CGminer v3.8.5 on Broadcom based DD-WRT / OpenWRT

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

Hey, does this allow the actual Broadcom chip to be used for hashing as well?  Or does it only allow the router to be used to send out the work to the child devices as the parent?  And, if it does do hashing itself, what numbers are we seeing out of these?

[streblo]

No it doesn't, and if it did, I would imagine the speed would be ca. 0.1MH/s -- in other words, totally pointless.

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

No it doesn't, and if it did, I would imagine the speed would be ca. 0.1MH/s -- in other words, totally pointless.

I'm not so certain about that.  Routers handle some pretty heavy loads when it comes to encryption and decryption.  Remember, they handle WPA2 with AES in heavy numbers per second.  Keeping that in mind, it wouldn't be totally careless to think they could handle some SHA-256 as well at a decent rate.  If so, we could be looking at lower-cost hashing power.

[streblo]

No it doesn't, and if it did, I would imagine the speed would be ca. 0.1MH/s -- in other words, totally pointless.

I'm not so certain about that.  Routers handle some pretty heavy loads when it comes to encryption and decryption.  Remember, they handle WPA2 with AES in heavy numbers per second.  Keeping that in mind, it wouldn't be totally careless to think they could handle some SHA-256 as well at a decent rate.  If so, we could be looking at lower-cost hashing power.

I ran p_shep's cgminer on a e3000 without any hashing hardware connected and it errors out. So, AFAICT, mining on the broadcom 480MHz processor isn't possible at the moment.

It's certainly an interesting idea, if a dedicated router could SHA-256 hash quickly. I think it's negligible though because unless there's onboard dedicated hardware for SHA512 hashes (AFAIK, no routers have this -- and if they did the mining community would have found and bought them), it will be CPU mining with a 480MHz processor which just isn't that fast (esp. without difficult assembly optimizations).

[P_Shep]

When I was first fiddling about with cgminer on a router I enabled CPU mining just to test it out. It didn't submit a single share in the hour or two I left it on. It took so long a long poll would come through and wipe out the work before it completed.
As to dedicated hardware to do the job... that feasible, but even if there was a hardware SHA256, I think the processor that does that (wireless) and the routing etc., is separate from the CPU, so I don't know how practice it might really be as far as getting the work done. Then you get into the whole Broadcom doesn't release their datasheets thing.

[Chefnet]

@p_shep what is with my pm? No anwser?

[P_Shep]

@p_shep what is with my pm? No anwser?

Ah right, forgot about that!

[Jaryu]

ok got my e3000 with dd-wrt and even installed optware and it works fine, but now I am stuck... the instructions say to copy files to the storage device;
(Unpack the mipsel CGminer package. (Suggest you copy the .tar.gz to the router and untar it there)

but I have no idea how to do that over the telnet, I am also not a linux person so I have no idea what to do there either. Any help would be apreciated, thanks.

[P_Shep]

Look at the samba tutorials on dd-wrt website.
You can also enable samba via the web interface.

[nanook7]

I am hoping someone here can answer.

After a bit of research I still can't find out if the ASUS WL-520gU wireless router
uses the correct chipset to run CGminer from this thread?

Anyone have any ideas?

thanks

[P_Shep]

Looks like it could. Processor and mem is a bit low, but I think should be just about sufficient.

dd-wrt wiki:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_WL-520GU

[nanook7]

Looks like it could. Processor and mem is a bit low, but I think should be just about sufficient.

dd-wrt wiki:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_WL-520GU

Thanks, I found one at a garage sale for $5.  I'll give it a try later.

[GoldZuGeld]

4mb flash could be a bit too small for open-wrt + ztex files

[BR0KK]

That's why u ll use a USB stick


Just got my raspi pi today and I got it running there. When I find some time I'll try open wrt

[P_Shep]

POOP!

I moved my Asus RT-N16 over to be my host as the e3000 was over heating in the hot weather.
The asus was also occasional resetting (though nowhere near as often) so decided to 'mod' it and ad a fan.
Well somewhere something went wrong and now it's bricked.
My guess is that in removing the existing heatsink I broke some of the BGAs or something.

Very annoying.

[P_Shep]

AAaaaaand... it came back to life.

Weird.

[streblo]

A few things:

(1) I got cgminer working with my BFLs. P_shep, do you want your 10 BTC donation to your pan handling address?
(2) It seems if I disconnect a BFL single (usually on accident), it won't start mining until I do a "#service cgminer stop && service cgminer start". The log file says something about, IIRC, /dev/usb/tty/0 not being readable. Is there a way to make BFL singles hot-swappable?
(3) Every few days my e3000 will disconnect from the wireless and I have to reboot it. Anyone know of a cronjob to restart the wireless every day or so? (EDIT: I think this will work "wl radio off && wl radio on")

EDIT2: Here is a great fix-wifi-if-broken script: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Useful_Scripts#Reset_Wireless_Radio

[P_Shep]

Great! well done

1)
2) Yep. When I get time I'll look into hotswap stuff. It really shouldn't be TOO difficult. As it is, when you unplug a device and plug it back in it enumerates to a different serial port. Since you start CGMiner with set ports, it'll only look at those, and so will miss the new port created when you plug the device back in.
3) I've had some over heating issues now the really hot weather has kicked in, but my router just reset. The only time I had trouble with the radio stopping was when I used the most recent firmware. Its a shame to used such a cludge like that script, but if it works...


Edit:
2) Thinking about it, scanning the serial ports is very system specific. I would have to cater for other devices too in cgminer.
An easier option may be just to edit the start up script cgminer.sh...
If you move the DEVS='...' line to inside the while loop, then all you need to do is quit cgminer via a api command (as opposed to service restart). Next time around the loop the new serial port will be picked up by the script and used in the cmd line. You can also reduce the sleep time so it comes back up quicker.

[unclemantis]

That is pretty neat. talk about a conversation piece. Kinda like a modern industrial art piece.

[P_Shep]

Perhaps I should spray-paint it all bronze/brass/copper, hide the wires in copper pipes, and add random rivets.

Steam-punk mining.