A quick newbie question about the config file

[btcearn]

Hello everyone, I am a newbie and don't know how to properly create a config file for a miner. When they tell you to enter your username and password, what do I put if I haven't created an account for anything yet? Putting in something random appears to make the program crash. Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.

[allgoodthings1]

I don't mine, so I'll defer to someone else who does.. and might know a better response. But it seems to me that's a question to consult with the documentation of your miner.  As there are many, it may be only a guess that anyone else here can tell you.

[infinitybo]

Hello Btcearn and sure it's possible because if you put something random for "a miner" into this file so it may not work correctly.

[atcx]

Please attach a screenshot or post the log of your miner, your post is too vague.
If I were to guess, though, your miner probably needs the login details to a mining pool. If you haven't signed up for one yet, look around for a good one with good reputation for whatever cryptocurrency you're planning to mine. Solo mining is also possible (in which case you'll have to supply your *coin client's RPC login details to your miner) - but this is almost never a good idea as the chances you'll find a block on your own are extremely slim in almost all cases.

[taufu]

Hi!

I would like to help you as a fellow Newbie.

First of all, you don't actually need a config file.

That said, a config files is only usefull if you want to put in settings that will apply to all of your pools that you are going to use.

You can put every setting in a batch (.bat) file if you are a starter. This will make it a little bit easier to understand the basics of mining.

In the batch file, you will need to put in a few settings that are important. There are a few steps you need to do before you can start mining. But I don't know where you are yet;

1: What hardware are you using? This will be important because you need a compatible miner software for your hardware.
2: For every pool you are going to use, you need to register an account, (excluding P2P pools) and add a worker.
3: Put the pool address and login/worker information in your batch file.
4: Turn on the miner software.
5: Download a wallet specifically for the coin you are mining,
6: Go and exchange your coins from your wallet.

Could you tell us at which step you are now?

[btcearn]

Thank you for your help so far, I can clarify a couple things. Here is a sample set of instructions I pulled from the tigercoin solo mining tutorial.

"Sample Config File
listen=1
server=1
rpcuser=**Yourusername**
rpcpassword=**Yourpassword**
rpcport=15661
rpcconnect=127.0.0.1
addnode=66.63.176.133
addnode=173.233.84.132

How to Solo Mine
1. Start up tigercoin-qt, wait for it to load, then exit.
2. Put tigercoin.conf (see sample file above) in your c:/users/**yourcomputername**/AppData/Roaming/Tigercoin
3. restart tigercoin-qt, and you should connect and sync.
4. For solo mining, launch cgminer or the mining program you use and begin mining.
cgminer ex: cgminer.exe -o localhost:15661 -u **yourusername** -p **password** (without **)"

I see these instructions on lots of currencies, not just tigercoin. If I wanted to follow these instructions, what would I put under the rpcuser and rpcpassword? This is solo mining, so it isn't an issue with a pool login. I haven't created any kind of account for this yet. Do I simply make one up and as long as the login from the config file and the login from the miner are the same it will work? I hope this helps you understand my question better.

[AldenHurley]

The RpcUser and RpcPassword can be whatever you like them to be. They control access to your own 'server' which runs inside the coin wallet (QT). This is for connecting a separate mining program to your wallet for mining.

You see these on most currencies because most are a derivative of the base Bitcoin wallet-qt implementation, and as a result use the same configuration management code, which uses the .conf file you've listed.