Real basic questions...

[matthew1820]

I've just started CPU mining this afternoon for the very first time! And I have a few questions...

I understand I'm not doing this for profit. With ALL of the piddling little hardware I've got laying around I'm likely to spend $20 on electricity to "earn" only a coin or two of Dash in a month. If nothing else, I just want to have the experience and to be able to say I've done it. I totally missed the profitable era of Bitcoin and Litecoin due to other preoccupations, but X11 promises to remain tolerably mine-able with generic hardware for a while yet, so I still have a chance to play. And, of course, I do see the unique privacy features of Dash, so I figure there's at least a chance we're all gonna be rich when the rest of the world moves in our direction! :wink:

I'm using DarkCoin cpu-miner (v1.2c) on a 2.66 GHz AMD quad core processor under Linux Mint 17.1. My CPU's busily churning out hashes for a nearby p2pool node, to the tune of 40kH/s per core, for a seething inferno of ~160kH/s.

Where can I find detailed documentation for this program? I'm talking about all the command-line features, config file formats, etc?

I'd like to set up a couple of fallback pools, for instance. Can that be done with a .conf file for it?

Say I'm not eager to see my CPU running at 100% all the time and I wanted to throttle the hash rate by, say 25%, to keep it a little cooler. Can I do that and how?

Is this miner compatible with any available graphical front end for managing it and a GPU miner daemon?

Next up, I'll see about mining on a couple of older nVidia cards I've got on hand. If I push it, I might even break the 1MH/s barrier! Woot! :grin:

Thank you,

M.

 

[matthew1820]

Well, I've got at least partial answers to some of my own questions now, plus a few more. Any input would be much appreciated.

I'm using DarkCoin cpu-miner (v1.2c) on a 2.66 GHz AMD quad core processor under Linux Mint 17.1. My CPU's busily churning out hashes for a nearby p2pool node, to the tune of 40kH/s per core, for a seething inferno of ~160kH/s.

Where can I find detailed documentation for this program? I'm talking about all the command-line features, config file formats, etc?

I'd like to set up a couple of fallback pools, for instance. Can that be done with a .conf file for it?

The --help switch seems to be as complete a list as I'm going to get. I've found no description of the config file's format (other than it being described as JSON format) or examples of same. Anybody?

Say I'm not eager to see my CPU running at 100% all the time and I wanted to throttle the hash rate by, say 25%, to keep it a little cooler. Can I do that and how?

The best I've seen is to reduce the thread count to less than the number of cores... In my case, from 4 to 3, which would certainly reduce the total power dissipation of the chip, but still leave 3 cores running full tilt

I'll try it and see if the other cores settle out at a lower temperature or not.

I am impressed at how functional the machine is despite the CPU being fully occupied. Prioritization is handled very cleanly.

Is this miner compatible with any available graphical front end for managing it and a GPU miner daemon?

I've seen a couple of "dashboard" programs mentioned, but haven't delved into that subject yet.

Next up, I'll see about mining on a couple of older nVidia cards I've got on hand. If I push it, I might even break the 1MH/s barrier! Woot! :grin:

After nearly 24 hours, my mean hashrate reported by the pool is edging towards the expected 160 or so kH/s. At this rate, it looks like I can expect my first mDASH payout sometime in the next week or two!

The newest nVidia card I own is a GT440. It's a Compute 2.0 card, support for which the current release of ccminer says has been dropped.

https://github.com/KBomba/ccminer-KBomba/tree/ccminer-for-compute-2.x

The above github link appears to be a version modified to run on the older cards... found via a thread on Bitcointalk:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=167229.msg6676746#msg6676746

... in turn found via a thread on Reddit found via Google:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DRKCoin/comments/27fdhc/help_using_x11_and_nvidia_ccminer/

Does it seem like I'm on the right track? The accessibility of information in all of this is impressive.

Again, just doing this for the sake of tinkering and learning. It's certainly been fun so far. Thanks!

M.

 

[matthew1820]

I'm making slow progress, but I'm really running up against some obstacles. I realize mining's not a hot topic these days, but I'm starting to doubt the enthusiasm of this community. You've got the third biggest crypto-coin, but no help for a newbie who's TRYING to learn?

I've found no description of the config file's format (other than it being described as JSON format) or examples of same. Anybody?

This would apply to any/all of the ccminer/cpuminer variants. I've not seen any examples to work from. Are there any? Do any of you use a configuration file? Can you post it?

... reduce the thread count to less than the number of cores... In my case, from 4 to 3, which would certainly reduce the total power dissipation of the chip...I'll try it and see if the other cores settle out at a lower temperature or not.

This worked. My hash rate, such as it is, declined from about 150 to around 125-130kH/s -- less than the 25% drop I'd have expected by eliminating a core. The difference was probably going to running the rest of my system, I'd guess.

Temperatures dropped from 73-75 F across the cores to 72-68 F, and the cpu is running at about 80%.

The newest nVidia card I own is a GT440. It's a Compute 2.0 card, support for which the current release of ccminer says has been dropped.

Allright, I have TRIED to compile several different versions of ccminer today and run into problems with each one. Before I waste anybody else's time asking for help with broken build attempts, let me ask THIS:

What GPU mining software will actually fire up this ridiculously old nVidia card under Linux Mint 17.1?

I don't care how much hash rate it yields. I just want to see it working and get some experience with running it... Getting a few mDash in the process will be a nice bonus.

Thanks. I hope to hear from somebody soon.

M.

 

[Starin]

Have you tried sgminer with nVidia 440? The only 2 GPU miner softwares out there for Dash mining are ccminer and sgminer, as far as I know. I know it won't help you but to give you a clue I'll share what I get from my 4 cards.

I have 1x 660ti, 1x 760m, 2x 560m.
660ti gives around 2500 to 1500 hashrate
760m gives around 2200 to 1600 hashrate
560ms give around 500 to 800 hashrate

 

[matthew1820]

Have you tried sgminer with nVidia 440? The only 2 GPU miner softwares out there for Dash mining are ccminer and sgminer, as far as I know. I know it won't help you but to give you a clue I'll share what I get from my 4 cards...

That's interesting, Starin. EVERY single mention I've seen of sgminer says to use it on AMD cards, and to do ccminer for nVidia. If sgminer will "do" nVidia, as you've demonstrated, then I can at least use it to get the experience that I want. Maybe it'll even handle my stone-age hardware. :grin:

If that's true, you've given me another thing to try. Thanks for replying, and for the tip!

M.

 

[Starin]

Hey man. Let me me know if it worked for you.

I hava tried both sgminer and ccminer PN nvidia cards. Can't give a exact rate but ccminer's hashrate was almost 2x more than sgminer's hash.

You try to earn some experience after all. So good luck!

You can try xhash pool. Sgminer nvidia binaries worked for me on that particular pool.

 

[matthew1820]

I hava tried both sgminer and ccminer PN nvidia cards. Can't give a exact rate but ccminer's hashrate was almost 2x more than sgminer's hash.

That doesn't surprise me. I'm sure that's why everybody says the same things and pushes ccminer for nvidia. It wouldn't make any sense to use sgminer if you were serious about hashrate.

If bitcointalk ever comes back up this morning, I'm hoping to get some help with ccminer on the thread there. So I may be able to give a side-by-side comparison, for what that's worth. :what:

You try to earn some experience after all. So good luck!

That's right! I'll report what happens. Thank you.

M.

 

[matthew1820]

In the vein of "Real basic questions..."

While I've been figuring out some problems compiling a gpu miner, my CPU miner has been diligently churning out between 130-150kH/s for about 4 days into a p2pool node. Looking at graphs of other miners over the last month, I can see that a few other folks with low end hashrates like mine managed to score a few milliDash here and there, which is the most I expect.

It would be nice to have at least some idea whether my hashes are falling into a black hole or if they'll be rewarded eventually.

So I'm seeing the occasional share accepted by the pool, usually a handful an hour...

[2015-04-03 12:32:51] accepted: 117/117 (100.00%), 138.32 khash/s (yay!!!)

Occasionally they'll even come in clumps of several over a few minutes! Yay!

My darkcoin client is quietly sitting in the background, with 8 connections to the network. Does it need to be loaded in order to mine? Wallet unlocked? (I haven't had the chance to even use a wallet yet, so that's all new to me, too.)

Is there anything else I need to do, besides wait? (Or add more hashrate! :tongue

Anything else I can do to be sure my configuration is actually working?

What would it look like if I actually did receive a payout?

Is p2pool even a valid choice for such a low hash rate?

Thanks!

M.