2018-01-21
EDID for X
In X Window, when running headless, the resolution can be defaulted to something poor since no monitor's attached. Apparently one can snag the EDID information for the monitor, save it to a file, and specify it in xorg.conf. One wiki page describes how to extract the EDID info, but nvidia-settings has a means of extracting the monitor EDID info when it's plugged in. Of course, that wiki's description of how to set up xorg.conf is useful. The NVIDIA Tips and Tricks wiki also has a description of setting up the EDID for headless operation.
Monero Mining
Nanopool has support for XMR, but only through Claymore, which doesn't have a Linux version for the CPU miner. One site uses xmr-stak-cpu and another uses cpu-miner-multi. Looks like a 1060 does about 470 H/s.
CryptoCompare's guide also has several options. Gotta wonder how a 12-thread Ryzen would do at reduced load concurrent with Ethereum mining.
CryptoCompare's guide also has several options. Gotta wonder how a 12-thread Ryzen would do at reduced load concurrent with Ethereum mining.
2018-01-20
OC at Last
Well, the problem was trying to use the onboard video. Once I shut off the IGA and disabled multiple adapters, gpu-manager quit overwriting my xorg.conf and I was able to follow the rest of the usual steps to overclock the GPUs. I started off with +100 MHz graphics clock and +500 MHz memory clock, and once I got the EVGA 1060 SC up to +1000 MHz memory, claymore started throwing errors. Anything over +500 didn't seem to help the hashrate, although I needed to kick the power target on the #3 card up to 80W. With 100/500 across the board, I'm getting about 21 MH/s rather than 19.5 MH/s, a total of 84 MH/s, up from 79 MH/s. Not quite a 10% kicker, but it's welcome.
I was reading how ethminer has better optimization for Cuda, so I'm going to have to check out ethminer vs. claymore once I get it compiled. WhatToMine says I should be getting 90 MH/s for four 1060s. At least the system power consumption's lower than the 360W they quote; 345W for the whole box.
I was reading how ethminer has better optimization for Cuda, so I'm going to have to check out ethminer vs. claymore once I get it compiled. WhatToMine says I should be getting 90 MH/s for four 1060s. At least the system power consumption's lower than the 360W they quote; 345W for the whole box.
2018-01-18
Mining Mobo
I'd been wondering why no one bothered to make an out-of-form-factor motherboard with slots spaced for multiple GPUs. One just showed up in my feed! The manufacturer's page is a bit sparse, information-wise, so it'd be a bit risky to buy. They're available on eBay for about $232, shipping included, with estimated delivery in 8-10 weeks.
2018-01-16
Linux Recovery
Well, this is just a note to myself rather than a bunch of weird links. So...if you do "prime-select intel" on a hybrid graphics system and everything freezes when the boot sequence gets to X:
Of course, that may not completely fix things either, but getting access to the system is better than being locked out.
- Hard reboot and wait for the BIOS screen to pass.
- Hit Esc to bring up the Grub bootloader menu (holding down Shift didn't work on my system).
- Type 'e' on the first entry to edit the boot commands.
- On the line with "linux", append " 3" (space, 3). This will restrict the runlevel to 3, which is multi-user mode. Alternatively, one could append " single", but single-user mode is perhaps less useful because you can't start X from there, nor do you have network access.
- Hit F10 to boot with those options.
- Log in and do your thing. In multi-user console mode, you can hit Ctrl-Alt-1 through 6 to get tty1-6. Ctrl-Alt-7 is X, usually. If you have something to try, like fix the graphics selection: "sudo prime-select nvidia ; systemctl stop lightdm ; systemctl start lightdm".
Of course, that may not completely fix things either, but getting access to the system is better than being locked out.
2018-01-14
Installing Nvidia Drivers on Ubuntu
After installing Ubuntu with the Nvidia drivers, nvidia-settings wouldn't display the overclocking options. Modifying /etc/X11/xorg.conf didn't help, because gpu-manager was overwriting the file. The Bumblebee module (bbswitch), which is for switching between an integrated GPU and a standalone one, was failing to load, causing gpu-manager to behave badly. Bumblebee isn't what I need, since I want to run the display on the Intel video and keep the GPUs running for mining. Apparently this is still a problem with people, since complaints turn up on the BB Git page.
The devs seem to ignore the requests, possibly because it's due to misconfiguration. Based on my log, it seems that the Nvidia drivers are being loaded prior to gpu-manager invoking modprobe bbswitch.
Two pages turned up with hints on how to resolve the problem. The first one was easier to follow, but the Nvidia run script failed to build the DKMS module. There's a second page that may be of help since that first one didn't do the trick....
Incidentally, at one point I'd used nvidia-prime to switch to the Intel driver and upon reboot the login page would freeze. A page suggested reinstalling ubuntu-desktop, which surprisingly worked.
Follow-up [1/14]: Well, none of that stuff worked. In fact, using the Nvidia run file, I couldn't even log into X, as it got stuck in a "login loop". So I ripped out all of that, installed the PPA drivers, and I'm back where I started--what a waste of time. I guess that's why Linux is free and you have to pay for Windows. The last thing I have to try is switching off the IGA and using the GPU as the video adapter in the hope that gpu-manager won't screw with xorg.conf.
The devs seem to ignore the requests, possibly because it's due to misconfiguration. Based on my log, it seems that the Nvidia drivers are being loaded prior to gpu-manager invoking modprobe bbswitch.
Two pages turned up with hints on how to resolve the problem. The first one was easier to follow, but the Nvidia run script failed to build the DKMS module. There's a second page that may be of help since that first one didn't do the trick....
Incidentally, at one point I'd used nvidia-prime to switch to the Intel driver and upon reboot the login page would freeze. A page suggested reinstalling ubuntu-desktop, which surprisingly worked.
Follow-up [1/14]: Well, none of that stuff worked. In fact, using the Nvidia run file, I couldn't even log into X, as it got stuck in a "login loop". So I ripped out all of that, installed the PPA drivers, and I'm back where I started--what a waste of time. I guess that's why Linux is free and you have to pay for Windows. The last thing I have to try is switching off the IGA and using the GPU as the video adapter in the hope that gpu-manager won't screw with xorg.conf.
2018-01-09
Cryptocurrency Regulation
FinCEN apparently has a broader definition of a money services business than the state of Minnesota. From the former:
(uu) Money services business. Each agent, agency, branch, or office within the United States of any person doing business, whether or not on a regular basis or as an organized business concern, in one or more of the capacities listed in paragraphs (uu)(1) through (uu)(6) of this section. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, the term ‘‘money services business’’ shall not include a bank, nor shall it include a person registered with, and regulated or examined by, the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.From the latter:
(1) Currency dealer or exchanger. A currency dealer or exchanger (other than a person who does not exchange currency in an amount greater than $1,000 in currency or monetary or other instruments for any person on any day in one or more transactions).
(2) Check casher. A person engaged in the business of a check casher (other than a person who does not cash checks in an amount greater than $1,000 in currency or monetary or other instruments for any person on any day in one or more transactions).
(3) Issuer of traveler’s checks, money orders, or stored value. An issuer of traveler’s checks, money orders, or, stored value (other than a person who does not issue such checks or money orders or stored value in an amount greater than $1,000 in currency or monetary or other instruments to any person on any day in one or more transactions).
(4) Seller or redeemer of traveler’s checks, money orders, or stored value. A <15>seller or redeemer of traveler’s checks, money orders, or stored value (other than a person who does not sell such checks or money orders or stored value in an amount greater than $1,000 in currency or monetary or other instruments to or redeem such instruments for an amount greater than $1,000 in currency or monetary or other instruments from, any person on any day in one or more transactions).
(5) Money transmitter—(i) In general. Money transmitter:
(A) Any person, whether or not licensed or required to be licensed, who engages as a business in accepting currency, or funds denominated in currency, and transmits the currency or funds, or the value of the currency or funds, by any means through a financial agency or institution, a Federal Reserve Bank or other facility of one or more Federal Reserve Banks, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or both, or an electronic funds transfer network; or
(B) Any other person engaged as a business in the transfer of funds.
(ii) Facts and circumstances; Limitation. Whether a person ‘‘engages as a business’’ in the activities described in paragraph (uu)(5)(i) of this section is a matter of facts and circumstances. Generally, the acceptance and transmission of funds as an integral part of the execution and settlement of a transaction other than the funds transmission itself (for example, in connection with a bona fide sale of securities or other property), will not cause a person to be a money transmitter within the meaning of paragraph (uu)(5)(i) of this section.
(6) United States Postal Service. The United States Postal Service, except with respect to the sale of postage or philatelic products.
The Minnesota Department of Commerce licenses and regulates individuals and businesses that cash checks, transmit money, own and operate ATMs, and provide electronic funds transfers.The MN license is $4k. Didn't see a price on the FinCEN one.
2018-01-04
Crypto Wikis
- Bitcoin: in particular for the FAQ, technical articles, and protocol documentation
- Ethereum: in particular for the FAQ and info on Ethash, mining, and problems
- Litecoin: wiki currently down (Cloudflare error); mored from GitHub page
- Zcash: in particular for the FAQ as well as the spec info
During consensus, each node evaluates proposals from a specific set of peers, called chosen validators. Chosen validators represent a subset of the network which, when taken collectively, is "trusted" not to collude in an attempt to defraud the node evaluating the proposals. This definition of "trust" does not require that each individual chosen validator is trusted. Rather, validators are chosen based on the expectation they will not collude in a coordinated effort to falsify data relayed to the network.The lack of this trust requirement is one of BTC's desirable attributes, at least to liberty people. However, it's easy to see why Ripple is supported by banks: they have a place in the XRP ecosystem.
More Ether
So my phone's browser is filling up with tabs and I need to dump them ASAP!
About using 1060 3GB cards to mine ETH: Well, they're actually still obtainable, since everyone else is buying RX 580s and GTX 1080s. But also salient is that the power consumption is much lower, as posted previously. (Actually, without overclocking, 19.8 MH/s is achievable at 70W.)
Even mining with 1060s has taken off: articles from 6 mo ago show prices for the 6GB cards as being sub-$200, and now they're closer to $300. Even 3GB cards, which may be getting close to outmoded for the increased DAG file size at more recent epochs, are selling for ~$230.
OC'ing Nvidia cards on Linux is a hot mess. Everyone appears to be using Windows, but I'm too cheap to pay MS, and I don't really want to pirate it. Going from ~20 to ~23 hashrate would be nice, though. Some hacking of the xorg.conf file is necessary to enable memory OC; the problem is under Ubuntu, gpu-manager runs and rewrites xorg.conf upon reboot. When I effectively disabled that using "sudo chattr +i /etc/X11/xorg.conf", the system wouldn't boot into X. Then I had to figure out how to get into the Grub startup page (old docs say hold down shift, but I found that Esc is necessary these days) and get into single-user mode to restore the attribute. At least power target can be adjusted down without coolbits.
On my laptop I had another guide open that I realized I hadn't fully tried. Need to give it a shot.
It was amusing to read about how mining pools calculate "shares": by having the miner submit work and verifying that it meets a standard of difficulty below the network standard for the sole purpose of computing the miner contributions. Of course, a given share may be the block solution, but the miner doesn't have enough information to know. Furthermore, at least if we were talking Bitcoin, the coinbase / generation transaction's address would be the mining pool's. Of course, a malicious miner could return bogus data and cause blocks to be missed....
Don't forget the PPLNS pool algorithm used by nanopool (explanation). Pay Per Last N Shares introduces randomness in the algorithm; if I understand correctly, the pool pays based on some recent subset of shares submitted by each miner when a block is found, as opposed to all the shares, as in PPS.
CoinWarz's mining profit calculator is more detailed than CryptoCompare's calculator. The former is more optimistic than the latter, though: 2.928 vs. 2.78 based on the same hashrate, and is still optimistic on the USD profit, even though the former also subtracts out the pool fees.
Regarding hashrate of 1050s, it appears they're 12 MH/s stock, as opposed to 19-20 with 1060s. The 2GB model is ~$125, the 4GB ~$190. Of course the 4GB is in greater demand. 2GB is definitely too small for ETH; perhaps it'd be usable for other alts like ZEC? With one of those miner boards that allows for hooking up >10 cards, that'd potentially be more cost-effective, if not power-effective.
As far as the Ethereum switch to PoS, the FAQ on GitHub describes what that would look like. Apparently there are two types under consideration: chain-based and BFT-style. BFT is "Byzantine fault tolerance" that handles consensus-seeking in the presence of malicious actors. Amusingly enough, the Wikipedia page notes under examples of such failures that this pertains to swarming bees:
As far as using Radeon RX 580s, most of those seem to be sold out at under a $400 price point. Amusingly, Newegg has an Asus 4GB card for $280 in stock: "limit 1 per customer" (lol). I'm less enthused about using those because OC'ing them involves tweaking their BIOS.
I'm not sure why I get like this every once in a while, going full-bore into something different. Hopefully in this case it'll be profitable rather than just another money sink.
About using 1060 3GB cards to mine ETH: Well, they're actually still obtainable, since everyone else is buying RX 580s and GTX 1080s. But also salient is that the power consumption is much lower, as posted previously. (Actually, without overclocking, 19.8 MH/s is achievable at 70W.)
Even mining with 1060s has taken off: articles from 6 mo ago show prices for the 6GB cards as being sub-$200, and now they're closer to $300. Even 3GB cards, which may be getting close to outmoded for the increased DAG file size at more recent epochs, are selling for ~$230.
OC'ing Nvidia cards on Linux is a hot mess. Everyone appears to be using Windows, but I'm too cheap to pay MS, and I don't really want to pirate it. Going from ~20 to ~23 hashrate would be nice, though. Some hacking of the xorg.conf file is necessary to enable memory OC; the problem is under Ubuntu, gpu-manager runs and rewrites xorg.conf upon reboot. When I effectively disabled that using "sudo chattr +i /etc/X11/xorg.conf", the system wouldn't boot into X. Then I had to figure out how to get into the Grub startup page (old docs say hold down shift, but I found that Esc is necessary these days) and get into single-user mode to restore the attribute. At least power target can be adjusted down without coolbits.
On my laptop I had another guide open that I realized I hadn't fully tried. Need to give it a shot.
It was amusing to read about how mining pools calculate "shares": by having the miner submit work and verifying that it meets a standard of difficulty below the network standard for the sole purpose of computing the miner contributions. Of course, a given share may be the block solution, but the miner doesn't have enough information to know. Furthermore, at least if we were talking Bitcoin, the coinbase / generation transaction's address would be the mining pool's. Of course, a malicious miner could return bogus data and cause blocks to be missed....
Don't forget the PPLNS pool algorithm used by nanopool (explanation). Pay Per Last N Shares introduces randomness in the algorithm; if I understand correctly, the pool pays based on some recent subset of shares submitted by each miner when a block is found, as opposed to all the shares, as in PPS.
CoinWarz's mining profit calculator is more detailed than CryptoCompare's calculator. The former is more optimistic than the latter, though: 2.928 vs. 2.78 based on the same hashrate, and is still optimistic on the USD profit, even though the former also subtracts out the pool fees.
Regarding hashrate of 1050s, it appears they're 12 MH/s stock, as opposed to 19-20 with 1060s. The 2GB model is ~$125, the 4GB ~$190. Of course the 4GB is in greater demand. 2GB is definitely too small for ETH; perhaps it'd be usable for other alts like ZEC? With one of those miner boards that allows for hooking up >10 cards, that'd potentially be more cost-effective, if not power-effective.
As far as the Ethereum switch to PoS, the FAQ on GitHub describes what that would look like. Apparently there are two types under consideration: chain-based and BFT-style. BFT is "Byzantine fault tolerance" that handles consensus-seeking in the presence of malicious actors. Amusingly enough, the Wikipedia page notes under examples of such failures that this pertains to swarming bees:
A similar problem faces honeybee swarms. They have to find a new home, and the many scouts and wider participants have to reach consensus about which of perhaps several candidate homes to fly to. And then they all have to fly there, with their queen. The bees' approach works reliably, but when researchers offer two hives, equally attractive by all the criteria bees apply, catastrophe ensues, the swarm breaks up, and all the bees die.My hobbies are commingling! (?!)
As far as using Radeon RX 580s, most of those seem to be sold out at under a $400 price point. Amusingly, Newegg has an Asus 4GB card for $280 in stock: "limit 1 per customer" (lol). I'm less enthused about using those because OC'ing them involves tweaking their BIOS.
I'm not sure why I get like this every once in a while, going full-bore into something different. Hopefully in this case it'll be profitable rather than just another money sink.
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