The official MacMiner thread [BTC/LTC-CPU/GPU/FPGA/ASIC]

[chorchonga]

Also, I have been able to use the FPGA/ASIC window to mine BTC and (at the same time) the CGMiner window to scrypt mine LTC. That's nifty, even if it was just to see if I could.

I tried to do this, but CGminer is giving me "GPU 0 Failure, disabling" although I've successfully run CGminer outside of MacMiner on this GPU, albeit not for LTC and non in the FabulousPanda pool.  Suggestions?  I'm assuming clicking the use scrypt checkbox passes the --scrypt flag to CGMiner.  GPU Failure output is always preceded by "Error -54: Enqueueing kernel onto command queue. (clEnqueueNDRangeKernel)", and occurs even if I'm not mining with the Erupter.

[1715043421]

1715043421

[1715043421]

1715043421

[1715043421]

1715043421

[Anonymailer]

Also, I have been able to use the FPGA/ASIC window to mine BTC and (at the same time) the CGMiner window to scrypt mine LTC. That's nifty, even if it was just to see if I could.

I tried to do this, but CGminer is giving me "GPU 0 Failure, disabling" although I've successfully run CGminer outside of MacMiner on this GPU, albeit not for LTC and non in the FabulousPanda pool.  Suggestions?  I'm assuming clicking the use scrypt checkbox passes the --scrypt flag to CGMiner.  GPU Failure output is always preceded by "Error -54: Enqueueing kernel onto command queue. (clEnqueueNDRangeKernel)", and occurs even if I'm not mining with the Erupter.

scrypt mining is hard on the system, that error indicates your system can't handle the load, maybe try on a negative intensity and see if it still occurs then put it up to see what it can take? What machine are you running on?

[chorchonga]

Sounds good - 2010 MacBook Pro, so probably not up to it.  Misconception about "lite" coin I guess.

[Robert Lewandowski]

How energy efficient is this? Would it be actually worth mining Litecoins

[BrandonMcPherson]

LTC are worth about 1% of BTC, but that means there are fewer people mining them. So, relatively modest resources might net a complete LTC or two per month. At $3.51 per coin (at this moment), that might pay for electricity and wear and tear on your GPU, or it might not. The more efficient your GPU, the more chance of it being profitable.

If you want a side gamble that LTC will rise in value, then whether or not it's profitable now might be less important. As Bitbacco said, however, scrypt mining is hard on your system. It also doesn't seem to like Nvidia GPUs.

[BrandonMcPherson]

if you add --load-balance  in miner options it makes some judgement of which pool to use based on efficiency, but I've heard it has some problems.

I should add the preference to set different config files for each window rather than one for each which should let you do what you want to.

Thanks for the reports, I'm hoping to make the 1.4 branch the old stable version to the forthcoming 1.5 branch!

Thanks for the info. I'll play around with it.

Another cool option would be the ability to add new instances of the mining engines (with a new window and config file for each). That would obviate the remaining advantages of the command line miners for OS X. It's super easy for me to suggest that, but I bet it wouldn't be all that super easy to do.

You could call that MacMiner Pro and charge directly for it.

[Anonymailer]

Thanks for the info. I'll play around with it.

Another cool option would be the ability to add new instances of the mining engines (with a new window and config file for each). That would obviate the remaining advantages of the command line miners for OS X. It's super easy for me to suggest that, but I bet it wouldn't be all that super easy to do.

You could call that MacMiner Pro and charge directly for it.

I keep adding features as I can, and that would be a good one so it's on the list now! I probably won't charge for it, I like keeping it open source, I did think about doing some themes for it and charging for those as an optional extra but right now the list of useful features is too long for me to be focusing that much on the appearance!

[jedimstr]

BitBacco: Ever think of doing a Mac GUI client for P2Pool just like you did for BFG/CGMiner?

[Anonymailer]

BitBacco: Ever think of doing a Mac GUI client for P2Pool just like you did for BFG/CGMiner?

It hadn't come to mind yet, to tell the truth I run the fabulous panda p2pool node on Linux because it makes a better server - I don't think I will make a GUI for p2pool mainly because it's written in Python which makes it a bit of a PITA and I have no use for it personally whereas I use MacMiner 24/7. If there was a lot of demand for it I might consider it because it would be good for p2pool.

[BrandonMcPherson]

You're a good man, BitBacco, and thanks for all the work with MacMiner. It's been a godsend to me.

[DPattee]

Hmmm, I thought one of the release notes said that the miners would automatically restart when you restarted the app. I'm not seeing that though...

My mac mini is set to automatically reboot once per week (headless server that runs a lot of apps... some of which have leaks or get stuck), and has all my relevant apps set to start automatically after the restart. But MacMiner just launches and shows the BFG Miner window in a stopped state, rather than the FPGA Miner in a 'running' state.

[LockUnlock]

Has anyone tried running Blue Fury USB miners on their Mac with MacMiner?

I've not heard anyone talk about it but the version of bfgminer included does have bit fury support - I just can't find the info on whether they need usb-serial drivers installed - anyone know that?

I recently purchased a RedFury and was wondering if anyone tried or knows if they work with the Mac Miner?

[TR4L]

My wife turned on her hairdryer this morning and it popped the circuit breaker that my my BFL Asic was on.  Now, macminer won't work!  I installed windows on a separate partition and I know it's not the miner because it works fine on bfgminer on the windows side.  I tried to update and now it comes up with an error and then the indeed window every few seconds..

[BrandonMcPherson]

TR4L, did you reinstall MacMiner?

If so and to no avail, did you try throwing away MacMiner and the .plist file in User -> Library -> Preferences and then reinstalling?

There's also a folder in User -> Library -> Application Support you should trash if you're going that route.

I don't do support for MacMiner, but I would try those things if I was having the trouble you're describing.

[Anonymailer]

The release notes said MacMiner restarts bfgminer if bfgminer quits unexpectedly, but the feature to start automatically when MacMiner is opened hasn't been built in yet

TR4L I'm guessing the device may have changed name, have you set -S all or the specific device? If the latter try

cd /dev/
ls -l cu.*

unsure about the fury devices yet, support is built in to bfgminer but not sure about usb drivers, please do let me know what you find when it turns up!

[drewage]

I'm trying to run a Blue Fury usb miner using ver. 1.4.18.  Using the FPGA/ASIC window, the device is recognized as "[2013-11-16 17:53:07] Found BPM 0 at /dev/cu.usbmodemfdXXXX" and MacMiner proceeds to contact the pool and commence mining but it crashes within 5-10 seconds and restarts bfgminer.  Any ideas?

[TR4L]

The release notes said MacMiner restarts bfgminer if bfgminer quits unexpectedly, but the feature to start automatically when MacMiner is opened hasn't been built in yet

TR4L I'm guessing the device may have changed name, have you set -S all or the specific device? If the latter try

cd /dev/
ls -l cu.*

unsure about the fury devices yet, support is built in to bfgminer but not sure about usb drivers, please do let me know what you find when it turns up!

I have tried reinstalling and all of the above and it still says this:
dyld: Library not loaded: /Applications/MacMiner.app/Contents/Resources/bfgminer/lib/libblkmaker-0.1.0.dylib
  Referenced from: /Users/TR4L/Downloads/MacMiner.app/Contents/Resources/bfgminer/lib/libblkmaker_jansson-0.1.0.dylib
  Reason: image not found

[Anonymailer]

I have tried reinstalling and all of the above and it still says this:
dyld: Library not loaded: /Applications/MacMiner.app/Contents/Resources/bfgminer/lib/libblkmaker-0.1.0.dylib
  Referenced from: /Users/TR4L/Downloads/MacMiner.app/Contents/Resources/bfgminer/lib/libblkmaker_jansson-0.1.0.dylib
  Reason: image not found

Please move MacMiner to the applications folder and make sure it's named MacMiner.app and it should work for you!

Drewage: did you install any drivers? I'll update bfgminer  for you and hopefully that'll get things working!

[davethenerd]

Latest BFGMiner has GPU disabled by default now when you have ASICs or FPGAs detected.   To enable you have to set -S opencl:auto

So... adding '-S opencl:auto' to the "Manual flags" section of MacMiner certainly seems to resolve this and gets the GPU involved, but... bfgminer is still using all available CPU (100%). Seems the -t switch sets the number of CPU threads to run, and NOT having the CPU run at 100% results in a higher Mh average (likely because the CPU's not waiting to then process what the GPU has sent it). So I'm running with the following in "Miner Settings > Manual flags":

-S opencl:auto -t 0

I did try it with -t 1 and, again, average Mh was quite a bit lower.

[Anonymailer]

Latest BFGMiner has GPU disabled by default now when you have ASICs or FPGAs detected.   To enable you have to set -S opencl:auto

So... adding '-S opencl:auto' to the "Manual flags" section of MacMiner certainly seems to resolve this and gets the GPU involved, but... bfgminer is still using all available CPU (100%). Seems the -t switch sets the number of CPU threads to run, and NOT having the CPU run at 100% results in a higher Mh average (likely because the CPU's not waiting to then process what the GPU has sent it). So I'm running with the following in "Miner Settings > Manual flags":

-S opencl:auto -t 0

I did try it with -t 1 and, again, average Mh was quite a bit lower.

Are you ASIC mining at the same time as GPU mining? I've been having troubles setting -S opencl:auto and -S all at the same time. There should be a new version of MacMiner out this evening which will update bfgminer to 3.6 and address these issues with the miner settings window… thanks for the feedback!