Official FutureBit Apollo II/BTC Software/Image and Support thread

[cd1177]

The temperatures are low because the Apollo sits on 2 big fans, the reason for that is overheating, especially in turbo mode. So low temps are because of that not because of the board. The issue is that somehow the miner resets to the slushpool with usename Topminer1 which is not even the default one with username Futurebit so something is fishy, it is interesting we are not getting a reply from the manufacturer....someone left a backdoor and is playing with us newbies ...(

I feel the same way, I've reflashed, made sure the SSD is seated well, used a USB cable to see if the hashboard was bad absolutely nothing wrong with it, temps are in a great range - I even went as far as putting it in ECO mode... after about an hour I get the notification that my miner was disconnected, log back into the dashboard to see the pool settings are once again changed..

What's odd, is it's completely random times when this happens, the first 7 days were flawless mining and then randomly on the 8th day it started changing the pool settings - again sometimes it'll be hours, then sometimes I have to sit there and change the pool settings 5 times within an hour - reboot - let the node start - start miner (sometimes have to click start 5-10 times before it'll become active to where the dashboard pops up) start hashing and then be fine and connected to my pool for 10+ hours..

Makes absolutely no sense other than a back door or something.

I have the same behavior but mine never worked for more than a day....I have locked the pool config file to see what happens....I'll get back

let me know if this is working for you  and if so give a description of how you went about it please.  thanks!

[ROcrypto]

The temperatures are low because the Apollo sits on 2 big fans, the reason for that is overheating, especially in turbo mode. So low temps are because of that not because of the board. The issue is that somehow the miner resets to the slushpool with usename Topminer1 which is not even the default one with username Futurebit so something is fishy, it is interesting we are not getting a reply from the manufacturer....someone left a backdoor and is playing with us newbies ...(

I feel the same way, I've reflashed, made sure the SSD is seated well, used a USB cable to see if the hashboard was bad absolutely nothing wrong with it, temps are in a great range - I even went as far as putting it in ECO mode... after about an hour I get the notification that my miner was disconnected, log back into the dashboard to see the pool settings are once again changed..

What's odd, is it's completely random times when this happens, the first 7 days were flawless mining and then randomly on the 8th day it started changing the pool settings - again sometimes it'll be hours, then sometimes I have to sit there and change the pool settings 5 times within an hour - reboot - let the node start - start miner (sometimes have to click start 5-10 times before it'll become active to where the dashboard pops up) start hashing and then be fine and connected to my pool for 10+ hours..

Makes absolutely no sense other than a back door or something.

I have the same behavior but mine never worked for more than a day....I have locked the pool config file to see what happens....I'll get back

let me know if this is working for you  and if so give a description of how you went about it please.  thanks!

Will do.

[OgNasty]

I'm not experiencing any issues with usernames being changed.  I've also never seen the dashboard (don't even know how to access it to be honest).  It seems like the issue could very well be with someone getting on your networks and not a backdoor, but what do I know... 

I did discover a couple lines of code will keep them running in the case of a crash of the software and that has kept mine functioning without any need for manual intervention.  I pasted the code below if anyone cares.  It's nothing groundbreaking you couldn't find in 2 seconds with a Google search, but does the job for my .bat files.

Code:

@echo off
:Start:
pushd "%~dp0"
.\apollo-miner.exe -host YOURPOOLHERE -port YOURPORTHERE -user USERNAMEHERE -pswd ANYTHING -comport YOURCOMHERE -brd_ocp YOURSETTINGHERE -osc YOURSETTINGHERE -ao_mode 1
:: Wait 10 seconds before restarting.
TIMEOUT /T 10
GOTO:Start

[n0nce]

I'm not experiencing any issues with usernames being changed.  I've also never seen the dashboard (don't even know how to access it to be honest).

Wait, then how did you set your mining pool information?
And how did you choose between 'eco', 'balanced' or 'turbo'?

[jfaller30]

My apollo 3 keeps restarting/shutting down randomly. Not sure what to do. I'm using f2pool. When I changed the pool URL for BCH to BTC, it started doing this. Not sure if this is the cause. It restarts and when firefox opens, sometimes it reboots or shuts down.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Update: I reimaged the SD card but it is still rebooting randomly

[wozzwinkl]

My Apollo BTC is up and has been mining, node is fully synced and running. However, I am getting the message "Only inbound connections detected, please enable port 8333 on your router port forwarding rules for your Apollo IP address" and it shows 10/32 connections.

I have set up forwards for port 8333 on both my security gateway and FiOS router. I had to set up a similar port forward for my Helium miner, so I know that the settings should work, but it does not appear to be working for the node.

Is there something easy I could be missing here?

You can only have one port forward for 8333, if you have set that port up to forward to this helium thing whatever it is then you can't have one setup for the same port going to the Apollo.

I have a FiOS router first in line, and the port forward is set up in there to forward to my Ubiquiti USG Security Gateway. In the USG setup, I have the node set with a static IP and a port forward set up for that IP address.

My Helium miner settings are similar, but pointing to a different IP address and port.

I can use an external port checking tool such as portchecker.io and my Helium miner responds on the appropriate port, but the node does not.

Just not sure why this setup should need to be different in the case of the node vs. the Helium miner.

Try a different pool.  Mine has been up and running for 2 weeks now, no issues.

Wait, what?

My miner is working fine. My issue is with the node.

[jstefanop]

I'm not experiencing any issues with usernames being changed.  I've also never seen the dashboard (don't even know how to access it to be honest).  It seems like the issue could very well be with someone getting on your networks and not a backdoor, but what do I know... 

I did discover a couple lines of code will keep them running in the case of a crash of the software and that has kept mine functioning without any need for manual intervention.  I pasted the code below if anyone cares.  It's nothing groundbreaking you couldn't find in 2 seconds with a Google search, but does the job for my .bat files.

Code:

@echo off
:Start:
pushd "%~dp0"
.\apollo-miner.exe -host YOURPOOLHERE -port YOURPORTHERE -user USERNAMEHERE -pswd ANYTHING -comport YOURCOMHERE -brd_ocp YOURSETTINGHERE -osc YOURSETTINGHERE -ao_mode 1
:: Wait 10 seconds before restarting.
TIMEOUT /T 10
GOTO:Start

Looks like your running a standard unit, so there is no dashboard for that since you run the miner software directly on your system

[Biffa]

My Apollo BTC is up and has been mining, node is fully synced and running. However, I am getting the message "Only inbound connections detected, please enable port 8333 on your router port forwarding rules for your Apollo IP address" and it shows 10/32 connections.

I have set up forwards for port 8333 on both my security gateway and FiOS router. I had to set up a similar port forward for my Helium miner, so I know that the settings should work, but it does not appear to be working for the node.

Is there something easy I could be missing here?

You can only have one port forward for 8333, if you have set that port up to forward to this helium thing whatever it is then you can't have one setup for the same port going to the Apollo.

I have a FiOS router first in line, and the port forward is set up in there to forward to my Ubiquiti USG Security Gateway. In the USG setup, I have the node set with a static IP and a port forward set up for that IP address.

My Helium miner settings are similar, but pointing to a different IP address and port.

I can use an external port checking tool such as portchecker.io and my Helium miner responds on the appropriate port, but the node does not.

Just not sure why this setup should need to be different in the case of the node vs. the Helium miner.

Sounds like you are doing double-nat, which I wouldn't advise for anything really, not sure how a full node handles it, obviously not well judging by your experience.

Running servers inside your network that the outside can connect to is often going to be problematic with a double NAT setup like you have. I'd advise putting the Apollo in the DMZ zone of the router if you can, or getting rid of one of the routers and just use one. I don't use Verizon or FiOS but my security gateway just connects directly to my fibre so I don't have any double NAT issues.

But this is a huge subject and way beyond the scope of this thread.

[Bude Stacks]

1) Is it possible to use the in screen keyboard option at the Apollo os login screen? I don't have a keyboard I can leave permanently hooked up to the Apollo unit, it would be much more convenient if I could use the mouse to pick the password letters using an on-screen keyboard.

2) Also, has anybody set up a VPN on the Apollo unit? I'm thinking about using my free windscribe account (50gb/mo) but weary of breaking anything custom setup for the miner/node to work.

Thanks!

[SpeedForceGN]

1) Is it possible to use the in screen keyboard option at the Apollo os login screen? I don't have a keyboard I can leave permanently hooked up to the Apollo unit, it would be much more convenient if I could use the mouse to pick the password letters using an on-screen keyboard.

2) Also, has anybody set up a VPN on the Apollo unit? I'm thinking about using my free windscribe account (50gb/mo) but weary of breaking anything custom setup for the miner/node to work.

Thanks!

I use my dVPN  from Deeper Network just fine

[cd1177]

The temperatures are low because the Apollo sits on 2 big fans, the reason for that is overheating, especially in turbo mode. So low temps are because of that not because of the board. The issue is that somehow the miner resets to the slushpool with usename Topminer1 which is not even the default one with username Futurebit so something is fishy, it is interesting we are not getting a reply from the manufacturer....someone left a backdoor and is playing with us newbies ...(

I feel the same way, I've reflashed, made sure the SSD is seated well, used a USB cable to see if the hashboard was bad absolutely nothing wrong with it, temps are in a great range - I even went as far as putting it in ECO mode... after about an hour I get the notification that my miner was disconnected, log back into the dashboard to see the pool settings are once again changed..

What's odd, is it's completely random times when this happens, the first 7 days were flawless mining and then randomly on the 8th day it started changing the pool settings - again sometimes it'll be hours, then sometimes I have to sit there and change the pool settings 5 times within an hour - reboot - let the node start - start miner (sometimes have to click start 5-10 times before it'll become active to where the dashboard pops up) start hashing and then be fine and connected to my pool for 10+ hours..

Makes absolutely no sense other than a back door or something.

I have the same behavior but mine never worked for more than a day....I have locked the pool config file to see what happens....I'll get back

let me know if this is working for you  and if so give a description of how you went about it please.  thanks!

Will do.

update on my end.    i thought i had it figured out.   but i woke up this morning and was wrong.....   so i reflashed, setup a totally different vlan than it was on, added it on a totally different wifi network instead of the same ether connection it was on before, setup the pool and password on startup, clicked on settings and users and changed the main password to one that is different from default and different than my dashboard login, fired it up, working great, temps around 45 and 62, ran great for 5-8 hours, woke up, changed back to slushpool and topminer01.........(i have tried using multiple pools, keeps reverting back to topminer01 on slushpool)    is there something i'm missing?  is there a different system password that someone could be accessing to get into it and change everything?  i'm at a loss at this point.....   

[Biffa]

update on my end.    i thought i had it figured out.   but i woke up this morning and was wrong.....   so i reflashed, setup a totally different vlan than it was on, added it on a totally different wifi network instead of the same ether connection it was on before, setup the pool and password on startup, clicked on settings and users and changed the main password to one that is different from default and different than my dashboard login, fired it up, working great, temps around 45 and 62, ran great for 5-8 hours, woke up, changed back to slushpool and topminer01.........(i have tried using multiple pools, keeps reverting back to topminer01 on slushpool)    is there something i'm missing?  is there a different system password that someone could be accessing to get into it and change everything?  i'm at a loss at this point.....   

Where did you buy it?

[cd1177]

update on my end.    i thought i had it figured out.   but i woke up this morning and was wrong.....   so i reflashed, setup a totally different vlan than it was on, added it on a totally different wifi network instead of the same ether connection it was on before, setup the pool and password on startup, clicked on settings and users and changed the main password to one that is different from default and different than my dashboard login, fired it up, working great, temps around 45 and 62, ran great for 5-8 hours, woke up, changed back to slushpool and topminer01.........(i have tried using multiple pools, keeps reverting back to topminer01 on slushpool)    is there something i'm missing?  is there a different system password that someone could be accessing to get into it and change everything?  i'm at a loss at this point.....   

Where did you buy it?

from futurebit.  one full node and 3 standard units. 

[Biffa]

update on my end.    i thought i had it figured out.   but i woke up this morning and was wrong.....   so i reflashed, setup a totally different vlan than it was on, added it on a totally different wifi network instead of the same ether connection it was on before, setup the pool and password on startup, clicked on settings and users and changed the main password to one that is different from default and different than my dashboard login, fired it up, working great, temps around 45 and 62, ran great for 5-8 hours, woke up, changed back to slushpool and topminer01.........(i have tried using multiple pools, keeps reverting back to topminer01 on slushpool)    is there something i'm missing?  is there a different system password that someone could be accessing to get into it and change everything?  i'm at a loss at this point.....   

Where did you buy it?

from futurebit.  one full node and 3 standard units. 

OK just wanted to rule out third party tampering before you got it.

What pool are you using? Have you tried other pools?

[ROcrypto]

@jstefanop.... Why no answer to the pool issue....? I have sent you a private message about this also....😩

[cd1177]

update on my end.    i thought i had it figured out.   but i woke up this morning and was wrong.....   so i reflashed, setup a totally different vlan than it was on, added it on a totally different wifi network instead of the same ether connection it was on before, setup the pool and password on startup, clicked on settings and users and changed the main password to one that is different from default and different than my dashboard login, fired it up, working great, temps around 45 and 62, ran great for 5-8 hours, woke up, changed back to slushpool and topminer01.........(i have tried using multiple pools, keeps reverting back to topminer01 on slushpool)    is there something i'm missing?  is there a different system password that someone could be accessing to get into it and change everything?  i'm at a loss at this point.....   

Where did you buy it?

from futurebit.  one full node and 3 standard units. 

OK just wanted to rule out third party tampering before you got it.

What pool are you using? Have you tried other pools?

yep i've used multiple.  i am not currently using slushpool however.  its so strange, i go through all these steps.  it runs fine on the pool i set, then at random it will go back to this topminero1 workername on slushpool as others have seen.  with reflashing and all that and setting the default pool to something totally different, i just can't understand how it keeps changing without some sort of a compromise or something.  like i said, after yesterday, it had a new network, new ip, isoloated from anything else in my network, all the passwords on the unit that i know of changed, unless there's more i don't know about or some kind of a virus or bug or something....

[ROcrypto]

update on my end.    i thought i had it figured out.   but i woke up this morning and was wrong.....   so i reflashed, setup a totally different vlan than it was on, added it on a totally different wifi network instead of the same ether connection it was on before, setup the pool and password on startup, clicked on settings and users and changed the main password to one that is different from default and different than my dashboard login, fired it up, working great, temps around 45 and 62, ran great for 5-8 hours, woke up, changed back to slushpool and topminer01.........(i have tried using multiple pools, keeps reverting back to topminer01 on slushpool)    is there something i'm missing?  is there a different system password that someone could be accessing to get into it and change everything?  i'm at a loss at this point.....  

Where did you buy it?

from futurebit.  one full node and 3 standard units.  

OK just wanted to rule out third party tampering before you got it.

What pool are you using? Have you tried other pools?

yep i've used multiple.  i am not currently using slushpool however.  its so strange, i go through all these steps.  it runs fine on the pool i set, then at random it will go back to this topminero1 workername on slushpool as others have seen.  with reflashing and all that and setting the default pool to something totally different, i just can't understand how it keeps changing without some sort of a compromise or something.  like i said, after yesterday, it had a new network, new ip, isoloated from anything else in my network, all the passwords on the unit that i know of changed, unless there's more i don't know about or some kind of a virus or bug or something....

Please check your private messages. I have sent you a private message.

[Biffa]

update on my end.    i thought i had it figured out.   but i woke up this morning and was wrong.....   so i reflashed, setup a totally different vlan than it was on, added it on a totally different wifi network instead of the same ether connection it was on before, setup the pool and password on startup, clicked on settings and users and changed the main password to one that is different from default and different than my dashboard login, fired it up, working great, temps around 45 and 62, ran great for 5-8 hours, woke up, changed back to slushpool and topminer01.........(i have tried using multiple pools, keeps reverting back to topminer01 on slushpool)    is there something i'm missing?  is there a different system password that someone could be accessing to get into it and change everything?  i'm at a loss at this point.....   

Where did you buy it?

from futurebit.  one full node and 3 standard units. 

OK just wanted to rule out third party tampering before you got it.

What pool are you using? Have you tried other pools?

yep i've used multiple.  i am not currently using slushpool however.  its so strange, i go through all these steps.  it runs fine on the pool i set, then at random it will go back to this topminero1 workername on slushpool as others have seen.  with reflashing and all that and setting the default pool to something totally different, i just can't understand how it keeps changing without some sort of a compromise or something.  like i said, after yesterday, it had a new network, new ip, isoloated from anything else in my network, all the passwords on the unit that i know of changed, unless there's more i don't know about or some kind of a virus or bug or something....

OK

The config file that the miner uses to populate the pool login details is called "miner_config" and is located in: /opt/apolloapi/backend/apollo-miner/

If you SSH into the miner you can cd to that directory and view it with "cat miner_config" command

So I would first, SSH in while the miner is set how you like it, then check that file to make sure it has saved the settings.

Then if it switches back to slushpool and the other account, check again and see if the file has changed.

You can also see the log for the miner in that directory called miner.events

[jstefanop]

update on my end.    i thought i had it figured out.   but i woke up this morning and was wrong.....   so i reflashed, setup a totally different vlan than it was on, added it on a totally different wifi network instead of the same ether connection it was on before, setup the pool and password on startup, clicked on settings and users and changed the main password to one that is different from default and different than my dashboard login, fired it up, working great, temps around 45 and 62, ran great for 5-8 hours, woke up, changed back to slushpool and topminer01.........(i have tried using multiple pools, keeps reverting back to topminer01 on slushpool)    is there something i'm missing?  is there a different system password that someone could be accessing to get into it and change everything?  i'm at a loss at this point.....  

Where did you buy it?

from futurebit.  one full node and 3 standard units.  

OK just wanted to rule out third party tampering before you got it.

What pool are you using? Have you tried other pools?

yep i've used multiple.  i am not currently using slushpool however.  its so strange, i go through all these steps.  it runs fine on the pool i set, then at random it will go back to this topminero1 workername on slushpool as others have seen.  with reflashing and all that and setting the default pool to something totally different, i just can't understand how it keeps changing without some sort of a compromise or something.  like i said, after yesterday, it had a new network, new ip, isoloated from anything else in my network, all the passwords on the unit that i know of changed, unless there's more i don't know about or some kind of a virus or bug or something....

OK

The config file that the miner uses to populate the pool login details is called "miner_config" and is located in: /opt/apolloapi/backend/apollo-miner/

If you SSH into the miner you can cd to that directory and view it with "cat miner_config" command

So I would first, SSH in while the miner is set how you like it, then check that file to make sure it has saved the settings.

Then if it switches back to slushpool and the other account, check again and see if the file has changed.

You can also see the log for the miner in that directory called miner.events

First thing you need to change is the default root password. Please remember that the root password is public, so if someone gains access to your network and scans it and finds "futurebit-btc" its pretty easy for them to do a google search and figure out how to log in and take over your unit. This applies to almost any miner / open source firmware or devices on your network.

You can change the default password in the OS settings using a monitor:

Power Button on Upper right hand corner -> Settings -> Users -> Change password

OR

SSH into your device  (futurebit/futurebit123) and type password update command

Code:

passwd

Ideally you should do this right after a fresh SD card install before you connect the device to your network with a monitor keyboard and mouse, that way if you have another compromised system on your network it does not have a chance to auto log in and hijack your Apollo.

This is just temporary though and you need to find the root cause of how they are accessing your network in the first place, which is probably another compromised system/device on your network.

Everyone should be doing this regardless, and in a future update we will be implementing more security measures like setting the dashboard password you initially set up to the root password as well.

[Bude Stacks]

1) Is it possible to use the in screen keyboard option at the Apollo os login screen? I don't have a keyboard I can leave permanently hooked up to the Apollo unit, it would be much more convenient if I could use the mouse to pick the password letters using an on-screen keyboard.

2) Also, has anybody set up a VPN on the Apollo unit? I'm thinking about using my free windscribe account (50gb/mo) but weary of breaking anything custom setup for the miner/node to work.

Thanks!

I use my dVPN  from Deeper Network just fine

Is that only a hardware solution or do they have a downloadable as well?

Are these results in line with what others are getting?https://i.ibb.co/71Rtrkh/Screenshot-20220225-135252-Chrome-Beta.jpg

And if anyone is looking to upgrade their SSD to 2TB...  https://slickdeals.net/f/15619948-2tb-samsung-970-evo-plus-ssd-200-free-s-h-at-amazon