BFGMiner: St. Barbara's Faithfully Glorified Mining Initiative Naturally Exceeding Rivals or Basically a Freaking Good Miner This is a multi-threaded multi-pool ASIC, FPGA, GPU and CPU miner with dynamic clocking, monitoring, and fanspeed support for bitcoin. Do not use on multiple block chains at the same time! This code is provided entirely free of charge by the programmer in his spare time so donations would be greatly appreciated. Please consider donating to the address below. Luke-Jr <luke-jr+bfgminer@utopios.org> 1QATWksNFGeUJCWBrN4g6hGM178Lovm7Wh DOWNLOADS: http://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/bfgminer GIT TREE: https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer Bug reports: https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/issues IRC Channel: irc://irc.freenode.net/eligius License: GPLv3. See COPYING for details. SEE ALSO README.ASIC, README.FPGA, README.GPU, README.RPC, AND README.scrypt FOR MORE INFORMATION ON EACH. --- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ON USAGE: After saving configuration from the menu, you do not need to give BFGMiner any arguments and it will load your configuration. Any configuration file may also contain a single "include" : "filename" to recursively include another configuration file. Writing the configuration will save all settings from all files in the output. Single pool: bfgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password Multiple pools: bfgminer -o http://pool1:port -u pool1username -p pool1password -o http://pool2:port -u pool2usernmae -p pool2password Single pool with a standard http proxy, regular desktop: bfgminer -o http://pool:port -x http://proxy:port -u username -p password Single pool with a socks5 proxy, regular desktop: bfgminer -o http://pool:port -x socks5://proxy:port -u username -p password The list of proxy types are: http: standard http 1.1 proxy socks4: socks4 proxy socks5: socks5 proxy socks4a: socks4a proxy socks5h: socks5 proxy using a hostname Proxy support requires cURL version 7.21.7 or newer. If you specify the --socks-proxy option to BFGMiner, it will only be applied to all pools that don't specify their own proxy setting like above --- BUILDING BFGMINER Everything you probably want, condensed: build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config libcurl4-gnutls-dev libjansson-dev uthash-dev libncursesw5-dev libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libmicrohttpd-dev Dependencies: autoconf http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/ automake http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/ libtool http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/ pkg-config http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/pkg-config ...or pkgconf https://github.com/pkgconf/pkgconf libcurl4-gnutls-dev http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/ libjansson-dev 2.0+ http://www.digip.org/jansson/ uthash-dev 1.9.2+ http://troydhanson.github.io/uthash/ Optional Dependencies: Text-User-Interface (TUI): curses dev library; any one of: libncurses5-dev http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ (Linux and Mac) libncursesw5-dev ^ same libpdcurses http://pdcurses.sourceforge.net/ (Linux/Mac/Windows) Multiple ASIC/FPGA autodetection: any one of: sysfs (builtin to most Linux kernels, just mount on /sys) libudev-dev http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/libudev/ getwork server for Block Erupter Blades: libmicrohttpd-dev http://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/ X6500 and ZTEX FPGA boards: libusb-1.0-0-dev http://www.libusb.org/ ATi/AMD video card GPU mining: AMD APP SDK http://developer.amd.com/tools/heterogeneous-computing/amd-accelerated-parallel-processing-app-sdk/ CPU mining optimized assembly algorithms: yasm 1.0.1+ http://yasm.tortall.net/ BFGMiner specific configuration options: --disable-avalon Compile support for Avalon (default enabled) --enable-cpumining Build with cpu mining support(default disabled) --disable-opencl Build without support for OpenCL (default enabled) --disable-adl Build without ADL monitoring (default enabled) --disable-bitforce Compile support for BitForce (default enabled) --disable-icarus Compile support for Icarus (default enabled) --disable-modminer Compile support for ModMiner (default enabled) --disable-x6500 Compile support for X6500 (default enabled) --disable-ztex Compile support for ZTEX (default if libusb) --enable-scrypt Compile support for scrypt mining (default disabled) --with-system-libblkmaker Use system libblkmaker rather than bundled one (default disabled) --without-sensors Build with libsensors monitoring (default enabled) --without-curses Compile support for curses TUI (default enabled) --without-libmicrohttpd Compile support for libmicrohttpd getwork server (default enabled) --without-libudev Autodetect FPGAs using libudev (default enabled) Basic *nix build instructions: ./autogen.sh # only needed if building from git repo ./configure make No installation is necessary. You may run BFGMiner from the build directory directly. On Mac OS X, you can use Homebrew to install the dependency libraries. When you are ready to build BFGMiner, you may need to point the configure script at one or more pkg-config paths. For example: ./configure PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/opt/curl/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/jansson/lib/pkgconfig Native WIN32 build instructions: see windows-build.txt If you build BFGMiner from source, it is recommended that you run it from the build directory. On *nix, you will usually need to prepend your command with a path like this (if you are in the bfgminer directory already): ./bfgminer --- Usage instructions: Run "bfgminer --help" to see options: Usage: . [-atDdGCgIKklmpPQqrRsTouvwOchnV] Options for both config file and command line: --api-allow Allow API access (if enabled) only to the given list of [W:]IP[/Prefix] address[/subnets] This overrides --api-network and you must specify 127.0.0.1 if it is required W: in front of the IP address gives that address privileged access to all api commands --api-description Description placed in the API status header (default: BFGMiner version) --api-groups API one letter groups G:cmd:cmd[,P:cmd:*...] See README.RPC for usage --api-listen Listen for API requests (default: disabled) By default any command that does not just display data returns access denied See --api-allow to overcome this --api-mcast Enable API Multicast listener, default: disabled --api-mcast-addr <arg> API Multicast listen address (default: "224.0.0.75") --api-mcast-code <arg> Code expected in the API Multicast message, don't use '-' (default: "FTW") --api-mcast-port <arg> API Multicast listen port (default: 4028) --api-network Allow API (if enabled) to listen on/for any address (default: only 127.0.0.1) --api-port Port number of miner API (default: 4028) --balance Change multipool strategy from failover to even share balance --benchmark Run BFGMiner in benchmark mode - produces no shares --cmd-idle <arg> Execute a command when a device is allowed to be idle (rest or wait) --cmd-sick <arg> Execute a command when a device is declared sick --cmd-dead <arg> Execute a command when a device is declared dead --coinbase-addr <arg> Set coinbase payout address for solo mining --coinbase-sig <arg> Set coinbase signature when possible --compact Use compact display without per device statistics --debug|-D Enable debug output --debuglog Enable debug logging --device|-d <arg> Select device to use, one value, range and/or comma separated (e.g. 0-2,4) default: all --disable-rejecting Automatically disable pools that continually reject shares --http-port <arg> Port number to listen on for HTTP getwork miners (-1 means disabled) (default: -1) --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) --expiry-lp <arg> Upper bound on how many seconds after getting work we consider a share from it stale (with longpoll active) (default: 3600) --failover-only Don't leak work to backup pools when primary pool is lagging --force-dev-init Always initialize devices when possible (such as bitstream uploads to some FPGAs) --kernel-path|-K <arg> Specify a path to where bitstream and kernel files are (default: "/usr/local/bin") --load-balance Change multipool strategy from failover to efficiency based balance --log|-l <arg> Interval in seconds between log output (default: 5) --log-file|-L <arg> Append log file for output messages --log-microseconds Include microseconds in log output --monitor|-m <arg> Use custom pipe cmd for output messages --net-delay Impose small delays in networking to not overload slow routers --no-gbt Disable getblocktemplate support --no-getwork Disable getwork support --no-longpoll Disable X-Long-Polling support --no-restart Do not attempt to restart devices that hang --no-stratum Disable Stratum detection --no-submit-stale Don't submit shares if they are detected as stale --no-opencl-binaries Don't attempt to use or save OpenCL kernel binaries --no-unicode Don't use Unicode characters in TUI --pass|-p <arg> Password for bitcoin JSON-RPC server --per-device-stats Force verbose mode and output per-device statistics --pool-proxy|-x Proxy URI to use for connecting to just the previous-defined pool --protocol-dump|-P Verbose dump of protocol-level activities --queue|-Q <arg> Minimum number of work items to have queued (0 - 10) (default: 1) --quiet|-q Disable logging output, display status and errors --real-quiet Disable all output --remove-disabled Remove disabled devices entirely, as if they didn't exist --request-diff <arg> Request a specific difficulty from pools (default: 1.0) --retries <arg> Number of times to retry failed submissions before giving up (-1 means never) (default: -1) --rotate <arg> Change multipool strategy from failover to regularly rotate at N minutes (default: 0) --round-robin Change multipool strategy from failover to round robin on failure --scan-time|-s <arg> Upper bound on time spent scanning current work, in seconds (default: 60) --sched-start <arg> Set a time of day in HH:MM to start mining (a once off without a stop time) --sched-stop <arg> Set a time of day in HH:MM to stop mining (will quit without a start time) --scrypt Use the scrypt algorithm for mining (non-bitcoin) --sharelog <arg> Append share log to file --shares <arg> Quit after mining N shares (default: unlimited) --show-processors Show per processor statistics in summary --skip-security-checks <arg> Skip security checks sometimes to save bandwidth; only check 1/<arg>th of the time (default: never skip) --socks-proxy <arg> Set socks4 proxy (host:port) for all pools without a proxy specified --submit-threads Minimum number of concurrent share submissions (default: 64) --syslog Use system log for output messages (default: standard error) --temp-cutoff <arg> Maximum temperature devices will be allowed to reach before being disabled, one value or comma separated list --temp-hysteresis <arg> Set how much the temperature can fluctuate outside limits when automanaging speeds (default: 3) --temp-target <arg> Target temperature when automatically managing fan and clock speeds --text-only|-T Disable ncurses formatted screen output --unicode Use Unicode characters in TUI --url|-o <arg> URL for bitcoin JSON-RPC server --user|-u <arg> Username for bitcoin JSON-RPC server --verbose Log verbose output to stderr as well as status output --userpass|-O <arg> Username:Password pair for bitcoin JSON-RPC server Options for command line only: --config|-c <arg> Load a JSON-format configuration file See example.conf for an example configuration. --help|-h Print this message --version|-V Display version and exit GPU only options: --auto-fan Automatically adjust all GPU fan speeds to maintain a target temperature --auto-gpu Automatically adjust all GPU engine clock speeds to maintain a target temperature --gpu-threads|-g <arg> Number of threads per GPU (1 - 10) (default: 2) --gpu-dyninterval <arg> Set the refresh interval in ms for GPUs using dynamic intensity (default: 7) --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) --gpu-fan <arg> GPU fan percentage range - one value, range and/or comma separated list (e.g. 25-85,85,65) --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) --gpu-memclock <arg> Set the GPU memory (over)clock in MHz - one value for all or separate by commas for per card. --gpu-memdiff <arg> Set a fixed difference in clock speed between the GPU and memory in auto-gpu mode --gpu-platform <arg> Select OpenCL platform ID to use for GPU mining --gpu-powertune <arg> Set the GPU powertune percentage - one value for all or separate by commas for per card. --gpu-reorder Attempt to reorder GPU devices according to PCI Bus ID --gpu-vddc <arg> Set the GPU voltage in Volts - one value for all or separate by commas for per card. --intensity|-I <arg> Intensity of GPU scanning (d or -10 -> 10, default: d to maintain desktop interactivity) --kernel|-k <arg> Override kernel to use (diablo, poclbm, phatk or diakgcn) - one value or comma separated --ndevs|-n Enumerate number of detected GPUs and exit --no-adl Disable the ATI display library used for monitoring and setting GPU parameters --temp-overheat <arg> Overheat temperature when automatically managing fan and GPU speeds (default: 85) --vectors|-v <arg> Override detected optimal vector (1, 2 or 4) - one value or comma separated list --worksize|-w <arg> Override detected optimal worksize - one value or comma separated list GPU mining can be disabled by specifying the -S opencl:noauto option. See README.GPU for more information regarding GPU mining. scrypt only options: --lookup-gap <arg> Set GPU lookup gap for scrypt mining, comma separated --shaders <arg> GPU shaders per card for tuning scrypt, comma separated --thread-concurrency <arg> Set GPU thread concurrency for scrypt mining, comma separated See README.scrypt for more information regarding (non-bitcoin) scrypt mining. ASIC/FPGA mining boards (BitForce, Icarus, ModMiner, X6500, ZTEX) only options: --scan-serial|-S <arg> Serial port to probe for mining devices To use ASICs or FPGAs, you will need to be sure the user BFGMiner is running as has appropriate permissions. This varies by operating system. On Gentoo: sudo usermod <username> -a -G uucp On Ubuntu: sudo usermod <username> -a -G dialout Note that on GNU/Linux systems, you will usually need to login again before group changes take effect. By default, BFGMiner will scan for autodetected devices unless at least one -S is specified for that driver. If you specify -S and still want BFGMiner to scan, you must also use "-S auto". If you want to prevent BFGMiner from scanning without specifying a device, you can use "-S noauto". Note that presently, autodetection only works on Linux, and might only detect one device depending on the version of udev being used. If you want to scan all serial ports, you can use "-S all"; note that this may write data to non-mining devices which may then behave in unexpected ways! On Linux, <arg> is usually of the format /dev/ttyUSBn On Mac OS X, <arg> is usually of the format /dev/cu.usb* On Windows, <arg> is usually of the format \\.\COMn (where n = the correct device number for the device) The official supplied binaries are compiled with support for all ASICs/FPGAs. To force the code to only attempt detection with a specific driver, prepend the argument with the driver name followed by a colon. For example, "icarus:/dev/ttyUSB0" or "bitforce:\\.\COM5" or using the short name: "ica:/dev/ttyUSB0" or "bfl:\\.\COM5" Some FPGAs do not have non-volatile storage for their bitstreams and must be programmed every power cycle, including first use. To use these devices, you must download the BFGMiner source archive (bfgminer-x.y.z.zip) and copy the "bitstreams" directory into your BFGMiner application directory. See README.ASIC and README.FPGA for more information regarding these. CPU only options (not included in binaries): --algo|-a <arg> Specify sha256 implementation for CPU mining: fastauto* Quick benchmark at startup to pick a working algorithm auto Benchmark at startup and pick fastest algorithm c Linux kernel sha256, implemented in C 4way tcatm's 4-way SSE2 implementation via VIA padlock implementation cryptopp Crypto++ C/C++ implementation cryptopp_asm32 Crypto++ 32-bit assembler implementation sse2_32 SSE2 32 bit implementation for i386 machines sse2_64 SSE2 64 bit implementation for x86_64 machines sse4_64 SSE4.1 64 bit implementation for x86_64 machines altivec_4way Altivec implementation for PowerPC G4 and G5 machines --cpu-threads|-t <arg> Number of miner CPU threads (default: 4) --- WHILE RUNNING: The following options are available while running with a single keypress: [M]anage devices [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [H]elp [Q]uit M gives you something like: Select processor to manage using up/down arrow keys BFL 0a: 78.0C | 3.64/ 3.70/ 2.91Gh/s | A:46 R:0+0(none) HW: 2/none BitFORCE SHA256 SC from Butterfly Labs Serial: FTWN6T67 [D]isable Or press Enter when done P gives you: Current pool management strategy: Failover [F]ailover only disabled [A]dd pool [R]emove pool [D]isable pool [E]nable pool [C]hange management strategy [S]witch pool [I]nformation S gives you: [L]ongpoll: On [Q]ueue: 1 [S]cantime: 60 [E]xpiry: 120 [R]etries: -1 [W]rite config file [B]FGMiner restart D gives you: [N]ormal [C]lear [S]ilent mode (disable all output) [D]ebug:off [P]er-device:off [Q]uiet:off [V]erbose:off [R]PC debug:off [W]orkTime details:off co[M]pact: off [L]og interval:5 Q quits the application. The running log shows output like this: [2013-02-13 00:26:30] Accepted 1758e8df BFL 0 pool 0 Diff 10/1 [2013-02-13 00:26:32] Accepted 1d9a2199 MMQ 0a pool 0 Diff 8/1 [2013-02-13 00:26:33] Accepted b1304924 ZTX 0 pool 0 Diff 1/1 [2013-02-13 00:26:33] Accepted c3ad22f4 XBS 0b pool 0 Diff 1/1 The 8 byte hex value are the 2nd set of 32 bits from the share submitted to the pool. The 2 diff values are the actual difficulty target that share reached followed by the difficulty target the pool is currently asking for. --- Also many issues and FAQs are covered in the forum threads dedicated to this program, https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=78192 https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=168174 The block display shows: Block: ...1b89f8d3 #217364 Diff:7.67M (54.93Th/s) Started: [17:17:22] This shows a short stretch of the current block, the next block's height and difficulty (including the network hashrate that difficulty represents), and when the search for the new block started. The BFGMiner status line shows: ST:1 F:0 NB:1 AS:0 BW:[ 75/241 B/s] E:2.42 U:22.53/m BS:2.71k ST is STaged work items (ready to use). F is network Failure occasions (server down or slow to provide work) NB is New Blocks detected on the network AS is Active Submissions (shares in the process of submitting) BW is BandWidth usage on the network E is Efficiency defined as number of shares accepted (multiplied by their difficulty) per 2 KB of bandwidth U is Utility defined as the number of shares / minute BS is the all time Best Share difficulty you've found The totals line shows the following: 6/32 75.0C | 171.3/170.8/171.2Gh/s | A:729 R:8+0(.01%) HW:0/.81% Each column is as follows: The number of devices and processors currently mining Hottest temperature reported by any processor 5 second exponentially decaying average hash rate An all time average hash rate An all time average hash rate based on actual accepted shares The number of Accepted shares The number of Rejected shares and stale shares discarded (never submitted), and the percentage these are of total found. The number of HardWare errors, and percentage invalid of nonces returned Each device shows: BFL 2: 74.0C | 51.97/58.90/57.17Gh/s | A:847 R:15+0(.54%) HW:496/.91% Columns are the same as in the totals line. --- MULTIPOOL FAILOVER STRATEGIES WITH MULTIPOOL: A number of different strategies for dealing with multipool setups are available. Each has their advantages and disadvantages so multiple strategies are available by user choice, as per the following list: FAILOVER: The default strategy is failover. This means that if you input a number of pools, it will try to use them as a priority list, moving away from the 1st to the 2nd, 2nd to 3rd and so on. If any of the earlier pools recover, it will move back to the higher priority ones. ROUND ROBIN: This strategy only moves from one pool to the next when the current one falls idle and makes no attempt to move otherwise. ROTATE: This strategy moves at user-defined intervals from one active pool to the next, skipping pools that are idle. LOAD BALANCE: This strategy sends work to all the pools to maintain optimum load. The most efficient pools will tend to get a lot more shares. If any pool falls idle, the rest will tend to take up the slack keeping the miner busy. BALANCE: This strategy monitors the amount of difficulty 1 shares solved for each pool and uses it to try to end up doing the same amount of work for all pools. --- SOLO MINING BFGMiner supports solo mining with any GBT-compatible bitcoin node (such as bitcoind). To use this mode, you need to specify the URL of your bitcoind node using the usual pool options (--url, --userpass, etc), and the --coinbase-addr option to specify the Bitcoin address you wish to receive the block rewards mined. If you are solo mining with more than one instance of BFGMiner (or any other software) per payout address, you must also specify data using the --coinbase-sig option to ensure each miner is working on unique work. Note that this data will be publicly seen if your miner finds a block using any GBT-enabled pool, even when not solo mining (such as failover). If your bitcoin node does not support longpolling (for example, bitcoind 0.7.x), you should consider setting up a failover pool to provide you with block notifications. Example solo mining usage: bfgminer -o http://localhost:8332 -u username -p password \ --coinbase-addr 1QATWksNFGeUJCWBrN4g6hGM178Lovm7Wh \ --coinbase-sig "rig1: This is Joe's block!" --- LOGGING BFGMiner will log to stderr if it detects stderr is being redirected to a file. To enable logging simply add 2>logfile.txt to your command line and logfile.txt will contain the logged output at the log level you specify (normal, verbose, debug etc.) In other words if you would normally use: ./bfgminer -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz if you use ./bfgminer -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz 2>logfile.txt it will log to a file called logfile.txt and otherwise work the same. There is also the -m option on linux which will spawn a command of your choice and pipe the output directly to that command. The WorkTime details 'debug' option adds details on the end of each line displayed for Accepted or Rejected work done. An example would be: <-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 The first 2 hex codes are the previous block hash, the rest are reported in seconds unless stated otherwise: The previous hash is followed by the getwork mode used M:X where X is one of P:Pool, T:Test Pool, L:LP or B:Benchmark, then D:d.ddd is the difficulty required to get a share from the work, then G:hh:mm:ss:n.nnn, which is when the getwork or LP was sent to the pool and the n.nnn is how long it took to reply, followed by 'O' on its own if it is an original getwork, or 'C:n.nnn' if it was a clone with n.nnn stating how long after the work was recieved that it was cloned, (m.mmm) is how long from when the original work was received until work started, W:n.nnn is how long the work took to process until it was ready to submit, (m.mmm) is how long from ready to submit to actually doing the submit, this is usually 0.000 unless there was a problem with submitting the work, S:n.nnn is how long it took to submit the completed work and await the reply, R:hh:mm:ss is the actual time the work submit reply was received If you start BFGMiner with the --sharelog option, you can get detailed information for each share found. The argument to the option may be "-" for standard output (not advisable with the ncurses UI), any valid positive number for that file descriptor, or a filename. To log share data to a file named "share.log", you can use either: ./bfgminer --sharelog 50 -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz 50>share.log ./bfgminer --sharelog share.log -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz For every share found, data will be logged in a CSV (Comma Separated Value) format: timestamp,disposition,target,pool,dev,thr,sharehash,sharedata For example (this is wrapped, but it's all on one line for real): 1335313090,reject, ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff00000000, http://localhost:8337,GPU0,0, 6f983c918f3299b58febf95ec4d0c7094ed634bc13754553ec34fc3800000000, 00000001a0980aff4ce4a96d53f4b89a2d5f0e765c978640fe24372a000001c5 000000004a4366808f81d44f26df3d69d7dc4b3473385930462d9ab707b50498 f681634a4f1f63d01a0cd43fb338000000000080000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000080020000 --- RPC API For RPC API details see the README.RPC file --- FAQ Q: Why can't BFGMiner find lib<something> even after I installed it from source code? A: On UNIX-like operating systems, you often need to run some command to reload its library caches such as "ldconfig" or similar. A couple of systems (such as Fedora) ship with /usr/local/lib missing from their library search path. In this case, you can usually add it like this: echo /usr/local/lib >/etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf Please note that if your libraries installed into lib64 instead of lib, you should use that in the ld.so config file above instead. Q: BFGMiner segfaults when I change my shell window size. A: Older versions of libncurses have a bug to do with refreshing a window after a size change. Upgrading to a new version of curses will fix it. Q: Can I mine on servers from different networks (eg smartcoin and bitcoin) at the same time? A: No, BFGMiner keeps a database of the block it's working on to ensure it does not work on stale blocks, and having different blocks from two networks would make it invalidate the work from each other. Q: Can I configure BFGMiner to mine with different login credentials or pools for each separate device? A: No. Q: Can I put multiple pools in the config file? A: Yes, check the example.conf file. Alternatively, set up everything either on the command line or via the menu after startup and choose settings->write config file and the file will be loaded one each startup. Q: The build fails with gcc is unable to build a binary. A: Remove the "-march=native" component of your CFLAGS as your version of GCC does not support it. Q: Can you implement feature X? A: I can, but time is limited, and people who donate are more likely to get their feature requests implemented. Q: Work keeps going to my backup pool even though my primary pool hasn't failed? A: BFGMiner checks for conditions where the primary pool is lagging and will pass some work to the backup servers under those conditions. The reason for doing this is to try its absolute best to keep the GPUs working on something useful and not risk idle periods. You can disable this behaviour with the option --failover-only. Q: Is this a virus? A: BFGMiner is being packaged with other trojan scripts and some antivirus software is falsely accusing bfgminer.exe as being the actual virus, rather than whatever it is being packaged with. If you installed BFGMiner yourself, then you do not have a virus on your computer. Complain to your antivirus software company. They seem to be flagging even source code now from BFGMiner as viruses, even though text source files can't do anything by themself. Q: Can you modify the display to include more of one thing in the output and less of another, or can you change the quiet mode or can you add yet another output mode? A: Everyone will always have their own view of what's important to monitor. The defaults are very sane and I have very little interest in changing this any further. Q: Why is my efficiency above/below 1.00? A: Efficiency simply means how many shares you return for the amount of bandwidth used. It does not correlate with efficient use of your hardware, and is a measure of a combination of hardware speed, block luck, pool design and other factors. Q: What are the best parameters to pass for X pool/hardware/device. A: Virtually always, the DEFAULT parameters give the best results. Most user defined settings lead to worse performance. The ONLY thing most users should need to set is the Intensity for GPUs. Q: What happened to CPU mining? A: Being increasingly irrelevant for most users, and a maintenance issue, it is no longer under active development and will not be supported unless someone steps up to help maintain it. No binary builds supporting CPU mining will be released for Windows but CPU mining can be built into BFGMiner when it is compiled. For builds which do support CPU mining, it is still disabled by default, and must be enabled using the -S cpu:auto option. Q: GUI version? A: No. The RPC interface makes it possible for someone else to write one though. Q: I'm having an issue. What debugging information should I provide? A: Start BFGMiner with your regular commands and add -D -T --verbose and provide the full startup output and a summary of your hardware, operating system, ATI driver version and ATI stream version. Q: Can I mine with BFGMiner on a Mac? A: BFGMiner will compile on OS X, but the performance of GPU mining is compromised due to the OpenCL implementation on OS X, there is no temperature or fanspeed monitoring, and the cooling design of most Macs, despite having powerful GPUs, will usually not cope with constant usage leading to a high risk of thermal damage. It is highly recommended not to mine on a Mac unless it is to a USB device. Q: My network gets slower and slower and then dies for a minute? A; Try the --net-delay option. Q: How do I tune for P2Pool? A: P2Pool has very rapid expiration of work and new blocks, it is suggested you decrease intensity by 1 from your optimal value, and decrease GPU threads to 1 with -g 1. It is also recommended to use --failover-only since the work is effectively like a different block chain. If mining with a Mini Rig, it is worth adding the --bfl-range option. Q: Are OpenCL kernels from other mining software useable in BFGMiner? A: No, the APIs are slightly different between the different software and they will not work. Q: I run PHP on windows to access the API with the example miner.php. Why does it fail when php is installed properly but I only get errors about Sockets not working in the logs? A: http://us.php.net/manual/en/sockets.installation.php Q: What is a PGA? A: At the moment, BFGMiner supports 5 FPGAs: BitForce, Icarus, ModMiner, X6500, and ZTEX. They are Field-Programmable Gate Arrays that have been programmed to do Bitcoin mining. Since the acronym needs to be only 3 characters, the "Field-" part has been skipped. "PGA" is also used for devices built with Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Q: What is an ASIC? A: BFGMiner currently supports 2 ASICs: Avalon and BitForce SC devices. They are Application Specify Integrated Circuit devices and provide the highest performance per unit power due to being dedicated to only one purpose. Q: How do I get my BFL/Icarus/Lancelot/Cairnsmore device to auto-recognise? A: On Linux, if the /dev/ttyUSB* devices don't automatically appear, the only thing that needs to be done is to load the driver for them: BitForce: sudo modprobe ftdi_sio vendor=0x0403 product=0x6014 Erupter: sudo modprobe cp210x vendor=0x10c4 product=0xea60 Icarus: sudo modprobe pl2303 vendor=0x067b product=0x0230 Lancelot: sudo modprobe ftdi_sio vendor=0x0403 product=0x6001 Cairnsmore: sudo modprobe ftdi_sio vendor=0x0403 product=0x8350 On Windows, you must install the driver required for the device: FTDI: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm Erupter: http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/pages/usbtouartbridgevcpdrivers.aspx Icarus: http://prolificusa.com/pl-2303hx-drivers/ Q: I ran cgminer, and now BFGMiner doesn't work! A: cgminer has its own non-standard implementations of the drivers for most USB devices, and disables the official drivers (on Windows, you did this manually using Zadig). Before you can use BFGMiner, you will need to restore the original driver. With Linux, usually rebooting or re-plugging the device is sufficient. Q: On Linux I can see the /dev/ttyUSB* devices for my ICA/BFL/MMQ FPGA, but BFGMiner can't mine on them A: Make sure you have the required priviledges to access the /dev/ttyUSB* devices: sudo ls -las /dev/ttyUSB* will give output like: 0 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 2012-09-11 13:49 /dev/ttyUSB0 This means your account must have the group 'dialout' or root priviledges To permanently give your account the 'dialout' group: sudo usermod -G dialout -a `whoami` Then logout and back in again Q: Can I mine scrypt with FPGAs or ASICs? A: No. Q: Why does BFGMiner show difficulty 0 when mining scrypt? A: BFGMiner consistently uses pdiff measurement for difficulty everywhere, rather than other measurements that may exist. For scrypt, pdiff 1 is very difficult, and higher get exponentially harder. It is unlikely you will want to use pdiff 1+ with scrypt until you have FPGAs and/or ASICs for it. Q: What is stratum and how do I use it? A: Stratum is a protocol designed to reduce resources for mining pools at the cost of keeping the miner in the dark and blindly transferring his mining authority to the pool. It is a return to the problems of the old centralized "getwork" protocol, but capable of scaling to hardware of any speed like the standard GBT protocol. If a pool uses stratum instead of GBT, BFGMiner will automatically detect it and switch to the support as advertised if it can. Stratum uses direct TCP connections to the pool and thus it will NOT currently work through a http proxy but will work via a socks proxy if you need to use one. If you input the stratum port directly into your configuration, or use the special prefix "stratum+tcp://" instead of "http://", BFGMiner will ONLY try to use stratum protocol mining. Q: Why don't the statistics add up: Accepted, Rejected, Stale, Hardware Errors, Diff1 Work, etc. when mining greater than 1 difficulty shares? A: As an example, if you look at 'Difficulty Accepted' in the RPC API, the number of difficulty shares accepted does not usually exactly equal the amount of work done to find them. If you are mining at 8 difficulty, then you would expect on average to find one 8 difficulty share, per 8 single difficulty shares found. However, the number is actually random and converges over time, it is an average, not an exact value, thus you may find more or less than the expected average. --- This code is provided entirely free of charge by the programmer in his spare time so donations would be greatly appreciated. Please consider donating to the address below. Luke-Jr <luke-jr+bfgminer@utopios.org> 1QATWksNFGeUJCWBrN4g6hGM178Lovm7Wh