README 47 KB

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