README 47 KB

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  1. BFGMiner:
  2. St. Barbara's Faithfully Glorified Mining Initiative Naturally Exceeding Rivals
  3. or Basically a Freaking Good Miner
  4. This is a multi-threaded multi-pool ASIC, FPGA, GPU and CPU miner with dynamic
  5. clocking, monitoring, and fanspeed support for bitcoin. Do not use on multiple
  6. block chains at the same time!
  7. This code is provided entirely free of charge by the programmer in his spare
  8. time so donations would be greatly appreciated. Please consider donating to the
  9. address below.
  10. Luke-Jr <luke-jr+bfgminer@utopios.org>
  11. 1QATWksNFGeUJCWBrN4g6hGM178Lovm7Wh
  12. DOWNLOADS:
  13. http://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/bfgminer
  14. GIT TREE:
  15. https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer
  16. Bug reports:
  17. https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/issues
  18. IRC Channel:
  19. irc://irc.freenode.net/eligius
  20. License: GPLv3. See COPYING for details.
  21. READ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BELOW FOR FIRST TIME USERS!
  22. Dependencies:
  23. autoconf http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/
  24. automake http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/
  25. libtool http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/
  26. pkg-config http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/pkg-config
  27. ...or pkgconf https://github.com/pkgconf/pkgconf
  28. libcurl4-gnutls-dev http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/
  29. libjansson-dev 2.0+ http://www.digip.org/jansson/
  30. Optional Dependencies:
  31. Text-User-Interface (TUI): curses dev library; any one of:
  32. libncurses5-dev http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ (Linux and Mac)
  33. libncursesw5-dev ^ same
  34. libpdcurses http://pdcurses.sourceforge.net/ (Linux/Mac/Windows)
  35. Multiple FPGA autodetection: any one of:
  36. sysfs (builtin to most Linux kernels, just mount on /sys)
  37. libudev-dev http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/libudev/
  38. X6500 and ZTEX FPGA boards:
  39. libusb-1.0-0-dev http://www.libusb.org/
  40. ATi/AMD video card GPU mining:
  41. AMD APP SDK http://developer.amd.com/tools/heterogeneous-computing/amd-accelerated-parallel-processing-app-sdk/
  42. CPU mining optimized assembly algorithms:
  43. yasm 1.0.1+ http://yasm.tortall.net/
  44. BFGMiner specific configuration options:
  45. --enable-avalon Compile support for Avalon (default disabled)
  46. --enable-cpumining Build with cpu mining support(default disabled)
  47. --disable-opencl Build without support for OpenCL (default enabled)
  48. --disable-adl Build without ADL monitoring (default enabled)
  49. --disable-bitforce Compile support for BitForce (default enabled)
  50. --disable-icarus Compile support for Icarus (default enabled)
  51. --disable-modminer Compile support for ModMiner (default enabled)
  52. --disable-x6500 Compile support for X6500 (default enabled)
  53. --disable-ztex Compile support for ZTEX (default if libusb)
  54. --enable-scrypt Compile support for scrypt mining (default disabled)
  55. --without-curses Compile support for curses TUI (default enabled)
  56. --without-libudev Autodetect FPGAs using libudev (default enabled)
  57. ---
  58. To build with GPU mining support:
  59. Install AMD APP sdk, ideal version (see FAQ!) - put it into a system location.
  60. Download the correct version for either 32 bit or 64 bit from here:
  61. http://developer.amd.com/tools/heterogeneous-computing/amd-accelerated-parallel-processing-app-sdk/downloads/
  62. This will give you a file with a name like:
  63. AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64.tgz (64-bit)
  64. or
  65. AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx32.tgz (32-bit)
  66. Then:
  67. sudo -i
  68. cd /opt
  69. tar xf /path/to/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx##.tgz
  70. cd /
  71. tar xf /opt/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx##/icd-registration.tgz
  72. ln -s /opt/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx##/include/CL /usr/include
  73. ln -s /opt/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx##/lib/x86_64/* /usr/lib/
  74. ldconfig
  75. Where ## is 32 or 64, depending on the bitness of the SDK you downloaded.
  76. If you are on 32 bit, x86_64 in the 2nd last line should be x86
  77. Basic *nix build instructions:
  78. ./autogen.sh # only needed if building from git repo
  79. ./configure
  80. make
  81. On Mac OS X, you can use Homebrew to install the dependency libraries. When you
  82. are ready to build BFGMiner, you may need to point the configure script at one
  83. or more pkg-config paths. For example:
  84. ./configure PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/opt/curl/lib/pkgconfig
  85. Native WIN32 build instructions: see windows-build.txt
  86. If you build BFGMiner from source, it is recommended that you run it from the
  87. build directory. On *nix, you will usually need to prepend your command with a
  88. path like this (if you are in the bfgminer directory already): ./bfgminer
  89. ---
  90. Usage instructions: Run "bfgminer --help" to see options:
  91. Usage: . [-atDdGCgIKklmpPQqrRsTouvwOchnV]
  92. Options for both config file and command line:
  93. --api-allow Allow API access (if enabled) only to the given list of [W:]IP[/Prefix] address[/subnets]
  94. This overrides --api-network and you must specify 127.0.0.1 if it is required
  95. W: in front of the IP address gives that address privileged access to all api commands
  96. --api-description Description placed in the API status header (default: BFGMiner version)
  97. --api-groups API one letter groups G:cmd:cmd[,P:cmd:*...]
  98. See README.RPC for usage
  99. --api-listen Listen for API requests (default: disabled)
  100. By default any command that does not just display data returns access denied
  101. See --api-allow to overcome this
  102. --api-network Allow API (if enabled) to listen on/for any address (default: only 127.0.0.1)
  103. --api-port Port number of miner API (default: 4028)
  104. --balance Change multipool strategy from failover to even share balance
  105. --benchmark Run BFGMiner in benchmark mode - produces no shares
  106. --coinbase-addr <arg> Set coinbase payout address for solo mining
  107. --coinbase-sig <arg> Set coinbase signature when possible
  108. --compact Use compact display without per device statistics
  109. --debug|-D Enable debug output
  110. --debuglog Enable debug logging
  111. --device|-d <arg> Select device to use, (Use repeat -d for multiple devices, default: all)
  112. --disable-rejecting Automatically disable pools that continually reject shares
  113. --expiry|-E <arg> Upper bound on how many seconds after getting work we consider a share from it stale (w/o longpoll active) (default: 120)
  114. --expiry-lp <arg> Upper bound on how many seconds after getting work we consider a share from it stale (with longpoll active) (default: 3600)
  115. --failover-only Don't leak work to backup pools when primary pool is lagging
  116. --force-dev-init Always initialize devices when possible (such as bitstream uploads to some FPGAs)
  117. --kernel-path|-K <arg> Specify a path to where bitstream and kernel files are (default: "/usr/local/bin")
  118. --load-balance Change multipool strategy from failover to efficiency based balance
  119. --log|-l <arg> Interval in seconds between log output (default: 5)
  120. --monitor|-m <arg> Use custom pipe cmd for output messages
  121. --net-delay Impose small delays in networking to not overload slow routers
  122. --no-gbt Disable getblocktemplate support
  123. --no-getwork Disable getwork support
  124. --no-longpoll Disable X-Long-Polling support
  125. --no-restart Do not attempt to restart devices that hang
  126. --no-stratum Disable Stratum detection
  127. --no-submit-stale Don't submit shares if they are detected as stale
  128. --pass|-p <arg> Password for bitcoin JSON-RPC server
  129. --per-device-stats Force verbose mode and output per-device statistics
  130. --pool-proxy|-x Proxy URI to use for connecting to just the previous-defined pool
  131. --protocol-dump|-P Verbose dump of protocol-level activities
  132. --queue|-Q <arg> Minimum number of work items to have queued (0 - 10) (default: 1)
  133. --quiet|-q Disable logging output, display status and errors
  134. --real-quiet Disable all output
  135. --remove-disabled Remove disabled devices entirely, as if they didn't exist
  136. --request-diff <arg> Request a specific difficulty from pools (default: 1.0)
  137. --retries <arg> Number of times to retry failed submissions before giving up (-1 means never) (default: -1)
  138. --rotate <arg> Change multipool strategy from failover to regularly rotate at N minutes (default: 0)
  139. --round-robin Change multipool strategy from failover to round robin on failure
  140. --scan-time|-s <arg> Upper bound on time spent scanning current work, in seconds (default: 60)
  141. --sched-start <arg> Set a time of day in HH:MM to start mining (a once off without a stop time)
  142. --sched-stop <arg> Set a time of day in HH:MM to stop mining (will quit without a start time)
  143. --scrypt Use the scrypt algorithm for mining (non-bitcoin)
  144. --sharelog <arg> Append share log to file
  145. --shares <arg> Quit after mining N shares (default: unlimited)
  146. --show-processors Show per processor statistics in summary
  147. --skip-security-checks <arg> Skip security checks sometimes to save bandwidth; only check 1/<arg>th of the time (default: never skip)
  148. --socks-proxy <arg> Set socks4 proxy (host:port) for all pools without a proxy specified
  149. --submit-threads Minimum number of concurrent share submissions (default: 64)
  150. --syslog Use system log for output messages (default: standard error)
  151. --temp-cutoff <arg> Temperature where a device will be automatically disabled, one value or comma separated list (default: 95)
  152. --temp-hysteresis <arg> Set how much the temperature can fluctuate outside limits when automanaging speeds (default: 3)
  153. --temp-target <arg> Target temperature when automatically managing fan and clock speeds
  154. --text-only|-T Disable ncurses formatted screen output
  155. --url|-o <arg> URL for bitcoin JSON-RPC server
  156. --user|-u <arg> Username for bitcoin JSON-RPC server
  157. --verbose Log verbose output to stderr as well as status output
  158. --userpass|-O <arg> Username:Password pair for bitcoin JSON-RPC server
  159. Options for command line only:
  160. --config|-c <arg> Load a JSON-format configuration file
  161. See example.conf for an example configuration.
  162. --help|-h Print this message
  163. --version|-V Display version and exit
  164. GPU only options:
  165. --auto-fan Automatically adjust all GPU fan speeds to maintain a target temperature
  166. --auto-gpu Automatically adjust all GPU engine clock speeds to maintain a target temperature
  167. --disable-gpu|-G Disable GPU mining even if suitable devices exist
  168. --gpu-threads|-g <arg> Number of threads per GPU (1 - 10) (default: 2)
  169. --gpu-dyninterval <arg> Set the refresh interval in ms for GPUs using dynamic intensity (default: 7)
  170. --gpu-engine <arg> GPU engine (over)clock range in MHz - one value, range and/or comma separated list (e.g. 850-900,900,750-850)
  171. --gpu-fan <arg> GPU fan percentage range - one value, range and/or comma separated list (e.g. 25-85,85,65)
  172. --gpu-map <arg> Map OpenCL to ADL device order manually, paired CSV (e.g. 1:0,2:1 maps OpenCL 1 to ADL 0, 2 to 1)
  173. --gpu-memclock <arg> Set the GPU memory (over)clock in MHz - one value for all or separate by commas for per card.
  174. --gpu-memdiff <arg> Set a fixed difference in clock speed between the GPU and memory in auto-gpu mode
  175. --gpu-platform <arg> Select OpenCL platform ID to use for GPU mining
  176. --gpu-powertune <arg> Set the GPU powertune percentage - one value for all or separate by commas for per card.
  177. --gpu-reorder Attempt to reorder GPU devices according to PCI Bus ID
  178. --gpu-vddc <arg> Set the GPU voltage in Volts - one value for all or separate by commas for per card.
  179. --intensity|-I <arg> Intensity of GPU scanning (d or -10 -> 10, default: d to maintain desktop interactivity)
  180. --kernel|-k <arg> Override kernel to use (diablo, poclbm, phatk or diakgcn) - one value or comma separated
  181. --ndevs|-n Enumerate number of detected GPUs and exit
  182. --no-adl Disable the ATI display library used for monitoring and setting GPU parameters
  183. --temp-overheat <arg> Overheat temperature when automatically managing fan and GPU speeds (default: 85)
  184. --vectors|-v <arg> Override detected optimal vector (1, 2 or 4) - one value or comma separated list
  185. --worksize|-w <arg> Override detected optimal worksize - one value or comma separated list
  186. scrypt only options:
  187. --lookup-gap <arg> Set GPU lookup gap for scrypt mining, comma separated
  188. --thread-concurrency <arg> Set GPU thread concurrency for scrypt mining, comma separated
  189. See README.scrypt for more information regarding (non-bitcoin) scrypt mining.
  190. FPGA mining boards (BitForce, Icarus, ModMiner, X6500, ZTEX) only options:
  191. --scan-serial|-S <arg> Serial port to probe for FPGA mining device
  192. This option is only for BitForce, Icarus, and/or ModMiner FPGAs
  193. To use FPGAs, you will need to be sure the user BFGMiner is running as has
  194. appropriate permissions. This varies by operating system.
  195. On Gentoo: sudo usermod <username> -a -G uucp
  196. On Ubuntu: sudo usermod <username> -a -G dialout
  197. Note that on GNU/Linux systems, you will usually need to login again before
  198. group changes take effect.
  199. By default, BFGMiner will scan for autodetected FPGAs unless at least one -S is
  200. specified for that driver. If you specify -S and still want BFGMiner to scan,
  201. you must also use "-S auto". If you want to prevent BFGMiner from scanning
  202. without specifying a device, you can use "-S noauto". Note that presently,
  203. autodetection only works on Linux, and might only detect one device depending
  204. on the version of udev being used. If you want to scan all serial ports, you
  205. can use "-S all"; note that this may write data to non-mining devices which may
  206. then behave in unexpected ways!
  207. On Linux, <arg> is usually of the format /dev/ttyUSBn
  208. On Windows, <arg> is usually of the format \\.\COMn
  209. (where n = the correct device number for the FPGA device)
  210. The official supplied binaries are compiled with support for all FPGAs.
  211. To force the code to only attempt detection with a specific driver,
  212. prepend the argument with the driver name followed by a colon.
  213. For example, "icarus:/dev/ttyUSB0" or "bitforce:\\.\COM5"
  214. or using the short name: "ica:/dev/ttyUSB0" or "bfl:\\.\COM5"
  215. For other FPGA details see the README.FPGA
  216. CPU only options (not included in binaries):
  217. --algo|-a <arg> Specify sha256 implementation for CPU mining:
  218. auto Benchmark at startup and pick fastest algorithm
  219. c Linux kernel sha256, implemented in C
  220. 4way tcatm's 4-way SSE2 implementation
  221. via VIA padlock implementation
  222. cryptopp Crypto++ C/C++ implementation
  223. sse2_64 SSE2 64 bit implementation for x86_64 machines
  224. sse4_64 SSE4.1 64 bit implementation for x86_64 machines (default: sse2_64)
  225. --cpu-threads|-t <arg> Number of miner CPU threads (default: 4)
  226. --enable-cpu|-C Enable CPU mining with other mining (default: no CPU mining if other devices exist)
  227. ---
  228. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ON USAGE:
  229. After saving configuration from the menu, you do not need to give BFGMiner any
  230. arguments and it will load your configuration.
  231. Any configuration file may also contain a single
  232. "include" : "filename"
  233. to recursively include another configuration file.
  234. Writing the configuration will save all settings from all files in the output.
  235. Single pool, regular desktop:
  236. bfgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password
  237. Single pool, dedicated miner:
  238. bfgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password -I 9
  239. Single pool, first card regular desktop, 3 other dedicated cards:
  240. bfgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password -I d,9,9,9
  241. Multiple pool, dedicated miner:
  242. bfgminer -o http://pool1:port -u pool1username -p pool1password -o http://pool2:port -u pool2usernmae -p pool2password -I 9
  243. Add overclocking settings, GPU and fan control for all cards:
  244. bfgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password -I 9 --auto-fan --auto-gpu --gpu-engine 750-950 --gpu-memclock 300
  245. Add overclocking settings, GPU and fan control with different engine settings for 4 cards:
  246. bfgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password -I 9 --auto-fan --auto-gpu --gpu-engine 750-950,945,700-930,960 --gpu-memclock 300
  247. Single pool with a standard http proxy, regular desktop:
  248. bfgminer -o http://pool:port -x http://proxy:port -u username -p password
  249. Single pool with a socks5 proxy, regular desktop:
  250. bfgminer -o http://pool:port -x socks5://proxy:port -u username -p password
  251. The list of proxy types are:
  252. http: standard http 1.1 proxy
  253. socks4: socks4 proxy
  254. socks5: socks5 proxy
  255. socks4a: socks4a proxy
  256. socks5h: socks5 proxy using a hostname
  257. Proxy support requires cURL version 7.21.7 or newer.
  258. If you specify the --socks-proxy option to BFGMiner, it will only be applied to
  259. all pools that don't specify their own proxy setting like above
  260. READ WARNINGS AND DOCUMENTATION BELOW ABOUT OVERCLOCKING
  261. On Linux you virtually always need to export your display settings before
  262. starting to get all the cards recognised and/or temperature+clocking working:
  263. export DISPLAY=:0
  264. ---
  265. WHILE RUNNING:
  266. The following options are available while running with a single keypress:
  267. [P]ool management [G]PU management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
  268. P gives you:
  269. Current pool management strategy: Failover
  270. [F]ailover only disabled
  271. [A]dd pool [R]emove pool [D]isable pool [E]nable pool
  272. [C]hange management strategy [S]witch pool [I]nformation
  273. S gives you:
  274. [L]ongpoll: On
  275. [Q]ueue: 1
  276. [S]cantime: 60
  277. [E]xpiry: 120
  278. [R]etries: -1
  279. [W]rite config file
  280. [B]FGMiner restart
  281. D gives you:
  282. [N]ormal [C]lear [S]ilent mode (disable all output)
  283. [D]ebug:off
  284. [P]er-device:off
  285. [Q]uiet:off
  286. [V]erbose:off
  287. [R]PC debug:off
  288. [W]orkTime details:off
  289. co[M]pact: off
  290. [L]og interval:5
  291. Q quits the application.
  292. G gives you something like:
  293. GPU 0: [124.2 / 191.3 Mh/s] [Q:212 A:77 R:33 HW:0 E:36% U:1.73/m]
  294. Temp: 67.0 C
  295. Fan Speed: 35% (2500 RPM)
  296. Engine Clock: 960 MHz
  297. Memory Clock: 480 MHz
  298. Vddc: 1.200 V
  299. Activity: 93%
  300. Powertune: 0%
  301. Last initialised: [2011-09-06 12:03:56]
  302. Thread 0: 62.4 Mh/s Enabled ALIVE
  303. Thread 1: 60.2 Mh/s Enabled ALIVE
  304. [E]nable [D]isable [R]estart GPU [C]hange settings
  305. Or press any other key to continue
  306. The running log shows output like this:
  307. [2013-02-13 00:26:30] Accepted 1758e8df BFL 0 pool 0 Diff 10/1
  308. [2013-02-13 00:26:32] Accepted 1d9a2199 MMQ 0a pool 0 Diff 8/1
  309. [2013-02-13 00:26:33] Accepted b1304924 ZTX 0 pool 0 Diff 1/1
  310. [2013-02-13 00:26:33] Accepted c3ad22f4 XBS 0b pool 0 Diff 1/1
  311. The 8 byte hex value are the 2nd set of 32 bits from the share submitted to the
  312. pool. The 2 diff values are the actual difficulty target that share reached
  313. followed by the difficulty target the pool is currently asking for.
  314. ---
  315. Also many issues and FAQs are covered in the forum thread
  316. dedicated to this program,
  317. https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=78192
  318. The output line shows the following:
  319. 5s:1713.6 avg:1707.8 u:1710.2 Mh/s | A:729 R:8 S:0 HW:0 U:22.53/m
  320. Each column is as follows:
  321. 5s: A 5 second exponentially decaying average hash rate
  322. avg: An all time average hash rate
  323. u: An all time average hash rate based on actual accepted shares
  324. A: The number of Accepted shares
  325. R: The number of Rejected shares
  326. S: Stale shares discarded (not submitted so don't count as rejects)
  327. HW: The number of HardWare errors
  328. U: The Utility defined as the number of shares / minute
  329. GPU 1: 73.5C 2551RPM | 427.3/443.0/442.1Mh/s | A:8 R:0 HW:0 U:4.39/m
  330. Each column is as follows:
  331. Temperature (if supported)
  332. Fanspeed (if supported)
  333. A 5 second exponentially decaying average hash rate
  334. An all time average hash rate
  335. An all time average hash rate based on actual accepted shares
  336. The number of accepted shares
  337. The number of rejected shares
  338. The number of hardware erorrs
  339. The utility defines as the number of shares / minute
  340. The BFGMiner status line shows:
  341. ST: 1 DW: 0 GW: 301 LW: 8 GF: 1 NB: 1 AS: 0 RF: 1 E: 2.42
  342. ST is STaged work items (ready to use).
  343. DW is Discarded Work items (work from block no longer valid to work on)
  344. GW is GetWork requested (work items from pools)
  345. LW is Locally generated Work items
  346. GF is Getwork Fail Occasions (server slow to provide work)
  347. NB is New Blocks detected on the network
  348. AS is Active Submissions (shares in the process of submitting)
  349. RF is Remote Fail occasions (server slow to accept work)
  350. E is Efficiency defined as number of shares accepted (multiplied by their
  351. difficulty) per 2 KB of bandwidth
  352. NOTE: Running intensities above 9 with current hardware is likely to only
  353. diminish return performance even if the hash rate might appear better. A good
  354. starting baseline intensity to try on dedicated miners is 9. Higher values are
  355. there to cope with future improvements in hardware.
  356. The block display shows:
  357. Block: ...1b89f8d3 #217364 Diff:2.98M Started: [17:17:22] Best share: 2.71K
  358. This shows a short stretch of the current block, the next block's height and
  359. difficulty, when the search for the new block started, and the all time best
  360. difficulty share you've found since starting BFGMiner this time.
  361. ---
  362. MULTIPOOL
  363. FAILOVER STRATEGIES WITH MULTIPOOL:
  364. A number of different strategies for dealing with multipool setups are
  365. available. Each has their advantages and disadvantages so multiple strategies
  366. are available by user choice, as per the following list:
  367. FAILOVER:
  368. The default strategy is failover. This means that if you input a number of
  369. pools, it will try to use them as a priority list, moving away from the 1st
  370. to the 2nd, 2nd to 3rd and so on. If any of the earlier pools recover, it will
  371. move back to the higher priority ones.
  372. ROUND ROBIN:
  373. This strategy only moves from one pool to the next when the current one falls
  374. idle and makes no attempt to move otherwise.
  375. ROTATE:
  376. This strategy moves at user-defined intervals from one active pool to the next,
  377. skipping pools that are idle.
  378. LOAD BALANCE:
  379. This strategy sends work to all the pools to maintain optimum load. The most
  380. efficient pools will tend to get a lot more shares. If any pool falls idle, the
  381. rest will tend to take up the slack keeping the miner busy.
  382. BALANCE:
  383. This strategy monitors the amount of difficulty 1 shares solved for each pool
  384. and uses it to try to end up doing the same amount of work for all pools.
  385. ---
  386. SOLO MINING
  387. BFGMiner supports solo mining with any GBT-compatible bitcoin node (such as
  388. bitcoind). To use this mode, you need to specify the URL of your bitcoind node
  389. using the usual pool options (--url, --userpass, etc), and the --coinbase-addr
  390. option to specify the Bitcoin address you wish to receive the block rewards
  391. mined. If you are solo mining with more than one instance of BFGMiner (or any
  392. other software) per payout address, you must also specify data using the
  393. --coinbase-sig option to ensure each miner is working on unique work. Note
  394. that this data will be publicly seen if your miner finds a block using any
  395. GBT-enabled pool, even when not solo mining (such as failover). If your
  396. bitcoin node does not support longpolling (for example, bitcoind 0.7.x), you
  397. should consider setting up a failover pool to provide you with block
  398. notifications.
  399. Example solo mining usage:
  400. bfgminer -o http://localhost:8332 -u username -p password \
  401. --coinbase-addr 1QATWksNFGeUJCWBrN4g6hGM178Lovm7Wh \
  402. --coinbase-sig "rig1: This is Joe's block!"
  403. ---
  404. LOGGING
  405. BFGMiner will log to stderr if it detects stderr is being redirected to a file.
  406. To enable logging simply add 2>logfile.txt to your command line and logfile.txt
  407. will contain the logged output at the log level you specify (normal, verbose,
  408. debug etc.)
  409. In other words if you would normally use:
  410. ./bfgminer -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz
  411. if you use
  412. ./bfgminer -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz 2>logfile.txt
  413. it will log to a file called logfile.txt and otherwise work the same.
  414. There is also the -m option on linux which will spawn a command of your choice
  415. and pipe the output directly to that command.
  416. The WorkTime details 'debug' option adds details on the end of each line
  417. displayed for Accepted or Rejected work done. An example would be:
  418. <-00000059.ed4834a3 M:X D:1.0 G:17:02:38:0.405 C:1.855 (2.995) W:3.440 (0.000) S:0.461 R:17:02:47
  419. The first 2 hex codes are the previous block hash, the rest are reported in
  420. seconds unless stated otherwise:
  421. The previous hash is followed by the getwork mode used M:X where X is one of
  422. P:Pool, T:Test Pool, L:LP or B:Benchmark,
  423. then D:d.ddd is the difficulty required to get a share from the work,
  424. then G:hh:mm:ss:n.nnn, which is when the getwork or LP was sent to the pool and
  425. the n.nnn is how long it took to reply,
  426. followed by 'O' on its own if it is an original getwork, or 'C:n.nnn' if it was
  427. a clone with n.nnn stating how long after the work was recieved that it was
  428. cloned, (m.mmm) is how long from when the original work was received until work
  429. started,
  430. W:n.nnn is how long the work took to process until it was ready to submit,
  431. (m.mmm) is how long from ready to submit to actually doing the submit, this is
  432. usually 0.000 unless there was a problem with submitting the work,
  433. S:n.nnn is how long it took to submit the completed work and await the reply,
  434. R:hh:mm:ss is the actual time the work submit reply was received
  435. If you start BFGMiner with the --sharelog option, you can get detailed
  436. information for each share found. The argument to the option may be "-" for
  437. standard output (not advisable with the ncurses UI), any valid positive number
  438. for that file descriptor, or a filename.
  439. To log share data to a file named "share.log", you can use either:
  440. ./bfgminer --sharelog 50 -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz 50>share.log
  441. ./bfgminer --sharelog share.log -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz
  442. For every share found, data will be logged in a CSV (Comma Separated Value)
  443. format:
  444. timestamp,disposition,target,pool,dev,thr,sharehash,sharedata
  445. For example (this is wrapped, but it's all on one line for real):
  446. 1335313090,reject,
  447. ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff00000000,
  448. http://localhost:8337,GPU0,0,
  449. 6f983c918f3299b58febf95ec4d0c7094ed634bc13754553ec34fc3800000000,
  450. 00000001a0980aff4ce4a96d53f4b89a2d5f0e765c978640fe24372a000001c5
  451. 000000004a4366808f81d44f26df3d69d7dc4b3473385930462d9ab707b50498
  452. f681634a4f1f63d01a0cd43fb338000000000080000000000000000000000000
  453. 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000080020000
  454. ---
  455. OVERCLOCKING WARNING AND INFORMATION
  456. AS WITH ALL OVERCLOCKING TOOLS YOU ARE ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY HARM YOU
  457. MAY CAUSE TO YOUR HARDWARE. OVERCLOCKING CAN INVALIDATE WARRANTIES, DAMAGE
  458. HARDWARE AND EVEN CAUSE FIRES. THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY
  459. DAMAGE YOU MAY CAUSE OR UNPLANNED CHILDREN THAT MAY OCCUR AS A RESULT.
  460. The GPU monitoring, clocking and fanspeed control incorporated into BFGMiner
  461. comes through use of the ATI Display Library. As such, it only supports ATI
  462. GPUs. Even if ADL support is successfully built into BFGMiner, unless the card
  463. and driver supports it, no GPU monitoring/settings will be available.
  464. BFGMiner supports initial setting of GPU engine clock speed, memory clock
  465. speed, voltage, fanspeed, and the undocumented powertune feature of 69x0+ GPUs.
  466. The setting passed to BFGMiner is used by all GPUs unless separate values are
  467. specified. All settings can all be changed within the menu on the fly on a
  468. per-GPU basis.
  469. For example:
  470. --gpu-engine 950 --gpu-memclock 825
  471. will try to set all GPU engine clocks to 950 and all memory clocks to 825,
  472. while:
  473. --gpu-engine 950,945,930,960 --gpu-memclock 300
  474. will try to set the engine clock of card 0 to 950, 1 to 945, 2 to 930, 3 to
  475. 960 and all memory clocks to 300.
  476. You can substitute 0 to leave the engine clock of a card at its default.
  477. For example, to keep the 2nd GPU to its default clocks:
  478. --gpu-engine 950,0,930,960 --gpu-memclock 300,0,300,300
  479. AUTO MODES:
  480. There are two "auto" modes in BFGMiner, --auto-fan and --auto-gpu. These can be
  481. used independently of each other and are complementary. Both auto modes are
  482. designed to safely change settings while trying to maintain a target
  483. temperature. By default this is set to 75 degrees C but can be changed with:
  484. --temp-target
  485. e.g.
  486. --temp-target 80
  487. Sets all cards' target temperature to 80 degrees.
  488. --temp-target 75,85
  489. Sets card 0 target temperature to 75, and card 1 to 85 degrees.
  490. AUTO FAN:
  491. e.g.
  492. --auto-fan (implies 85% upper limit)
  493. --gpu-fan 25-85,65 --auto-fan
  494. Fan control in auto fan works off the theory that the minimum possible fan
  495. required to maintain an optimal temperature will use less power, make less
  496. noise, and prolong the life of the fan. In auto-fan mode, the fan speed is
  497. limited to 85% if the temperature is below "overheat" intentionally, as higher
  498. fanspeeds on GPUs do not produce signficantly more cooling, yet significantly
  499. shorten the lifespan of the fans. If temperature reaches the overheat value,
  500. fanspeed will still be increased to 100%. The overheat value is set to 85
  501. degrees by default and can be changed with:
  502. --temp-overheat
  503. e.g.
  504. --temp-overheat 75,85
  505. Sets card 0 overheat threshold to 75 degrees and card 1 to 85.
  506. AUTO GPU:
  507. e.g.
  508. --auto-gpu --gpu-engine 750-950
  509. --auto-gpu --gpu-engine 750-950,945,700-930,960
  510. GPU control in auto gpu tries to maintain as high a clock speed as possible
  511. while not reaching overheat temperatures. As a lower clock speed limit, the
  512. auto-gpu mode checks the GPU card's "normal" clock speed and will not go below
  513. this unless you have manually set a lower speed in the range. Also, unless a
  514. higher clock speed was specified at startup, it will not raise the clockspeed.
  515. If the temperature climbs, fanspeed is adjusted and optimised before GPU engin
  516. e clockspeed is adjusted. If fan speed control is not available or already
  517. optimal, then GPU clock speed is only decreased if it goes over the target
  518. temperature by the hysteresis amount, which is set to 3 by default and can be
  519. changed with:
  520. --temp-hysteresis
  521. If the temperature drops below the target temperature, and engine clock speed
  522. is not at the highest level set at startup, BFGMiner will raise the clock speed.
  523. If at any time you manually set an even higher clock speed successfully in
  524. BFGMiner, it will record this value and use it as its new upper limit (and the
  525. same for low clock speeds and lower limits). If the temperature goes over the
  526. cutoff limit (95 degrees by default), BFGMiner will completely disable the GPU
  527. from mining and it will not be re-enabled unless manually done so. The cutoff
  528. temperature can be changed with:
  529. --temp-cutoff
  530. e.g.
  531. --temp-cutoff 95,105
  532. Sets card 0 cutoff temperature to 95 and card 1 to 105.
  533. --gpu-memdiff -125
  534. This setting will modify the memory speed whenever the GPU clock speed is
  535. modified by --auto-gpu. In this example, it will set the memory speed to be 125
  536. MHz lower than the GPU speed. This is useful for some cards like the 6970 which
  537. normally don't allow a bigger clock speed difference. The 6970 is known to only
  538. allow -125, while the 7970 only allows -150.
  539. CHANGING SETTINGS:
  540. When setting values, it is important to realise that even though the driver
  541. may report the value was changed successfully, and the new card power profile
  542. information contains the values you set it to, that the card itself may
  543. refuse to use those settings. As the performance profile changes dynamically,
  544. querying the "current" value on the card can be wrong as well. So when changing
  545. values in BFGMiner, after a pause of 1 second, it will report to you the current
  546. values where you should check that your change has taken. An example is that
  547. 6970 reference cards will accept low memory values but refuse to actually run
  548. those lower memory values unless they're within 125 of the engine clock speed.
  549. In that scenario, they usually set their real speed back to their default.
  550. BFGMiner reports the so-called "safe" range of whatever it is you are modifying
  551. when you ask to modify it on the fly. However, you can change settings to values
  552. outside this range. Despite this, the card can easily refuse to accept your
  553. changes, or worse, to accept your changes and then silently ignore them. So
  554. there is absolutely to know how far to/from where/to it can set things safely or
  555. otherwise, and there is nothing stopping you from at least trying to set them
  556. outside this range. Being very conscious of these possible failures is why
  557. BFGMiner will report back the current values for you to examine how exactly the
  558. card has responded. Even within the reported range of accepted values by the
  559. card, it is very easy to crash just about any card, so it cannot use those
  560. values to determine what range to set. You have to provide something meaningful
  561. manually for BFGMiner to work with through experimentation.
  562. STARTUP / SHUTDOWN:
  563. When BFGMiner starts up, it tries to read off the current profile information
  564. for clock and fan speeds and stores these values. When quitting BFGMiner, it
  565. will then try to restore the original values. Changing settings outside of
  566. BFGMiner while it's running may be reset to the startup BFGMiner values when
  567. BFGMiner shuts down because of this.
  568. ---
  569. RPC API
  570. For RPC API details see the README.RPC file
  571. ---
  572. GPU DEVICE ISSUES and use of --gpu-map
  573. GPUs mine with OpenCL software via the GPU device driver. This means you need
  574. to have both an OpenCL SDK installed, and the GPU device driver RUNNING (i.e.
  575. Xorg up and running configured for all devices that will mine on linux etc.)
  576. Meanwhile, the hardware monitoring that BFGMiner offers for AMD devices relies
  577. on the ATI Display Library (ADL) software to work. OpenCL DOES NOT TALK TO THE
  578. ADL. There is no 100% reliable way to know that OpenCL devices are identical
  579. to the ADL devices, as neither give off the same information. BFGMiner does its
  580. best to correlate these devices based on the order that OpenCL and ADL numbers
  581. them. It is possible that this will fail for the following reasons:
  582. 1. The device order is listed differently by OpenCL and ADL (rare), even if the
  583. number of devices is the same.
  584. 2. There are more OpenCL devices than ADL. OpenCL stupidly sees one GPU as two
  585. devices if you have two monitors connected to the one GPU.
  586. 3. There are more ADL devices than OpenCL. ADL devices include any ATI GPUs,
  587. including ones that can't mine, like some older R4xxx cards.
  588. To cope with this, the ADVANCED option for --gpu-map is provided with BFGMiner.
  589. DO NOT USE THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. The default will work the
  590. vast majority of the time unless you know you have a problem already.
  591. To get useful information, start BFGMiner with just the -n option. You will get
  592. output that looks like this:
  593. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] CL Platform 0 vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
  594. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] CL Platform 0 name: AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
  595. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] CL Platform 0 version: OpenCL 1.1 AMD-APP (844.4)
  596. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] Platform 0 devices: 3
  597. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 0 Tahiti
  598. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 1 Tahiti
  599. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 2 Cayman
  600. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 0 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  601. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 1 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  602. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 2 AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  603. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 3 GPU devices max detected
  604. Note the number of devices here match, and the order is the same. If devices 1
  605. and 2 were different between Tahiti and Cayman, you could run BFGMiner with:
  606. --gpu-map 2:1,1:2
  607. And it would swap the monitoring it received from ADL device 1 and put it to
  608. OpenCL device 2 and vice versa.
  609. If you have 2 monitors connected to the first device it would look like this:
  610. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] Platform 0 devices: 4
  611. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 0 Tahiti
  612. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 1 Tahiti
  613. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 2 Tahiti
  614. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 3 Cayman
  615. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 0 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  616. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 1 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  617. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 2 AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  618. To work around this, you would use:
  619. -d 0 -d 2 -d 3 --gpu-map 2:1,3:2
  620. If you have an older card as well as the rest it would look like this:
  621. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] Platform 0 devices: 3
  622. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 0 Tahiti
  623. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 1 Tahiti
  624. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] 2 Cayman
  625. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 0 AMD Radeon HD 4500 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  626. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 1 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  627. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 2 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  628. [2012-04-25 13:17:34] GPU 3 AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series hardware monitoring enabled
  629. To work around this you would use:
  630. --gpu-map 0:1,1:2,2:3
  631. ---
  632. FAQ
  633. Q: Why can't BFGMiner find lib<something> even after I installed it from source
  634. code?
  635. A: On UNIX-like operating systems, you often need to run some command to reload
  636. its library caches such as "ldconfig" or similar. A couple of systems (such as
  637. Fedora) ship with /usr/local/lib missing from their library search path. In
  638. this case, you can usually add it like this:
  639. echo /usr/local/lib >/etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf
  640. Please note that if your libraries installed into lib64 instead of lib, you
  641. should use that in the ld.so config file above instead.
  642. Q: BFGMiner segfaults when I change my shell window size.
  643. A: Older versions of libncurses have a bug to do with refreshing a window
  644. after a size change. Upgrading to a new version of curses will fix it.
  645. Q: Can I mine on servers from different networks (eg smartcoin and bitcoin) at
  646. the same time?
  647. A: No, BFGMiner keeps a database of the block it's working on to ensure it does
  648. not work on stale blocks, and having different blocks from two networks would
  649. make it invalidate the work from each other.
  650. Q: Can I change the intensity settings individually for each GPU?
  651. A: Yes, pass a list separated by commas such as -I d,4,9,9
  652. Q: Can I put multiple pools in the config file?
  653. A: Yes, check the example.conf file. Alternatively, set up everything either on
  654. the command line or via the menu after startup and choose settings->write
  655. config file and the file will be loaded one each startup.
  656. Q: The build fails with gcc is unable to build a binary.
  657. A: Remove the "-march=native" component of your CFLAGS as your version of GCC
  658. does not support it.
  659. Q: The CPU usage is high.
  660. A: The ATI drivers after 11.6 have a bug that makes them consume 100% of one
  661. CPU core unnecessarily so downgrade to 11.6. Binding BFGMiner to one CPU core on
  662. windows can minimise it to 100% (instead of more than one core). Driver version
  663. 11.11 on linux and 11.12 on windows appear to have fixed this issue. Note that
  664. later drivers may have an apparent return of high CPU usage. Try
  665. 'export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1' on Linux before starting BFGMiner. You can also
  666. set this variable in windows via a batch file or on the command line before
  667. starting BFGMiner with 'setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1'
  668. Q: Can you implement feature X?
  669. A: I can, but time is limited, and people who donate are more likely to get
  670. their feature requests implemented.
  671. Q: My GPU hangs and I have to reboot it to get it going again?
  672. A: The more aggressively the mining software uses your GPU, the less overclock
  673. you will be able to run. You are more likely to hit your limits with BFGMiner
  674. and you will find you may need to overclock your GPU less aggressively. The
  675. software cannot be responsible and make your GPU hang directly. If you simply
  676. cannot get it to ever stop hanging, try decreasing the intensity, and if even
  677. that fails, try changing to the poclbm kernel with -k poclbm, though you will
  678. sacrifice performance. BFGMiner is designed to try and safely restart GPUs as
  679. much as possible, but NOT if that restart might actually crash the rest of the
  680. GPUs mining, or even the machine. It tries to restart them with a separate
  681. thread and if that separate thread dies, it gives up trying to restart any more
  682. GPUs.
  683. Q: Work keeps going to my backup pool even though my primary pool hasn't
  684. failed?
  685. A: BFGMiner checks for conditions where the primary pool is lagging and will
  686. pass some work to the backup servers under those conditions. The reason for
  687. doing this is to try its absolute best to keep the GPUs working on something
  688. useful and not risk idle periods. You can disable this behaviour with the
  689. option --failover-only.
  690. Q: Is this a virus?
  691. A: BFGMiner is being packaged with other trojan scripts and some antivirus
  692. software is falsely accusing bfgminer.exe as being the actual virus, rather
  693. than whatever it is being packaged with. If you installed BFGMiner yourself,
  694. then you do not have a virus on your computer. Complain to your antivirus
  695. software company. They seem to be flagging even source code now from BFGMiner
  696. as viruses, even though text source files can't do anything by themself.
  697. Q: Can you modify the display to include more of one thing in the output and
  698. less of another, or can you change the quiet mode or can you add yet another
  699. output mode?
  700. A: Everyone will always have their own view of what's important to monitor.
  701. The defaults are very sane and I have very little interest in changing this
  702. any further.
  703. Q: Can you change the autofan/autogpu to change speeds in a different manner?
  704. A: The defaults are sane and safe. I'm not interested in changing them further.
  705. The starting fan speed is set to 50% in auto-fan mode as a safety precaution.
  706. Q: Why is my efficiency above/below 1.00?
  707. A: Efficiency simply means how many shares you return for the amount of
  708. bandwidth used. It does not correlate with efficient use of your hardware, and
  709. is a measure of a combination of hardware speed, block luck, pool design and
  710. other factors.
  711. Q: What are the best parameters to pass for X pool/hardware/device.
  712. A: Virtually always, the DEFAULT parameters give the best results. Most user
  713. defined settings lead to worse performance. The ONLY thing most users should
  714. need to set is the Intensity.
  715. Q: What happened to CPU mining?
  716. A: Being increasingly irrelevant for most users, and a maintenance issue, it is
  717. no longer under active development and will not be supported unless someone
  718. steps up to help maintain it. No binary builds supporting CPU mining will be
  719. released but CPU mining can be built into BFGMiner when it is compiled.
  720. Q: I upgraded BFGMiner version and my hashrate suddenly dropped!
  721. A: No, you upgraded your SDK version unwittingly between upgrades of BFGMiner
  722. and that caused your hashrate to drop. See the next question.
  723. Q: I upgraded my ATI driver/SDK/BFGMiner and my hashrate suddenly dropped!
  724. A: The hashrate performance in BFGMiner is tied to the version of the ATI SDK
  725. that is installed only for the very first time BFGMiner is run. This generates
  726. binaries that are used by the GPU every time after that. Any upgrades to the
  727. SDK after that time will have no effect on the binaries. However, if you
  728. install a fresh version of BFGMiner, and have since upgraded your SDK, new
  729. binaries will be built. It is known that the 2.6 ATI SDK has a huge hashrate
  730. penalty on generating new binaries. It is recommended to not use this SDK at
  731. this time unless you are using an ATI 7xxx card that needs it.
  732. Q: Which ATI SDK is the best for BFGMiner?
  733. A: At the moment, versions 2.4 and 2.5 work the best. If you are forced to use
  734. the 2.6 SDK, the phatk kernel will perform poorly, while the diablo or my
  735. custom modified poclbm kernel are optimised for it.
  736. Q: I have multiple SDKs installed, can I choose which one it uses?
  737. A: Run bfgminer with the -n option and it will list all the platforms currently
  738. installed. Then you can tell BFGMiner which platform to use with --gpu-platform.
  739. Q: GUI version?
  740. A: No. The RPC interface makes it possible for someone else to write one
  741. though.
  742. Q: I'm having an issue. What debugging information should I provide?
  743. A: Start BFGMiner with your regular commands and add -D -T --verbose and provide
  744. the full startup output and a summary of your hardware, operating system, ATI
  745. driver version and ATI stream version.
  746. Q: BFGMiner reports no devices or only one device on startup on Linux although
  747. I have multiple devices and drivers+SDK installed properly?
  748. A: Try "export DISPLAY=:0" before running BFGMiner.
  749. Q: My network gets slower and slower and then dies for a minute?
  750. A; Try the --net-delay option.
  751. Q: How do I tune for P2Pool?
  752. A: P2Pool has very rapid expiration of work and new blocks, it is suggested you
  753. decrease intensity by 1 from your optimal value, and decrease GPU threads to 1
  754. with -g 1. It is also recommended to use --failover-only since the work is
  755. effectively like a different block chain. If mining with a Mini Rig, it is worth
  756. adding the --bfl-range option.
  757. Q: Are kernels from other mining software useable in BFGMiner?
  758. A: No, the APIs are slightly different between the different software and they
  759. will not work.
  760. Q: I run PHP on windows to access the API with the example miner.php. Why does
  761. it fail when php is installed properly but I only get errors about Sockets not
  762. working in the logs?
  763. A: http://us.php.net/manual/en/sockets.installation.php
  764. Q: What is a PGA?
  765. A: At the moment, BFGMiner supports 5 FPGAs: BitForce, Icarus, ModMiner, X6500,
  766. and ZTEX.
  767. They are Field-Programmable Gate Arrays that have been programmed to do Bitcoin
  768. mining. Since the acronym needs to be only 3 characters, the "Field-" part has
  769. been skipped.
  770. Q: How do I get my BFL/Icarus/Lancelot/Cairnsmore device to auto-recognise?
  771. A: On Linux, if the /dev/ttyUSB* devices don't automatically appear, the only
  772. thing that needs to be done is to load the driver for them:
  773. BFL: sudo modprobe ftdi_sio vendor=0x0403 product=0x6014
  774. Icarus: sudo modprobe pl2303 vendor=0x067b product=0x230
  775. Lancelot: sudo modprobe ftdi_sio vendor=0x0403 product=0x6001
  776. Cairnsmore: sudo modprobe ftdi_sio product=0x8350 vendor=0x0403
  777. On windows you must install the pl2303 or ftdi driver required for the device
  778. pl2303: http://prolificusa.com/pl-2303hx-drivers/
  779. ftdi: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm
  780. Q: On Linux I can see the /dev/ttyUSB* devices for my ICA/BFL/MMQ FPGA, but
  781. BFGMiner can't mine on them
  782. A: Make sure you have the required priviledges to access the /dev/ttyUSB*
  783. devices:
  784. sudo ls -las /dev/ttyUSB*
  785. will give output like:
  786. 0 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 2012-09-11 13:49 /dev/ttyUSB0
  787. This means your account must have the group 'dialout' or root priviledges
  788. To permanently give your account the 'dialout' group:
  789. sudo usermod -G dialout -a `whoami`
  790. Then logout and back in again
  791. Q: What is stratum and how do I use it?
  792. A: Stratum is a protocol designed to reduce resources for mining pools at the
  793. cost of keeping the miner in the dark and blindly transferring his mining
  794. authority to the pool. It is a return to the problems of the old centralized
  795. "getwork" protocol, but capable of scaling to hardware of any speed like the
  796. standard GBT protocol. If a pool uses stratum instead of GBT, BFGMiner will
  797. automatically detect it and switch to the support as advertised if it can.
  798. Stratum uses direct TCP connections to the pool and thus it will NOT currently
  799. work through a http proxy but will work via a socks proxy if you need to use
  800. one. If you input the stratum port directly into your configuration, or use the
  801. special prefix "stratum+tcp://" instead of "http://", BFGMiner will ONLY try to
  802. use stratum protocol mining.
  803. Q: Why don't the statistics add up: Accepted, Rejected, Stale, Hardware Errors,
  804. Diff1 Work, etc. when mining greater than 1 difficulty shares?
  805. A: As an example, if you look at 'Difficulty Accepted' in the RPC API, the number
  806. of difficulty shares accepted does not usually exactly equal the amount of work
  807. done to find them. If you are mining at 8 difficulty, then you would expect on
  808. average to find one 8 difficulty share, per 8 single difficulty shares found.
  809. However, the number is actually random and converges over time, it is an average,
  810. not an exact value, thus you may find more or less than the expected average.
  811. ---
  812. This code is provided entirely free of charge by the programmer in his spare
  813. time so donations would be greatly appreciated. Please consider donating to the
  814. address below.
  815. Luke-Jr <luke-jr+bfgminer@utopios.org>
  816. 1QATWksNFGeUJCWBrN4g6hGM178Lovm7Wh