python OpenCL bitcoin miner

[tmr0]

You will have to wait.

Probably. But I would try to run it on testnet and see if anything gets accepted. On testnet, you should get a block after several minutes. If it works on testnet, it's just a matter of time (and luck) on "realnet".

Thanks for that tip, I called bitcoin with -testnet and -server and got results accepted fairly quickly.  I suspect something was not right with the way the bash script I wrote was launching poclbm.

[tcatm]

fake-push and logging support: http://pastebin.com/J4qZRgXT

[dishwara]

Hi,

I have nvidia Geforce 9400GT with latest drivers 260.99
I am running poclbm.exe -d0 --host=mining.bitcoin.cz --port=8332 --user=##### --pass=##### & i get around 2300+ khash/s
I tried with -w256 & get same result, If i go for low value i get less khash/s & if i try more than 256, even 257, it runs for 5 seconds & crashes
But i get more than 4000000khash/s that time. Only for 5 seconds.
I saw ati cards have ati stream sdk, which improves a lot to achieve more khash/s.
Is there some way to increase the khash/s of my graphics card.
It has CUDA= 3.2 & opencl=1.0

[robmon]

I was happily mining avg 148 000 khash/s with my 5770 but after reading the original post a little closer and trying the Known best settings I instantly juiced it up to 170 000 khash/s! Important lesson learned, read things thoroughly or don't bother at all.   

Known best settings
(please PM better/best settings for your platform)
Windows 7 64, Stream 2.2, AMD 5[7-8]70
use '-v -w 128' with '-f 30' on 5770 (160 MHash), '-f 5' on 5870 (318 MHash)

[ledskof]

I'm getting about 295M with a 6970.  Anyone doing better with a 6970?

[Cryptoman]

robmon, dial up your core clock to 950 MHz.  I'm getting 185 Mhash/s on a 5770.

[geebus]

I'm having an odd issue, seeing if anyone else has seen it...

On my HD6950 running m0mchill's miner, I get ~300Mhash/s and it runs relatively well until I open any other program that uses video acceleration, at which point, my display freezes. To elaborate, my PC doesn't freeze. I can remote desktop into the box, and likewise view my account activity on Slush's pool and see I'm still submitting shares, but the display itself is frozen. Running puddinpop's rpcminer I see the same situation, but his will eventually crash, driver will reset and I get a nice event viewer log for atiocl.dll crashing.

Running Windows 7 Ultimate x86, Sapphire HD6950 (tried with BIOS mod to 6970 as well) with Catalyst 10.12a and Stream SDK 2.3. This configuration seems the most stable out of all, but still occurs.

I've also tried the following:
Catalyst 10.10 / Stream 2.1
Catalyst 10.12 / Stream 2.2
Catalyst 10.12 / Stream 2.3
Catalyst 10.12a / Stream 2.2
Catalyst 11.1a / Stream 2.3

Issue occurs regardless of driver/stream configuration. I am running HDMI digital out on my card.

I don't know if this is an issue of how the OpenCL miners are handling the calls to atiocl.dll, a digital-out issue, or a driver/stream config issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated though.

[Cryptoman]

Hi geebus.  I suspect this is an OpenCL issue since I see the same behavior on Linux.  Have you tried backing the clocks down?  Others have reported that things are more stable if not overclocking.  I decided to just dedicate some machines to mining.  They tend to be unstable even when browsing flash-enabled web pages.

[m0mchil]

I made some pool related changes - socket timeout is now 5 seconds to avoid solving some jobs more than once. Exception handling should be somewhat better too.

[BitLex]

sad that it still doesn't run both 5970 cores,
i'm still forced to use poclbm_py2exe_20101126 on GPU2 (which runs fine, except it crashes, or just stops working from time to time, at least on the pool).

[tcatm]

http://pastebin.com/v98gWWLc (port of ArtForz's code)

567 Mhash/s on a 5970 @ 725 MHz

[m0mchil]

Updated to use ArtForz kernel. Lowered default 'frames' to 30.

I am seeing biggest improvement on linux, Stream 2.1, 2x5970 - ~5%

Thanks ArtForz, tcatm

[bitcoin2]

On testnet I got only a "invalid or state" error message. Has anybody successfully mined a Block with the new Software?

[m0mchil]

Ok, just confirmed... latest version is good only with 'difficulty = 1'. Working properly only on slush's pool.

Please revert to previous version for mining solo. I'm working on a fix.

[Cablesaurus]

Hello all,

New here to the BC scene, I've everything setup successfully with the pOpenCL miner, but have just 2 questions if anyone could fill me in I wasnt able to find much information on:

1) What exactly is the -w / workspace variable doing? I understand where it's pulling the value from in OpenCL, but how does adjusting this effect the process?
2) I've tuned the -w variable down as best I know how to attempt using BC, (running @ -w 62) so I can try to run this in the background while working. It's using 100% of the CPU. Not a huge problem I just saw someone here mentioning it shouldn't be that high? Any ideas on what might be the cause?

[brocktice]

Ok, just confirmed... latest version is good only with 'difficulty = 1'. Working properly only on slush's pool.

Please revert to previous version for mining solo. I'm working on a fix.

My fork has been reverted.

[geebus]

Is there a guide on how to compile poclbm on windows from source? Or rather, a step-by-step guide on installing python, required packages, and then executing the source?

I can't seem to find one, but I believe I saw one before. All current windows guides just direct you to use the pre-compiled binary.

[ronaldmaustin]

Here's what I've observed with a 5970 and now a 5870 as well.  Hope it helps someone.  First and foremost, a few posts back someone noted to use the "Known Best Settings".  I added the -f5 switch and I went from about 560Mhash/sec to consistently over 600Mhash/sec on the 5970 alone. 

Next, the first post in this thread says . . .
"5970 is actually two 5870s with internal crossfire. OpenCL doesn't work with crossfire. It must be switched off. You can't switch it off on Windows. For now, 5970 can be used fully on Linux only."
I have used the 5970 for over a month on Windows 7 and get results from both cores, about 300Mhash/sec each.  So I don't know what that comment is all about.

Next, I finally was happy with my results with the 5970 and I can never leave well enough alone.  So I bought a 5870 tonight and threw that into my motherboard as well.  At first I was getting "Disabled Adapter" in Catalyst Control Center, although I could see the third GPU (now as GPU #1) in MSI Afterburner.  It did nothing and just sat there very cool.  poblcm only recognized the two 5970 cores and the CPU.  After looking at posts on Google as far back as 2008, someone said, "Plug in another monitor".  Not having another monitor, I plugged in my monitor to the 5870 instead.  Now, the 5870 GPU was the only core recognized by poblcm along with the CPU.  So I ran poblcm with a device=1 and it worked!  Then I unplugged the monitor from the 5870 and replugged it into the 5970.  Now, even though the 5870 was the disabled adapter again, poblcm was still running on the 5870.  Then I ran poblcm again on device=1 and device=0 and both of the 5970 cores were running alongside the 5870, for a total of about 875Mhash/sec.  Pretty good.  So that's just FYI for anyone running multiple 5870's, 5970's or combinations thereof.  I wish there was a way to get Catalyst Control Center, or ATI Stream, or whatever ATI driver it is to enumerate all three cores so I would not have to unplug and replug the monitor into different cards every time I want to run poblcm on the 5870 and 5970 at the same time.  I would suspect this would be a similar problem, and a similar solution, for running poblcm on  two 5970's on Windows.

[slush]

It must be switched off. You can't switch it off on Windows. For now, 5970 can be used fully on Linux only.

This is nice urban legend. With current drivers, it isn't true (this issue is probably related to some ancient drivers). I had also 5970 miner on Win and without problem.

Google as far back as 2008, someone said, "Plug in another monitor".  Not having another monitor, I plugged in my monitor to the 5870 instead.  Now, the 5870 GPU was the only core recognized by poblcm along with the CPU.  So I ran poblcm with a device=1 and it worked!

Nice trick! I failed to connect second 5970 to my Win box on the same issue. Now I'm running Linux, but it was a pain (related to non-problem setup of single 5970 on Windows).

[m0mchil]

Miner is now fixed. It found blocks on testnet. Added verification of kernel result in host.

I will highly appreciate any reports about hash speed with this version.