[SOLVED] Bitcoin mining cgminer help

CincinnatiKid · 08-21-2017, 10:00 PM

Hello all. I have never given a try at bitcoin mining before so I thought I would give it a shot. I signed up for a bitcoin pool at slushpool, installed cgminer from the ubuntu repo. Here is the issue I am having:

Code:

root@david-desktop:/home/david# cgminer --userpass user:pass --url stratum+tcp://stratum.slushpool.com:3333

 cgminer version 4.9.2 - Started: [2017-08-21 22:57:32]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (5s):0.000 (1m):0.000 (5m):0.000 (15m):0.000 (avg):0.000h/s
 A:0  R:0  HW:0  WU:0.0/m
 Connected to stratum.slushpool.com diff 128 with stratum as user cincinnatikid85.worker1
 Block: c066f207...  Diff:923G  Started: [22:58:12]  Best share: 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [U]SB management [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [2017-08-21 22:57:29] Started cgminer 4.9.2
 [2017-08-21 22:57:31] No devices detected!
 [2017-08-21 22:57:31] Waiting for USB hotplug devices or press q to quit
 [2017-08-21 22:57:31] Probing for an alive pool
 [2017-08-21 22:57:32] Pool 0 difficulty changed to 2048
 [2017-08-21 22:57:32] Network diff set to 923G
 [2017-08-21 22:57:59] Pool 0 difficulty changed to 409
 [2017-08-21 22:57:59] Stratum from pool 0 requested work restart
 [2017-08-21 22:57:59] Stratum from pool 0 requested work restart
 [2017-08-21 22:58:12] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2017-08-21 22:58:43] Pool 0 difficulty changed to 128
 [2017-08-21 22:58:43] Stratum from pool 0 requested work restart

I don't think it is working because of the "No devices detected" above. I have a nvidia card, so I tried install nvidia cuda with:

Code:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-cuda-dev

That didn't help. Does anyone have any experience or know how to set this up?

Edit: I also tried install nvidia-opencl-dev

rtmistler · 08-22-2017, 06:52 AM

It's looking for optional PGAs

You don't appear to have any.

CincinnatiKid · 08-22-2017, 10:37 AM

I have an nvidia card, GTeForce GT 740. Here is output of clinfo if it helps at all:

Code:

david@david-desktop:~$ clinfo
Number of platforms                               1
  Platform Name                                   NVIDIA CUDA
  Platform Vendor                                 NVIDIA Corporation
  Platform Version                                OpenCL 1.2 CUDA 8.0.0
  Platform Profile                                FULL_PROFILE
  Platform Extensions                             cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_fp64 cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_icd cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_nv_compiler_options cl_nv_device_attribute_query cl_nv_pragma_unroll cl_nv_copy_opts cl_nv_create_buffer
  Platform Extensions function suffix             NV

  Platform Name                                   NVIDIA CUDA
Number of devices                                 1
  Device Name                                     GeForce GT 740
  Device Vendor                                   NVIDIA Corporation
  Device Vendor ID                                0x10de
  Device Version                                  OpenCL 1.2 CUDA
  Driver Version                                  375.66
  Device OpenCL C Version                         OpenCL C 1.2 
  Device Type                                     GPU
  Device Profile                                  FULL_PROFILE
  Device Topology (NV)                            PCI-E, 01:00.0
  Max compute units                               2
  Max clock frequency                             993MHz
  Compute Capability (NV)                         3.0
  Device Partition                                (core)
    Max number of sub-devices                     1
    Supported partition types                     None
  Max work item dimensions                        3
  Max work item sizes                             1024x1024x64
  Max work group size                             1024
  Preferred work group size multiple              32
  Warp size (NV)                                  32
  Preferred / native vector sizes                 
    char                                                 1 / 1       
    short                                                1 / 1       
    int                                                  1 / 1       
    long                                                 1 / 1       
    half                                                 0 / 0        (n/a)
    float                                                1 / 1       
    double                                               1 / 1        (cl_khr_fp64)
  Half-precision Floating-point support           (n/a)
  Single-precision Floating-point support         (core)
    Denormals                                     Yes
    Infinity and NANs                             Yes
    Round to nearest                              Yes
    Round to zero                                 Yes
    Round to infinity                             Yes
    IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add               Yes
    Support is emulated in software               No
    Correctly-rounded divide and sqrt operations  Yes
  Double-precision Floating-point support         (cl_khr_fp64)
    Denormals                                     Yes
    Infinity and NANs                             Yes
    Round to nearest                              Yes
    Round to zero                                 Yes
    Round to infinity                             Yes
    IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add               Yes
    Support is emulated in software               No
    Correctly-rounded divide and sqrt operations  No
  Address bits                                    64, Little-Endian
  Global memory size                              2094923776 (1.951GiB)
  Error Correction support                        No
  Max memory allocation                           523730944 (499.5MiB)
  Unified memory for Host and Device              No
  Integrated memory (NV)                          No
  Minimum alignment for any data type             128 bytes
  Alignment of base address                       4096 bits (512 bytes)
  Global Memory cache type                        Read/Write
  Global Memory cache size                        32768
  Global Memory cache line                        128 bytes
  Image support                                   Yes
    Max number of samplers per kernel             32
    Max size for 1D images from buffer            134217728 pixels
    Max 1D or 2D image array size                 2048 images
    Max 2D image size                             16384x16384 pixels
    Max 3D image size                             4096x4096x4096 pixels
    Max number of read image args                 256
    Max number of write image args                16
  Local memory type                               Local
  Local memory size                               49152 (48KiB)
  Registers per block (NV)                        65536
  Max constant buffer size                        65536 (64KiB)
  Max number of constant args                     9
  Max size of kernel argument                     4352 (4.25KiB)
  Queue properties                                
    Out-of-order execution                        Yes
    Profiling                                     Yes
  Prefer user sync for interop                    No
  Profiling timer resolution                      1000ns
  Execution capabilities                          
    Run OpenCL kernels                            Yes
    Run native kernels                            No
    Kernel execution timeout (NV)                 Yes
  Concurrent copy and kernel execution (NV)       Yes
    Number of async copy engines                  1
  printf() buffer size                            1048576 (1024KiB)
  Built-in kernels                                
  Device Available                                Yes
  Compiler Available                              Yes
  Linker Available                                Yes
  Device Extensions                               cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_fp64 cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_icd cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_nv_compiler_options cl_nv_device_attribute_query cl_nv_pragma_unroll cl_nv_copy_opts cl_nv_create_buffer

NULL platform behavior
  clGetPlatformInfo(NULL, CL_PLATFORM_NAME, ...)  NVIDIA CUDA
  clGetDeviceIDs(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL, ...)   Success [NV]
  clCreateContext(NULL, ...) [default]            Success [NV]
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU)  No devices found in platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU)  No platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ACCELERATOR)  No devices found in platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_CUSTOM)  No devices found in platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL)  No platform

ICD loader properties
  ICD loader Name                                 OpenCL ICD Loader
  ICD loader Vendor                               OCL Icd free software
  ICD loader Version                              2.2.11
  ICD loader Profile                              OpenCL 2.1

Any ideas?

rtmistler · 08-22-2017, 11:19 AM

Nothing in particular. I'd recommend you read cgminer's documentation, they have tons on their argument lists for the various possible peripherals and I'm not sure (by lieu of not reading exhaustively) if that card is covered, versus not.

What I can say is that the author/maintainer of cgminer is inundated with requests and what they seem to have said is to run with the highest debug flags enabled and then send your log file output, so whatever proper support address or site they recommend in their documentation, and they'll get back to you.

I didn't evaluate how old their documentation was or whether or not it seems current, but there were tons of versions of cgminer on their site and I simply clicked the documentation for the latest version without checking it's release date.

I don't know how much you've really looked into this. Check out the web, and under Youtube there's one guy in the US who makes videos talking about the feasibility for making money, mining bitcoins where he talks about the antminer versions 1 through ... wherever they are now, he has videos for June 2017 and July 2017, presumably will continue until he gets tired of it. His points are that he used to do it, he's looking at it for the cost of equipment and cost of electricity, versus the gain from the mining, and offering his perspective to viewers. It's interesting stuff and I'm convinced that for the USB dongle as well as some of the initial antminer platforms, mining is a joke. There's also some stuff where people use older antminers and submerge them in mineral oil to cool them and improve their efficiency. As an electronics designer, it's .... interesting to see.

And then there's a video of the "largest bitcoin mining place in the US" location classified, or "not revealed". I don't know if there are similar analysis of using a general purpose computer attached to helper hardware and which various data pumps work better, versus not.

CincinnatiKid · 08-22-2017, 12:39 PM

I gave up on cgminer. I found a new mining software: poclbm.py that detects my video card, however I am still having an issue:

I tried this:

Code:

david@david-desktop:~/Downloads/miner/poclbm$ ./poclbm.py cincinnatikid85.worker1:test@stratum+tcp://stratum.slushpool.com:3333
22/08/2017 13:31:58, Ignored invalid server entry: cincinnatikid85.worker1:test@stratum+tcp://stratum.slushpool.com:3333

OpenCL devices:

[0]	GeForce GT 740

No devices specified, using all GPU devices


At least one server is required

I also tried this:

Code:

david@david-desktop:~/Downloads/miner/poclbm$ ./poclbm.py --user=cincinnatikid85.worker1 --pass=test stratum+tcp://stratum.slushpool.com:3333
Usage: poclbm.py [OPTION]... SERVER[#tag]...
SERVER is one or more [http[s]|stratum://]user:pass@host:port          (required)
[#tag] is a per SERVER user friendly name displayed in stats (optional)

poclbm.py: error: no such option: --user

Here is the help file:

Code:

david@david-desktop:~/Downloads/miner/poclbm$ ./poclbm.py --help
Usage: poclbm.py [OPTION]... SERVER[#tag]...
SERVER is one or more [http[s]|stratum://]user:pass@host:port          (required)
[#tag] is a per SERVER user friendly name displayed in stats (optional)

Options:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --verbose             verbose output, suitable for redirection to log file
  -q, --quiet           suppress all output except hash rate display
  --proxy=PROXY         specify as
                        [[socks4|socks5|http://]user:pass@]host:port (default
                        proto is socks5)
  --no-ocl              don't use OpenCL
  --no-bfl              don't use Butterfly Labs
  --stratum-proxies     search for and use stratum proxies in subnet
  -d DEVICE, --device=DEVICE
                        comma separated device IDs, by default will use all
                        (for OpenCL - only GPU devices)

  Miner Options:
    -r RATE, --rate=RATE
                        hash rate display interval in seconds, default=1 (60
                        with --verbose)
    -e ESTIMATE, --estimate=ESTIMATE
                        estimated rate time window in seconds, default 900 (15
                        minutes)
    -t TOLERANCE, --tolerance=TOLERANCE
                        use fallback pool only after N consecutive connection
                        errors, default 2
    -b FAILBACK, --failback=FAILBACK
                        attempt to fail back to the primary pool after N
                        seconds, default 60
    --cutoff-temp=CUTOFF_TEMP
                        AMD GPUs, BFL only. For GPUs requires
                        github.com/mjmvisser/adl3. Comma separated
                        temperatures at which to skip kernel execution, in C,
                        default=95
    --cutoff-interval=CUTOFF_INTERVAL
                        how long to not execute calculations if CUTOFF_TEMP is
                        reached, in seconds, default=0.01
    --no-server-failbacks
                        disable using failback hosts provided by server

  OpenCL Options:
    Every option except 'platform' and 'vectors' can be specified as a
    comma separated list. If there aren't enough entries specified, the
    last available is used. Use --vv to specify per-device vectors usage.

    -p PLATFORM, --platform=PLATFORM
                        use platform by id
    -w WORKSIZE, --worksize=WORKSIZE
                        work group size, default is maximum returned by OpenCL
    -f FRAMES, --frames=FRAMES
                        will try to bring single kernel execution to 1/frames
                        seconds, default=30, increase this for less desktop
                        lag
    -s FRAMESLEEP, --sleep=FRAMESLEEP
                        sleep per frame in seconds, default 0
    --vv=VECTORS        use vectors, default false
    -v, --vectors       use vectors

Any ideas? I can't believe it is this tough, lol.

rtmistler · 08-22-2017, 01:12 PM

My idea would be to purchase a mining server (a.k.a. mining appliance which is a single purpose embedded piece of electronics) that is specifically designed for the purpose of ecurrency mining.

I have no practical experience with software running on a system, talking to assistance hardware or software.

My recommendation is to study the topic more thoroughly versus jump in with experiments. Or if you are jumping in with experiments, then you need to read the documentation that these software solutions are offering to you, or check forums where there specifically are questions about them already. Such as in the case where I web search for things like C# source solutions for certain things, I typically find them on a different site, and for Linux questions, I find them here. However this is a highly specialized version of Linux, and unless others chime in or we happen to have a sub-forum specifically for mining (I do not believe we do), then you are as up to speed as most on LQ, with the exception that you are currently trying some of these software options.

CincinnatiKid · 08-22-2017, 02:52 PM

I got this to work by removing the protocol from the command, like this:

Code:

david@david-desktop:~/Downloads/miner/poclbm$ ./poclbm.py cincinnatikid85.worker1:test@stratum.slushpool.com:3333

I am just playing around with this to see if it is something I might want to get more serious about and buy an appliance etc... I'm not planning or thinking I am going to make money with my GeForce GT 740, lol.