Use Beagleboard/Pandaboard to run FGPA mining rig

[bulanula]

Just try to use your ARM linux as a workstation with java, eclipse, chrome WITH flash support and spotify, skype, wine etc. If you wan't to do anything else in your life you won't be able to.

Exactly. All these fools thinking they will go for ARM or MIPS or another BS architecture like that will hit a brick wall.

Fact of the matter is that x86 is KING and most supported. No x86, no dice.

Stick to i686 or amd64 if you don't want to be dreaming about cross compiling in your sleep

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[Red Emerald]

Just try to use your ARM linux as a workstation with java, eclipse, chrome WITH flash support and spotify, skype, wine etc. If you wan't to do anything else in your life you won't be able to.

Exactly. All these fools thinking they will go for ARM or MIPS or another BS architecture like that will hit a brick wall.

Fact of the matter is that x86 is KING and most supported. No x86, no dice.

Stick to i686 or amd64 if you don't want to be dreaming about cross compiling in your sleep

I don't think anyone plans on using the beagleboard as a workstation.  If this is a dedicated FPGA mining setup, it won't need to have any of that bloat on it.  I don't see a problem.

[P_Shep]

Just try to use your ARM linux as a workstation with java, eclipse, chrome WITH flash support and spotify, skype, wine etc. If you wan't to do anything else in your life you won't be able to.

Exactly. All these fools thinking they will go for ARM or MIPS or another BS architecture like that will hit a brick wall.

Fact of the matter is that x86 is KING and most supported. No x86, no dice.

Stick to i686 or amd64 if you don't want to be dreaming about cross compiling in your sleep

I'm not sure you two have any idea what you're talking about.
I've already cross compiled cgminer for my router.

Thanks for your input though, I'll now not use my router as a workstation.

[Red Emerald]

I've already cross compiled cgminer for my router.

Why?

[bulanula]

Just try to use your ARM linux as a workstation with java, eclipse, chrome WITH flash support and spotify, skype, wine etc. If you wan't to do anything else in your life you won't be able to.

Exactly. All these fools thinking they will go for ARM or MIPS or another BS architecture like that will hit a brick wall.

Fact of the matter is that x86 is KING and most supported. No x86, no dice.

Stick to i686 or amd64 if you don't want to be dreaming about cross compiling in your sleep

I'm not sure you two have any idea what you're talking about.
I've already cross compiled cgminer for my router.

Thanks for your input though, I'll now not use my router as a workstation.

Still, don't try and tell me that it is easier / faster to run cgminer on ARM compared to x86 because that simply is not true.

Most people are running it on x86 and that is where the support is at. ARM is just a hack and rarely done except by the complicated few who can't spend a few bucks to get a proper desktop for FPGA only mining.

[Red Emerald]

Most people are running it on x86 and that is where the support is at. ARM is just a hack and rarely done except by the complicated few who can't spend a few bucks to get a proper desktop for FPGA only mining.

It is a mining rig and so should be considered a server, not a desktop.

The whole point of FPGAs is the lower wattage. ARM beats the crap out of x86 when it comes to power usage.

[P_Shep]

I've already cross compiled cgminer for my router.

Why?

So I can attach my BFLs to it! Why else!?

Still, don't try and tell me that it is easier / faster to run cgminer on ARM compared to x86 because that simply is not true.

Who the crap said it would be easier? It's not, but it certainly ain't no 'Brick wall'!
Cheaper components (USB router $60, ATOM et al. = $200), less energy (USB router 20W, ATOM et al. 80W).
We're here to make money, right?

Oh, and in-built wireless. Can put it anywhere in the house.

[Red Emerald]

I've already cross compiled cgminer for my router.

Why?

So I can attach my BFLs to it! Why else!?

Ah yes. Forgot what this thread was about lol

[rjk]

I've already cross compiled cgminer for my router.

Why?

So I can attach my BFLs to it! Why else!?

Still, don't try and tell me that it is easier / faster to run cgminer on ARM compared to x86 because that simply is not true.

Who the crap said it would be easier? It's not, but it certainly ain't no 'Brick wall'!
Cheaper components (USB router $60, ATOM et al. = $200), less energy (USB router 20W, ATOM et al. 80W).
We're here to make money, right?

Oh, and in-built wireless. Can put it anywhere in the house.

P_Shep, sorry if this has been covered already, but what model of router are you using that has USB port(s) on it? Most that I have seen with that feature either couldn't be used for custom fimrware, or were rather expensive.

[P_Shep]

Newegg currently has Linksys E3000 (MIPSEL 480MHz, 64Mb RAM, 8Mb FLASH, 1xUSB 2.0) for $56
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124419
Or there's the ASUS RT-N16 (MIPSEL 480, 128Mb RAM, 32Mb Flash, 2xUSB 2.0) for $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320038

You can install DD-WRT on both of these, and add extra tools/utilities with optware on an external drive.

I currently have the asus running as a media server, my Anubis server, VPN server, Torrent manager, and various other bits and pieces.

[rjk]

Newegg currently has Linksys E3000 (MIPSEL 480MHz, 64Mb RAM, 8Mb FLASH, 1xUSB 2.0) for $56
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124419
Or there's the ASUS RT-N16 (MIPSEL 480, 128Mb RAM, 32Mb Flash, 2xUSB 2.0) for $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320038

You can install DD-WRT on both of these, and add extra tools/utilities with optware on an external drive.

I currently have the asus running as a media server, my Anubis server, VPN server, Torrent manager, and various other bits and pieces.

How much would you charge to buy one, flash it with DD-WRT, install Anubis, and make it BFL/Icarus/Ztex/x6500-ready? That would be really cool.

[P_Shep]

WAY more than it's worth

I'll be compiling cgminer for myself when new versions come out, so I can release that (it'll work on both the above routers).
I could probably write some sort of guide on how to set it up.

[Red Emerald]

WAY more than it's worth

I'll be compiling cgminer for myself when new versions come out, so I can release that (it'll work on both the above routers).
I could probably write some sort of guide on how to set it up.

I don't think cgminer has api support for FPGAs (yet), so I don't think Anubis will work.

EDIT: Here's the bounty https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=66699.0

[P_Shep]

Just ran cgminer on my router with CPU mining enabled for the hell of it (because I can).
Over the 20 mins I ran it, it averaged a whopping 0.1MH/s, and didn't submit a single share... it was taking so long, the long-poll came around and reset the work.

Incidently, memory usage was ~1900bytes or maybe Kbytes (I'm not sure what HTOP lists mem in), either way, nice small footprint.
Also, the shares counters for the CPU made there way across the screen every update, must be some problem with ncurses there.

[Red Emerald]

Just ran cgminer on my router with CPU mining enabled for the hell of it (because I can).
Over the 20 mins I ran it, it averaged a whopping 0.1MH/s, and didn't submit a single share... it was taking so long, the long-poll came around and reset the work.

Incidently, memory usage was ~1900bytes or maybe Kbytes (I'm not sure what HTOP lists mem in), either way, nice small footprint.
Also, the shares counters for the CPU made there way across the screen every update, must be some problem with ncurses there.

I am pretty sure you are killing your router with that.  The CPUs usually have pretty poor cooling.

[bulanula]

Just ran cgminer on my router with CPU mining enabled for the hell of it (because I can).
Over the 20 mins I ran it, it averaged a whopping 0.1MH/s, and didn't submit a single share... it was taking so long, the long-poll came around and reset the work.

Incidently, memory usage was ~1900bytes or maybe Kbytes (I'm not sure what HTOP lists mem in), either way, nice small footprint.
Also, the shares counters for the CPU made there way across the screen every update, must be some problem with ncurses there.

I am pretty sure you are killing your router with that.  The CPUs usually have pretty poor cooling.

Indeed. Most of them get very hot.

I would discourage trying to mine on any router simply because the heat mining produces was not meant to be dissipated into that tiny router case.

Maybe try adding a heatsink and fan and air paths if you want to do that.

[Red Emerald]

Just ran cgminer on my router with CPU mining enabled for the hell of it (because I can).
Over the 20 mins I ran it, it averaged a whopping 0.1MH/s, and didn't submit a single share... it was taking so long, the long-poll came around and reset the work.

Incidently, memory usage was ~1900bytes or maybe Kbytes (I'm not sure what HTOP lists mem in), either way, nice small footprint.
Also, the shares counters for the CPU made there way across the screen every update, must be some problem with ncurses there.

I am pretty sure you are killing your router with that.  The CPUs usually have pretty poor cooling.

Indeed. Most of them get very hot.

I would discourage trying to mine on any router simply because the heat mining produces was not meant to be dissipated into that tiny router case.

Maybe try adding a heatsink and fan and air paths if you want to do that. investing your time in something useful.

FTFY

[P_Shep]

I was just experimenting
There's no way the router could mine, even with long-poll disabled, it's so slow that by the time a single share has been calculated, it'll be stale. Just ran it for 20 mins to see how it works. Without a BFL (currently on my 8th of 4-6 weeks) cgminer don't do much

[The LT]

Jesus, why would it cross anyone's mind that P_Shep wanted to MINE on a router? Daaaamn... Wouldn't you guys think that if a guy managed to figure out how to cross-compile cgminer for MIPS (or what's in there) would be stupid enough to do mining on a router? Almost everyone these days knows cgminer has preliminary support for FPGA's...

Jeez...

[Tamerz]

In case anyone runs into this like I did, it is perfectly possible to do this. I just got it up and running with cgminer 2.11.4 on a BeagleBoard revision B5 board. I just used the Ubuntu instructions here:

http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu

Then built with the cgminer instructions. My BFL Single is happily hashing along with no problems.