From 0a3710dd7b4935ec1b31cb9aec25f753bfe4dc45 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Noel Maersk Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:06:24 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] doc: update FAQ, rename to FAQ.md. --- README.md | 2 +- doc/FAQ | 154 -------------------------------------------------- doc/FAQ.md | 161 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 162 insertions(+), 155 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 doc/FAQ create mode 100644 doc/FAQ.md diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 269714ad..d1426dd1 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ License: GPLv3. See `COPYING` for details. Documentation is available in directory `doc`. For details on several topics, see: * `API` for the RPC API specification; -* `FAQ` for frequently asked questions; +* `FAQ.md` for frequently asked questions; * `GPU` for semi-obsolete information on GPU configuration options and mining SHA256d-based coins; * `KERNEL.md` for OpenCL kernel-related information; * `MINING.md` for how to find the right balance in GPU configuration to mine Scrypt-based coins effectively; diff --git a/doc/FAQ b/doc/FAQ deleted file mode 100644 index 1a5c528f..00000000 --- a/doc/FAQ +++ /dev/null @@ -1,154 +0,0 @@ -FAQ - -Q: Can I mine on servers from different networks (eg smartcoin and bitcoin) at -the same time? -A: No, sgminer 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 sgminer to mine with different login credentials or pools -for each separate device? -A: No. - -Q: Can I put multiple pools in the config file? -A: Yes, check the example.conf file. Alternatively, set up everything either on -the command line or via the menu after startup and choose settings->write -config file and the file will be loaded one each startup. - -Q: The build fails with gcc is unable to build a binary. -A: Remove the "-march=native" component of your CFLAGS as your version of gcc -does not support it. - -Q: Can you implement feature X? -A: I can, but time is limited, and people who donate are more likely to get -their feature requests implemented. - -Q: Work keeps going to my backup pool even though my primary pool hasn't -failed? -A: sgminer checks for conditions where the primary pool is lagging and will -pass some work to the backup servers under those conditions. The reason for -doing this is to try its absolute best to keep the GPUs working on something -useful and not risk idle periods. You can disable this behaviour with the -option --failover-only. - -Q: Is this a virus? -A: sgminer is being packaged with other trojan scripts and some antivirus -software is falsely accusing sgminer.exe as being the actual virus, rather -than whatever it is being packaged with. If you installed sgminer 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 sgminer -as viruses, even though text source files can't do anything by themself. - -Q: Can you modify the display to include more of one thing in the output and -less of another, or can you change the quiet mode or can you add yet another -output mode? -A: Everyone will always have their own view of what's important to monitor. -The defaults are very sane and I have very little interest in changing this -any further. - -Q: What are the best parameters to pass for X pool/hardware/device. -A: Virtually always, the DEFAULT parameters give the best results. Most user -defined settings lead to worse performance. The ONLY thing most users should -need to set is the Intensity for GPUs. - -Q: What happened to CPU mining? -A: Being increasingly irrelevant for most users, and a maintenance issue, it is -no longer under active development and will not be supported. No binary builds -supporting CPU mining will be released. Virtually all remaining users of CPU -mining are as back ends for illegal botnets. The main reason sgminer is being -inappopriately tagged as a virus by antivirus software is due to the trojans -packaging a CPU mining capable version of it. There is no longer ANY CPU mining -code in sgminer. If you are mining bitcoin with CPU today, you are spending -1000x more in electricity costs than you are earning in bitcoin. - -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 in the -bug report? -A: Start sgminer with your regular commands and add -D -T --verbose and provide -the full startup output and a summary of your hardware, operating system, AMD -driver version and AMD APP SDK version (if installed separately). - -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. It comes down to choice of operating system for -their various features. Linux offers much better long term stability and -remote monitoring and security, while windows offers you overclocking tools -that can achieve much more than sgminer can do on linux. - -Q: Can I mine with sgminer on a MAC? -A: sgminer will compile on OSX, but the performance of GPU mining is -compromised due to the opencl implementation on OSX, there is no temperature -or fanspeed monitoring, and the cooling design of most MACs, despite having -powerful GPUs, will usually not cope with constant usage leading to a high -risk of thermal damage. It is highly recommended not to mine on a MAC. - -Q: I switch users on windows and my mining stops working? -A: That's correct, it does. It's a permissions issue that there is no known -fix for due to monitoring of GPU fanspeeds and temperatures. If you disable -the monitoring with --no-adl it should switch okay. - -Q: My network gets slower and slower and then dies for a minute? -A; Try the --net-delay option. - -Q: How do I tune for p2pool? -A: p2pool has very rapid expiration of work and new blocks, it is suggested you -decrease intensity by 1 from your optimal value, and decrease GPU threads to 1 -with -g 1. It is also recommended to use --failover-only since the work is -effectively like a different block chain. - -Q: Are OpenCL kernels from other mining software useable in sgminer? -A: No, the APIs are slightly different between the different software and they -will not work. - -Q: I run PHP on windows to access the API with the example miner.php. Why does -it fail when php is installed properly but I only get errors about Sockets not -working in the logs? -A: http://us.php.net/manual/en/sockets.installation.php - -Q: Can I mine scrypt with FPGAs or ASICs? -A: As of Jan 15 2014, no. - -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 sgminer 2.8.0+, if a pool has stratum support, sgminer -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://", sgminer 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 sgminer 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: Why do the scrypt diffs not match with the current difficulty target? -A: The current scrypt block difficulty is expressed in terms of how many -multiples of the BTC difficulty it currently is (eg 28) whereas the shares of -"difficulty 1" are actually 65536 times smaller than the BTC ones. The diff -expressed by sgminer is as multiples of difficulty 1 shares. - -Q: Can I make a donation? -A: Yes, see AUTHORS.md for authors' donation addresses. - -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. diff --git a/doc/FAQ.md b/doc/FAQ.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..48fe1edb --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/FAQ.md @@ -0,0 +1,161 @@ +# FAQ + +Q: Can I mine on servers from different networks (eg litecoin and +dogecoin) at the same time? +A: No, sgminer 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 sgminer 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`. + +Q: The build fails with `gcc is unable to build a binary`. +A: Remove the "-march=native" component of your `CFLAGS` as your version +of gcc does not support it. + +Q: Can you implement feature X? +A: I can, but time is limited, and people who donate are more likely to +get their feature requests implemented. + +Q: Work keeps going to my backup pool even though my primary pool +hasn't failed? +A: sgminer checks for conditions where the primary pool is lagging and +will pass some work to the backup servers under those conditions. The +reason for doing this is to try its absolute best to keep the GPUs +working on something useful and not risk idle periods. You can disable +this behaviour with the option --failover-only. + +Q: Is this a virus? +A: sgminer is being packaged with other trojan +scripts and some antivirus software is falsely accusing sgminer.exe as +being the actual virus, rather than whatever it is being packaged with. +If you had built sgminer yourself, then you do not have a virus on your +computer. Complain to your antivirus software company.. + +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 shipped NCurses TUI is intentionally ascetic, and is only +provided as a fallback. It is recomended to use an API client if you +want to customise the display. + +Q: GUI version? +A: No. The API makes it possible for someone else to write one though. + +Q: What are the best parameters to pass for pool / hardware / device? +A: See `doc/MINING.md` in your source distribution directory, or +[doc/MINING.md](https://github.com/veox/sgminer/blob/master/doc/MINING.md] +for an online version. Note that the latter is for the latest +development version, and arguments listed there are not necessarily +available in your local version. + +Q: Is CPU mining supported? +A: No. Consider using [cpuminer](https://github.com/pooler/cpuminer). + +Q: I'm having an issue. What debugging information should I provide in +the bug report? +A: See `doc/BUGS.md` in your source distribution directory, or +[doc/BUGS.md](https://github.com/veox/sgminer/blob/master/doc/BUGS.md] +for an online version. + +Q: Why don't you provide binaries? +A: Binaries are a hassle to maintain. On Linux, they should be provided +by your distribution's package manager anyway. Runnning an unoptimised +binary gives a minor performance penalty. Running binaries from +untrusted providers is a security risk. There has not been sufficient +community interest to provide distributed determininstic builds. + +Q: Is it better to mine on Linux or Windows? +A: It comes down to choice of operating system for their various +features. Linux offers specialised mining distributions, much better +long term stability, remote monitoring and security, while Windows +offers overclocking tools that can achieve much more than sgminer can do +on Linux. YMMV. + +Q: Can I mine with sgminer on a Mac? +A: sgminer will compile on OSX, but the performance of GPU mining +is compromised due to the OpenCL implementation on OSX, there is no +temperature or fanspeed monitoring, and the cooling design will usually +not cope with constant usage leading to a high risk of thermal damage. +It is highly recommended not to mine on a Mac. + +Q: I switch users on Windows and my mining stops working? +A: That's correct, it does. It's a permissions issue that there is no +known fix for due to monitoring of GPU fanspeeds and temperatures. If +you disable the monitoring with `--no-adl` it should switch okay. + +Q: My network gets slower and slower and then dies for a minute? +A: Try the `--net-delay` option. + +Q: How do I tune for P2Pool? +A: P2Pool has very rapid expiration of work and new blocks, it is +suggested you decrease intensity, decrease `scantime` and `expiry`, +and/or decrease GPU threads to 1 with `-g 1`. It is also recommended to +use `--failover-only` since the work is effectively a separate +blockchain. + +Q: Are OpenCL kernels from other mining software usable in sgminer? +A: Most often no. + +Q: How do I add my own kernel? +A: See `doc/KERNEL.md` in your source distribution directory, or +[doc/KERNEL.md](https://github.com/veox/sgminer/blob/master/doc/KERNEL.md] +for an online version. + +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: Will sgminer support FPGAs or ASICs? +A: No. sgminer will only support GPUs. It is bad software design +practice to try and support every gadget out there. Developers +for dedicated hardware products are better off creating standalone +software. + +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. If a pool has stratum support (and most public ones do), +sgminer 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://`, sgminer 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 sgminer 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: Why do the scrypt diffs not match with the current difficulty target? +A: The current scrypt block difficulty is expressed in terms of how +many multiples of the BTC difficulty it currently is (eg 28) whereas +the shares of "difficulty 1" are actually 65536 times smaller than the +BTC ones. The diff expressed by sgminer is as multiples of difficulty 1 +shares. + +Q: Can I make a donation? +A: Yes, see AUTHORS.md for authors' donation addresses. + +Q: What is Work Utility (WU)? +A: Work utility is the product of hashrate * luck and only stabilises +over a very long period of time. Luck includes hardware error rate, +share reject rate and other parameters. Therefore, it is often a better +indicator of hardware or software misconfiguration.