ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[maxood]

I am trying to compile the latest cgminer for S3.
I spent some time to configure my environment and now I can build and run some old cgminer versions.

But I do not have enough time to understand cgminer code and I could not build the latest, 4.6 cgminer
driver-bitmain.c depends on a few deprecated but important functions:
- clone_queued_work_byid
- inc_work_stats
- submit_nonce_direct
It there anybody who can explain how can I replace these functions with the new cgminer api?

[valkyrie69]

Hi guys,

I just got started with my first Antminer S3 and one of the features I liked the look of was the ability to specify three pools and mine from them simultaneously. I figured that this would mean a more stable level of mining income for me since using three pools would mean that the risk of one pool being very unlucky in any given time period would be offset by the chance of one of the other two pools being above average lucky. All things being equal, it should mean getting closer to a miner's average return, rather than peaks and troughs. At least that was the theory...

When I tried this, I initially set it up with Ghash.io, Slush and BTC Guild. All was good except that GHash error rate decided to go to the moon! I started getting 60 - 80% reject rates per shift with masses of low difficulty rejects, despite specifying in their workers page to send them at diff 256. This was in stark contrast to when I first rigged it up online. I pointed it at Ghash.io alone and it performed very well, a few GH/s less than advertised but I'm only running it off of a CS550M PSU with two connectors so I hadn't expected it to overperform.

Naturally I did what any sane miner would do and ditched GHash.io in favour of Eligius  

Jokes aside, does the S3 perform as rewardingly when split between 3 pools as it does when aimed just at 1 or does some GH/s never get utilized? And does anyone know why mine struggles with GHash.io difficulty when it's aimed there as part of a balanced pool set up but works fine with GHash.io if I set it to work 100% on that pool alone?

PS Sorry to post this while an important discussion on security is going on but I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread for this or keep it in this thread where all the S3 expertise is clearly hanging out  

the purpose of three pools specification usually is NOT to split equally, but to provide a backup. BTW, you don't have to have a third pool specified, it could be just two.

Yes, I am aware I can have 1, 2 or 3 pools. My view is that since BTC Guild, Eligius and Slush combined are equal to a little less than GHash.io or Discus Fish in terms of hashing power, by mining on all three I should get a similar rate of payout to if I were on one of the big two (although I won't get to payout thresholds as quickly). I prefer this because although I'm only a tiny fish in a big ocean, I'd like bitcoin to stay decentralised and because it gives me a smoother payout rate rather than the lumpy mining that comes from putting all my hashing power on one smaller pool. A steadier payout rate means I can use my BTC for everyday purchases more easily rather than being a hoarding or trading type that is concerned with BTC's value in fiat. In short, for me it's an extra income. But that's just my philosophy. What I'm really looking for is someone who knows whether an S3 running in balance mode delivers it's full GH/s and why balance and load balance mode seem to cause trouble with Ghash.io difficulty settings.

at some pools (Slush's) you can select the payout at as low as 0.001 BTC; you can also point several miners to the same wallet address (in Eligius, just use <wallet address>_<name of the miner>), which will speed up the payouts.

Absolutely! Although Slush's is 0.01 BTC minimum, I reckon I'll still get a payout from all three each week assuming the S3 delivers in split (balance) mode.  But as I type my averages are:

Eligius - 101.81 GHs
BTC Guild - 113.38 GHs
Slush - 130 GHs

Combined this is 344 GHs which, admittedly is a figure based on pool reported speeds that can be inaccurate, but it is far enough below the S3's standard 453 GHs to cause some concern. Is it just me? Anyone else found this?

[MoreBloodWine]

hello

did anyone test the last firmware antMiner_S320140826.bin?

what gains can we achieve with this new firmwere?

If I recall, thats the last one released which went on all my miners. It allows you to set frequencies for overclocking without the need to SSH in to the system. Beyond that, I am not currently aware of any other benefits.

[-ck]

I don't have the build environment to create a full binary image, and the code will need a LOT of work to actually become part of mainline cgminer it seems, but for the time being here is a link to a bugfixed binary of cgminer 4.6.0 for the S3 based on the bitmain code. Copy the file into /usr/bin/ on the S3 overwriting the existing one:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer

[Stratobitz]

I don't have the build environment to create a full binary image, and the code will need a LOT of work to actually become part of mainline cgminer it seems, but for the time being here is a link to a bugfixed binary of cgminer 4.6.0 for the S3 based on the bitmain code. Copy the file into /usr/bin/ on the S3 overwriting the existing one:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer

Wow if this works as I'm sure it will I think we owe ckolivas a BIG thank you.

Will give it a shot. Expect a tip to your BTC address ckolivas !

Strato

[R4v37]

I don't have the build environment to create a full binary image, and the code will need a LOT of work to actually become part of mainline cgminer it seems, but for the time being here is a link to a bugfixed binary of cgminer 4.6.0 for the S3 based on the bitmain code. Copy the file into /usr/bin/ on the S3 overwriting the existing one:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer

maybe we should make a topic about this, so all people can keep up to date about this
till bitmain give us the newest cgminer

coz this page will be drowned in 2 or 3days 

mr ckolivas, maybe its better that you create the topic
coz, i saw you warned many times, but people wont know if it gets drowned 

[-ck]

I don't have the build environment to create a full binary image, and the code will need a LOT of work to actually become part of mainline cgminer it seems, but for the time being here is a link to a bugfixed binary of cgminer 4.6.0 for the S3 based on the bitmain code. Copy the file into /usr/bin/ on the S3 overwriting the existing one:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer

maybe we should make a topic about this, so all people can keep up to date about this
till bitmain give us the newest cgminer

coz this page will be drowned in 2 or 3days 

mr ckolivas, maybe its better that you create the topic
coz, i saw you warned many times, but people wont know if it gets drowned 

No there are more than enough topics already, and people can come to the cgminer thread to discuss it if they wish. I already monitor hundreds of threads and do not wish to be burdened by more.

[Fahlcor]

I don't have the build environment to create a full binary image, and the code will need a LOT of work to actually become part of mainline cgminer it seems, but for the time being here is a link to a bugfixed binary of cgminer 4.6.0 for the S3 based on the bitmain code. Copy the file into /usr/bin/ on the S3 overwriting the existing one:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer

Is there an easy way to get this onto our boxes?

Do I just get form command line or?

Thx

Fahlcor

[Fahlcor]

I don't have the build environment to create a full binary image, and the code will need a LOT of work to actually become part of mainline cgminer it seems, but for the time being here is a link to a bugfixed binary of cgminer 4.6.0 for the S3 based on the bitmain code. Copy the file into /usr/bin/ on the S3 overwriting the existing one:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer

Is there an easy way to get this onto our boxes?

Do I just get form command line or?

Thx

Fahlcor

did this

login root/root
cd..
cd /usr/bin
mkdir oldcgminer (to keep a copy of the old one)
mv cgminer oldcgminer/cgminer
wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer
reboot

seemed to work to get it there but the permissions are wrong.  sorry my nix is rusty.  any help?

[kabopar]

I don't have the build environment to create a full binary image, and the code will need a LOT of work to actually become part of mainline cgminer it seems, but for the time being here is a link to a bugfixed binary of cgminer 4.6.0 for the S3 based on the bitmain code. Copy the file into /usr/bin/ on the S3 overwriting the existing one:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer

Is there an easy way to get this onto our boxes?

Do I just get form command line or?

Thx

Fahlcor

did this

login root/root
cd..
cd /usr/bin
mkdir oldcgminer (to keep a copy of the old one)
mv cgminer oldcgminer/cgminer
wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer
reboot

seemed to work to get it there but the permissions are wrong.  sorry my nix is rusty.  any help?

Tried to follow the same steps, but it doesn't seem to start hashing - the status page parameters remain empty.  I reinstated the original cgminer and it is hashing now.

Cheers

[suchmoon]

seemed to work to get it there but the permissions are wrong.  sorry my nix is rusty.  any help?

Tried to follow the same steps, but it doesn't seem to start hashing - the status page parameters remain empty.  I reinstated the original cgminer and it is hashing now.
Cheers

Perhaps

chmod 755 cgminer

would help?

Can you try running cgminer manually from the command line?

[-ck]

Yes, make it executable with that chmod or 'chmod +x' as well.

Alternatively you can download it to your pc and copy it to the root directory and then move it across at your leisure. Eg if you're on a linux pc:

On your PC:

Code:

wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer
scp cgminer root@192.168.1.99:  [Or whatever IP address your S3 is]
ssh -l root 192.168.1.99

If you're not on linux you can use winscp for the scp part and putty for the ssh part

On the S3 after login:

Code:

/etc/init.d/cgminer stop
mv /usr/bin/cgminer /usr/bin/cgminer.bak
mv cgminer /usr/bin
/etc/init.d/cgminer start

Even after rebooting the S3 it will continue to use the new binary unless you issue a complete hardware reset.

[kabopar]

seemed to work to get it there but the permissions are wrong.  sorry my nix is rusty.  any help?

Tried to follow the same steps, but it doesn't seem to start hashing - the status page parameters remain empty.  I reinstated the original cgminer and it is hashing now.
Cheers

Perhaps

chmod 755 cgminer

would help?

Can you try running cgminer manually from the command line?

Thanks, this solved the permissions issue, and the new cgminer is running.

Cheers

[kabopar]

Yes, make it executable with that chmod or 'chmod +x' as well.

Alternatively you can download it to your pc and copy it to the root directory and then move it across at your leisure. Eg if you're on a linux pc:

On your PC:

Code:

wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer
scp cgminer root@192.168.1.99:  [Or whatever IP address your S3 is]
ssh -l root 192.168.1.99

If you're not on linux you can use winscp for the scp part and putty for the ssh part

On the S3 after login:

Code:

/etc/init.d/cgminer stop
mv /usr/bin/cgminer /usr/bin/cgminer.bak
mv cgminer /usr/bin
/etc/init.d/cgminer start

Even after rebooting the S3 it will continue to use the new binary unless you issue a complete hardware reset.

Thanks.
Is there any way to check the running version from the gui?  (it still says that the version is 3.12.0-1 under System, Software on the web gui)

Cheers

[-ck]

Thanks.
Is there any way to check the running version from the gui?  (it still says that the version is 3.12.0-1 under System, Software on the web gui)

That's just the installed package reference but you've overwritten the binary. If you are on a remote machine, from another copy of cgminer you can do the following command:

Code:

java API version 192.168.1.99

Where 192.168.1.99 is the S3.

Or on the S3 itself run

Code:

cgminer-api version

[kabopar]

Thanks.
Is there any way to check the running version from the gui?  (it still says that the version is 3.12.0-1 under System, Software on the web gui)

That's just the installed package reference but you've overwritten the binary. If you are on a remote machine, from another copy of cgminer you can do the following command:

Code:

java API version 192.168.1.99

Where 192.168.1.99 is the S3.

Or on the S3 itself run

Code:

cgminer-api version

Thanks.  Running this from a Win7 command window produces
....[VERSION] =>
(
   

• => VERSION

[CGMiner] => 4.6.0
.......

Cheers

[Fahlcor]

I have 4.6 running and according to TOP it is hashing.

But M's Ant monitor does not talk to it any more.

according to miner status it web page it is hashing fine also.

maybe I'll waiting until M gets the ant monitor updted to the 4.6 API?

I can't live without Ant Monitor.

Fahlcor

[shadow2]

Mantmonitor worked for me, are you using API access or web?   Web didn't seem overly happy when I tried it

[mdude77]

I have 4.6 running and according to TOP it is hashing.

But M's Ant monitor does not talk to it any more.

according to miner status it web page it is hashing fine also.

maybe I'll waiting until M gets the ant monitor updted to the 4.6 API?

I can't live without Ant Monitor.

Fahlcor

Bitmain used a, um, hacked version of cgminer.  The API output isn't even close to accurate.  That's why one of the later versions of the firmware broke M's Ant Monitor, as the output from the API was actually malformed (incorrect) JSON.  I had to compensate for it in my code for it to work again.

Therefore it's not a surprise that the proper API from 4.6 doesn't work.  I'll see if I can put it on my S3 in a manner that I can go back.  I think I can manage that.

M

[pekatete]

seemed to work to get it there but the permissions are wrong.  sorry my nix is rusty.  any help?

Tried to follow the same steps, but it doesn't seem to start hashing - the status page parameters remain empty.  I reinstated the original cgminer and it is hashing now.
Cheers

Perhaps

chmod 755 cgminer

would help?

Can you try running cgminer manually from the command line?

Here's what I've used and it started hashing as usual.
1. SSH into the S3 and login
2. Issue the following commands sequentially.
  a) cd /usr/bin
  b) mv cgminer cgminer.bak
  c) wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.0-140908/cgminer
  d) chmod +x cgminer
  e) reboot