CPU Only Pool Mining Software?

[OgNasty]

Is there software for pool mining that works with GPUs that don't have OpenCL support (or CPU only)?

[1713983873]

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[1713983873]

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[supa]

All of them?

Even poclbm will mine with a normal CPU on a pool.

ufasofts is another popular one that will mine against a pool CPU-only.

[OgNasty]

All of them?

Even poclbm will mine with a normal CPU on a pool.

ufasofts is another popular one that will mine against a pool CPU-only.

What is the most popular software for this?  Everything I looked at said it required OpenCL I thought... Am I mistaken?

[supa]

I might not be understanding you or something....

Cards that do not support OpenCL (ATI) or CUDA (NVIDIA) cannot be used to mine.  CPUs (like the one in any computer) can be used to mine.  In fact, that's where the majority of bitcoins were mined before the GPU-only stuff came around.

The official Bitcoin client even has a built-in CPU-only miner.

CPU mining is arguably inefficient - a fast CPU gets 8MHs while a videocard that's much cheaper can get hundreds of MHs.

Nearly any miner can do CPU-only mining.  ufasoft is a popular one and is configurable to use a pool.

[supa]

jgarzik's is nice, too.

[supa]

You're doing it wrong.

They aren't installers - they are programs.

Try opening a command prompt, then navigating to where you saved them and run them that way.

You can try running them with "-help" or "--help", etc and they'll tell you what you need to supply.

[mrNightowl]

I use puddinpop CPU miner on computers at work.

http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=2444.0 <-- Puddinpop

They are all windows 7 machines so I also use power menu to minimize the prompt to the tray.

http://www.abstractpath.com/powermenu/

I put the miner files in a folder in C: called miners then created a shortcut for the .exe and changed the target info so all I have to do is double click the shortcut on the desktop to start up the miner.  I also start it with threads set to half of whats available in the cores so it doesn't run 100% all the time.

Target property in the shortcut.

Code:

C:\miners\rpcminer-cpu.exe -url=http://mining.bitcoin.cz:8332 -user=WORKERNAME -password=PASSWORD -threads=2

They only pull in about 500Khash/s each but its all free all day and night running on 20 machines.

[supa]

How did you do this?

A processor has X amount of cores (you can see this through device manager or /proc/cpuinfo in linux).  I think by default ufasoft will use all cores, so a lazy way to check how many cores you have is to just run ufasoft and look - it'll say something like "Using SSE2, 4 threads."

Most miners have a way to set a specific number of threads (for example, ufasoft's has a -t N option, where N is a number).

If you have a 4 core system then use -t 2 to utilize roughly 50% of the CPU for mining-only. -t 1 = 25%, -t 3 = 75%, etc.

[OgNasty]

Thanks for the help.  I got it working but I can't figure out how to limit the Khash/s.  I'm currently only getting around 900Khash/s which is actually close to maxing out my CPU (it's a SINGLE core).  I'd like to limit that to about 400Khash/s if possible.  I'm using a very old server machine that is on 24/7 anyway, but don't want her working so hard.  :-)

Once I actually get a bitcoin and can trade it so I get setup and figure this all out, I'll slap a new rig together for it.

I worry that my old server machine hasn't worked so hard in a long time.  Should I be worried that it'll burn itself out running at full speed 24/7?


CAN I USE -threads=0.5 or some other way to limit the Khash/s?

[supa]

Unfortunately, no, you can't limit it to 0.5 threads. 

You can set a priority through task manager, but the CPU will still "max out."

It's unlikely you'll burn anything up.  I have no idea if you're running your computer out of a toaster oven or have it dangling from strings in a closet, so there's no way I can guarantee one way or another.  If it's an older, general use computer you may want to make sure all of the fans are clear and hit it with some Duster or compressed air to make sure you have good ventilation (you should do this, anyway, even if you only use the thing for Solitaire).

.... I'll just say it's unlikely.