Help noob on mining and linux

#1

hey guys hope your all ok? im new here so would like to apologise in advance if this is a repeat topic.
iv set up my laptop to mine zcash since last night but i cant seem to get any change of info when hitting into terminal ./src/zcash-cli getinfo

"version" : 1000001,
"protocolversion" : 170002,
"walletversion" : 60000,
"balance" : 0.00000000,
"blocks" : 4012,
"timeoffset" : 0,
"connections" : 8,
"proxy" : "",
"difficulty" : 51.97115067,
"testnet" : true,
"keypoololdest" : 1476139857,
"keypoolsize" : 101,
"paytxfee" : 0.00000000,
"relayfee" : 0.00005000,
"errors" : "This is a pre-release test build - use at your own risk - do not use for mining or merchant applications"
}

does this look good upto yet?

this is the tutorial i have been following https://minezcash.com/zcash-mining-tutorial/

can anyone please tell me if the above info looks okay?

Zcash Beta2 is now Live on the Testnet!
#2

I don't know what the current block is but it should increment every 2.5 minutes - or there about.

#3

thank you for prompt response. what im trying to get at is my "balance" has not changed since last night so im just woried that am i mining or just wasting electric?

#4

also note that a laptop is not designed to work 24/7, so it isnt the best way to mining

#5

Can't it be both? :wink:

There are some increasingly capable miners on the test block at the moment, so it's not unreasonable that you could mine with one CPU for some time and never get a block.

To check whether you are mining, run the following command: 

cat ~/.zcash/testnet3/debug.log | grep started

This will output the entire contents of the log file, but the 'grep' bit of the command will then only show lines on your screen that contain the string 'started', which in this case we're expecting to see 'miner started'... something like this:

2016-10-09 23:16:52 ZcashMiner started

If that command returns nothing at all, then check the contents of your zcash.conf file:

 cat ~/.zcash/zcash.conf

This will output your configuration file, you should see a line: 

gen=1

If you don't have that line, then maybe you aren't configured to be mining.

#6

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this is a screenshot of my cpu usuage. iv noticed each cpu is used 100% for some time and then switches to another. the ram is used at almost 7gb throughout. its an old i7 laptop im using ubuntu 16.4 as dual boot. total noob never ever mined nor used linux so any help appreciated.

#7

2016-10-10 22:56:38 ZcashMiner started
2016-10-10 23:48:17 ZcashMiner started
2016-10-11 19:04:31 ZcashMiner started
2016-10-11 21:10:19 ZcashMiner started

thank you so it looks like its working.... just not seen my balance move as of yet thats all

#8

yes thank you for heads up. i know its not ideal but its a start right? i dont really want to invest to much without knowing is it really going to be worth it.

as my laptops been collecting dust for years i thought id put it to use :wink:

#9

That's probably right - I haven't had a lot of luck with the mining yet, either.

I left my machine mining overnight on the suprnova zec test mining pool, and found a block there. That's on a private testing blockchain though, so it's not going to be showing up usefully anywhere else. It's also a bit more in depth to configure, but it gave me more insight into the mining.

The pools available currently aren't paying out though, so as a way of getting test TAZ, it's a bit of a non starter.

#10

hey how did you configure your command/ and was it in the zminer directory? did you make a bat file like it suprnova suggests. For some reason the command line from zmine.io works but not the command line from suprnova i get a warning about resource deadlock/

#11

I did not make a scriptt, I just ran from the command line. From the zcash miner directory:

./src/zcash-miner -stratum=stratum+tcp://zec.suprnova.cc:2142 -user=username.worker -password=password -printtoconsole -debug

where username and password correspond to username and passwords already configured with suprnova

#12

I get the resource deadlock warning

#13

For me it took a couple of days before anything appeared as immature in my wallet/balance. Then I had three appear in the space of a few hours.

Be patient, it will happen. Whether it will happen after the GPU's are brought online, only time will tell.

#14

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well last night i left it on and now just got in from work and woohoo!! i almost got 2! now i may try and build myself a rig just dont know where to start? what do you guys think of a gaming pc to start with?

#15

also how can i set up zcash to use all my cpu cores instead of 1by1?

#16

@trolloniex advised me here:

#17

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thank you for the info... i tweeked it a little more and added genproclimit=4 instead of 2 and now firing on all 4 cores and rotating through the threads 1by1

#18

Wow just checked my balance and i found it to rear balance at 6.6 zec. So almost found 4 zec overnight!

Anyway i can use my gpu to mine too? Im trying to get an idea of the rig i need to build in order to successfully mine or would you recommend cloud mining to start? Also i dont get the H/s? How do i find how much H/s i am getting at the moment?

#19

I am trying to install the beta2 on a virtual box, but after the command "./zcutil/fetch-params.sh"

Ubuntu says that I don't have enough memory (pls. ref. to the attached pic)

This happen even though I have allocated 10gb of memory for the virtual box and I still have more than 100gb on the original hard disk.

Can please someone help?

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#20

To find out how much virtual disk space is free, issue the following command:
df -hT
You need several gigabytes free in your /home directory.