Best mining software settings for the BFL single

[jamesg]

Hello fellow bitcoiners,

Since BFL singles are flying out all over the world to eagerly awaiting purchasers, I wanted to start a thread to find and list the best settings to use with the single. So if you have a single and have tested some settings, share them!

Thanks,
gigavps

* Looks at Fred0  

[rjk]

Hello fellow bitcoiners,

Since BFL singles are flying out all over the world to eagerly awaiting purchasers, I wanted to start a thread to find and list the best settings to use with the single. So if you have a single and have tested some settings, share them!

Thanks,
gigavps

* Looks at Fred0  

Well, for starters I can't be bothered to look through the cgminer thread to find out what I am doing wrong. What flags are usually used for no gpus and only BFL units with cgminer?

For ufasoft, I use this:

Code:

bitcoin-miner-x64.exe -i 2 -o http://user:pass@pool.com:8332

And I can add and remove devices without a software hiccup, since it recognizes them as soon as they are plugged in.

[jamesg]

So far for cgminer I have something similar to this.

Code:

-o http://pool.com:8332 -u username -p x -I 9 --api-listen --failover-only -S /dev/ttyUSB0 -S /dev/ttyUSB1 -S /dev/ttyUSB2 -S /dev/ttyUSB3 -S /dev/ttyUSB4

Since I am on linux and have more than 1 single, I have to specify each one in the config.

In BAMT to get things to show up in the monitoring tools I do:

Code:

settings:
  cgminer: 1
  cgminer_opts: -o http://pool.com:8332 -u username -p x -I 9 --api-listen --failover-only -S /dev/ttyUSB0 -S /dev/ttyUSB1 -S /dev/ttyUSB2 -S /dev/ttyUSB3 -S /dev/ttyUSB4
  do_cgsnoop: 1
  do_bcast_status: 0
  do_mgpumon: 1

You have to use cgsnoop to broadcast things directly from cgminer since GPUmon and mGPUmon are designed to work with, wait for it, GPUs.

[P_Shep]

Well, for starters I can't be bothered to look through the cgminer thread to find out what I am doing wrong. What flags are usually used for no gpus and only BFL units with cgminer?

For ufasoft, I use this:

Code:

bitcoin-miner-x64.exe -i 2 -o http://user:pass@pool.com:8332

And I can add and remove devices without a software hiccup, since it recognizes them as soon as they are plugged in.

If you're using the cgminer binaries, it won't work - BFL is disabled by default, you need re-compile it with it enabled.

[rjk]

Well, for starters I can't be bothered to look through the cgminer thread to find out what I am doing wrong. What flags are usually used for no gpus and only BFL units with cgminer?

For ufasoft, I use this:

Code:

bitcoin-miner-x64.exe -i 2 -o http://user:pass@pool.com:8332

And I can add and remove devices without a software hiccup, since it recognizes them as soon as they are plugged in.

If you're using the cgminer binaries, it won't work - BFL is disabled by default, you need re-compile it with it enabled.

Ah that's where I was tripping up. I like the plug-n-play ufasoft version, so I don't have to specify each device, but I want my BAMT charts and graphs

[P_Shep]

I'm sure very soon cgminer will have it enabled by default

[RoloTonyBrownTown]

I'm currently using:

Code:

cgminer -o http://pool.com:8332 -u x -p x -S COM7 --disable-gpu

Seems to work      Haven't bothered with Intensity as I'm getting a pretty steady 830ish Mh (according to cgminer anyway, but I'm not sure how much I trust that figure)

[zefir]

Two things for cgminer: first, as P_Shep noted, FPGAs are not supported in cgminer's default build configuration. If working with Linux, build your BFL-only cgminer with

Code:

./autogen.sh && ./configure --disable-opencl --enable-bitforce && make

Second, due to the fact that the Singles are working the full nonce range en-block, there are no mining related parameters. If you read the BFL-only cgminer's help message (./cgminer --help), you'll see that those parameters you usually fight with to get GPU mining optimized (e.g. intensity) are missing. The only parameter that is considered for FPGAs is the --temp-cutoff that is meant to stop a device that reached the given temp (default: 95°C). But since the Singles are throttling themselves, they a) never reach the default cuttoff temp and b) it does not really make sense to use a lower value since the devices take care themselves to not burst into flames.

I'm still waiting for my Singles to test, therefore this is only from what the code says.


Tl;dr: there are no 'best mining settings for the BFL single' in cgminer.

[jamesg]

Two things for cgminer: first, as P_Shep noted, FPGAs are not supported in cgminer's default build configuration. If working with Linux, build your BFL-only cgminer with

Code:

./autogen.sh && ./configure --disable-opencl --enable-bitforce && make

Second, due to the fact that the Singles are working the full nonce range en-block, there are no mining related parameters. If you read the BFL-only cgminer's help message (./cgminer --help), you'll see that those parameters you usually fight with to get GPU mining optimized (e.g. intensity) are missing. The only parameter that is considered for FPGAs is the --temp-cutoff that is meant to stop a device that reached the given temp (default: 95°C). But since the Singles are throttling themselves, they a) never reach the default cuttoff temp and b) it does not really make sense to use a lower value since the devices take care themselves to not burst into flames.

I'm still waiting for my Singles to test, therefore this is only from what the code says.


Tl;dr: there are no 'best mining settings for the BFL single' in cgminer.

Hi zefir, what about the queue for BFL singles? What about forcing the submission of stale work? How do these play into running the BFL single correctly?

I think there are other options to be played with that may or may not help to optimize the single. Thoughts?

[jamesg]

I want my BAMT charts and graphs

Hi rjk,

The latest BAMT v0.5 with all of the fixes has cgminer compiled with BFL support. I donated heavily to also have lodcrappo fix up BAMT to recognize singles.

You can have your BFL singles and BAMT too! 

[rjk]

I want my BAMT charts and graphs

Hi rjk,

The latest BAMT v0.5 with all of the fixes has cgminer compiled with BFL support. I donated heavily to also have lodcrappo fix up BAMT to recognize singles.

You can have your BFL singles and BAMT too! 

Cool, I need to get around to trying it.

[Mousepotato]

Sorry for the slightly off-topic post, but is BFL getting new orders delivered within 4-6 weeks?  I remember seeing a thread about who ordered when and if it had been shipped/delivered yet.  But the search feature on SMF is horribad and I can't find that thread anymore.  I really want to order some Singles, but not if I have to wait 2 months.

[BTC-engineer]

Sorry for the slightly off-topic post, but is BFL getting new orders delivered within 4-6 weeks?  I remember seeing a thread about who ordered when and if it had been shipped/delivered yet.  But the search feature on SMF is horribad and I can't find that thread anymore.  I really want to order some Singles, but not if I have to wait 2 months.

Here it is.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67887.0

[zefir]

[...]
Tl;dr: there are no 'best mining settings for the BFL single' in cgminer.

Hi zefir, what about the queue for BFL singles? What about forcing the submission of stale work? How do these play into running the BFL single correctly?

I think there are other options to be played with that may or may not help to optimize the single. Thoughts?

Sure that parameters are still available with FPGA miners, but they are not directly related to mining itself. Those you named are for pool management, and this depends on the pools you use, the fallback strategies you like etc. You need to know if your pool honors stale shares, but thats independent of the used device. Like we know from kano's explanation in another thread that P2Pool is not the best choice for Singles.

You might even prefer going solo, as soon as your C200 and RigBoxes arrive

Or were you explicitly asking for the best BFS settings when mining for the major pools around?

[Turbor]

Two things for cgminer: first, as P_Shep noted, FPGAs are not supported in cgminer's default build configuration. If working with Linux, build your BFL-only cgminer with

I hope we will see a working build for win7 soon ! I want to run Icarus and the singles with cgminer.

[zefir]

Two things for cgminer: first, as P_Shep noted, FPGAs are not supported in cgminer's default build configuration. If working with Linux, build your BFL-only cgminer with

I hope we will see a working build for win7 soon ! I want to run Icarus and the singles with cgminer.

Building cgminer for Windows is not quite trivial, not sure if other devs than Con are actually doing them. I once started de-coupling cgminer dependencies to make it compilable with VisualStudio but gave up after realizing that a) it's to much work and b) Windows folks are not really interested in building their programs for themselves...

[P_Shep]

There's a full guide floating around to compile cgminer for windows. Not sure where though.

[P_Shep]

http://pastebin.com/3pzivj32

[Turbor]

http://pastebin.com/3pzivj32

I'm lazzy... i give out a 5 BTC bounty for a working (Icarus and BFL) windows build.

[jamesg]

http://pastebin.com/3pzivj32

I'm lazzy... i give out a 5 BTC bounty for a working (Icarus and BFL) windows build.

Please start your own thread for this.