This is a multi-threaded multi-pool FPGA and ASIC miner for bitcoin.

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.

Con Kolivas <[email protected]>

15qSxP1SQcUX3o4nhkfdbgyoWEFMomJ4rZ

NOTE: This code is licensed under the GPLv3. This means that the source to any

modifications you make to this code MUST be provided by law if you distribute

modified binaries. See COPYING for details.

DOWNLOADS:

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer

GIT TREE:

https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer

Support thread:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0

IRC Channel:

irc://irc.freenode.net/cgminer

SEE ALSO API-README, ASIC-README and FGPA-README FOR MORE INFORMATION ON EACH.

---

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ON USAGE:

Single pool:

cgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password

Multiple pools:

cgminer -o http://pool1:port -u pool1username -p pool1password -o http://pool2:port -u pool2usernmae -p pool2password

Single pool with a standard http proxy:

cgminer -o "http:proxy:port|http://pool:port" -u username -p password

Single pool with a socks5 proxy:

cgminer -o "socks5:proxy:port|http://pool:port" -u username -p password

Single pool with stratum protocol support:

cgminer -o stratum+tcp://pool:port -u username -p password

Solo mining to local bitcoind:

cgminer -o http://localhost:8332 -u username -p password --btc-address 15qSxP1SQcUX3o4nhkfdbgyoWEFMomJ4rZ

The list of proxy types are:

http: standard http 1.1 proxy

http0: http 1.0 proxy

socks4: socks4 proxy

socks5: socks5 proxy

socks4a: socks4a proxy

socks5h: socks5 proxy using a hostname

If you compile cgminer with a version of CURL before 7.19.4 then some of the above will

not be available. All are available since CURL version 7.19.4

If you specify the --socks-proxy option to cgminer, it will only be applied to all pools

that don't specify their own proxy setting like above

After saving configuration from the menu, you do not need to give cgminer 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.

---

BUILDING CGMINER FOR YOURSELF

DEPENDENCIES:

Mandatory:

pkg-config http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/pkg-config

libtool http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/

Optional:

curl dev library http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/

(libcurl4-openssl-dev - Must tell configure --disable-libcurl otherwise

it will attempt to compile it in)

curses dev library

(libncurses5-dev or libpdcurses on WIN32 for text user interface)

libudev dev library (libudev-dev)

(This is only required for USB device support and is linux only)

If building from git:

autoconf

automake

If building on Red Hat:

sudo yum install autoconf automake autoreconf libtool openssl-compat-bitcoin-devel.x86_64 \

curl libcurl libcurl-devel openssh

If building on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config \

libcurl3-dev libudev-dev

CGMiner specific configuration options:

--enable-ants1 Compile support for Antminer S1 Bitmain (default

disabled)

--enable-ants2 Compile support for Antminer S2 Bitmain (default

disabled)

--enable-avalon Compile support for Avalon (default disabled)

--enable-avalon2 Compile support for Avalon2 (default disabled)

--enable-bab Compile support for BlackArrow Bitfury (default

disabled)

--enable-bflsc Compile support for BFL ASICs (default disabled)

--enable-bitforce Compile support for BitForce FPGAs (default

disabled)

--enable-bitfury Compile support for BitFury ASICs (default disabled)

--enable-bitmine_A1 Compile support for Bitmine.ch A1 ASICs (default

disabled)

--enable-cointerra Compile support for Cointerra ASICs (default disabled)

--enable-drillbit Compile support for Drillbit BitFury ASICs (default

disabled)

--enable-hashfast Compile support for Hashfast (default disabled)

--enable-icarus Compile support for Icarus (default disabled)

--enable-klondike Compile support for Klondike (default disabled)

--enable-knc Compile support for KnC miners (default disabled)

--enable-minion Compile support for Minion BlackArrow ASIC (default

disabled)

--enable-modminer Compile support for ModMiner FPGAs(default disabled)

--enable-sp10 Compile support for Spondoolies SP10 (default

disabled)

--enable-sp30 Compile support for Spondoolies SP30 (default

disabled)

--disable-libcurl Disable building with libcurl for getwork and GBT

support

--without-curses Compile support for curses TUI (default enabled)

--with-system-libusb Compile against dynamic system libusb (default use

included static libusb)

Basic *nix build instructions:

To actually build:

./autogen.sh # only needed if building from git repo

CFLAGS="-O2 -Wall -march=native" ./configure <options>

make

No installation is necessary. You may run cgminer from the build

directory directly, but you may do make install if you wish to install

cgminer to a system location or location you specified.

Building for windows:

It is actually easiest to build a windows binary using cross compilation tools

provided by "mxe" available at http://mxe.cc/ (use the 32 bit one!)

Once you have followed the instructions for building mxe:

export PATH=(path/to/mxe)/usr/bin/:$PATH

CFLAGS="-O2 -Wall -W -march=i686" ./configure --host=i686-pc-mingw32 <options>

make

Native WIN32 build instructions: see windows-build.txt but these instructions

are now hopelessly out of date.

---

Usage instructions: Run "cgminer --help" to see options:

Usage: cgminer [-DdElmpPQqUsTouOchnV]

Options for both config file and command line:

--anu-freq <arg> Set AntminerU1 frequency in MHz, range 150-500 (default: 200)

--api-allow <arg> Allow API access only to the given list of [G:]IP[/Prefix] addresses[/subnets]

--api-description <arg> Description placed in the API status header, default: cgminer version

--api-groups <arg> API one letter groups G:cmd:cmd[,P:cmd:*...] defining the cmds a groups can use

--api-listen Enable API, default: disabled

--api-mcast Enable API Multicast listener, default: disabled

--api-mcast-addr <arg> API Multicast listen address

--api-mcast-code <arg> Code expected in the API Multicast message, don't use '-'

--api-mcast-des <arg> Description appended to the API Multicast reply, default: ''

--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 <arg> Port number of miner API (default: 4028)

--avalon-auto Adjust avalon overclock frequency dynamically for best hashrate

--avalon-cutoff <arg> Set avalon overheat cut off temperature (default: 60)

--avalon-fan <arg> Set fanspeed percentage for avalon, single value or range (default: 20-100)

--avalon-freq <arg> Set frequency range for avalon-auto, single value or range

--avalon-options <arg> Set avalon options baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq:tech

--avalon-temp <arg> Set avalon target temperature (default: 50)

--avalon2-freq Set frequency range for Avalon2, single value or range

--avalon2-voltage Set Avalon2 core voltage, in millivolts

--avalon2-fan Set Avalon2 target fan speed

--avalon2-cutoff <arg> Set Avalon2 overheat cut off temperature (default: 88)

--avalon2-fixed-speed Set Avalon2 fan to fixed speed

--bab-options <arg> Set BaB options max:def:min:up:down:hz:delay:trf

--balance Change multipool strategy from failover to even share balance

--benchfile <arg> Run cgminer in benchmark mode using a work file - produces no shares

--benchfile-display Display each benchfile nonce found

--benchmark Run cgminer in benchmark mode - produces no shares

--bfl-range Use nonce range on bitforce devices if supported

--bflsc-overheat <arg> Set overheat temperature where BFLSC devices throttle, 0 to disable (default: 85)

--bitburner-fury-voltage <arg> Set BitBurner Fury core voltage, in millivolts

--bitburner-fury-options <arg> Override avalon-options for BitBurner Fury boards baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq

--bitburner-voltage <arg> Set BitBurner (Avalon) core voltage, in millivolts

--bitmain-auto Adjust bitmain overclock frequency dynamically for best hashrate

--bitmain-cutoff Set bitmain overheat cut off temperature

--bitmain-fan Set fanspeed percentage for bitmain, single value or range (default: 20-100)

--bitmain-freq Set frequency range for bitmain-auto, single value or range

--bitmain-hwerror Set bitmain device detect hardware error

--bitmain-options Set bitmain options baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq

--bitmain-temp Set bitmain target temperature

--bxf-bits <arg> Set max BXF/HXF bits for overclocking (default: 54)

--bxf-temp-target <arg> Set target temperature for BXF/HXF devices (default: 82)

--bxm-bits <arg> Set BXM bits for overclocking (default: 54)

--btc-address <arg> Set bitcoin target address when solo mining to bitcoind

--btc-sig <arg> Set signature to add to coinbase when solo mining (optional)

--compact Use compact display without per device statistics

--debug|-D Enable debug output

--disable-rejecting Automatically disable pools that continually reject shares

--drillbit-options <arg> Set drillbit options <int|ext>:clock[:clock_divider][:voltage]

--expiry|-E <arg> Upper bound on how many seconds after getting work we consider a share from it stale (default: 120)

--failover-only Don't leak work to backup pools when primary pool is lagging

--fix-protocol Do not redirect to a different getwork protocol (eg. stratum)

--hfa-hash-clock <arg> Set hashfast clock speed (default: 550)

--hfa-fail-drop <arg> Set how many MHz to drop clockspeed each failure on an overlocked hashfast device (default: 10)

--hfa-fan <arg> Set fanspeed percentage for hashfast, single value or range (default: 10-85)

--hfa-name <arg> Set a unique name for a single hashfast device specified with --usb or the first device found

--hfa-noshed Disable hashfast dynamic core disabling feature

--hfa-options <arg> Set hashfast options name:clock (comma separated)

--hfa-temp-overheat <arg> Set the hashfast overheat throttling temperature (default: 95)

--hfa-temp-target <arg> Set the hashfast target temperature (0 to disable) (default: 88)

--hro-freq Set the hashratio clock frequency (default: 280)

--hotplug <arg> Seconds between hotplug checks (0 means never check)

--klondike-options <arg> Set klondike options clock:temptarget

--load-balance Change multipool strategy from failover to quota based balance

--log|-l <arg> Interval in seconds between log output (default: 5)

--lowmem Minimise caching of shares for low memory applications

--minion-chipreport <arg> Seconds to report chip 5min hashrate, range 0-100 (default: 0=disabled)

--minion-freq <arg> Set minion chip frequencies in MHz, single value or comma list, range 100-1400 (default: 1200)

--minion-idlecount Report when IdleCount is >0 or changes

--minion-ledcount Turn off led when more than this many chips below the ledlimit (default: 0)

--minion-ledlimit Turn off led when chips GHs are below this (default: 90)

--minion-noautofreq Disable automatic frequency adjustment

--minion-overheat Enable directly halting any chip when the status exceeds 100C

--minion-spidelay Add a delay in microseconds after each SPI I/O

--minion-spireset SPI regular reset: iNNN for I/O count or sNNN for seconds - 0 means none

--minion-spisleep Sleep time in milliseconds when doing an SPI reset

--minion-temp <arg> Set minion chip temperature threshold, single value or comma list, range 120-160 (default: 135C)

--monitor|-m <arg> Use custom pipe cmd for output messages

--nfu-bits <arg> Set nanofury bits for overclocking, range 32-63 (default: 50)

--net-delay Impose small delays in networking to not overload slow routers

--no-submit-stale Don't submit shares if they are detected as stale

--osm-led-mode <arg> Set LED mode for OneStringMiner devices (default: 4)

--pass|-p <arg> Password for bitcoin JSON-RPC server

--per-device-stats Force verbose mode and output per-device statistics

--protocol-dump|-P Verbose dump of protocol-level activities

--queue|-Q <arg> Minimum number of work items to have queued (0+) (default: 1)

--quiet|-q Disable logging output, display status and errors

--quota|-U <arg> quota;URL combination for server with load-balance strategy quotas

--real-quiet Disable all output

--rock-freq <arg> Set RockMiner frequency in MHz, range 200-400 (default: 270)

--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: -1)

--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)

--sharelog <arg> Append share log to file

--shares <arg> Quit after mining N shares (default: unlimited)

--socks-proxy <arg> Set socks4 proxy (host:port)

--syslog Use system log for output messages (default: standard error)

--temp-cutoff <arg> Temperature where a device will be automatically disabled, one value or comma separated list (default: 95)

--text-only|-T Disable ncurses formatted screen output

--url|-o <arg> URL for bitcoin JSON-RPC server

--usb <arg> USB device selection

--user|-u <arg> Username for bitcoin JSON-RPC server

--userpass|-O <arg> Username:Password pair for bitcoin JSON-RPC server

--verbose Log verbose output to stderr as well as status output

--widescreen Use extra wide display without toggling

--worktime Display extra work time debug information

Options for command line only:

--config|-c <arg> Load a JSON-format configuration file

See example.conf for an example configuration.

--default-config <arg> Specify the filename of the default config file

Loaded at start and used when saving without a name.

--help|-h Print this message

--ndevs|-n Display all USB devices and exit

--version|-V Display version and exit

Silent USB device (ASIC and FPGA) options:

--icarus-options <arg> Set specific FPGA board configurations - one set of values for all or comma separated

--icarus-timing <arg> Set how the Icarus timing is calculated - one setting/value for all or comma separated

--usb-dump (See FPGA-README)

See FGPA-README or ASIC-README for more information regarding these.

ASIC only options:

--anu-freq <arg> Set AntminerU1 frequency in hex, range 150-500 (default: 200)

--avalon-auto Adjust avalon overclock frequency dynamically for best hashrate

--avalon-cutoff <arg> Set avalon overheat cut off temperature (default: 60)

--avalon-fan <arg> Set fanspeed percentage for avalon, single value or range (default: 20-100)

--avalon-freq <arg> Set frequency range for avalon-auto, single value or range

--avalon-options <arg> Set avalon options baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq:tech

--avalon-temp <arg> Set avalon target temperature (default: 50)

--avalon2-freq Set frequency range for Avalon2, single value or range

--avalon2-voltage Set Avalon2 core voltage, in millivolts

--avalon2-fan Set Avalon2 target fan speed

--avalon2-cutoff <arg> Set Avalon2 overheat cut off temperature (default: 88)

--avalon2-fixed-speed Set Avalon2 fan to fixed speed

--bab-options <arg> Set BaB options max:def:min:up:down:hz:delay:trf

--bflsc-overheat <arg> Set overheat temperature where BFLSC devices throttle, 0 to disable (default: 90)

--bitburner-fury-options <arg> Override avalon-options for BitBurner Fury boards baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq

--bitburner-fury-voltage <arg> Set BitBurner Fury core voltage, in millivolts

--bitburner-voltage <arg> Set BitBurner (Avalon) core voltage, in millivolts

--bitmine-a1-options <ref_clk>:<sys_clk>:<spi_clk>:<max_chip>

--bxf-temp-target <arg> Set target temperature for BXF devices (default: 82)

--bxm-bits <arg> Set BXM bits for overclocking (default: 50)

--hfa-hash-clock <arg> Set hashfast clock speed (default: 550)

--hfa-fail-drop <arg> Set how many MHz to drop clockspeed each failure on an overlocked hashfast device (default: 10)

--hfa-fan <arg> Set fanspeed percentage for hashfast, single value or range (default: 10-85)

--hfa-name <arg> Set a unique name for a single hashfast device specified with --usb or the first device found

--hfa-noshed Disable hashfast dynamic core disabling feature

--hfa-temp-overheat <arg> Set the hashfast overheat throttling temperature (default: 95)

--hfa-temp-target <arg> Set the hashfast target temperature (0 to disable) (default: 88)

--hro-freq Set the hashratio clock frequency (default: 280)

--klondike-options <arg> Set klondike options clock:temptarget

--rock-freq <arg> Set RockMiner frequency in MHz, range 125-500 (default: 270)

See ASIC-README for more information regarding these.

FPGA only options:

--bfl-range Use nonce range on bitforce devices if supported

See FGPA-README for more information regarding this.

Cgminer should automatically find all of your Avalon ASIC, BFL ASIC, BitForce

FPGAs, Icarus bitstream FPGAs, Klondike ASIC, ASICMINER usb block erupters,

KnC ASICs, BaB ASICs, Hashfast ASICs, ModMiner FPGAs, BPMC/BGMC BF1 USB ASICs,

Bi*fury USB ASICs, Onestring miner USB ASICs, Hexfury USB ASICs, Nanofury USB

ASICs, Antminer U1/U2/U2+ USB ASICs, Cointerra devices, BFx2 USB ASICs,

Rockminer R-Box USB ASICs, Avalon2 USB ASICs and Hashratio USB ASICs.

---

SETTING UP USB DEVICES

WINDOWS:

On windows, the direct USB support requires the installation of a WinUSB

driver (NOT the ftdi_sio driver), and attach it to the chosen USB device.

When configuring your device, plug it in and wait for windows to attempt to

install a driver on its own. It may think it has succeeded or failed but wait

for it to finish regardless. This is NOT the driver you want installed. At this

point you need to associate your device with the WinUSB driver. The easiest

way to do this is to use the zadig utility which you must right click on and

run as administrator. Then once you plug in your device you can choose the

"list all devices" from the "option" menu and you should be able to see the

device as something like: "BitFORCE SHA256 SC". Choose the install or replace

driver option and select WinUSB. You can either google for zadig or download

it from the cgminer directory in the DOWNLOADS link above.

When you first switch a device over to WinUSB with zadig and it shows that

correctly on the left of the zadig window, but it still gives permission

errors, you may need to unplug the USB miner and then plug it back in. Some

users may need to reboot at this point.

LINUX:

On linux, the direct USB support requires no drivers at all. However due to

permissions issues, you may not be able to mine directly on the devices as a

regular user without giving the user access to the device or by mining as

root (administrator). In order to give your regular user access, you can make

him a member of the plugdev group with the following commands:

sudo usermod -G plugdev -a `whoami`

If your distribution does not have the plugdev group you can create it with:

sudo groupadd plugdev

In order for the USB devices to instantly be owned by the plugdev group and

accessible by anyone from the plugdev group you can copy the file

"01-cgminer.rules" from the cgminer archive into the /etc/udev/rules.d

directory with the following command:

sudo cp 01-cgminer.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

After this you can either manually restart udev and re-login, or more easily

just reboot.

OSX:

On OSX, like Linux, no drivers need to be installed. However some devices

like the bitfury USB sticks automatically load a driver thinking they're a

modem and the driver needs to be unloaded for cgminer to work:

sudo kextunload -b com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC

sudo kextunload -b com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDCACMData

There may be a limit to the number of USB devices that you are allowed to start.

The following set of commands, followed by a reboot will increase that:

sudo su

touch /etc/sysctl.conf

echo kern.sysv.semume=100 >> /etc/sysctl.conf

chown root:wheel /etc/sysctl.conf

chmod 0644 /etc/sysctl.conf

Some devices need superuser access to mine on them so cgminer may need to

be started with sudo

i.e.:

sudo cgminer <insert commands here>

---

Advanced USB options:

The --usb option can restrict how many USB devices are found:

--usb 1:2,1:3,1:4,1:*

or

--usb BAS:1,BFL:1,MMQ:0,ICA:0,KLN:0

or

--usb :10

You can only use one of the above 3

The first version

--usb 1:2,1:3,1:4,1:*

allows you to select which devices to mine on with a list of USB

bus_number:device_address

All other USB devices will be ignored

Hotplug will also only look at the devices matching the list specified and

find nothing new if they are all in use

You can specify just the USB bus_number to find all devices like 1:*

which means any devices on USB bus_number 1

This is useful if you unplug a device then plug it back in the same port,

it usually reappears with the same bus_number but a different device_address

You can see the list of all USB devices on linux with 'sudo lsusb'

Cgminer will list the recognised USB devices

with the '-n' option or the

'--usb-dump 0' option

The '--usb-dump N' option with a value of N greater than 0 will dump a lot

of details about each recognised USB device

If you wish to see all USB devices, include the --usb-list-all option

The second version

--usb BAS:1,BFL:1,MMQ:0,ICA:0,KLN:0

allows you to specify how many devices to choose based on each device

driver cgminer has - the current USB drivers are:

AVA, BAS, BFL, BF1, DRB, HFA, ICA, KLN and MMQ.

N.B. you can only specify which device driver to limit, not the type of

each device, e.g. with BAS:n you can limit how many BFL ASIC devices will

be checked, but you cannot limit the number of each type of BFL ASIC

Also note that the MMQ count is the number of MMQ backplanes you have

not the number of MMQ FPGAs

The third version

--usb :10

means only use a maximum of 10 devices of any supported USB devices

Once cgminer has 10 devices it will not configure any more and hotplug will

not scan for any more

If one of the 10 devices stops working, hotplug - if enabled, as is default

- will scan normally again until it has 10 devices

--usb :0 will disable all USB I/O other than to initialise libusb

---

WHILE RUNNING:

The following options are available while running with a single keypress:

[U]SB management [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit

U gives you:

[S]ummary of device information

[E]nable device

[D]isable device

[U]nplug to allow hotplug restart

[R]eset device USB

[L]ist all known devices

[B]lacklist current device from current instance of cgminer

[W]hitelist previously blacklisted device

[H]otplug interval (0 to disable)

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:

[Q]ueue: 1

[S]cantime: 60

[E]xpiry: 120

[W]rite config file

[C]gminer 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

[T]oggle status switching:enabled

[Z]ero statistics

[L]og interval:5

Q quits the application.

The running log shows output like this:

[2013-11-09 11:04:41] Accepted 01b3bde7 Diff 150/128 AVA 1 pool 0

[2013-11-09 11:04:49] Accepted 015df995 Diff 187/128 AVA 1 pool 0

[2013-11-09 11:04:50] Accepted 01163b68 Diff 236/128 AVA 1 pool 0

[2013-11-09 11:04:53] Accepted 9f745840 Diff 411/128 BAS 1 pool 0

The 8 byte hex value are the 1st nonzero bytes of the share being 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 thread

dedicated to this program,

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=28402.0

DISPLAY:

The display is roughly split into two portions, the top status window and the

bottom scrolling log window.

STATUS WINDOW

The status window is split into overall status and per device status.

Overall status:

The output line shows the following:

(5s):2.469T (1m):2.677T (5m):2.040T (15m):1.014T (avg):2.733Th/s

These are exponentially decaying average hashrates over 5s/1m/5m/15m and an

average since the start.

Followed by:

A:290391 R:5101 HW:145 WU:37610.4/m

Each column is as follows:

A: The total difficulty of Accepted shares

R: The total difficulty of Rejected shares

HW: The number of HardWare errors

WU: The Work Utility defined as the number of diff1 shares work / minute

(accepted or rejected).

alternating with:

ST: 22 SS: 0 NB: 2 LW: 356090 GF: 0 RF: 0

ST is STaged work items (ready to use).

SS is Stale Shares discarded (detected and not submitted so don't count as rejects)

NB is New Blocks detected on the network

LW is Locally generated Work items

GF is Getwork Fail Occasions (server slow to provide work)

RF is Remote Fail occasions (server slow to accept work)

Followed by:

Connected to pool.com diff 3.45K with stratum as user me

The diff shown is the current vardiff requested by the pool currently being

mined at.

Followed by:

Block: ca0d237f... Diff:5.01G Started: [00:14:27] Best share: 1.18M

This shows a short stretch about the current block, when the new block started,

and the all time best difficulty share you've found since starting cgminer

this time.

Per device status:

6: HFS Random : 645MHz 85C 13% 0.79V | 2.152T / 1.351Th/s

Each column is as follows:

Temperature (if supported)

Fanspeed (if supported)

Voltage (if supported)

A 5 second exponentially decaying average hash rate

An all time average hash rate

alternating with

6: HFS Random : 645MHz 86C 13% 0.80V | A:290348 R:1067 HW:88 WU:18901.8/m

The total difficulty of accepted shares

The total difficulty of rejected shares

The number of hardware erorrs

The work utility defined as the number of diff1 shares work / minute

LOG WINDOW

All running information is shown here, usually share submission results and

block update notifications, along with device messages and warnings.

[2014-03-29 00:24:09] Accepted 1397768d Diff 3.35K/2727 HFS 0 pool 0

[2014-03-29 00:24:13] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block

---

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 on a quota basis. By default, all

pools are allocated equal quotas unless specified with --quota. This

apportioning of work is based on work handed out, not shares returned so is

independent of difficulty targets or rejected shares. While a pool is disabled

or dead, its quota is dropped until it is re-enabled. Quotas are forward

looking, so if the quota is changed on the fly, it only affects future work.

If all pools are set to zero quota or all pools with quota are dead, it will

fall back to a failover mode. See quota below for more information.

The failover-only flag has special meaning in combination with load-balance

mode and it will distribute quota back to priority pool 0 from any pools that

are unable to provide work for any reason so as to maintain quota ratios

between the rest of the pools.

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.

---

QUOTAS

The load-balance multipool strategy works off a quota based scheduler. The

quotas handed out by default are equal, but the user is allowed to specify any

arbitrary ratio of quotas. For example, if all the quota values add up to 100,

each quota value will be a percentage, but if 2 pools are specified and pool0

is given a quota of 1 and pool1 is given a quota of 9, pool0 will get 10% of

the work and pool1 will get 90%. Quotas can be changed on the fly by the API,

and do not act retrospectively. Setting a quota to zero will effectively

disable that pool unless all other pools are disabled or dead. In that

scenario, load-balance falls back to regular failover priority-based strategy.

While a pool is dead, it loses its quota and no attempt is made to catch up

when it comes back to life.

To specify quotas on the command line, pools should be specified with a

semicolon separated --quota(or -U) entry instead of --url. Pools specified with

--url are given a nominal quota value of 1 and entries can be mixed.

For example:

--url poola:porta -u usernamea -p passa --quota "2;poolb:portb" -u usernameb -p passb

Will give poola 1/3 of the work and poolb 2/3 of the work.

Writing configuration files with quotas is likewise supported. To use the above

quotas in a configuration file they would be specified thus:

"pools" : [

{

"url" : "poola:porta",

"user" : "usernamea",

"pass" : "passa"

},

{

"quota" : "2;poolb:portb",

"user" : "usernameb",

"pass" : "passb"

}

]

---

SOLO MINING

Solo mining can be done efficiently as a single pool entry or a backup to

any other pooled mining and it is recommended everyone have solo mining set up

as their final backup in case all their other pools are DDoSed/down for the

security of the network. To enable solo mining, one must be running a local

bitcoind/bitcoin-qt or have one they have rpc access to. To do this, edit your

bitcoind configuration file (bitcoin.conf) with the following extra lines,

using your choice of username and password:

rpcuser=username

rpcpassword=password

Restart bitcoind, then start cgminer, pointing to the bitcoind and choose a

btc address with the following options, altering to suit their setup:

cgminer -o http://localhost:8332 -u username -p password --btc-address 15qSxP1SQcUX3o4nhkfdbgyoWEFMomJ4rZ

Note the http:// is mandatory for solo mining.

---

LOGGING

cgminer 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:

./cgminer -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz

if you use

./cgminer -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 it's 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 cgminer 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:

./cgminer --sharelog 50 -o xxx -u yyy -p zzz 50>share.log

./cgminer --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,ASC0,0,

6f983c918f3299b58febf95ec4d0c7094ed634bc13754553ec34fc3800000000,

00000001a0980aff4ce4a96d53f4b89a2d5f0e765c978640fe24372a000001c5

000000004a4366808f81d44f26df3d69d7dc4b3473385930462d9ab707b50498

f681634a4f1f63d01a0cd43fb338000000000080000000000000000000000000

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000080020000

---

BENCHMARK

The --benchmark option hashes a single fixed work item over and over and does

not submit shares to any pools.

The --benchfile <arg> option hashes the work given in the file <arg> supplied.

The format of the work file is:

version,merkleroot,prevhash,diffbits,noncetime

Any empty line or any line starting with '#' or '/' is ignored.

When it reaches the end of the file it continues back at the top.

The format of the data items matches the byte ordering and format of the

the bitcoind getblock RPC output.

An example file containing bitcoin block #1 would be:

# Block 1

1,0e3e2357e806b6cdb1f70b54c3a3a17b6714ee1f0e68bebb44a74b1efd512098,00000000001

9d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f,1d00ffff,1231469665

However, the work data should be one line without the linebreak in the middle

If you use --benchfile <arg>, then --benchfile-display will output a log line,

for each nonce found, showing the nonce value in decimal and hex and the work

used to find it in hex.

---

RPC API

For RPC API details see the API-README file

---

FAQ

Q: I have multiple USB stick devices but I can't get them all to work at once?

A: Very few USB hubs deliver the promised power required to run as many devices

as they fit if all of them draw power from USB.

Q: I've plugged my devices into my USB hub but nothing shows up?

A: RPis and Windows have incomplete or non-standard USB3 support so they may

never work. It may be possible to get a USB3 hub to work by plugging it into

a USB2 hub. When choosing a hub, USB2 hubs are preferable whenever possible

due to better support all round.

Q: Can I mine on servers from different networks (eg xxxcoin and bitcoin) at

the same time?

A: No, cgminer 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 cgminer 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. Also -O2 is capital o 2, not zero 2.

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: Cgminer 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 devices 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: Cgminer is being packaged with other trojan scripts and some antivirus

software is falsely accusing cgminer.exe as being the actual virus, rather

than whatever it is being packaged with. If you installed cgminer 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 cgminer

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. There is far more detail in the API output than can be reasonably

displayed on the small console window, and using an external interface such

as miner.php is much more useful for setups with many devices.

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.

Q: What happened to CPU and GPU mining?

A: Their efficiency makes them irrelevant in the bitcoin mining world today

and the author has no interest in supporting alternative coins that are better

mined by these devices.

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 cgminer with your regular commands and add -D -T --verbose and provide

the full startup output and a summary of your hardware and operating system.

Q: Why don't you provide win64 builds?

A: Win32 builds work everywhere and there is precisely zero advantage to a

64 bit build on windows.

Q: Is it faster to mine on windows or linux?

A: It makes no difference in terms of performance. It comes down to choice of

operating system for their various features and your comfort level. However

linux is the primary development platform and is virtually guaranteed to be

more stable.

Q: My network gets slower and slower and then dies for a minute?

A; Try the --net-delay option if you are on a getwork or GBT server.

Q: How do I tune for p2pool?

A: It is also recommended to use --failover-only since the work is effectively

like a different block chain, and not enabling --no-submit-stale. If mining with

a BFL (fpga) minirig, it is worth adding the --bfl-range option.

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, cgminer supports 3 FPGAs: BitForce, Icarus and ModMiner.

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.

Q: What is an ASIC?

A: They are Application Specify Integrated Circuit devices and provide the

highest performance per unit power due to being dedicated to only one purpose.

Q: What is stratum and how do I use it?

A: Stratum is a protocol designed for pooled mining in such a way as to

minimise the amount of network communications, yet scale to hardware of any

speed. With versions of cgminer 2.8.0+, if a pool has stratum support, cgminer

will automatically detect it and switch to the support as advertised if it can.

If you input the stratum port directly into your configuration, or use the

special prefix "stratum+tcp://" instead of "http://", cgminer will ONLY try to

use stratum protocol mining. The advantages of stratum to the miner are no

delays in getting more work for the miner, less rejects across block changes,

and far less network communications for the same amount of mining hashrate. If

you do NOT wish cgminer to automatically switch to stratum protocol even if it

is detected, add the --fix-protocol option.

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.

Q: My keyboard input momentarily pauses or repeats keys every so often on

windows while mining?

A: The USB implementation on windows can be very flaky on some hardware and

every time cgminer looks for new hardware to hotplug it it can cause these

sorts of problems. You can disable hotplug with:

--hotplug 0

Q: What should my Work Utility (WU) be?

A: Work utility is the product of hashrate * luck and only stabilises over a

very long period of time. Assuming all your work is valid work, bitcoin mining

should produce a work utility of approximately 1 per 71.6MH. This means at

5GH you should have a WU of 5000 / 71.6 or ~ 69. You cannot make your machine

do "better WU" than this - it is luck related. However you can make it much

worse if your machine produces a lot of hardware errors producing invalid work.

Q: What should I build in for a generic distribution binary?

A: There are a number of drivers that expect to be used on dedicated standalone

hardware. That said, the drivers that are designed to work generically with

USB on any hardware are the following:

--enable-avalon

--enable-avalon2

--enable-bflsc

--enable-bitfury

--enable-cointerra

--enable-drillbit

--enable-hashfast