CPUminer on POWER8

[johnstrife]

Hi all!

Hope someone can help me. I am trying to test the profitability of an IBM POWER8 server for Zcash.
I've found a fork of cpuminer (https://github.com/dakk/cpuminer-zcash) with equihash mining capability but I had the following error when compiling.
I think cpuminer is the only miner that works also on power architecture. The original cpuminer (https://github.com/pooler/cpuminer) compile just fine.

Thanks

Code:

# make
make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash'
Making all in compat
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/compat'
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/compat'
make[3]: Nothing to be done for `all-am'.
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/compat'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/compat'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash'
g++  -std=c++11 -fpermissive -g -O2 -pthread  -o minerd minerd-cpu-miner.o minerd-util.o minerd-sha2.o minerd-equihash.o    minerd-sha2-ppc.o -L/usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu -lcurl -ljansson -lpthread  -lsodium 
minerd-sha2.o: In function `sha256d_80_swap':
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:193: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:194: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:197: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
minerd-sha2.o: In function `sha256d(unsigned char*, unsigned char const*, int)':
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:218: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:222: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
minerd-sha2.o: In function `scanhash_sha256d(int, unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, unsigned int, unsigned long*)':
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:604: undefined reference to `sha256_use_4way()'
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:613: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:619: undefined reference to `sha256d_ms(unsigned int*, unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, unsigned int const*)'
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:619: undefined reference to `sha256d_ms(unsigned int*, unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, unsigned int const*)'
minerd-sha2.o: In function `scanhash_sha256d_4way':
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:493: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:507: undefined reference to `sha256d_ms_4way(unsigned int*, unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, unsigned int const*)'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [minerd] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/nhm/cpuminer-zcash'
make: *** [all] Error 2

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[K1lo]

It's all there in the log file, undefined references to the sha256_transform function and others. Check where this function is, maybe it's preprocessor disabled by a platform define or something similar. Alternatively maybe the function doesn't exist for platform libraries you are using.

[johnstrife]

Thanks.

The "missing" functions seems to be in the .S file for the specific platform not sure why they don't get compiled. I was able to make it run removing the references to the sha256 algo so I can test equihash.
At the moment it fails to connect to any pool. Hope to solve this.

For the curious:

./minerd --benchmark -a equihash
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 1 to cpu 1
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 3 to cpu 3
root@ppc:/home/cpuminer-zcash# [2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 7 to cpu 7
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 5 to cpu 5
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 10 to cpu 10
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 12 to cpu 12
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 14 to cpu 14
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 8 to cpu 8
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 0 to cpu 0
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 18 to cpu 18
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 19 to cpu 19
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 16 to cpu 16
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 17 to cpu 17
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 2 to cpu 2
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 27 to cpu 27
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 6 to cpu 6
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 29 to cpu 29
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 25 to cpu 25
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 32 to cpu 32
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 9 to cpu 9
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 36 to cpu 36
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 24 to cpu 24
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 30 to cpu 30
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 4 to cpu 4
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 11 to cpu 11
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 26 to cpu 26
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 43 to cpu 43
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 45 to cpu 45
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 15 to cpu 15
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 20 to cpu 20
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 49 to cpu 49
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 42 to cpu 42
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 40 to cpu 40
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 23 to cpu 23
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 35 to cpu 35
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 60 to cpu 60
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 62 to cpu 62
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 33 to cpu 33
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 51 to cpu 51
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 41 to cpu 41
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 68 to cpu 68
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 54 to cpu 54
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 55 to cpu 55
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 34 to cpu 34
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 56 to cpu 56
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 44 to cpu 44
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 57 to cpu 57
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 28 to cpu 28
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 76 to cpu 76
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 47 to cpu 47
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 79 to cpu 79
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 31 to cpu 31
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 50 to cpu 50
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 65 to cpu 65
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 52 to cpu 52
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 39 to cpu 39
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 46 to cpu 46
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 53 to cpu 53
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 38 to cpu 38
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 37 to cpu 37
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 71 to cpu 71
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 67 to cpu 67
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 73 to cpu 73
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 58 to cpu 58
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 13 to cpu 13
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 59 to cpu 59
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 22 to cpu 22
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] 80 miner threads started, using algorithm.
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 21 to cpu 21
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 66 to cpu 66
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 78 to cpu 78
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 48 to cpu 48
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 70 to cpu 70
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 77 to cpu 77
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 74 to cpu 74
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 64 to cpu 64
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 63 to cpu 63
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 69 to cpu 69
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 61 to cpu 61
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 72 to cpu 72
[2016-11-04 23:20:02] Binding thread 75 to cpu 75
[2016-11-04 23:20:08] thread 27: 2097152 hashes, 332.22 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:08] thread 6: 2097152 hashes, 330.11 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 12: 2097152 hashes, 323.05 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 43: 2097152 hashes, 320.70 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 8: 2097152 hashes, 318.40 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 14: 2097152 hashes, 317.53 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 0: 2097152 hashes, 315.15 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 7: 2097152 hashes, 314.29 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 5: 2097152 hashes, 310.43 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 74: 2097152 hashes, 310.89 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 1: 2097152 hashes, 307.01 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 19: 2097152 hashes, 305.83 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 3: 2097152 hashes, 305.48 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 17: 2097152 hashes, 303.44 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 18: 2097152 hashes, 303.43 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 32: 2097152 hashes, 303.36 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 11: 2097152 hashes, 303.33 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 42: 2097152 hashes, 302.94 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 45: 2097152 hashes, 302.86 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 29: 2097152 hashes, 300.87 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 52: 2097152 hashes, 300.75 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 70: 2097152 hashes, 302.38 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 30: 2097152 hashes, 300.45 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 62: 2097152 hashes, 300.35 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 16: 2097152 hashes, 300.17 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 10: 2097152 hashes, 299.96 khash/s
[2016-11-04 23:20:09] thread 2: 2097152 hashes, 299.55 khash/s

[K1lo]

Ah the comment out and hope approach to miner compilation ... I've done this myself in the past 

As for why it's not connecting, is there nothing in the logs about connection attempts? I must admit I've not dug in to that part of the code before..

[johnstrife]

Eheh. Yeah commenting out something "useless" seems to worked but I may have broke the stratum connection functions as it gives out this error:

[2016-11-05 02:51:53] Failed to get extranonce2_size
[2016-11-05 02:51:53] JSON-RPC call failed: (unknown reason)
[2016-11-05 02:51:53] ...retry after 30 seconds

I think to have found where the issue is for the sha256* functions. The functions themselves are wrote in assembly code for each supported platform, in my case is this https://github.com/dakk/cpuminer-zcash/blob/master/sha2-ppc.S. The compiler seems also to load the correct file but somewhat the functions are not accessed.

gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -I./compat/jansson    -O3 -mcpu=power8 -MT minerd-sha2-ppc.o -MD -MP -MF .deps/minerd-sha2-ppc.Tpo -c -o minerd-sha2-ppc.o `test -f 'sha2-ppc.S' || echo './'`sha2-ppc.S
mv -f .deps/minerd-sha2-ppc.Tpo .deps/minerd-sha2-ppc.Po
g++  -std=c++11 -fpermissive -g -O2 -pthread  -o minerd minerd-cpu-miner.o minerd-util.o minerd-sha2.o minerd-equihash.o    minerd-sha2-ppc.o -L/usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu -lcurl compat/jansson/libjansson.a -lpthread  -lsodium

Will continue to investigate!

[K1lo]

ah probably part of the expected protocol to the stratum then.. but just in case I'd suggest compiling this on an x86 box and testing it works before spending time trying to find an issue in your changes.

I think to have found where the issue is for the sha256* functions. The functions themselves are wrote in assembly code for each supported platform, in my case is this https://github.com/dakk/cpuminer-zcash/blob/master/sha2-ppc.S. The compiler seems also to load the correct file but somewhat the functions are not accessed.

yeah I guessed something like that would be happening. I had a brief look at the file..

#if defined(USE_ASM) && (defined(__powerpc__) || defined(__ppc__) || defined(__PPC__))

I'd check that you have USE_ASM and one of these other three defined. To be sure just comment out this line completely (and the corresponding #endif) to force compilation, however the assembly instructions may not work on your platform.

Failing that you can always use sha256 functions from a C library like cryptopp - it probably doesn't have to be heavily optimised if it's not used in the PoW algorithm directly.

[johnstrife]

Yup, thanks!

I have tried but nothing. I also tried to compile on an x64 but got the same error so I think there are some issues with the code itself. The assembly instructions should work as they are wrote for Altivec instruction set that are included in the POWER8, I have just to add -mcpu=power8 to the CFLAGS.

I've studied the code a bit more (without comments I don't really understand what the sha256 functions are supposed to do), and I was able to see that the only functions that are needed for the stratum protocol are wrote in there so I just cleaned the code from the remaining not needed functions.

I was able to compile it but still the same issue with connecting to the stratum... probably the issue is another. With other pool I have the same response.

Code:

# ./minerd --version
cpuminer 2.4.5
 built on Nov  5 2016
 features: PowerPC AltiVec
libcurl/7.35.0 GnuTLS/2.12.23 zlib/1.2.8 libidn/1.28 librtmp/2.3


*   Trying 198.11.195.136...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to equihash.usa.nicehash.com (198.11.195.136) port 3357 (#0)
* Connection #0 to host equihash.usa.nicehash.com left intact
[2016-11-05 06:49:38] > {"id": 1, "method": "mining.subscribe", "params": ["cpuminer/2.4.5"]}
[2016-11-05 06:49:38] < {"id":1,"error":null,"result":[null,"0f65b99594"]}
[2016-11-05 06:49:38] Failed to get extranonce2_size
[2016-11-05 06:49:38] > {"id": 1, "method": "mining.subscribe", "params": []}
* Failed to get recent socket
[2016-11-05 06:50:08] stratum_recv_line failed
[2016-11-05 06:50:08] ...retry after 30 seconds
* Rebuilt URL to: http://equihash.usa.nicehash.com:3357/
* Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
*   Trying 198.11.195.136...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to equihash.usa.nicehash.com (198.11.195.136) port 3357 (#1)
* Connection #1 to host equihash.usa.nicehash.com left intact
[2016-11-05 06:50:38] > {"id": 1, "method": "mining.subscribe", "params": ["cpuminer/2.4.5"]}
[2016-11-05 06:50:38] < {"id":1,"error":null,"result":[null,"3b8192eb3c"]}
[2016-11-05 06:50:38] Failed to get extranonce2_size
[2016-11-05 06:50:38] > {"id": 1, "method": "mining.subscribe", "params": []}
* Failed to get recent socket
[2016-11-05 06:51:08] stratum_recv_line failed
[2016-11-05 06:51:08] ...retry after 30 seconds

[SergioM9993]

Hi, johnstrife.
I would like to know how much did you pay for your desktop?  
And what are the specifications?

[johnstrife]

Hi!

It's not my desktop, is an IBM POWER8 server. I've  got a coupon code that I can use it for free 1 month. I am not sure of the cpu model but it shows 80 core and has 512GB RAM.

Code:

# lscpu
Architecture:          ppc64le
Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                80
On-line CPU(s) list:   0-79
Thread(s) per core:    8
Core(s) per socket:    10
Socket(s):             1
NUMA node(s):          1
Model:                 TN71-BP012
L1d cache:             64K
L1i cache:             32K
L2 cache:              512K
L3 cache:              8192K
NUMA node0 CPU(s):     0-79

[joblo]

Did you happen to notice etherhash is stubbed out so you're wasting your time?

[Nieltoro]

Don't know if you got it running.
I run my vps with this https://github.com/kost/nheqminer.
For me it's the fastest (that i have tried).
I use DXENON=2

[johnstrife]

I've made it!

Did you happen to notice etherhash is stubbed out so you're wasting your time?

It was more for the learning experience than else.

Don't know if you got it running.
I run my vps with this https://github.com/kost/nheqminer.
For me it's the fastest (that i have tried).
I use DXENON=2

Thanks. That nheqminer use the SIMD for x86 processor so it doesn't work on POWER8 (ppc architecture) but, I was able to study that code and replace the part using the SIMD instruction with some generic hashing function from libsodium.

As it isn't optimized for this kind of cpu the hashing speed it not so high. I will let it run for a while and let you all know the results.

Thanks to all!

[linktoheaven]

What speed showed miner?

[johnstrife]

I've let it run for a while as it has a "cold startup". But it reached 25-30 Sol/s at maximum.

I am trying to see if I can use the SIMD of this CPU (eg. convert SSE4 instruction to Altivec).

[K1lo]

I've let it run for a while as it has a "cold startup". But it reached 25-30 Sol/s at maximum.

I am trying to see if I can use the SIMD of this CPU (eg. convert SSE4 instruction to Altivec).

That's cool. I don't have any experience of Altivec, but if you can use the platform optimisations you should see a nice boost

[xfz]

please let me know if you're able to build a fast miner :-), have exactly same hardware ...., I was able to build zcash orginal repo but received 0 h/s while mining.

Had also this error:

g++  -std=c++11 -fpermissive -g -O2 -pthread  -o minerd minerd-cpu-miner.o minerd-util.o minerd-sha2.o minerd-equihash.o    minerd-sha2-ppc.o -L/usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu -lcurl compat/jansson/libjansson.a -lpthread  -lsodium
minerd-sha2.o: In function `sha256d_80_swap(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*)':
/home/gh0sT/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:193: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
/home/gh0sT/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:194: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
/home/gh0sT/cpuminer-zcash/sha2.cpp:197: undefined reference to `sha256_transform(unsigned int*, unsigned int const*, int)'
.......

I've the possibility to run a mining software on many Power8 CPUs ;-), but your setting also look nice ...

[broincab]

please let me know if you're able to build a fast miner :-), have exactly same hardware ...., I was able to build zcash orginal repo but received 0 h/s while mining.

I'm also interested in a faster miner Willing to fund the development