BFGMiner, what will be displayed when solo mining?

I have started solo mining with BitcoinQt and BFGMiner on my Block Erupters.

I would first like to determine, if indeed I am doing this right, what I should see, and to make sure if on the rarest chance ever I find a block I actually get paid.

From what I can tell and my experience everything is spot on except for this long-poll stuff, do I need to tell BitcoinQt to poll "better"?

BitcoinQt .conf file (started with -server)

rpcuser=User
rpcpassword=Pass
rpcallowip=*
rpcport=8332

BFGMiner Arguments

F:\PATH\bfgminer.exe -G 
-o http://localhost:8332 
-u User
-p Pass
--coinbase-addr 14tdCy1xBk78nVGQj26YCMPRBWiZSpvpiJ 
-S all --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=100

With 14tdCy1xBk78nVGQj26YCMPRBWiZSpvpiJ being one of the recieve addresses in my BitcoinQt wallet

BFGMiner Screen after about 5 mins: enter image description here

KDecker

Posted 2013-10-08T23:15:21.043

Reputation: 471

You're mining correctly. you can try a newer version of bfgminer if you really want. – Joe White – 2014-01-07T06:54:25.983

Quick question on an old post... What if you DO NOT include the command: --coinbase-addr Since you're not specifying an address, would the block go to the address inside the Bitcoin-Qt application? – brain – 2014-01-16T02:14:32.650

Answers

It could be bitcoind: Long Polling is enabled on BFGMiner by default (at least on *NIX), as it's rather useful for pooled mining. But bitcoind seems to not support it yet, so you'll need to disable it. That can be done with switch

--no-longpoll

And you might try

--no-getwork

And/or

--no-gbt

It could be a driver: The Block Erupter COM can be downloaded here.

It cold be your .conf: I don't see why you're using the -G switch. You aren't GPU mining. I also don't even see --icarus-options 115200:1:1, or --icarus-timing 3.0=100 as applicable options as per this GitHub readme.

It could be permissions: If none of that helps, the documentation says

To use ASICs or FPGAs, you will need to be sure the user BFGMiner is running as has appropriate permissions. This varies by operating system.

This was mentioned specifically toward Gentoo and Ubuntu, but it might apply to Windows as well. You might need to run BFG as Administrator. (My Windows experience is lacking though, so I'm not sure.)

KJ O

Posted 2013-10-08T23:15:21.043

Reputation: 353

What are the 2nd two for, I know getwork is a protocol (that is being dropped?), but what is gbt? And does the rest seem correct? – KDecker – 2013-10-09T02:45:32.723

I've added more information. And yes the rest seems correct. GBT (getblocktemplate) and Getwork are how miners in a pool communicate. Because you're solo mining, you won't need these.

– KJ O – 2013-10-09T02:55:11.607

1icarus is I think the driver/communication library for the blade erupters, the arguments are for the timing between the miner and the driver (115200 is a baud rate). -no-longpoll works to remove the "no long poll found for [URL]". And -G with no value removes all graphics cards from the device list. – KDecker – 2013-10-09T05:04:38.060

Ah. Okay. That's a little odd to me because the icarus options aren't in the readme. If you've tried everything, and it still isn't working--I'm out of ideas. – KJ O – 2013-10-09T11:06:22.830

It seems to work. I removed that long-poll over night, it seems to cause hardware errors, I'm removing it. – KDecker – 2013-10-09T16:56:59.207

You should see exactly what you are seeing on the images you posted. You have correctly set up mining. You will not see long polling as that is a pool server feature NOT a bitcoind feature. You will only see new block detection and if you find a block a share that says "block!"

I don't really know if you will ever find any coins that way. Currently it will take you near 3 years to mine a block, assuming the diff does not change again (and it will go up). I would suggest finding a pool and mining there. It is the only way to mine coins any more.

Also, if you do go further in to mining and use application specific integrated circuits and/or other mining power for solo generation, you are going to want to set up a private stratum or getblocktemplate server. (or use GBT on bitcoind).

Source: Me, I'm a pool op.

EDIT 1:
your version of BFGMiner is a bit old. Maybe get a newer version too, for good measure.

Joe White

Posted 2013-10-08T23:15:21.043

Reputation: 538