BlagoMiner v2.300004.2 Release

Long overdue patch weekend!

Fixes:

• #19 better unicode support in file paths
• #20 no more ^A
• #23 plot file sizes are now displayed correctly
• #25 minor logging issue
• #26 treating http/200 as an error should be now gone on https://pool.burstcoin.ro/

BlagoMiner v2.300004.0 Release

Fixes #11: New feature: "headless mode". Now there's a new option in the config file that allows you to disable the Curses GUI. When set to true, Blagominer will stop using nice console UI and will just print out status information right to the console. It will also stop listening to 'q', so to stop it, press CTRL+C like any other typical console-hog.

Note that the headless-mode isn't really intended to be used by humans :) so expect the output to be less than pretty or readable. Headless-mode it meant to enable using blago as a utility-process controller by another application.

BlagoMiner v2.300003.2 Release

• Fixes #9: POC2StartBlock now should properly default to 0, and default to 502000 only if the coinname contains 'burst' word; POC2StartBlock can still be set via config file.
• Fixes #10: miner should no longer crash on startup when more then 4 coins are configured; this quick fix should handle at least up to ~20 coins, but the screen won't look pretty (see below) - that will be improved later in #12

Note:

• attached 7z/Zip archives with binaries are identical, as always, but I'll probably drop .zip format soon

BlagoMiner v2.300003.1 Release

Make sure to copy the pdcurses.dll,libcurl.dll, and zlib1.dll to your miner directory.

• Fixed Thread Race #6: global POC2 flag is gone, now nothing should be able to screw up POC1/POC2 file reading mode
• New testmode option was added; it disabled normal network connectivity and allows to replay rounds at will and test deadline results for any custom round data, and also test what nonces/scoops hashes are read from the plot files; see 'testmode.conf' in the repo
• Fixed startup crash occurring in v2.300003.0; it occurred when testmode was not enabled and prevented normal mining

Note:

• attached 7z/Zip archives with binaries are identical
• main readme was not updated (yet) with new config options, see comments in miner.conf
• this version IS NOT compatible with very old config files; see sample miner.conf or previous release notes for more info

BlagoMiner v2.300002.0 Release

Make sure to update your miner.conf file, syntax has changed a little some time ago. See example file.
Make sure to copy the pdcurses.dll,libcurl.dll, and zlib1.dll to your miner directory.

• Faster Exit: now pressing 'q' should cause the miner to quit almost instantly, without waiting until mining round completes

• Faster Round Interrupt: when new round is detected, miner should abort or switch current mining much faster now, this should fix lags and mining with old gensigs/heights

• Detailed DL Logs: when logging is turned on, each "DL found" entry will include full deadline calculation input data, that really helps when diagnosing what went wrong

• Fixed Memory Leak #2: cleanups and refactoring in various buffers fixed some leaks, it looks like the miner does not leak at all now!

• Fixed Configuration Reading Bug: there was a problem in allocating buffer for JSON configuration file, sometimes the miner simply crashed on startup claiming that the syntax is wrong, adding/removing some random comments could fix or cause the issue; this should not happen now

• bonus: added support for DiskCoin Testnet special GenSig scheme; if your DiskCoin pool rejects DLs as 'invalid', try adding "enableDiskcoinGensigs": true option for that coin.

Note:

• attached 7z/Zip archives with binaries are identical
• main readme was not updated (yet) with new config options, see comments in miner.conf
• this version IS NOT compatible with very old config files; see sample miner.conf or previous release notes for more info

Stability update: v2.300001.1

This version contains patches related to stability issues. No new features.

• corrected thread race problems in networking code; when new block interrupted current mining, the 'mining interrupt' signal could close curl handles while these were still in use by mining threads, causing access-violation or similar errors

See previous release notes for more info.

BlagoMiner v2.300001.0 Release

Make sure to update your miner.conf file, syntax has changed a little. See example file.
Make sure to copy the pdcurses.dll,libcurl.dll, and zlib1.dll to your miner directory.

• Multimining! Now you can configure theoretically any number of coins to be mined, or proxied.
• Added option for optimizing file access order. Add '@' prefix to plot directory path to activate.
• Corrected CSV file naming, now the miner will emit separate CSVs per coin
• Corrected bug causing DLs to be sometimes sent multiple times
• Corrected another few socket/handle leaks

Note:

• attached 7z/Zip archives with binaries are identical
• main readme was not updated (yet) with new config options, see comments in miner.conf
• this version IS NOT compatible with old config files; hence "2.x" major change; coin config require 'coin:' prefix now, and you can use any coin names, not just Burst and BHD like before; once you add the prefix to coin name, the rest of the config file probably won't need any changes
• file access ordering is important optimization when you have multiple plot files on a physical hard drive; turning file access ordering via prefixing the path with '@' will cause the miner to burn some time to determine the physical layout of the files on the disk, and then read them in that order instead of the default order; this causes the device to move its heads in one (forward) direction only, drastically removing "clicking" and seeking time; I've seen round times drop by from 7% for 100 upto 15% for 1000 files on a drive; this option has no or tiny impact if you have only several files per drive; this option currently works only on NTFS volumes and will be ignored for other; this option MAY drastically bloat the log file, if the miner encounters any access/permissions/etc problems during file layout analysis
• multimining works just as dual-mining before: it is not a true simultaneous multimining, but a prioritized switching. Now it's possible to configure any number of coins to be mined or proxied, but the coin section names require "coin:" prefix. See the example miner.conf file.
• multimining has no magic inside, you still have to configure each coin properly for your pool/solo/etc
• although example file contains config for 3 coins, note that the BOOM is disabled in the example (enablemining:false), flip to true if you want to activate
• although now there is no limit for the number of coins, keep in mind that the miner prioritizes and switches between coins, so it may be not reasonable to try to mine too many at once: the non-prioritized coins will probably be constantly delayed and might even never get any mining and just sit in the queue
• although now there is no limit for the number of coins, keep in mind that every coin generates some logs (more coins = more bloat) and every coin takes up some screen area; for 4 coins the UI still looks well; for more than 4 the UI may be glitched in a few places - for example in "100%|100%" connection area

BlagoMiner v1.200001.0 Release

Make sure to copy the pdcurses.dll,libcurl.dll, and zlib1.dll to your miner directory.

• Added HTTPS support for miner (proxy mode still works in http)
• Added support for pools located at non-root URLs (i.e. http://host:port/my/site/burst)
• Added configurable extra query params and extra headers (i.e. X-Account, X-MinerAlias)
• Removed mandatory elevation ('admin rights'); now elevation will kick in only when paths to BFS plots are detected
• Corrected bug related to mixedup node-addr and updater-addr
• Corrected occasional socket leaks

Note:

• attached 7z/Zip archives with binaries are identical
• main readme was not updated (yet) with new config options, see comments in miner.conf
• this version should be compatible with old config files and should "just work", all new features are opt-in and inactive unless enabled/configured via new options in miner.conf; "should" because I have tested it only against limited set of old setups