(OLD) BFGMiner: modular FPGA/GPU, GBT, Stratum, RPC, Avalon/Lnx/OpnWrt/PPA/W64

[Luke-Jr]

Since the newest version 1 out of 4 singles dies after a few minutes. Restarting bfg miner gives me another few minutes.

Is it always the same Single? Can you (or anyone else experiencing this) meet me on IRC (later today - about to go to bed) to troubleshoot?

chat.freenode.net #eligius

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[nitrox]

bfgminer 2.6.1
windows 7 x64
driver 12.6
SDK 2.7

D:\bfgminer>bfgminer.exe -o http://X.X.X:XXXX -u XX -p XX  --scrypt -g 1 -I 13 --shaders 1792 --thread-concurrency 1792 --lookup-gap 2
 [2012-08-02 19:33:27] bfgminer.exe: --scrypt: unrecognized option

[Luke-Jr]

bfgminer 2.6.1
windows 7 x64
driver 12.6
SDK 2.7

D:\bfgminer>bfgminer.exe -o http://X.X.X:XXXX -u XX -p XX  --scrypt -g 1 -I 13 --shaders 1792 --thread-concurrency 1792 --lookup-gap 2
 [2012-08-02 19:33:27] bfgminer.exe: --scrypt: unrecognized option

Doh, I added SCRYPT-README to the release, but forgot to --enable-scrypt

I've added it to my list of issues to fix for 0.6.2, which probably won't be too long.

[nitrox]

 [2012-08-02 20:51:24] bfgminer.exe: --enable-scrypt: unrecognized option

[Luke-Jr]

[2012-08-02 20:51:24] bfgminer.exe: --enable-scrypt: unrecognized option

It's a configure option, during compiling. Here's a 2.6.1 drop-in EXE replacement with scrypt: http://luke.dashjr.org/tmp/code/bfgminer-7fc3a74.exe

[Luke-Jr]

NEW VERSION 2.6.3, AUGUST 6 2012

Human readable changelog:

• Complete rewrite of the queueing mechanism which gets new work from the pools. The code in that section had gotten out of hand and become a "state machine" that was difficult to model its behaviour and occasionally led to stalls during startup and what-not without work and perhaps queued too much work in general. Now it monitors carefully the amount of queued and available work on a pool-by-pool basis and only queues when needed, but tries hard to make sure it doesn't run empty. You will notice the the TQ value now hovers around zero when all is well, and only jumps up transiently, all going well. Hopefully the efficiency is even higher now too. Detection of pool lag should be more accurate now, and less shares should leak to backup pools now as well.
• Numerous bugfixes and workarounds for ModMiner driver, bringing it to a functional level even on Windows.
• Scrypt support enabled for Windows binaries.
• Can set failover-only mode now from the menu during runtime.
• One-shot schedules (exactly one of --sched-stop or --sched-start) now handle times beyond midnight properly.
• ModMiner now shows bitstream upload in summary line rather than spamming the log (progress is still logged every 10% for timestamps).
• The RPC API should be able to bind to the port immediately on linux now instead of having to wait 60 seconds as it used to.
• Proper big endian (routers) support, including fixing and enabling functionality that crashed before.
• Minimal support for the Enterpoint's Cairnsmore1 FPGA mining board
• Throttling episodes on bitforce devices will now perform reasonably (given the circumstances) and/or register as HW errors.
• Support for all FPGA drivers enabled by default when compiling from source.

Full changelog

• modminer: Relax no-nonces downclocking condition to be more reasonable
• README: Update scrypt configure option
• README: Update configure options
• Bugfix: Display --disable-modminer in configure --help now that it is enabled by default
• Add specific information when ADL detects error -10 saying the device is not enabled.
• modminer: Shorten upload warning message to fit better
• modminer: Sending a "ping" first, to workaround bug in new firmware betas
• modminer: Include Hardware Errors and Valid Nonces in extra device status
• Bugfix: modminer: Calculate bad-nonce percentage based only on the same FPGA's hardware errors, accurately
• modminer: Show bitstream upload progress in statline, and only report to log every 10%
• modminer: Be more verbose about why the clock is getting reduced
• Document how Icarus golden nonce is handled by other FPGAs
• Rewrite should_run for sched, to properly handle one-shot schedules spanning midnight
• Bugfix: Check list_empty in pop_curl_entry after condition wait
• Bugfix: Only add new pools to array after completing basic structure initialization
• If __BFGMINER_SEGFAULT_ERRQUIT is set in the environment, segfault on non-zero quit()s
• Check against NULL pointers getting into curlring
• modminer: Finish a process results run with a nonce poll, rather than sleep
• modminer: Workaround Windows driver failures
• Count likely throttling episodes on bitforce devices as hardware errors.
• Bugfix: bitforce: Increase serial read timeout to 30 seconds during actual mining, to tolerate more throttling
• Style cleanups.
• Make pool_disabled the first in the enums == 0, fixing the pool enabled count which compares if value is not enabled before enabling it.
• Correct writing of scrypt parameters to config file based on command line parameters only.
• Add scrypt support while writing conf
• Use different variables for command line specified lookup gap and thread concurrency to differentiate user defined versus auto chosen values.
• Queue a request on pool switch in case we have no work from the new pool yet.
• API remove unused warning in non-GPU compile
• api.c in linux allow to open a closed socket in TIME_WAIT
• Display failover only mode in pool menu and allow it to be toggled live.
• Reinstate check for system queueing lag when the current pool's queue is maxed out, there is no staged work, and the work is needed now.
• Fix harmless warnings.
• Check the current staged and global queued as well before queueing requests. Discard stales before ageing work in the watchdog thread. Queue requests after discarding and ageing work in watchdog thread. Display accurate global queued in curses output. Reuse variable in age_work().
• The queueing mechanism has become a complex state machine that is no longer predictable. Rewrite it from scratch watching only current queues in flight and staged work available on a pool by pool basis.
• Update debian package configs to v2.6.2
• Queue an extra request whenever staged work drops below mining thread count in hash_pop.
• Bugfix: Initialize logwin to 1 line high temporarily, to avert PDCurses crash
• Enable FPGA support by default, as long as their dependencies are met
• Bugfix: modminer: Search for *ModMiner* in udev ID_MODEL
• make-release: build with --enable-scrypt
• miner.php support custom report section joins
• ICA default fpga_count to work_division if specified
• FPGA-README document new hidden --icarus-options
• ICA support 57600 baud rate, up to 8 FPGA and partial working FPGA boards
• Scrypt mining does not support block testing yet so don't try to print it.
• Clear the bitforce buffer whenever we get an unexpected result as it has likely throttled and we are getting cached responses out of order, and use the temperature monitoring as a kind of watchdog to flush unexpected results.
• It is not critical getting the temperature response in bitforce so don't mandatorily wait on the mutex lock.
• Check there is a cutoff temp actually set in bitforce before using it as a cut off value otherwise it may think it's set to zero degrees.
• We dropped the temporary stopping of curl recruiting on submit_fail by mistake, reinstate it.
• Make threads report in either side of the scanhash function in case we miss reporting in when restarting work.
• Add debugging output when work is found stale as to why.
• Print the 3 parameters that are passed to applog for a debug line in bitforce.c
• Clear bitforce buffer on init as previously.
• Add some headroom to the number of curls available per pool to allow for longpoll and sendwork curls.
• Show the correct base units on GPU summary.
• Bugfix: bitforce: 1 decisecond timeout is unreasonably short, give it a second
• Bugfix: Don't try to log abandon time, since we aren't keeping track reasonably
• Import uthash 1.9.6
• Bugfix: bitforce: Pause after send_work failures
• Fix comm error handling to not consider work restarts an error condition
• comm error bug fix
• Bugfix: No endian.h on Windows
• Remove unused mkinstalldirs
• Display scrypt as being built in as well.
• Fix build warning about KL_SCRYPT when built without scrypt support.
• News update.
• More scrypt intensity information.
• Minor readme updates.
• Update README with more build instructions.
• Remove the low hash count determinant of hardware being sick. A low hash rate can be for poor network connectivity or scrypt mining, neither of which are due to sick hardware.
• Style
• API-README poolpriority changes
• api.c verify poolpriority parameters before changing pools
• api.c poolpriority changes
• Implement shared swap32(yes|tole|tobe) function to handle endian flipping 32-bit chunks in blocks
• Use correct macros for endian handling code

[kano]

Seriously?
You want to take AMD Copyright code and put it in bfgminer and remove their copyright?
Copyright (c) 2008 - 2009 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Seriously?

https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/commit/9a69a317123592eec5374a4b7893e4fe3c2f9d7a

Please note, anyone who uses this software after the current release, you are using code that violates AMD's license until this commit is removed.

At this point I'd also add that you are violating the GPL3 license of cgminer.

Please cease distribution of bfgminer until this licence violation is rectified.

[Luke-Jr]

Seriously?
You want to take AMD Copyright code and put it in bfgminer and remove their copyright?
Copyright (c) 2008 - 2009 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Seriously?

https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/commit/9a69a317123592eec5374a4b7893e4fe3c2f9d7a

Please note, anyone who uses this software after the current release, you are using code that violates AMD's license until this commit is removed.

At this point I'd also add that you are violating the GPL3 license of cgminer.

Please cease distribution of bfgminer until this licence violation is rectified.

Interfaces/APIs are not copyrightable. See the recent Oracle v Google judgement. In addition to the Java lawsuit, note that Google also does the same thing with Linux headers for Android.

CGMiner and BFGMiner have always used AMD's ADL interfaces, previously with their non-free SDK. So technically, both have been infringing on Jeff Garzik's copyright all along (the rest of us made an implicit exception by contributing code to a codebase where that was already the case) since the SDK is not GPL compatible. Moving to free interfaces as future BFGMiner versions will do, in fact makes it completely GPL compliant.

[kano]

Seriously?
You want to take AMD Copyright code and put it in bfgminer and remove their copyright?
Copyright (c) 2008 - 2009 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Seriously?

https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/commit/9a69a317123592eec5374a4b7893e4fe3c2f9d7a

Please note, anyone who uses this software after the current release, you are using code that violates AMD's license until this commit is removed.

At this point I'd also add that you are violating the GPL3 license of cgminer.

Please cease distribution of bfgminer until this licence violation is rectified.

Interfaces/APIs are not copyrightable. See the recent Oracle v Google judgement. In addition to the Java lawsuit, note that Google also does the same thing with Linux headers for Android.

CGMiner and BFGMiner have always used AMD's ADL interfaces, previously with their non-free SDK. So technically, both have been infringing on Jeff Garzik's copyright all along (the rest of us made an implicit exception by contributing code to a codebase where that was already the case) since the SDK is not GPL compatible. Moving to free interfaces as future BFGMiner versions will do, in fact makes it completely GPL compliant.

You have copied their *.h files and removed their comments and copyright notices.

[wizkid057]

Seriously?
You want to take AMD Copyright code and put it in bfgminer and remove their copyright?
Copyright (c) 2008 - 2009 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Seriously?

https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/commit/9a69a317123592eec5374a4b7893e4fe3c2f9d7a

Please note, anyone who uses this software after the current release, you are using code that violates AMD's license until this commit is removed.

At this point I'd also add that you are violating the GPL3 license of cgminer.

Please cease distribution of bfgminer until this licence violation is rectified.

Interfaces/APIs are not copyrightable. See the recent Oracle v Google judgement. In addition to the Java lawsuit, note that Google also does the same thing with Linux headers for Android.

CGMiner and BFGMiner have always used AMD's ADL interfaces, previously with their non-free SDK. So technically, both have been infringing on Jeff Garzik's copyright all along (the rest of us made an implicit exception by contributing code to a codebase where that was already the case) since the SDK is not GPL compatible. Moving to free interfaces as future BFGMiner versions will do, in fact makes it completely GPL compliant.

You have copied their *.h files and removed their comments and copyright notices.

So long as the specific code used to implement a method is different, anyone is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API. It does not matter that the declaration or method header lines are identical. Under the rules of Java, they *must be identical* to declare a method specifying the same functionality - even when the implementation is different.

When there is only one way to express an idea or function, then everyone is free to do so and no one can monopolize that expression. And, while the Android method and class names could have been different from the names of their counterparts in Java and still have worked, copyright protection never extends to names or short phrases as a matter of law.

Ref: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/06/02/google-wins-oracle-loses-java-api-case-closed-for-now/
Case document: http://www.scribd.com/doc/95477548/Oracle-v-Google-Order-Regarding-Copyrightability-of-APIs

[rjk]

I wasn't sure about it before, but now I am fairly sure that wizkid is nothing more than a shill for Luke-Jr, probably the only one he has ever had in his poor insipid life.

There is no reason to remove copyright notices and comments; you didn't write the code in the first place - and copying it all by hand does not count as writing it in such a manner that it happens to coincide or be identical to the original. Removing copyright and license notices does not make the code "free", like you might wish it to become, no matter how much you twist it around in your delusional mind.

The simple fact of the matter is that you did not write the code independently of them, and would not have been able to either, without first seeing their implementation.

[Luke-Jr]

There is no reason to remove copyright notices and comments; you didn't write the code in the first place - and copying it all by hand does not count as writing it in such a manner that it happens to coincide or be identical to the original. Removing copyright and license notices does not make the code "free", like you might wish it to become, no matter how much you twist it around in your delusional mind.

The simple fact of the matter is that you did not write the code independently of them, and would not have been able to either, without first seeing their implementation.

No, you're misunderstanding. The point is that this isn't code.

[wizkid057]

... I am fairly sure that wizkid is nothing more than a shill for Luke-Jr ...

That got a laugh out of me, thanks. 

[Luke-Jr]

Announcing BFGMiner Ubuntu PPA implemented and maintained by "unit3"

Now you can easily install BFGMiner on Ubuntu:

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unit3/bfgminer

These packages have full support for all FPGAs, GPUs, and CPUs.

As usual, if you have any problems, please report them to our issue tracker.

[CrazyGuy]

For some reason when I use 2.4.4 and save out the configuration file. When I restart it comes up with fatal JSON error.

And I have to enter all my pools again.

Phil

I am also getting this error.  Has this issue been fixed.  Thanks.

Yes, that was fixed in 2.5.2

Still an issue for me. I'm using the latest 2.6.3 windows build with a mixture of gpus and singles (perhaps that's the issue?). Using a batch script to set all options now and avoiding the cfg file.

[Luke-Jr]

For some reason when I use 2.4.4 and save out the configuration file. When I restart it comes up with fatal JSON error.

And I have to enter all my pools again.

Phil

I am also getting this error.  Has this issue been fixed.  Thanks.

Yes, that was fixed in 2.5.2

Still an issue for me. I'm using the latest 2.6.3 windows build with a mixture of gpus and singles (perhaps that's the issue?). Using a batch script to set all options now and avoiding the cfg file.

I found another bug: when writing the config file, it doesn't properly escape backslashes "\". If you change those to forward slashes "/", it should work from then on. The backslash escaping will be fixed in the next release.

[Luke-Jr]

There is probably a bug with detecting dead GPUs that aren't really dead, so hold off before you take your "dead" GPUs to the shooting range or dumpster. Right now, it's only been confirmed to be a problem with CGMiner, but I hope to have confirmation on whether it affects BFGMiner soon.

Also, it's probably best to verify any SICK or DEAD reports in some other way before getting rid of the device in general.

[Luke-Jr]

NEW VERSION 2.6.4, AUGUST 11 2012

Human readable changelog:

• More drastic improvements to ModMiner clock adjustment algorithm. Downclocking should be more conservative, and BFGMiner will even raise the clock speed when it's doing well.
• ModMiners are now kept busier (less idle time) and nonces are checked against the previous work to catch races. This may result in a higher utility (effective hashrate).
• Tested and fixed problems managing throttling BitFORCE Singles. An 880 MH/s Single that was throttling to 440 MH/s before (and throwing lots of garbled errors) is now working cleanly at 590 MH/s - a 34% improvement in hashrate!
• A bunch of annoying crashes were fixed:
  • With high-share devices when network connectivity is lost.
  • GPU mining not functional when any OpenCL platform fails.
  • Occasional deadlock/hang during exit.
• New --debuglog option to include debug information in log file (see README) but not in main console.
• The scrypt code was updated - now ALL results from a GPU are checked to see if they're valid and if not, instead of being submitted where they are guaranteed to be rejected, they register as hardware errors. This will make tuning your scrypt parameters easier as HW error count will rise if you've set the parameters too high.
• Updated miner.php from Kano

Full changelog

• Bugfix: Define my_cancellable_getch in miner.h
• Escape " and \ when writing json config file
• miner.php allow a custom page section to select all fields with '*' - e.g. to create a STATS section on a custom page
• miner.php optional single rig totals (on by default)
• Bugfix: Initialize submitting mutex
• Bugfix: bitforce: Allocate enough space for FTDI description pointers
• Queue one request for each staged request removed, keeping the staged request count optimal at all times.
• Bugfix: Avoid cancelling threads while locks are held
• Set recognizable names on threads for debugging
• Bugfix: Don't keep making new get_work threads if all pools are dead
• Enable configuring submission thread limit with --submit-threads option
• Bugfix: Limit active submission threads to 0x40 so we don't overflow
• Bugfix: Properly handle switching to pools that aren't on the latest block, and warn if a pool actively switches to an old block
• Log more details of reasons in stale_work debug messages
• Failsafe against stale-on-arrival work: disable the pool
• Bugfix: Debug message should show "Work stale due to work restart" when it's not a share
• windows-build: Remove APP SDK section since it is no longer needed
• modminer: HACK: Let last_work handle the end of the work, and start the next one immediately
• Bugfix: modminer: Remove erroneous "else" statement, to fix hashrate reporting
• README: Document user group required for FPGAs on Gentoo and Ubuntu
• BFGMiner-specific README adjustments
• Bugfix: opencl: Ignore error getting device ids from platforms unless they are explicitly chosen
• New --debuglog option to include debug info in stderr logfile even if not in the console
• Bumped down debhelper compatibility reqs so that this will build on Lucid.
• Updated to match packaging changes.
• Switched to native packages so we don't have to muck around creating fake upstream tarballs, and can easily generate minor versions for upload to Launchpad.
• Removed accidentally included debugging line.
• Minor version bump again because of launchpad. Will sort this out for next release.
• Updated to patch bitforce module issue on Debian/Ubuntu.
• Added local quilt config dir to ignore.
• modminer: Check nonce against previous work, in case of race
• Bugfix: Enable --kernel-path option if ModMiner or Ztex is enabled (even if no OpenCL)
• Bugfix: Escape backslashes and double-quotes in strings that rightfully may have them, when writing JSON config file
• Clean object (.o) and dependency (.d) files out of source tree
• Bugfix: bitforce: Don't count hashes that never happened due to throttling
• Bugfix: Deal with serial_open timeout maximum (25.5s)
  • fpgautils: Linux only supports uint8_t decisecond values for timeouts, so use uint8_t for timeout value; this gets smart compilers to throw warnings when overflowed in some cases
  • bitforce: Reduce serial timeout to 25 seconds (was 30) and increase job long timeout to 25 seconds (was 15) to handle throttling gracefully
• modminer: Add debug info to API extra device stats
• modminer: Raise clock speed when there's only good nonces for a while
• modminer: Only print clock speed adjustments when they actually change
• modminer: Increase tolerance for bad nonces to 2%
• modminer: Reset bad-nonce ratio measurement when the clock speed changes
• Bugfix: bitforce: Include the correct device id in "garbled response" warning
• ADL: Add attribution and disclaimer to interfaces
• Cleaned out refs to AMD SDKs.
• Updated README about debian packaging, changelog with minor version bump to work around Launchpad reqs.
• Updated changelog with Ubuntu release specific version, needed to build for multiple releases. Also stripped out ADL SDK stuff in the build rules.
• Initial work to adjust debian packaging from cgminer. Should build correctly now with pbuilder/pdebuild, and include docs.
• Adapt miner code to free ADL structures
• Import free ADL interfaces
• Include scrypt.h in Makefile.
• Fix windows bitforce build.
• Convert the serial autodetect functions to use int instead of char to enumerate devices.
• Deuglify windows autodetect code for BFL.
• There is no point zeroing temperature in BFL if we fail to get a response, and we should register it as a HW error, suggesting throttling.
• Update SCRYPT README with information about HW errors.
• Use the scrypt CPU code to confirm results from OCL code, and mark failures as HW errors, making it easier to tune scrypt parameters.
• We may as well leave one curl still available per pool instead of reaping the last one.
• Display reaped debug message outside mutex lock to avoid recursive locking.
• api.c update API start message and include port number
• miner.php ignore arg when readonly
• miner.php allow pool inputs: delete, addpool, poolpriority
• bitforce: Reopen on communication error
• Bugfix: Calculate hw err percent for the affected FPGA only
• make-release: Adapt to new autogen by using NOCONFIGURE var

[torusJKL]

This looks like an interesting mining software.
Is there support for the X6500 (rev2 & rev3) planned?

[Luke-Jr]

This looks like an interesting mining software.
Is there support for the X6500 (rev2 & rev3) planned?

Planned, as soon as nelisky ships the X6500 he was given to do it (long story), but he's been unresponsive.