April 19th, 2013 
CryptoBadger 
In the second installment of our DIY litecoin mining guide, we’ll look at how to install and configure Linux to properly mine with your GPUs at optimal settings. Don’t be dissuaded if you’ve never used Linux before—our step-by-step guide makes it easy.
Linux has a few advantages over Windows, including the ability to install to a USB stick (which means you don’t need a harddrive), lesser hardware requirements (you can get by just fine with less than 4GB of RAM), and simpler remote administration capabilities. Best of all, Linux is free! However, be aware that if you’d like to undervolt your GPUs to save power, Windows might be a better choice for you (update 10/2013: no longer true!).
If you missed the hardware portion of our guide, make sure to check it out first. Otherwise, read on.
Build a Litecoin Mining Rig, part 2: Linux Setup
So you’ve decided to use Linux to run your mining rig—a fine choice! If you’re still a bit nervous because you’ve a complete Linux newbie, don’t be. Simply follow the step-by-step instructions exactly as they’re written, and you’ll be fine. Even if you’ve never done anything like this before, you should be up and running in about an hour.
Step 1: Configure BIOS settings
Before we even get to Linux, make sure your mining computer’s BIOS settings are in order. Power on your computer, and press the “delete” key a few times immediately after power on. You should end up in the BIOS configuration area. Do the following, then save & exit:
- Change power options so that the computer automatically turns itself on whenever power is restored. The reason for this is two-fold: first, it’ll make sure that your miner automatically starts up after a power outage. Second, it makes powering the computer on much easier if you don’t happen to have a power switch connected to the motherboard.
- Make sure that your USB stick is first in the boot-up order (you may need to have a USB stick attached).
- Disable all components that you don’t plan to use. This will save a little bit of power, and since your miner will likely be running 24/7, it’ll add up. For me, that meant disabling onboard audio, the SATA controller, the USB 3.0 ports (I only had a 2.0 USB stick), the Firewire port, and the serial port.
Step 2: Install Xubuntu Desktop to your USB stick
Xubuntu is a lightweight version of Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution. Most other distros should work just fine, but be aware that the GPU drivers require the presence of Xorg, which means server distros that don’t have a GUI will not work properly.
- Download the Xubuntu Desktop x64 v12.10 installation image.
- You’ll need to either burn the installation image onto a CD, or write the image to a second USB stick. If you use a CD, you’ll need to temporarily hook up a CD-ROM drive to your mining rig for the installation (make sure you temporarily enable your SATA controller if you disabled it in step 1!).
- Once you have the installation media prepared, you’re ready to install Xubuntu to the blank USB stick on your miner. Make sure your blank USB stick is inserted into a USB port on your mining, and then boot into your installation media. The Xubuntu installer should appear.
- Make sure to click the “auto-login” box towards the end of the installer; otherwise take all of the default installation options.
- If you’re using a USB stick that is exactly 8GB, the installer may complain about the default partition sizes being too small. Create a new partition table with these settings: 5500mb for root (/), 315mb for swap, and the remaining amount for home (/home). If you’re using a USB stick larger than 8GB, you will not have to do this.
- When the installation is complete, you should automatically boot into the Xubuntu desktop. Make sure to remove your installation media.
Step 3: Install AMD Catalyst drivers
Open a terminal session by mousing over the bottom center of the screen so that a list of icons appears. Click on “terminal” (it looks like a black box).
- Type the following commands (press “enter” at the end of each line and wait for Linux to finish doing it’s thing):
sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates fglrx-updates-dev sudo aticonfig --lsa sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --initial sudo reboot - After your computer reboots, you can verify that everything worked by typing:
sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --odgt - If you see all of your GPUs listed, with “hardware monitoring enabled” next to each, you’re good to go.
Important: you may need to have something plugged into each GPU to prevent the OS from idling it. You can plug 3 monitors into your 3 GPUs, but that isn’t very practical. The easiest option is to create 3 dummy plugs, and leave them attached to your GPUs. They’ll “trick” the OS into believing that a monitor is attached, which will prevent the hardware from being idled. Check out how to create your own dummy plugs.
If you ever add or remove GPUs to your rig later, you’ll need to re-run this command: sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --initial
Step 4: Install SSH, Curl, and package updates
- Install SSH by typing:
sudo apt-get install openssh-server byobu
With SSH installed, you can unplug the keyboard/mouse/monitor (put dummy plugs into all GPUs, though) from your miner, and complete the rest of the installation from your desktop computer. Simply download Putty onto your desktop, run it, and enter the IP address of your mining rig. That should bring up a remote terminal session to your miner, which is more or less just like sitting at the keyboard in front of it.
If you plan to manage your mining rig remotely over the internet, you’ll need to forward port 22 on your router to your miner. Make sure that you use a strong Xubuntu password!
Setup should be quicker from this point, as now you can simply copy text from this webpage (highlight it and press control-C) and then paste it into your Putty session by simply right-clicking anywhere inside the Putty window. Neat, eh?
- Install Curl and package updates by typing (or copying & pasting into Putty) the following commands:
sudo apt-get install curl sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade
Step 5: Install cgminer
Cgminer is the mining software we’ll be using. If the first command doesn’t work, you’ll need to check out the cgminer website and make a note of the current release version. Substitute that in the commands below.
Update: Cgminer 3.7.2 is the last version to support scrypt—do not use any version after that! In addition, depending on which version you choose to use, you may receive an error complaining about libudev.so.1 when you try to run cgminer—you can find the fix for that here.
- Type the following:
wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/2.11/cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built.tar.bz2 tar jxvf cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built.tar.bz2 - If everything was uncompressed successfully, we can delete the downloaded archive; we don’t need it anymore:
rm *.bz2 - Now check if cgminer detects all of your GPUs properly:
cd cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built export DISPLAY=:0 export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1 ./cgminer -n
Step 6: Create cgminer startup script
We’re almost done—now we just need to create a few simple scripts to control cgminer.
- If you’re still in the cgminer directory from the previous step, first return to your home directory:
cd .. - Type the following to create a new file with nano, a Linux text editor:
sudo nano mine_litecoins.sh - Type the following into nano (note where the places you need to substitute your own usernames!) :
#!/bin/sh export DISPLAY=:0 export GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100 export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1 cd /home/YOUR_XUBUNTU_USERNAME/cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built ./cgminer --scrypt -I 19 --thread-concurrency 21712 -o stratum+tcp://coinotron.com:3334 -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD - Save the file and quit nano, then enter the following:
sudo chmod +x mine_litecoins.sh
Note that the cgminer settings we’re using in our mine_litecoins.sh script correspond to a good starting point for Radeon 7950 series GPUs. If you followed our hardware guide, these settings will give you good hashrates. If you’re using another type of GPU, you’ll want to use Google to find optimal cgminer settings for it.
Also note that you’ll need to create an account at one of the litecoin mining pools, and plug your username and password into the script (the -u and -p parameters). I have Coinotron in there as an example, but there are quite a few to choose from.
Step 7: Create auto-start scripts
We want cgminer to automatically start mining whenever the rig is powered on. That way, we keep mining losses to a minimum whenever a power outage occurs, and we don’t have to worry about manually starting it back up in other situations.
- Type the following to create a new script and open it in nano:
sudo nano miner_launcher.sh - Enter the following text into the editor (substitute your Xubuntu username where shown!):
#!/bin/bash DEFAULT_DELAY=0 if [ "x$1" = "x" -o "x$1" = "xnone" ]; then DELAY=$DEFAULT_DELAY else DELAY=$1 fi sleep $DELAY su YOUR_XUBUNTU_USERNAME -c "screen -dmS cgm /home/YOUR_XUBUNTU_USERNAME/mine_litecoins.sh" - Save and quit nano, and then type:
sudo chmod +x miner_launcher.sh - Now we need to call our new script during startup; we do that by adding it to /etc/rc.local. Type the following to open /etc/rc.local in nano:
sudo nano /etc/rc.local - Add the following text, right above the line that reads “exit 0” (substitute your own username!):
/home/YOUR_XUBUNTU_USERNAME/miner_launcher.sh 30 &
Step 8: Create an alias to easily check on cgminer
We’re essentially done at this point, but you’ll probably want to manually SSH into your miner from time to time to manually check on your GPU temperatures & hashrates, etc. Creating an alias will make that easy.
- Type:
sudo nano .bashrc - Scroll to the end of the file, and then add this text above the line that reads “# enable programmable completion…”
alias cgm='screen -x cgm' - Save and quit out of nano.
That’s it—you’re done! You’ll probably want to test everything now. The easiest way to do that is to close your Putty session and power down your miner. Turn it back on and the following should happen:
- Your miner should boot into Xubuntu. This may take about a minute, depending on the speed of your USB stick.
- 30 seconds after Xubuntu has loaded, cgminer will automatically start and begin mining. You’ll probably notice the fans on your GPUs spin up when this happens.
- You should be able to SSH into your miner at any time and type cgm to bring up the cgminer screen. To close the screen (and leave cgminer running), type control-A, then control-D.
- If you ever need to start cgminer manually (because you quit out of it, or kill it, etc), simply type ./miner_launcher.sh
If all went well, you should see something like this when checking cgminer via your “cgm” alias.
Congratulations—you have your own headless linux litecoin miner!
The next section of our guide covers setup under Windows, and then we take a look at optimizing cgminer settings for better performance.
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I installed xubuntu 12.04, followed the guide to success, rebooted and the amd drivers + cgminer were gone. I ended up installing onto a spare HDD for now but i still would like to get this to run from usb. Any ideas?
What do you mean they were gone? If you list the contents of your home directory (type “ls” without the quotes after logging in), is the cgminer directory there?
When you installed Xubuntu, did you choose the option to try it out, or install it permanently? If you picked the former, I believe it wipes everything after each session, which would explain your issue (I’ve never tried it myself, though). Make sure you’re installing it to a second blank USB stick.
🙂 I think I get it now. extracting the iso to first stick and then installing to the second is the correct way. I’m still confused why the usb installer has the option to create a persistent volume from the iso if it does not work.
I know that the AMD Sempron 145 Processor isn’t going to do the heavy lifting, but do you still think it requires an active or passive cpu heat sink? I noticed this was not part of the hardware list.
The Sempron retail box (the link in my guide is to the retail box version) includes a heatsink and fan, so no need to purchase them separately.
Im running cgminer xubuntu from usb 3.0 memory stick and it lags – running very slow and clunky. Also the hash rate for 3x 7950 is 200 hs lower than windows 7. Any recommendations to fix this please?
I was in step three and every was going well at first… did all the updates, but after I typed the command to reboot, it stopped working. I would see the bios screen flash by and then nothing. Just a blank screen. I was able to get it to boot into recovery mode, but my knowledge of lynx is limited and was not sure how to trouble shoot from there. Any help would be appreciated. I baught the exact Hardware in your guide. The only difference is I am currently only using two video cards instead of threr. I am waiting on my risers.
I was using a really old CRT monitor and apparently it was not able to handle the default resolution after the reboot! Hooked up a modern flat screen and it worked fine! Sorry for the bother.
tom@tom-desktop:~/cgminer-3.1.1-x86_64-built$ sudo aticonfig –lsa
Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key* 0. 01:00.0 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
1. 02:00.0 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
* – Default adapter
My GPUs are no longer found!
Upon starting cgminer:
[2013-06-19 07:34:33] Started cgminer 3.1.1
[2013-06-19 07:34:33] Loaded configuration file /home/tom/.cgminer/cgminer.conf
[2013-06-19 07:34:33] Error in configuration file, partially loaded.
[2013-06-19 07:34:33] Start cgminer with -T to see what failed to load.
[2013-06-19 07:34:33] clDevicesNum returned error, no GPUs usable
[2013-06-19 07:34:33] No devices detected!
[2013-06-19 07:34:33] Waiting for USB hotplug devices or press q to quit
tom@tom-desktop:~/cgminer-3.1.1-x86_64-built$ sudo aticonfig –lsa
Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key* 0. 01:00.0 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
1. 02:00.0 AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
* – Default adapter
I did upgrade to Ubuntu 13.04 since it was already broken. Have linked some broken libraries and am back to where I was before the upgrade. I just lost my cards after mining for about a month.
Thanks,
Tom
I was going to update cgminer-2.11.4 to the newest release. Being a linux noob, do I need to unistall the previous version 1st, or can i just install it on my Xubuntu miner. If I do need to uninstall it, how do I do it?
No need to uninstall; you can just download the newest version and uncompress it into a new directory.
On a related note, I’ve tried all of the releases of cgminer since 2.11.3 on linux, and so far I haven’t seen a performance difference between any of them.
Just wanted to say I had problems at first, using Xubuntu 12.10. Switched to windows and had issues there too, mostly with stability. Ok so far on Xubuntu 13.10, otherwise following the instructions. More details here: https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php/topic,4667.msg33677.html#msg33677
Using cgminer 3.3.1
Correction to above, Xubuntu 13.04
Hi there CryptoBadger,
I follow your guide, but after installing the AMD drivers and rebooting, I get a blank screen. Any ideas please?
Thanks in advance.
Got MSI Fozr card # 2 and 3 today…
Works fine, but runs a ‘little’ hot…
Any advice is appreciated.
cgminer version 3.1.0 – Started: [2013-07-01 21:31:21]
————————————————————————
(5s):1.943M (avg):1.864Mh/s | A:276 R:4 HW:0 U:27.2/m WU:1771.3/m
ST: 2 SS: 0 NB: 7 LW: 103 GF: 0 RF: 0
Connected to stratum.give-me-ltc.com diff 64 with stratum as user ***.
Block: 38baa86997c0daae… Diff:55.1M Started: [21:38:38] Best share: 87.1K
———————————————————————–
[P]ool management [G]PU management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
GPU 0: 85.0C 4328RPM | 638.9K/642.0Kh/s | A:89 R:0 HW:0 U: 8.77/m I:20
GPU 1: 94.0C 4934RPM | 600.2K/590.4Kh/s | A:92 R:2 HW:0 U: 9.06/m I:20
GPU 2: 77.0C 2325RPM | 643.2K/636.9Kh/s | A:96 R:2 HW:0 U: 9.46/m I:20
———————————————————————–
[2013-07-01 21:39:17] Accepted 42dbc56a Diff 153/64 GPU 1 pool 1
[2013-07-01 21:39:20] Accepted fc44b911 Diff 100/64 GPU 2 pool 1
Config should follow your example:
{
“pools” : [
{
not important
},
{
not important
}
],
“intensity” : “20,20,20”,
“worksize” : “256,256,256”,
“thread-concurrency” : “21712,21712,21712”,
“gpu-engine” : “1050,1050,1050”,
“gpu-memclock” : “1400,1400,1400”,
“gpu-vddc” : “1.087,1.087,1.087”,
“temp-target” : “80,80,80”,
“auto-fan” : true,
“gpu-threads” : “1”,
“kernel-path” : “/usr/local/bin”
}
Hitting ‘G’ shows this:
GPU 0: 639.8 / 643.0 Kh/s | A:157 R:2 HW:0 U:9.52/m I:20
84.0 C F: 100% (4320 RPM) E: 1050 MHz M: 1400 Mhz V: 1.188V A: 99% P: 0%
Last initialised: [2013-07-01 21:31:21]
Intensity: 20
Thread 0: 641.2 Kh/s Enabled ALIVE
GPU 1: 593.6 / 585.5 Kh/s | A:142 R:3 HW:0 U:8.66/m I:20
94.0 C F: 100% (4939 RPM) E: 880 MHz M: 1250 Mhz V: 1.106V A: 100% P: 0%
Last initialised: [2013-07-01 21:31:21]
Intensity: 20
Thread 1: 578.3 Kh/s Enabled ALIVE
GPU 2: 642.5 / 636.6 Kh/s | A:150 R:4 HW:0 U:9.15/m I:20
78.0 C F: 47% (2028 RPM) E: 1050 MHz M: 1400 Mhz V: 1.188V A: 99% P: 0%
Last initialised: [2013-07-01 21:31:21]
Intensity: 20
Thread 2: 642.9 Kh/s Enabled ALIVE
The overclocking on GPU1 is gone. I can successfully change these, but they fall back quickly.
The temperature in the room is 74.
Bad card?
Frodo
Changed sockets for GPU0 and 1. Assuming 0 is closed to the CPU and 2 is furthest out…
GPU 0: 80.0C 4334RPM | 639.7K/640.3Kh/s | A:167 R:3 HW:0 U:11.03/m I:20
GPU 1: 94.0C 4761RPM | 643.0K/632.3Kh/s | A:138 R:3 HW:0 U: 9.11/m I:20
GPU 2: 79.0C 1940RPM | 644.0K/640.3Kh/s | A:150 R:5 HW:0 U: 9.90/m I:20
Have not seen the over clocking removed, and the performance is still okay.
This should rule out a bad card.
Is this just the lack of space between GPU 1 & 2 that is lacking the space?
Don’t like running around 95C but it seems to perform well…
How spread apart are your cards? The middle GPU usually runs a couple degrees hotter than the cards on the ends, but 15C is quite a lot.
None of my GPUs get over 80C @ ~50% fan speeds in a room that is about the same temp as yours. Your cards will run a little bit hotter than mine because you’re not undervolting (I assume you’re not anyway, since it requires a custom BIOS in linux), but normally I’d just expect your GPU fans to work a little bit harder. If you can get some more space between your GPUs, that should help (spread them out as much as your risers allow), otherwise you can always point a box fan at your rig.
I’m using the same motherboard and cards as in your HW guide. I have not done anything other than just seating the cards in the sockets. 🙂
However, the weirdest things happened when I was troubleshooting.
1. I was moving cards around to no effect.
2. I was trying different versions of cgminer. 3.1 seems to give better performance than the others.
3. And I started blowing fuses…
4. Panic set in… followed by hyperventilating… thinking and moving the rig to a different circuit.
Suddenly, with the card in their original sockets I get these readings:
GPU 0: 86.0C 4330RPM | 643.0K/633.7Kh/s | A:5660 R:142 HW:0 U: 8.19/m I:20
GPU 1: 80.0C 4715RPM | 624.8K/632.8Kh/s | A:5860 R:156 HW:0 U: 8.48/m I:20
GPU 2: 73.0C 2109RPM | 621.3K/633.9Kh/s | A:5806 R:148 HW:0 U: 8.40/m I:20
This is after running overnight, so this is darn stable and I’m very happy. 🙂
No idea why this suddenly decided to work better…
The blowing of fuses lead me down another path. In my grand plan of taking over the universe by funding my evil empire through LTC mining I need to be able to get several of these rigs up and running.
I now have 2 rigs. 1 rig with the MSI FOZR x3 and 1 rig with 2 Gigabyte cards. (all 7950s)
I guess I can’t run both on the same 15 amp breaker because a 15 amp circuit can carry only a total of 1440 watts,which is 80% of the 1800 watts found by multiplying the volts times amps,15 x 120 x 80%= 1440.
Putting in 20 amp circuits for this should give me 2 machines per breaker because a 20 amp circuit can be loaded 1920 watts, 120 x 20 x 80%=1920 watts.
Do you have any advise on how to design the electrical environment for this? Would the under volting of the cards reduce the total wattage of the rig beneath 720W (1440/2)?
BTW… I’m in the lucky situation that I’m producing electricity through two sun tracking solar arrays producing north of 20MW/year, so I’m very interested in putting more of these rigs to work over time. 🙂
Frodo
Ah, not using risers explains the higher-than-normal temperatures. I’d definitely recommend picking up some risers – you can get them off eBay for $2-3 each and they’ll help tremendously with temperatures.
Even with undervolting, you’d have a hard time getting your rigs under 730w. Mine average about 750w, but they occasionally spike up to 800w or so during normal usage. You can undervolt more, but that will impact performance.
You’re definitely in a good position having solar-generated power. An electrician should be able to give you an estimate on expanding your circuits – it normally isn’t too expensive.
Thanks a bunch CryptoBadger
I’ve been using a testbench (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353001) from newegg to mount my stuff on.
I’ll save my $40 bucks going forward and make the cases you recommend!
Seems like I’ll have to have a chat with an electrician before moving on to rig #3.
I keep getting asked for sudo command after each line in terminal and i have no idea what to do the keyboard freezes and when i type nothing happens is this normal?
I am a total noob with linux but always wanted to learn and things like this usually put me off but i also hate windows atm, please helppppp!
Faz
If I am reading your post correctly, you’re getting a password prompt after you type “sudo” in front of a command. You won’t see anything when you type your password; just type it and press enter. If you’re feeling brave, just run “sudo -s” and you’ll have a root prompt and won’t have to keep typing sudo in front of everything.
It’s just asking for your password (the one that you created when you installed linux). The “sudo” command basically just means “run whatever I type next as the superuser”, so linux is just confirming that you know the password (you’ll only have to enter it the first time you use sudo every session). The keyboard isn’t frozen, linux just doesn’t show the password as you’re typing it – just type the password and press enter.
Well I finally got it running on the two cards I have installed at the moment. Getting about 575k hash/s on each card and they’re running about 79 and 74 c.
One thing I can’t get working is the script execute command, it just refuses to do anything, so I can’t get the auto execute working either. I have no idea what I’m not doing as Linux is a new animal to me.
Ugh.
Which part of the auto startup script are you having trouble with? Can you copy & paste any error(s) that you’re seeing?
That’s the odd thing about it. It’s not reporting any errors, it just refuses to run any scripts. When it boots, it goes straight to the desktop and idles. When I try and manually run the script it just returns seemingly doing nothing.
It would appear to do nothing when it’s working properly. The auto-start script fires up cgminer in the background and attaches a screen session to it so that you can call it up and monitor it on demand later. If it worked properly, you should be able to type
screen -x cgm(or simply typecgmif you’ve set the alias up) after running it, and see cgminer running.It tells me:
“There is no screen to be attached matching cgm”
🙁
You are a genius! I finally found the problem. I had misspelled my user name in the rc.local file. It’s working like a champ now. 🙂
I’m getting this E: unable to locate package fglrx-updates-amdc. In the terminal any ideas on what I’m doing wrong?
There is no fglrx-updates-amdc package. The 3 packages you want to install for the driver are:
fglrx-updates
fglrx-amdcccle-updates
fglrx-updates-dev
Make sure you enter this line exactly as written:
sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates fglrx-updates-devOr you can install them one at a time this way:
sudo apt-get install fglrx-updatessudo apt-get install fglrx-amdcccle-updatessudo apt-get install fglrx-updates-devsame problem. entered as one line and seperate exactly. get a “E: unable to locate fglrx-updates” ugh
Followed your guide but when I check to see if cgminer can see my cards i get this lukeminer@lukeminer-desktop:~$ cd cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built
-bash: cd: cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built: No such file or directory
no idea what that means? Very new to all of this.
Have you already downloaded and uncompressed the cgminer archive? Type “ls” (without the quotes) in your home directory. There should be a “cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built” directory listed. If not, try repeating the two commands listed under the first bullet in step 5 again.
I built my rig using all the components you have suggested, except that I’m using 4 GPUs with a 1250 Watt PSU. I’ve not switched it on yet for fear of frying the pricey components! My GPUs are suspended vertically in the crate by an aluminum frame and the motherboard is mounted on a drilled sheet of acrylic. Searching the web only yields conflicting information about grounding and static. Some say air blowing over acrylic will induce a static charge, and that every piece of isolated metal should be grounded to the PSU via mounting screws. Others say that each component is safe as long as it is plugged into the PSU which provides grounding via the black wires. What are your thoughts on this?
Tested all metal parts with a digital multimeter. It turns out that everything is already grounded just fine (via the ‘black’ wires). I wonder why such a fuss is made about properly grounding PC components?
Because A/C noise is very bad for components. A proper ground will insure a clean signal and also if you have at least a good surge suppressor a good portion of the extra current during a huge surge will be safely channeled into the earth and away from thousands of dollars of gear. I’d get a good voltage regulator also like I did for mine and set it to 110 vac.
APC makes a good voltage regulator and it’s fairly inexpensive. The one I have isn’t designed to handle the Volt Amps you require, but I’m sure APC has a product that will suit your needs for around 100 dollars or less. I chose APC’s design because of user feedback and it hasn’t failed me yet. 🙂
This is the one I chose. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009RA60/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
trying to install drivers and i get this.
root@bamt-miner:/home/user# sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates fglrx-updates-dev
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
E: Unable to locate package fglrx-updates
E: Unable to locate package fglrx-amdcccle-updates
E: Unable to locate package fglrx-updates-dev
root@bamt-miner:/home/user# sudo aticonfig –lsa
aticonfig: No supported adapters detected
root@bamt-miner:/home/user#
I keep getting 2 out of my 3 cards disabled, ive disconneced them, switch them around only one works ever. Probably some n00b mistake, you can put right, its just baffling. if i lower the settings in cgminer they all work but low kh. Identical cards too, 3x sapphire vapor x 7950s. any ideas?
–
[P]ool management [G]PU management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
GPU 0: 60.0C 3002RPM | OFF / 0.000h/s | A:0 R:0 HW:0 U:0.00/m I:20
GPU 1: 37.0C 2993RPM | 583.6K/590.8Kh/s | A:1 R:0 HW:0 U:1.17/m I:18
GPU 2: 35.0C 3044RPM | OFF / 0.000h/s | A:0 R:0 HW:0 U:0.00/m I:13
——————————————————————————–
[2013-07-18 15:15:24] Stratum from pool 0 requested work restart
[2013-07-18 15:15:25] Error -5: Enqueueing kernel onto command queue. (clEnqueu
eNDRangeKernel)
[2013-07-18 15:15:25] GPU 0 failure, disabling!
[2013-07-18 15:15:25] Thread 0 being disabled
[2013-07-18 15:15:26] Error -5: Enqueueing kernel onto command queue. (clEnqueu
eNDRangeKernel)
[2013-07-18 15:15:26] GPU 2 failure, disabling!
[2013-07-18 15:15:26] Thread 2 being disabled
[2013-07-18 15:15:46] Accepted 25c5174d Diff 654/256 GPU 1 pool 0
Are you running a 32-bit OS by any chance? If you can, install the 64-bit version of Xubuntu. If you can’t, this may help.
If you’re already running a 64-bit OS, double-check to make sure that these lines are in your startup script:
export GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
yes they are
#!/bin/sh
export DISPLAY=:0
export GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100
export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
cd /home/lukeminer/cgminer3.3.1
./cgminer -c /home/lukeminer/cgminer.conf
but still no joy. Really appreciate your help on this. ive done a bit of research, do you think its the version of cgminer im using? 3.3.1. ?
I haven’t tried cgminer 3.3.1 yet (I’m still using 3.1.1 on my rigs), but I doubt that is the issue. Can you post the contents of your cgminer.conf file?
Also, did you follow my guide exactly (both hardware and OS/software setup), or did you make any changes? I know some people have had issues when substituting Xubuntu 13.04, and also when using some alternate methods of installing the video drivers.
I dont know whats up with xubuntu 13.04 but it just wont work with miners… stay away from it!
Error -5: Enqueueing kernel onto command queue. (clEnqueu
eNDRangeKernel)
im running the 64 bit version of xubuntu and getting this. Jeez, its driving me nuts. i know all the cards are good, and my asrock mb is new as per your instructions. even though i change the cards round only one seems to get up to 570kh. ive changed the risers round, the cards and the slots they go into so its definitely a software problem. man I’ll but you a beer in ltc if you can sort this and a couple of cigars too!
also my first card is the hottest at 46c, surely that can’t be right, its not doing any work!
just sent you 5 ltc as a starter!
Thanks, appreciate it! If you’re still having issues, post your cgminer.conf file and as much info as you can about any differences between your setup and the process in my guide and hopefully we can get to the bottom of your mining difficulties!
46C is the hottest temperature listed? It sounds like none of your GPUs are doing any significant work if that is the case.
Do you have anything plugged into them (monitor or dummy plug)? It isn’t usually necessary to use dummy plugs, but some configurations require them to prevent the OS from idling GPUs that it detects aren’t connected to output.
Thanks for the reply. I tried everything. In the end I switched it all round to a windows set up, and it all seems to be working fine now. The sapphire Vapor x cards i have too benefit from some undervolting, so I’ll be tinkering in windows now. I’ll be asking you questions on the windows set up page now 🙂 Thanks again, the guide was super easy to follow.
I can’t manage much more than 900 Kh/s with my newly built rig because it either locks up (no mouse) or shuts off whenever I try to tweak the settings to work it harder. The behavior suggests to me that at least one PSU rail is being overloaded. But with 1300 Watts and distributing the load over four rails, wouldn’t it seem to have adequate power? What am I missing?
Details: My rig consists of 4 Gigabyte 7950 GPUs all on powered risers. The PSU is an Antec HCP-1300 Platinum. Motherboard is ASRock with a Sempron CPU, 8 Gigs memory and a laptop hard disk. Nothing is overclocked or undervolted (yet)
Intensity setting: -I 13 is instant death, -I 12 runs longer before dying, -I 11 runs even longer but will crash during the night.
PSU configuration:
rail1: motherboard, CPU, powered risers x4, hard disk
rail 2: GPU 1x
rails 3 & 4: GPUs 3x
Xubuntu 12.10, AMD Catalyst v13.4 x86_64, SDK v2.8.1.0, CGMiner ver: 3.3.1 scrypt
Ventilation is excellent, the cards are not crowded at all. Everything except the hard disk is new. I tried the setup with a new Seasonic 1250 W PSU, and had the same issues only worse. I figure it must be software incompatibilities of some kind. What else could be wrong?
Try running memtest overnight. I was troubleshooting a friend’s rig awhile back that had similar issues, and after trying everything else we ended up discovering that a bad stick of RAM was the cause of all the problems.
If your memory tests are clean, try dropping down to 3 GPUs to see if you still have issues. I haven’t used the Antec PSU that you have, but the 1250w Seasonic should absolutely handle a 4x 7950 rig. Running 3 GPUs should let you rule out power issues.
If you have the same problem with 3 GPUs, try running each GPU individually (put one GPU in the primary PCIe slot and remove the other 3 cards) for at least 24 hours to rule the video cards out.
Followed the directions above and mostly have success, but not quite complete. One of the cards refuses to work but the other 2 work fine.
scott@scott-MS-7751:~$ sudo aticonfig –adapter=all –initial
Found fglrx primary device section
Found fglrx primary device section
Found fglrx primary device section
PowerXpress info: Diagnostic output from /usr/lib64/fglrx/switchlibglx:
update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /usr/lib/fglrx/ld.so.conf because link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf is broken
update-alternatives: warning: not replacing /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xorg/extra-modules with a link
Using /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Saving back-up to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.fglrx-15
scott@scott-MS-7751:~$ sudo aticonfig –adapter=all –odgt
Adapter 0 – AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
Sensor 0: Temperature – 67.00 C
Adapter 1 – AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
Sensor 0: Temperature – 54.00 C
ERROR – Get temperature failed for Adapter 2 – AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
I’ve tried changing the slot the card is in, changing the riser cable, and changing the card itself.
Any thoughts?
Which version of Linux is this?
Have you tried running all three GPUs individually (e.g.: put a single GPU in the primary PCIe slot, confirm that it works, then repeat for the other two cards)? Just want to rule out a potential faulty GPU.
Not exactly. I did swap in a 4th card for adapter 2 with the same result, and then swapped the (now removed) 3rd card in for adapter 1. The only card not swapped is adapter 0, but that has a monitor currently plugged in and works.
Almost forgot: xubuntu 12.10
Hi CryptoB,
Now trying to add a 2nd PSU in Linux. They show up as mining in cgm screen, but each only producing 300-400 k/h, and GPU 1 showing E 300 M 450 and vddc .950. GPU 0 showing E 1050 M 1500 vddc 1.250 P 20 as in scrypt command. Have run each card alone in GPU 0 and each runs 600+ k/h at E 1050 M 1500 vddc 1.250 P 20. Temp on GPU 0 70-74C and on GPU 1 24C. Powertune is the only setting I can enter on GPU 1, E and M don’t respond. Have you got a remedy for me? Thanks for your help!
The first card is being idled by the OS for some reason. Try rebooting with something connected to both cards (either a monitor or dummy plug). Then type:
sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --initialReboot again and hopefully both cards work properly in cgminer.
correction, adding 2nd GPU
the system is running in low graphics mode error message
above error message received after initial driver installation and reboot
Any thoughts?
msi 7750 board
2 7970s
thanks
I haven’t come across that myself, but it may be related to your onboard video. Unless you have a specific need for the built-in video, it may simplify things to just disable it completely in BIOS and use the output on one of your 7970 GPUs when you need local video.
CB, Thanks. GPU 0 was running fine solo without a monitor or plug. Had one dummy plug on hand which I put on GPU 1 when I installed it. Now waiting for additional plug to try both with dummy plugs. Will report progress. Thanks again. Glenn C
Heads up guys, that there is torjan http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/
Many antivirus programs flag the cgminer .zip file as malicious because it is sometimes installed without a user’s knowledge, so that a third party can surreptitiously mine on the user’s computer (and pocket the gains). Cgminer by itself certainly isn’t malicious.
Just make sure that you download cgminer from ckolivas’s site, and you should be fine.