming Miner: ${1}"
      ${HOMEDIR}/phoenix-1.48/phoenix.py -u http://${MINERUSER}:${MINERPASS}@${MINERSERV} -k phatk VECTORS BFI_INT AGGRESSION=12 DEVICE=${1}

Setup Headless Bitcoin Mining
 *** Warning *** This will stop your computer from booting a graphical desktop and allow only text console or remote ssh access into the mining server.
 If you rely on a GUI for administration you may want to rethink this.
   sudo apt-get install openssh-server
   sudo apt-get install screen
   sudo mv /etc/init/gdm.conf /etc/init/gdm.org
   sudo gedit /etc/init/startx.conf
        description     "Start X Server for btc mining"
        start on runlevel [2345]
        stop on runlevel [!2345]
        kill timeout 30
        script
           exec /usr/bin/X 2>&1
        end script

   sudo gedit /etc/init/btcminer_0.conf
        description     "Start BTC Mining"
        start on runlevel [2345]
        stop on runlevel [!2345]
        kill timeout 30
        script
           LOGINUSER=ChangeToMyLoginUser
          #Wait 30 seconds to make sure X is started.
          sleep 30
          exec /usr/bin/screen -dmS gpu0 su -c '/usr/local/bin/startminer.sh 0' ${LOGINUSER}
        end script

   sudo gedit /etc/init/btcminer_1.conf
        description     "Start BTC Mining"
        start on runlevel [2345]
        stop on runlevel [!2345]
        kill timeout 30
        script
        LOGINUSER=ChangeToMyLoginUser
        #Wait 35 seconds to make sure X is started.
        sleep 35
           exec /usr/bin/screen -dmS gpu1 su -c '/usr/local/bin/startminer.sh 1' ${LOGINUSER}
        end script

How to access the miner server
   ssh into the mining server as your normal login user.
   sudo screen -r gpu0 or sudo screen -r gpu1

To disconnect from screen Control-A + Control-D.

How to check the GPU temperatures

   ssh into mining server as your normal login user.
   DISPLAY=:0 sudo aticonfig --odgt --adapter=all

How to monitor your screens on an Xterminal on the main Xwindows console on boot up.

   sudo gedit /etc/init/btcmonitor_0.conf
        description     "Start BTC Monitor 0"
        start on runlevel [2345]
        stop on runlevel [!2345]
        kill timeout 30
        script
          LOGINUSER=ChangeToMyLoginUser
          export DISPLAY=:0
          #Wait 40 seconds to make sure X is started.
          sleep 40
          exec  /usr/bin/xterm -geometry 80x40+0+0 -e "/usr/bin/screen -d -r gpu0"
        end script

sudo gedit /etc/init/btcmonitor_1.conf
        description     "Start BTC Monitor 1"
        start on runlevel [2345]
        stop on runlevel [!2345]
        kill timeout 30
        script
          LOGINUSER=ChangeToMyLoginUser
          export DISPLAY=:0
          #Wait 45 seconds to make sure X is started.
          sleep 45
          exec  /usr/bin/xterm -geometry 80x40+500+0 -e "/usr/bin/screen -d -r gpu1"
        end script
   


I have compiled this with the help from many sources from around the internet including.

http://sectio-aurea.blogspot.com/2011/05/bitcoin-mining-on-ubuntu-1104-natty.html
https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7514.0

Along with my own 30 years of computer experience and 24 years of Unix and Linux.

If you find this post helpful feel free to donate to address: 19oQLN2v1auiGqBDFfxSDUfu8Ax6ooT6xs


- Dukejer