PIckaxe is a specialized Linux distribution for the Raspberry PI for bitcoin mining. It is based on the Raspbian distribution which is itself based on Debian. MinePeon already exists for those who prefer Arch Linux. PIckaxe is the Raspbian/Debian version.
PIckaxe has an attractive custom web interface with a high update frequency. The interface updates mining statistics every two seconds to give you the most up-to-date information on your miners. No default donation options are set as in MinePeon. It has been tested with both Block Erupters and BFL hardware. See screenshots below.
Feature overview:
- Two second update interval
- Cookie-based login for increased security
- Set both Primary and Failover pools
- Automatically restarts mining on boot if pool credentials are set
- Option to connect to mining pool(s) via Tor
- Script to install from default Raspbian Wheezy image provided
- Setup will automatically regenerate SSH keys on first boot so they are unique
- No default donation options
- Tested on Block Erupters (Icarus) and BFL hardware
- Open Source under GPLv2
- Uses bfgminer for mining
- Based on Raspbian Wheezy
There are two ways to install PIckaxe. Option one is to write the PIckaxe image directly to an SD card. Option two is to run a setup script on an existing Raspbian Wheezy installation.
If you'd like to install from image, please see the original author's repo for more info: https://github.com/stronginthearm/PIckaxe
Once default PIckaxe is installed, follow the upgrade steps below if you're interested in my modifications.
My suggestion would be to instead install the latest version fo Raspbian, and then run setup as described below.
Download the latest Raspbian "wheezy" image from http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads
Install the Raspbian "wheezy" image to your SDCard...
Instrucitons for installing to SDCard for windows can be found here: http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup#Using_the_Win32DiskImager_program
For linux, the command to install to the SDCard looks something like:
dd bs=1M if=[DATE/VERSION_OF_RASPBIAN]-wheezy-raspbian.zip of=/dev/[YOUR_SDCARD_DRIVE]
Once the SDCard is loaded, put it in the rPi, and boot.
SSH into your raspberry pi as a user that has sudo priviledges (By default the pi user has these priviledges).
-Optional: Expand the image to use the full contents of the SDCard and/or change the time-zone:
raspi-config
To change the time-zone, chose the Internationalization options, then select your time zone.
To Expand the image to use your entire SDcard choose to Expand FileSystem.
It may ask you to reboot when complete. SSH back into your rPi again after the reboot.
Pull down the pickaxe repository to your raspberry pi which has raspbian wheezy installed.
Either:
A) To get my latest stable changes:
cd && git clone https://github.com/sephtin/PIckaxe
-OR-
B) To get the most updated changes (warning, might not always be steable if I'm making changes or testing something new):
cd && git clone https://github.com/sephtin/PIckaxe -b Testing
Then run setup:
cd PIckaxe && sudo ./setup.sh
This will take a while. When it completes, log into the web interface to configure your miner.
SSH into your raspberry pi as a user that has sudo priviledges (By default the pi user has these priviledges).
-Optional: Expand the image to use the full contents of the SDCard and/or change the time-zone (if you haven't done so already)
raspi-config
To change the time-zone, chose the Internationalization options, then select your time zone.
To Expand the image to use your entire SDcard choose to Expand FileSystem.
It may ask you to reboot when complete. SSH back into your rPi again after the reboot.
Pull down the pickaxe repository to your raspberry pi so we can begin the upgrade.
Either:
A) To get my latest (usually well tested) stable changes:
cd && rm -rf PIckaxe && git clone https://github.com/sephtin/PIckaxe
-OR-
B) To get the most updated changes (warning, might not always be steable if I'm making changes or testing something new):
cd && rm -rf PIckaxe && git clone https://github.com/sephtin/PIckaxe -b Testing
Change into the PIckaxe directory and run setup:
cd PIckaxe && sudo ./setup.sh
This will take a while. When it completes, log into the web interface to configure your miner. Note that this script automatically regenerates your raspberry pi SSH keys the first time it is run for your security. The hostname is changed to PIckaxe.
Configuration of the web interface should be intuitive and straightforward. Instead of describing how to configure the web interface here, please see the series of configuration screenshots I have uploaded to Imgur. These show the progression of configuring and using PIckaxe. These same screenshots are included in the screenshots directory of this repository.
NOTE: Screenshots are of the original author's version, and do not contain my updates. -sephtin
I cannot guarantee that this software is bug free or that you should be trusting your expensive mining hardware to it. Use at your own risk. The most I can say is that I trust it enough to use with my own expensive mining hardware. Note the screenshot and photograph of two BFL Little Singles which as of today (August 11 2013) are quite valuable. On the other hand I'm sure that hardware will be about as effective as CPU mining is today in about a year given current trends ;-)
If my work has helped you, please consider donating! 17ugcvKLG1rR7qb1yh6yzEsSyFEFPwvWcF
Please note that the original author is stronginthearm. Please see the VERSION file for changes I've made on this repo from his. (I've asked him to merge some of my changes... but don't know how to contact the original author! :(
To donate to the original author (stronginthearm) send donations to: 1M9GY1qNKf6Fo1HRUyFxnyH5MuztMbPBg3
If you are the original author, or know him, please PM me on bitcointalk.
Thank you!
-sephtin