[ANN] lolMiner-mnx, Mining MinexCoin(MNX) New version: v0.4 (July 22)

[Myth888]

Helloo Dev, Is there a video explanation on how to set it up?

I am new to mining and your miner procedure is kind of difficult to be followed up with.

Any assistance from the community will be highly appreciated.

when you download there would be an example batch file and config file. just edit both to fit your needs. rename the config file if you wish.

[toyo87]

We cannot use your mine if we cannot leave it unatended

I can fully understand that - when you want to make money with mining stability is the alpha and omega. Thats why I released this so early and with hints that this is beta because I do not have the testing machines (yet) to get it rock stable for all platforms that it may support. Therefore I am very thankful about any comment here helping me to improve stability.

I will add an extra mark to the Windows version that it is instable. Linux version currently causes much less problems and should be preferred when possible.

Due to the feedback of last hours, here is the updated list of known issues:

[ALL OS, NVIDIA] High CPU Utilization (Found by me, Confirmed by all NVidia Users here)
Reason:Nvidia has a busy wait for OpenCL kernel completion thats considered a but for over 6 years now, but is not yet fixed (in CUDA it is...)
Problem for Miners: High CPU utilization that may cause problems with CPU cooling. Also dropping hashrate when too many instances are active on the same rig with week CPU and instances may crash. For example an Intel Celeron 3855u may only run one instance of lolMiner currently, Core I5 with 4 physical cores may run up to 3 GPU. More then 4 GPU are currently only stable with Intel Server CPU or AMD Threadripper.
Expected Time to Fix: I am currently testing a fix that will lower the CPU cost of one GTX 1080 from about 115% single core CPU utilization to about 20 (on my testing machine). This will cost about 2% of hash-rate but will allow larger rigs to operate and the CPU to stay cooler. I will provide the beta fix today before 3pm UTC.

Ps: You will always require a strong CPU for Minexcoin anyways, since the found solutions have to be put twice to SHA256 to compare it with the target. This is currently done on CPU and since the high end Nvidia cards can reach up to 20k sol/s this is not easy for the CPU. I expect that when properly fixed the above mentioned Celeron may handle 4-6 GPU but if you have a larger rig it would be better mining an other coin on the other GPUs or have a more potent CPU in the rig.

[ALL OS] At slow / unstable Internet connection sometimes lolMiner still submits shares but server does not accept them (Found by me, Confirmed by an offline friend of mine)
Reason: Well - weak connection is always bad for mining. Often re-connect helps.
Problem for Miners: lolMiner does not detect this yet and thus sometimes computes but shares are not counted. So you can not leave the miner unattended.
Expected Time to Fix: Today. I will add a timer that measures the time difference between last submitted share and the last accepted one. Will cause an automatic re-connect if this time is too large.

[Windows / Official AMD drivers] Miner starts, but reports 0 sol/s or Miner does not start up with CL-compile error (Confirmed by me)
Ps: I am confused... I could be certain that someone yesterday gave a Screenshot of this and reported it but now the post is gone. Why?
Reason: Unknown yet.
Problem for Miners: Can not mine.
Expected Time to Fix: I can reproduce the error (when using CPU part on my Kaveri machine), but do not know why this happens yet. Will require deeper investigation because it seems that the OpenCL code does not return what it should do (and what it does on other platforms...)
 
[Windows, Linux (?) / Official AMD drivers] Miner does not start up with CL-compile error (Found by me, Confirmed by qwep1 and ruckus_pro)
Reason: Some problem with the OpenCL code for some AMD OCL drivers. It is unknown yet if this is also true for Linux version. Linux version with Open Source drivers is stable (but slower)
Problem for Miners: Can not mine.
Expected Time to Fix: I can reproduce the problem on some ages old machine at home. I will have a look into the issue later today and hope to get rid of this within next week.

[Windows] Random crash during execution (Reported by AAile, Confirmed by Aeon_)
Reason I do not know yet. It may be that the Nvidia driver things that the App over-utilizes the card. Currently lolMiner has only a very few things done on CPU before the next iteration starts (because the SHA stuff is done in an other thread), so the pressure on the GPU is very high.
Problem for Miners: The miner can not leave the miner unattended.
Expected Time to Fix: I need more info about when this happens and why. I hope that I can get rid out of this with the CPU load fixes above. Else one countermeasure could be running an external demon that checks if the miner is still running and restart it when it does not. Also I consider inserting a parameter that lowers GPU utilization (but of cause this will cost hash-rate... maybe one finds a stable trade of). I thing at least 2 of this countermeasures will be implemented within next two weeks, hopefully earlier. But for a definite fix I have to find the exact reason first


Ps:
I like transparency and so I report that from current dev-fee income lolMiner-mnx has a market share of 0.8 % (Approx 400 ksols from 49 MSol) and I collected 0.055 mnx as def-fee till now. Thats not that much but more will surely come when the miner gets more stable.  I also wanted to announce that I want to pay back approx half of the income of lolMiner-mnx from its first month of existence to those helping me (be detailed reporting) here getting it stable or test it on different platforms during the first two weeks of existence. Of cause I can not say how much that will be in detail yet, but hey, that offer is better than none

[Velmerk]

0.31 & 0.33 have two problem at my rigs:

--exit-on-zero Not worked, miner continue work with 0 sol at one of cards.

Miner not come back to 1st pool after any minutes and continue work at failover pool.

[Myth888]

The cpu load of this coin although high is not a bad thing as long as it is common to all the mining software. It is because of how the design of the algorithm was made. Stability is the main concern. Specially for rigs that cannot run another mining software like claymore to separate the gpu and manage the load from the cpu. The limitations actually offer better decentralization as most cannot run high gpu count mining rigs. It will also help fend of asic miners as the requirement is much more than other algo. A tweak here and there for better performance or lower consumption and more stability is what is needed.

[Whatqq]

Can confirm memory bandwith makes very little or no difference on the SoLs hashed.

GTX 1050 2gb - 7300-7900 SoLs
GTX 1050TI 4gb - 7400-8000 SoLs
GTX 1060 3gb - 10900-11800 SoLs
GTX 1060 6gb - 11600-12650 SoLs
GTX 1080 TI - 28200 SoLs

Most effecient card i have seen is the 1050 2gb for this algorithm, however what i would like to know is has anyone tested the Processor SoLs? Xeons etc? I am thinking about testing xeon phi but would like to know how you have achieved hashing the xeon in the miner.

Thanks

[Lolliedieb]

0.31 & 0.33 have two problem at my rigs:

--exit-on-zero Not worked, miner continue work with 0 sol at one of cards.

Miner not come back to 1st pool after any minutes and continue work at failover pool.

I am currently looking into this - for some reason the timer is not triggered. Did you disable the long stats? Then its likely not to work atm.

Helloo Dev, Is there a video explanation on how to set it up?

I am new to mining and your miner procedure is kind of difficult to be followed up with.

Any assistance from the community will be highly appreciated.

No, because I consider this to be easy. If you like you only need a mnx address at the moment, edit this instead of user name in the config file and then you are ready to go. At least for 90% of the rigs this will run with 0.31 and later.

1st of all nice project. there are some problems though. as it uses high memory for amd cards i cannot run the whole rig on mnx. So swtich off the other cards using the config file but it still queries the other cards during startup which causes the system to hang i your mining using another miner. It is a hit and miss. On some system it works fine and wont query the other cards but on some it will despite being selected off. Once running it will leave the other cards alone but on start up it will cause the system to hang.

Did you try to increase the virtual memory in your machine as discussed some pages before here? That may help. But overall the problem is known for AMD&Windows. I am currently exploring opportunities to make the miner use less memory consuming on GPU - that will also help for your case. But needs some time since I have to redesign a lot for this.

The cpu load of this coin although high is not a bad thing as long as it is common to all the mining software. It is because of how the design of the algorithm was made. Stability is the main concern. Specially for rigs that cannot run another mining software like claymore to separate the gpu and manage the load from the cpu. The limitations actually offer better decentralization as most cannot run high gpu count mining rigs. It will also help fend of asic miners as the requirement is much more than other algo. A tweak here and there for better performance or lower consumption and more stability is what is needed.

The CPU demand is mainly because of the double SHA256 at the end of the algorithm, that is currently done on CPU. This is also true for ZCash and other Equihash coins, but the Minex parameters are so easy that much more solutions have to be processed with this. One possible solution could be running sha on GPU, but that will need some work and will cost some sol/s but will reduce the CPU load to near 0, maybe 5%. Maybe a future version could feature this as optional feature, but I have other things to be sorted out before.

[cveks]

I have one righ with 4 x RX 470 . Problem is that 3 card works but 4th wont work whatever setting I try . It gives 0 hash power. Do you have any solutions for this?

I tried on other righ with 6 x RX 470 same problem.

[deimo]

I have one righ with 4 x RX 470 . Problem is that 3 card works but 4th wont work whatever setting I try . It gives 0 hash power. Do you have any solutions for this?

I tried on other righ with 6 x RX 470 same problem.

either your work batch is too high, or your virtual memory too low

[gizmochefmogwai]

Hello,

Works like a charm on 12* 1070 rig, but only for 8 hours.

After this delay, huge crash some GPU disconnected, SATA bug with no access on OS commands (reboot, etc.., not found)

No OC, Ubuntu server 16.04, Driver Version: 390.48

Check this clinfo for last GPU :

Code:

  Device Name                                     GeForce GTX 1070
  Device Vendor                                   NVIDIA Corporation
  Device Vendor ID                                0x10de
  Device Version                                  OpenCL 1.2 CUDA
  Driver Version                                  390.48
  Device OpenCL C Version                         OpenCL C 1.2
  Device Type                                     GPU
  Device Profile                                  FULL_PROFILE
  Device Topology (NV)                            PCI-E, 0f:00.0
  Max compute units                               15
  Max clock frequency                             1746MHz
  Compute Capability (NV)                         6.1
  Device Partition                                (core)
    Max number of sub-devices                     1
    Supported partition types                     None
  Max work item dimensions                        3
  Max work item sizes                             1024x1024x64
  Max work group size                             1024
  Preferred work group size multiple              32
  Warp size (NV)                                  32
  Preferred / native vector sizes
    char                                                 1 / 1
    short                                                1 / 1
    int                                                  1 / 1
    long                                                 1 / 1
    half                                                 0 / 0        (n/a)
    float                                                1 / 1
    double                                               1 / 1        (cl_khr_fp64)
  Half-precision Floating-point support           (n/a)
  Single-precision Floating-point support         (core)
    Denormals                                     Yes
    Infinity and NANs                             Yes
    Round to nearest                              Yes
    Round to zero                                 Yes
    Round to infinity                             Yes
    IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add               Yes
    Support is emulated in software               No
    Correctly-rounded divide and sqrt operations  Yes
  Double-precision Floating-point support         (cl_khr_fp64)
    Denormals                                     Yes
    Infinity and NANs                             Yes
    Round to nearest                              Yes
    Round to zero                                 Yes
    Round to infinity                             Yes
    IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add               Yes
    Support is emulated in software               No
    Correctly-rounded divide and sqrt operations  No
  Address bits                                    64, Little-Endian
  Global memory size                              8513978368 (7.929GiB)
  Error Correction support                        No
  Max memory allocation                           2128494592 (1.982GiB)
  Unified memory for Host and Device              No
  Integrated memory (NV)                          No
  Minimum alignment for any data type             128 bytes
  Alignment of base address                       4096 bits (512 bytes)
  Global Memory cache type                        Read/Write
  Global Memory cache size                        245760
  Global Memory cache line                        128 bytes
  Image support                                   Yes
    Max number of samplers per kernel             32
    Max size for 1D images from buffer            134217728 pixels
    Max 1D or 2D image array size                 2048 images
    Max 2D image size                             16384x32768 pixels
    Max 3D image size                             16384x16384x16384 pixels
    Max number of read image args                 256
    Max number of write image args                16
  Local memory type                               Local
  Local memory size                               49152 (48KiB)
  Registers per block (NV)                        65536
  Max constant buffer size                        65536 (64KiB)
  Max number of constant args                     9
  Max size of kernel argument                     4352 (4.25KiB)
  Queue properties
    Out-of-order execution                        Yes
    Profiling                                     Yes
  Prefer user sync for interop                    No
  Profiling timer resolution                      1000ns
  Execution capabilities
    Run OpenCL kernels                            Yes
    Run native kernels                            No
    Kernel execution timeout (NV)                 Yes
  Concurrent copy and kernel execution (NV)       Yes
    Number of async copy engines                  2
  printf() buffer size                            1048576 (1024KiB)
  Built-in kernels
  Device Available                                Yes
  Compiler Available                              Yes
  Linker Available                                Yes
  Device Extensions                               cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_fp64 cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_icd cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_nv_compiler_options cl_nv_device_attribute_query cl_nv_pragma_unroll cl_nv_copy_opts cl_nv_create_buffer

NULL platform behavior
  clGetPlatformInfo(NULL, CL_PLATFORM_NAME, ...)  No platform
  clGetDeviceIDs(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL, ...)   No platform
  clCreateContext(NULL, ...) [default]            No platform
  clCreateContext(NULL, ...) [other]              Success [NV]
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU)  No platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU)  No platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ACCELERATOR)  No platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_CUSTOM)  No platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL)  No platform

[wishxy]

I have one righ with 4 x RX 470 . Problem is that 3 card works but 4th wont work whatever setting I try . It gives 0 hash power. Do you have any solutions for this?

I tried on other rig with 6 x RX 470 same problem.

either your work batch is too high, or your virtual memory too low

Same problem here on one rig with 6x RX 470.
I've set working batch on AUTO, but the problem still occurs and shows 0 MH/s on Device 2 (card on the main slot.)
Also, have the same problem with other mining software so I guess I should better reinstall Win 10.

[deimo]

I have one righ with 4 x RX 470 . Problem is that 3 card works but 4th wont work whatever setting I try . It gives 0 hash power. Do you have any solutions for this?

I tried on other rig with 6 x RX 470 same problem.

either your work batch is too high, or your virtual memory too low

Same problem here on one rig with 6x RX 470.
I've set working batch on AUTO, but the problem still occurs and shows 0 MH/s on Device 2 (card on the main slot.)
Also, have the same problem with other mining software so I guess I should better reinstall Win 10.

Working batch AUTO can be tricky, set working batch manualy... try low value... 6 then 8 and so... 

[uhro]

I have one righ with 4 x RX 470 . Problem is that 3 card works but 4th wont work whatever setting I try . It gives 0 hash power. Do you have any solutions for this?

I tried on other rig with 6 x RX 470 same problem.

either your work batch is too high, or your virtual memory too low

Same problem here on one rig with 6x RX 470.
I've set working batch on AUTO, but the problem still occurs and shows 0 MH/s on Device 2 (card on the main slot.)
Also, have the same problem with other mining software so I guess I should better reinstall Win 10.

This makes me think it's something to do with onboard video.
Do either of you have onboard video enabled?  Primary video should be set to PCIE and iGPU should be disabled in MB BIOS.
Might not be the problem, just a though.

[Lolliedieb]

Same problem here on one rig with 6x RX 470.
I've set working batch on AUTO, but the problem still occurs and shows 0 MH/s on Device 2 (card on the main slot.)
Also, have the same problem with other mining software so I guess I should better reinstall Win 10.

This makes me think it's something to do with onboard video.
Do either of you have onboard video enabled?  Primary video should be set to PCIE and iGPU should be disabled in MB BIOS.
Might not be the problem, just a though.

I think it rather has something to do with the virtual memory. If few cards work but more do not its likely this.
Background: The Windows AMD drivers require the same amount of RAM on the mining system that they want to allocate on the GPU. So if a mining program tries to allocate 2Gb on the GPU the driver will also allocate 2G on the normal system RAM or virtual memory. This is only during start up and later the memory in RAM is freed. The work batch setting in lolMiner directly controls the GPU RAM usage of the miner. If it is set to AUTO the miner will try to use up to 60% of its available memory. So assume you have 8x RX580 with 8GB running the miner on AUTO setting, the OpenCL driver will try to allocate 8*8*60% = 38,4 GB system RAM. If the RAM is not enough lolMiner will swap to virtual memory (the Windows memory file). If that still is not enough not be able to create all the buffers (up to now there is no check) and the cards were the buffer could not be created for will run with 0 sol/s.

[Cuzzle]

I am running lolminer on 8 rigs. Generally works quite well.

However on one rig lolminer just freezes, usually after about an hour.

When I close the dos window it restarts instantly.

My question is: is there a watchdog script to watch for this freezing that would close it and restart it?

Is it as simple as putting a few lines in my batch file?

[Cuzzle]

--exit-on-zero

Not working for me.

Device 0 routinely shows 0 hash rate

I watched it run for a full 5 minutes returning 0 hash each time. The program did not stop

Rig reboot is required to stop lolminer. Task manager will not stop it.

Details:
RX580 8BG 6xGPU rig on Windows 10

--set-work-batch 2G as per the included manual (pdf)

suggestions?

[Lolliedieb]

I watched it run for a full 5 minutes returning 0 hash each time. The program did not stop

Rig reboot is required to stop lolminer. Task manager will not stop it.

Hmm - that sounds extreme... Does it still mine when this happens?
I know that --exit-on-zero has some problems and does not close the miner always when it should, but anyways it can close the program gracefully only as long as the system itself is still responding. If even the task manager can not do it I am certain that there is no way for the program to exit any way. Searching for an idea why this extreme stuff hapens.

[Cuzzle]

I watched it run for a full 5 minutes returning 0 hash each time. The program did not stop

Rig reboot is required to stop lolminer. Task manager will not stop it.

Hmm - that sounds extreme... Does it still mine when this happens?
I know that --exit-on-zero has some problems and does not close the miner always when it should, but anyways it can close the program gracefully only as long as the system itself is still responding. If even the task manager can not do it I am certain that there is no way for the program to exit any way. Searching for an idea why this extreme stuff hapens.

Yes it keeps mining, just one card showing 0 hash. Clicking the X to close the dos window didnt work. I had to power cycle the rig

Machine has since been running for about 9 hours with zero issues. I have not been watching it perhaps exit on zero has been working or it never went to zero.

Your efforts are appreciated  

UPDATE: While checking my rigs another one was frozen, the exit on zero did not work. However I simply clicked the windows 'program has stopped working' window and lolminer closed and restarted and worked fine. Rig had been down for abouty 7 hours. This rig was 6 x 1070ti, one of my oldest and most stable rigs (win10).

Any watchdog type of script that might help with this issue?

[Seiko1]

Here is a picture of when I launch lolminer.
https://i.imgur.com/VVv2rJ0.jpg

Is there a way to close the value windows to automatically close after the miner is launched. Or do I have to keep manually closing it.

Sorry if that was already answered I couldn't find the answer anywhere

Here is what's in the .bat file I use to launch the miner under win10

@echo off

setlocal enableDelayedExpansion

Rem #################################
Rem ## Begin of user-editable part ##
Rem #################################

Rem Insert your configuration file name here
set "CNAME=config.cfg"                              

Rem #################################
Rem ##  End of user-editable part  ##
Rem #################################


set "PARAMS=--use-config %CNAME%"

setx GPU_FORCE_64BIT_PTR 1
setx GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_SINGLE_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
:MINE
Start /wait /high lolMiner-mnx.exe !PARAMS!
goto :MINE

Edit: added the .bat file

[maardhayrule]

Hi, I read above that Minex will be present at Kiev's upcoming conference but I can't find anyone among speakers. Will they be incognito?😄

[Lolliedieb]

Any watchdog type of script that might help with this issue?

0.34 will come next week (hopefully) ... and with a new (real) watchdog script for Windows power shell that should do the job