CGMINER - Remove CPU mining?

[sharky112065]

Strip it out and get rid of it. People that need CPU mining have other miner software they can use.

To quote Spock...

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

Having CPU mining code is causing cgminer to be flagged by multiple AV software. Some unscrupulous people use cgminer to CPU mine against the hardware owners knowledge. When the hardware owner discovers this, they report it as malicious to the AV software companies and cgminer gets flagged.

I seriously doubt many donations (if any) are coming in from CPU miners.   

If ckolivas is not receiving donations for CPU mining there should not even be a vote IMO. So I think ckolivas should just strip it out if he wants it gone.

[1714071218]

1714071218

[1714071218]

1714071218

[1714071218]

1714071218

[DeathAndTaxes]

care to name those "other CPU miners"

Has support for SSE2.  It is in active development and now includes CPU alt-chain support which should result in continued development (at least until alt-chain fad dies out).

http://ufasoft.com/open/bitcoin/

AND spouting "used by botnets operators, rogue system admins, and trojan developers"
is just ranting pie in the sky clueless nonsense

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#Covert_.22mining.22

It is well founded.  The inefficiency of CPU (MH/W) and the sheer number of them means the only "legit" operator is one who happens to own (or have legal access) to hundreds of CPU and also happens to have access to dozens of KW of "free" power. 

Given that intersection of unlikely characteristics it isn't exactly a stretch to consider that most large scale CPU mining is being done illegally or at least covertly.

[rjk]

cpuminer-ng has some good threading optimizations and SSE4.

[RobertRibbeck]

care to name those "other CPU miners"

Has support for SSE2.  It is in active development and now includes CPU alt-chain support which should result in continued development (at least until alt-chain fad dies out).

http://ufasoft.com/open/bitcoin/

AND spouting "used by botnets operators, rogue system admins, and trojan developers"
is just ranting pie in the sky clueless nonsense

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#Covert_.22mining.22

It is well founded.  The inefficiency of CPU (MH/W) and the sheer number of them means the only "legit" operator is one who happens to own (or have legal access) to hundreds of CPU and also happens to have access to dozens of KW of "free" power. 

Given that intersection of unlikely characteristics it isn't exactly a stretch to consider that most large scale CPU mining is being done illegally or at least covertly.

thats a great recommend ufasoft

first install another program to unzip it, then figure out it's command line, then find out it don't work
on the cpu says 2 threads running unless 0 is a correct hash rate -- NOT
ok try the gpu's -- it don't know shit about nvidia cards

[DeathAndTaxes]

thats a great recommend ufasoft

first install another program to unzip it, then figure out it's command line, then find out it don't work
on the cpu says 2 threads running unless 0 is a correct hash rate -- NOT

Just for shits and giggles I tried it.  Took about 30 seconds to get it to work.

Code:

C:\bitcoin\btcm>bitcoin-miner-64.exe -g no -i 1 -o (my pool/account/worker here) -t 1
bitcoin-miner 0.25  Copyright (c) 2012 Ufasoft  http://ufasoft.com/open/bitcoin
Mining for (removed)
Using CPU (1 threads)
4.26 MHash/s
Processed: 195 Mhash, 46 s with average Rate: 4.26 MHash/s
Accepted: 0, average: 0 shares/min

I limited it to 1 thread because I didn't want it to CPU starve cgminer.

Just because you can't figure it out doesn't mean it isn't a good miner.  Hell everyday people can't figure out cgminer I guess that means it sucks too.

ok try the gpu's -- it don't know shit about nvidia cards

Which has nothing to do w/ removing CPU support from cgminer.

[jake262144]

...first install another program to unzip it...

Robert, this "another program" as you put it, 7-zip, is what currently happens to be the best free, open source, multi-platform archive manager available.
You'll be glad to have it installed so stop being so grumpy

Shame on Microsoft for not having touched their built-in compressor/decompressor for ages.

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

For me, even windows is free

[Luke-Jr]

For me, even windows is free

No, it isn't. To be free, you need to be able to legally:

• run the program, for any purpose
• study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish
• redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (including selling it)
• distribute copies of your modified versions to others

See also: the free software definition

[DeathAndTaxes]

For me, even windows is free

No, it isn't. To be free, you need to be able to legally:

• run the program, for any purpose
• study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish
• redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (including selling it)
• distribute copies of your modified versions to others

Citation: the free software definition

Thank you.

He may be able to obtain windows at NO COST (either legally or illegally) but it isn't even close to free.

Free as in free speech not free beer.

[krusaderx]

If CPU mining can be made modular (sound like this is done), and the CPU mining code tossed into a new git repo, I think you can have your cake and eat it too. 

If someone is really dependent on CPU mining w/ CGMINER, they can go find the CPU code and throw it in.  If they want feature x,y,z for CPU mining, they can code it or beg for someone to code it on the CPU module project.

I doubt CPU mining code will be the last deprecated (for the majority of users, that is) mining method.

[RobertRibbeck]

thats a great recommend ufasoft

first install another program to unzip it, then figure out it's command line, then find out it don't work
on the cpu says 2 threads running unless 0 is a correct hash rate -- NOT

Just for shits and giggles I tried it.  Took about 30 seconds to get it to work.

Code:

C:\bitcoin\btcm>bitcoin-miner-64.exe -g no -i 1 -o (my pool/account/worker here) -t 1
bitcoin-miner 0.25  Copyright (c) 2012 Ufasoft  http://ufasoft.com/open/bitcoin
Mining for (removed)
Using CPU (1 threads)
4.26 MHash/s
Processed: 195 Mhash, 46 s with average Rate: 4.26 MHash/s
Accepted: 0, average: 0 shares/min

I limited it to 1 thread because I didn't want it to CPU starve cgminer.

Just because you can't figure it out doesn't mean it isn't a good miner.  Hell everyday people can't figure out cgminer I guess that means it sucks too.

ok try the gpu's -- it don't know shit about nvidia cards

Which has nothing to do w/ removing CPU support from cgminer.

yep you are d man d hero
you can do it all in 30 sec o less]
BS

[Epoch]

thats a great recommend ufasoft

first install another program to unzip it, then figure out it's command line, then find out it don't work
on the cpu says 2 threads running unless 0 is a correct hash rate -- NOT

Just for shits and giggles I tried it.  Took about 30 seconds to get it to work.

<snip>

I limited it to 1 thread because I didn't want it to CPU starve cgminer.

Just because you can't figure it out doesn't mean it isn't a good miner.  Hell everyday people can't figure out cgminer I guess that means it sucks too.

ok try the gpu's -- it don't know shit about nvidia cards

Which has nothing to do w/ removing CPU support from cgminer.

yep you are d man d hero
you can do it all in 30 sec o less]
BS

D&T's persona here can sometimes come off as being a bit ... how shall I put it ... terse (no offense intended, D&T). But there's usually little (if anything) wrong or inaccurate with what he says. There's no need for you to be a douche.

[RobertRibbeck]

thats a great recommend ufasoft

first install another program to unzip it, then figure out it's command line, then find out it don't work
on the cpu says 2 threads running unless 0 is a correct hash rate -- NOT

Just for shits and giggles I tried it.  Took about 30 seconds to get it to work.

<snip>

I limited it to 1 thread because I didn't want it to CPU starve cgminer.

Just because you can't figure it out doesn't mean it isn't a good miner.  Hell everyday people can't figure out cgminer I guess that means it sucks too.

ok try the gpu's -- it don't know shit about nvidia cards

Which has nothing to do w/ removing CPU support from cgminer.

yep you are d man d hero
you can do it all in 30 sec o less]
BS

D&T's persona here can sometimes come off as being a bit ... how shall I put it ... terse (no offense intended, D&T). But there's usually little (if anything) wrong or inaccurate with what he says. There's no need for you to be a douche.

ok I got it to ufasoft to work & its giving better hash rate than cgminer
color me GONE

[-ck]

ok I got it to ufasoft to work & its giving better hash rate than cgminer
color me GONE

You are allowed to change your vote too

[simonk83]

To be honest I didn't even really know that cgminer was CPU capable, as I've never had to use it    Obviously I'm happy for it to be removed.

As a person who has a couple of BitForce units ordered though, I'm extremely happy to see support for that included, top work Luke/Con

[-ck]

I'd say the votes are pretty conclusive. Thanks everyone for your input. For simplicity I'll be making it a compile time selection for now, default off. This has already been committed to the git tree and will be in the next version. I will no longer be releasing binaries with CPU mining support built in and if it proves innocuous in this fashion, it will be left that way. Should issues arrive, it will be deprecated entirely in a future version.

[DeathAndTaxes]

I'd say the votes are pretty conclusive. Thanks everyone for your input. For simplicity I'll be making it a compile time selection for now, default off. This has already been committed to the git tree and will be in the next version. I will no longer be releasing binaries with CPU mining support built in and if it proves innocuous in this fashion, it will be left that way. Should issues arrive, it will be deprecated entirely in a future version.

Sounds sensible.  Complete removal would clean up the giant list of command line & config file parameters.  Maybe the readme can be updated to segregate the cpu related params given they have no effect on default builds (and pre-built binaries)?

Code:

--algo|-a <arg>     Specify sha256 implementation for CPU mining:
        auto            Benchmark at startup and pick fastest algorithm
        c               Linux kernel sha256, implemented in C
        4way            tcatm's 4-way SSE2 implementation
        via             VIA padlock implementation
        cryptopp        Crypto++ C/C++ implementation
        sse2_64         SSE2 64 bit implementation for x86_64 machines
        sse4_64         SSE4.1 64 bit implementation for x86_64 machines (default: sse2_64)
--cpu-threads|-t <arg> Number of miner CPU threads (default: 4)
--disable-gpu|-G    Disable GPU mining even if suitable devices exist
--enable-cpu|-C     Enable CPU mining with GPU mining (default: no CPU mining if suitab

[The00Dustin]

The disable gpu option wouldn't be a cpu only option, as it would also be good for someone mining with FPGAs that wants their video card to do 3D work.

[DeathAndTaxes]

The disable gpu option wouldn't be a cpu only option, as it would also be good for someone mining with FPGAs that wants their video card to do 3D work.

Good point.  I got to stop thinking so binary.  CPU vs GPU.

[-ck]

Maybe the readme can be updated to segregate the cpu related params given they have no effect on default builds (and pre-built binaries)?

Good idea.