Ethminer: Please, consider re-enabling CPU mining for ethminer. (How to do Ethash CPU mine using ethminer?)

[avatar-lavventura]

Same issue is on the ethereum.stackoverflow and have some demand for a solution: https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/28062/how-to-do-ethash-cpu-mine-using-ethminer

We have tried to reach on following issue but we couldn't reach anyone related to it: https://github.com/ethereum-mining/ethminer/issues/50#issuecomment-335211231

Overall: "Please, consider re-enabling CPU mining for ethminer."

---

I have a Private Ethereum Network. I just want to do Ethash CPU mining using ethminer. I know that to have a smaller foot-print it is recommended to use GPU or openCL but for private networks, I only have few nodes on the network and all are CPU nodes. I just want my CPU node able to mine.

• For small private networks, I believe mining with CPU nodes, where all nodes are also CPU nodes in the network, will be no problem.

With the current model, if we have a Parity node there is no way for us to mine using a CPU node. And I am not sure why Parity forces users to mine with only GPU node. Since I do not have any GPU machine on my small private network, I am unable to use Parity node to do mining, it forces me to switch to geth node to do mining.

I have followed https://github.com/ethereum/cpp-ethereum .

Install:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/ethereum/cpp-ethereum.git
cd cpp-ethereum

Build:

cmake -H. -Bbuild
cmake --build build

After the build; ethminer used to exist under build folder on older versions git-tag:(untagged-1d50efdb2f43825a1810).

After I build, ethminer does not exist under build. So I was not able to find ethminer binary.

[$]~/cpp-ethereum/build$ ls
_3rdParty            deps     libdevcore     libethereum     libwhisper
CMakeCache.txt       eth      libdevcrypto   libevm          Makefile
CMakeFiles           ethkey   libethash      libp2p          rlp
cmake_install.cmake  ethvm    libethashseal  libweb3jsonrpc  test
CTestTestfile.cmake  include  libethcore     libwebthree     utils

---

So I have followed https://github.com/ethereum-mining/ethminer to install ethminer.

This line to work for CPU mining: ./ethminer -F http://localhost:8545

The error I am facing with the current/latest ethminer:

./ethminer
  ✘  11:20:06|ethminer  No OpenCL platforms found

[Q] Is there any way to prevent this error and force ethminer to mine on CPU platform? I guess we have find an older ethminer client that accepts -C/CPU flag.

I have also tried: Genoil/cpp-ethereum and it says.

./ethminer
CPU mining is no longer supported in this miner. Use -G (opencl) or -U (cuda) flag to select GPU platform.

Thank you for your valuable time and help.

[MariusVanDerWijden]

Have you considered using geth? The go implementation has CPU-mining built in

[avatar-lavventura]

geth does not have warp sync and a GUI like Parity. I guess only solution is to use both based on my needs :(@MariusVanDerWijden

[MariusVanDerWijden]

Ah ok, yes I can see your problem...
If you don't really care about performance you can look into https://github.com/sgminer-dev/sgminer afaik they have a CPU-Mining version. But I don't know whether they support warp sync, but its compatible with parity

Oh i missread Sgminer is only for scrypt-based cryptocurrencies

[avatar-lavventura]

Another solution would be: I can use geth for mining and use parity whenever I won't do any mining. It might be inefficient that will require to store same blockchain for parity and geth nodes.

I wish ethminer allow CPU mining for private networks, I really don't know why they removed it.

[5chdn]

Parity never had this feature.

[avatar-lavventura]

Which feature? @5chdn . The problem is on the ethminer side right?

[bmatthewshea]

Have you considered a different coin/hash?
Maybe CryptoNight/Note? Your CPU would actually count for (a little) something still. Is a waste of your time on ethash as previously mentioned in feature requests here..

[5chdn]

This is about mining private chains or testnets.

[avatar-lavventura]

As @5chdn mention this issue was about mining private chains or testnets, that may have a small network only having few miners, which are CPU-node. @bmatthewshea

[bmatthewshea]

Same point. Better off with a different hash/algo. But, if you can find an ethash that uses CPU - good luck.

[5chdn]

The way to go for new networks if obviously Proof-of-Authority. But this is about _existing_ networks. :roll_eyes:

[5chdn]

Is this a wont-fix?

[MariusVanDerWijden]

no, this was never a feature, and it seems it won't be one in the future

[5chdn]

I remember mining with ethminer on CPU several years ago, so it used to be a feature. I was surprised when I found out it was removed :)

[avatar-lavventura]

There was a future and I used it, please double check the features that were implemented before. @MariusVanDerWijden

Please see following guide (https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/a/33722/4575):
Please note the the github code I am sharing is forked from https://github.com/ethereum/cpp-ethereum and Version 1.3.0 of etherminer that actually can do CPU mining, which is implemented around 1 year ago. I did some small changes to build the project.

First, since it will create new DAG do on the home directory: cd && rm -rf .ethash/

Dependencies:

Linux-based:

sudo apt-get install libleveldb-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libmicrohttpd-dev libudev-dev cmake

macOS:

brew install leveldb libmicrohttpd

---

Install:

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/avatar-lavventura/ethminer.git 
cd cpp-ethereum
./scripts/install_deps.sh

Build:

cmake -H. -Bbuild
cd build/ethminer
make

---

$ pwd   #binary of etherminer is located under /Users/user/cpp-ethereum/build/ethminer
/Users/user/cpp-ethereum/build/ethminer   
$./ethminer --version
ethminer version 1.3.0 | Build: ETH_BUILD_PLATFORM/ETH_BUILD_TYPE

To Mine with your private Ethereum-chain:

Please note that geth or Parity should work on the background as connected to your private ethereum network.

This line will use full horse power:

sudo ./ethminer -F http://localhost:8545

-t, --mining-threads Limit number of CPU/GPU miners to n (default: use everything available on selected platform)

[~/cpp-ethereum]$ cd build/ethminer
[~/cpp-ethereum/build/ethminer]$ sudo ./ethminer -F http://localhost:8545 --mining-threads 2

[bmatthewshea]

Why not just use geth since it appears you already have it running on http://localhost:8545 ?
https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Mining
Or maybe you already are?

[5chdn]

@bmatthewshea we are moving in circles here. please, scroll up :)

[bmatthewshea]

@5chdn
My apologies ( I see..^^ ) - swear I searched entire thread for 'geth'/etc last night and didn't see it. lol

[coreyog]

I would also appreciate this as I'm working with a private network and a stratum pool. It doesn't seem geth works with stratum so using it is not an option.

[Whisperd130]

How to init the private chain with this solution? I have create that by "eth --private "customChain" --genesis-json genesis.json --db-path data" this command.
And I got ethconsole, but it shows Current block number is 0, protocols shows null.
I think the private chain would need to init, but I do not know how.

[rodneymo]

@avatar-lavventura, I was looking for a CPU-based miner - to use with private chains - and found yours. Thanks, great job. One question though, if you fork does not include stratum support, right?

[avatar-lavventura]

@rodneymo : Unfortunetly Parity does not support CPU mining any more. I have forked their CPU supporting code almost a year ago, I am not sure does it support for stratum.

I am using private chain as well, but I completely switch to geth. I highly encourage you to use geth if you setup a POW chain, which supports CPU mining.

If you do not want to deal with CPU-mining, you can freely use my on going Proof-of-Authorithy chain please see (https://github.com/ebloc/eblocPOA) for the setup.

[rodneymo]

@avatar-lavventura , thanks! Geth won't work for me as I am doing pool development and need a miner to talk to the pool via stratum. Probably need to find an older version of ethminer that has both CPU and stratum enabled.

[avatar-lavventura]

Have a look to one I have shared. Hope it has a support for stratum.

[rodneymo]

Where did you share it?

[avatar-lavventura]

Check out my following command: https://github.com/ethereum-mining/ethminer/issues/382#issuecomment-363206134

Repository:

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/avatar-lavventura/ethminer.git

[rodneymo]

I am currently using that one ;-)
It works great but only supports http (-F). There's no stratum support in it.

[rodneymo]

I found a stratum proxy, which together with your ethminer fork, solved my issue. I leave the link here in case others have similar needs: https://github.com/Atrides/eth-proxy

[avatar-lavventura]

@rodneymo: Great! I'm glad I could help.

[soc1c]

I keep coming back here every year it seems. Is this still considered a won't-fix? :disappointed:

@avatar-lavventura your fork no longer compiles on Arch Linux :(

~/.opt/ethminer/build/ethminer master*
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  ^~~~
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[Spudz76]

I want to mine on my Sega Dreamcast.</sarcasm>

Whats the point though?
Sub-10Mh/s devices seem deprecated and not worth any development time (GTX970 does 9Mh at same as GTX1060 watts, which does 23Mh - why bother with any Kepler at that point? watt-hash ratio is 2x or more on the newer same price Pascal card).
Also why blow watts into an unpaid chain?
Also why run devices with horrible watt-per-hash, even if they were still supported?

I guess with some answers to those problems the importance of supporting pointless-on-the-mainchain devices could be reprioritized.

Or do a bounty for it. There is no donation income from private chains or testnets either, so I doubt anyone but those who might benefit from (or even use) the feature maintaining any code for the feature...

Otherwise a feature that maybe 5 users want, out of some many thousands of 'normal' users, is not going to happen, for sure. That's like the definition of "wontfix"