Asteroid -- a new Mac mining client (0.9.7) - page 3.

Karin

member

Activity: 109

Merit: 10

Asteroid 0.9.4 is now out
Download here or run "Check for updates..." from the in-app Asteroid menu

This is a maintenance and bug fix release. There are still some known issues (namely UI quirkiness), but the main improvements are as follows:

Using cgminer 3.7.2 (which still supports GPU and scrypt mining)
Mavericks compatibility updates
Improved speed connecting to any of the default pools
Reports shares based on diff1 difficulty, so that stats are more relevant

As you may or may not know, the latest versions of the underlying mining engine used by Asteroid, "cgminer", is no longer supporting GPU mining. Asteroid 1.0 will likely follow suit, but I plan to maintain a GPU-capable version of Asteroid for as long as possible.

Biggest requests I hear are for 10.6 and 10.7 compatibility, which are now next on my list of development priorities.

Karin

member

Activity: 109

Merit: 10

Quote from: forbun on November 02, 2013, 03:56:38 AM

I have a MacBook Pro and I'd like to try this.

However, I saw from cgminer the following warning:

Quote

Q: Can I mine with cgminer on a MAC?
A: cgminer will compile on OSX, but the performance of GPU mining is
compromised due to the opencl implementation on OSX, there is no temperature
or fanspeed monitoring, and the cooling design of most MACs, despite having
powerful GPUs, will usually not cope with constant usage leading to a high
risk of thermal damage. It is highly recommended not to mine on a MAC unless
it is to a USB device.

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/

Does this problem apply to Asteroid? If not, why not?

Sorry for not replying sooner! Yes, this problem applies to Asteroid if you are using it to mine with your computer's graphics card. If however, you are using USB-based mining devices and not your internal graphics card, there are no heating risks to your Mac at all.

Karin

member

Activity: 109

Merit: 10

Quote from: forzendiablo on November 09, 2013, 09:18:20 PM

i ttied it on my latest iMAC and on mac mini with maverick osx - on both it never starts mining, it says 'starting' but nothing happends.

any ideas?

The version you used had a bug that prevented Asteroid from updating its display if certain types of USB-based ASICs were connected. This is now fixed in the latest version, 0.9.4, which you can upgrade to by running Asteroid and going to "Check for updates..." in the Asteroid menu (or by downloading from the first post in this thread).

Robert Lewandowski

sr. member

Activity: 420

Merit: 250

Bayern

Wouldn't you basically break even on solo mining litecoins?

forzendiablo

legendary

Activity: 1526

Merit: 1000

the grandpa of cryptos

i ttied it on my latest iMAC and on mac mini with maverick osx - on both it never starts mining, it says 'starting' but nothing happends.

any ideas?

XFox

full member

Activity: 144

Merit: 100

Quote from: huryde on November 05, 2013, 01:04:44 AM

How can I trash all preference and get a fresh install?

Launch Asteroid while pressing the Option key.

huryde

member

Activity: 82

Merit: 10

How can I trash all preference and get a fresh install?

forbun

member

Activity: 107

Merit: 10

I have a MacBook Pro and I'd like to try this.

However, I saw from cgminer the following warning:

Quote

Q: Can I mine with cgminer on a MAC?
A: cgminer will compile on OSX, but the performance of GPU mining is
compromised due to the opencl implementation on OSX, there is no temperature
or fanspeed monitoring, and the cooling design of most MACs, despite having
powerful GPUs, will usually not cope with constant usage leading to a high
risk of thermal damage. It is highly recommended not to mine on a MAC unless
it is to a USB device.

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/

Does this problem apply to Asteroid? If not, why not?

Karin

member

Activity: 109

Merit: 10

Quote from: iLoveXojo on October 29, 2013, 12:14:32 AM

Quote from: Karin on October 28, 2013, 09:46:50 PM

Quote from: iLoveXojo on October 28, 2013, 07:33:33 PM

Ah, thanks! What is your experience with the Iris graphics? Iris (and Iris Pro) is being used in Apple's latest models which run Haswell.

The Intel Iris Pro is an integrated graphics chipset. But surprisingly, and for the first time ever on Macs, the Intel Iris Pro graphics can be used with Asteroid for GPU-based mining thanks to the new Mavericks 10.9 which added OpenCL support for those chipsets. As far as I know, all previous versions of Intel Integrated Graphics would not work.

As for general purpose usage, I think it's a great day-to-day graphics setup. Mavericks dynamically adjusts the amount of shared VRAM it uses with the rest of the operating system, so it's very memory efficient. And gaming speeds are on par with what the dedicated graphics chipset was in the previous Mac models.

An Asteroid user reported around 35MH/s when mining Bitcoin. Litecoin hashing speeds weren't very high either. Your best bet mining Bitcoin these days is from USB-based ASIC mining devices though, but as a Mac user and tech fan, I'm generally pleased with the Intel Iris Pro for the normal user! (I like gaming, so I still buy machines with dedicated graphics cards whenever I can for that extra boost)

Either that or purchase a graphics card and connect it via Thunderbolt 2 Wink

Thunderbolt is the best thing to happen to the Mac.

I would love to build/use an eGPU! A desktop-class GPU on a laptop? Yes please!

From what I hear though, Intel is pretty negative on certifying devices that would allow for consumer-grade eGPU technology, but there are some DIY methods that may be worth exploring...(but it could be so much simpler!)

iLoveXojo

newbie

Activity: 13

Merit: 0

Quote from: Karin on October 28, 2013, 09:46:50 PM

Quote from: iLoveXojo on October 28, 2013, 07:33:33 PM

Ah, thanks! What is your experience with the Iris graphics? Iris (and Iris Pro) is being used in Apple's latest models which run Haswell.

The Intel Iris Pro is an integrated graphics chipset. But surprisingly, and for the first time ever on Macs, the Intel Iris Pro graphics can be used with Asteroid for GPU-based mining thanks to the new Mavericks 10.9 which added OpenCL support for those chipsets. As far as I know, all previous versions of Intel Integrated Graphics would not work.

As for general purpose usage, I think it's a great day-to-day graphics setup. Mavericks dynamically adjusts the amount of shared VRAM it uses with the rest of the operating system, so it's very memory efficient. And gaming speeds are on par with what the dedicated graphics chipset was in the previous Mac models.

An Asteroid user reported around 35MH/s when mining Bitcoin. Litecoin hashing speeds weren't very high either. Your best bet mining Bitcoin these days is from USB-based ASIC mining devices though, but as a Mac user and tech fan, I'm generally pleased with the Intel Iris Pro for the normal user! (I like gaming, so I still buy machines with dedicated graphics cards whenever I can for that extra boost)

Either that or purchase a graphics card and connect it via Thunderbolt 2 Wink

Thunderbolt is the best thing to happen to the Mac.

huryde

member

Activity: 82

Merit: 10

I have been using Asteroid to mine with my GPU and MacMiner to mine on a separate pool with my Block Eruptors at GHash.io in conjunction with my cloud mining at cex.io. Asteroid has been great, even with Maverick. It does pop up a warning about my Block Eruptor drivers.

Karin

member

Activity: 109

Merit: 10

Quote from: iLoveXojo on October 28, 2013, 07:33:33 PM

Ah, thanks! What is your experience with the Iris graphics? Iris (and Iris Pro) is being used in Apple's latest models which run Haswell.

The Intel Iris Pro is an integrated graphics chipset. But surprisingly, and for the first time ever on Macs, the Intel Iris Pro graphics can be used with Asteroid for GPU-based mining thanks to the new Mavericks 10.9 which added OpenCL support for those chipsets. As far as I know, all previous versions of Intel Integrated Graphics would not work.

As for general purpose usage, I think it's a great day-to-day graphics setup. Mavericks dynamically adjusts the amount of shared VRAM it uses with the rest of the operating system, so it's very memory efficient. And gaming speeds are on par with what the dedicated graphics chipset was in the previous Mac models.

An Asteroid user reported around 35MH/s when mining Bitcoin. Litecoin hashing speeds weren't very high either. Your best bet mining Bitcoin these days is from USB-based ASIC mining devices though, but as a Mac user and tech fan, I'm generally pleased with the Intel Iris Pro for the normal user! (I like gaming, so I still buy machines with dedicated graphics cards whenever I can for that extra boost)

iLoveXojo

newbie

Activity: 13

Merit: 0

Quote from: Karin on October 28, 2013, 05:19:31 PM

Quote from: iLoveXojo on October 28, 2013, 01:19:01 AM

I'm having a problem: I cannot get mining started on my iMac 8,1. I'm mining Litecoins and whenever I start the miner, I get this error message:

"No devices enabled, waiting...". I have tried to do this with CPU and GPU mining. Any ideas?

Thanks.

My guess is that perhaps your early 2008 iMac doesn't have a graphics card compatible with Apple's implementation of OpenCL, which is necessary for using GPUs for cyptocoin mining on a Mac. You could explore CPU mining for litecoin, in which case I believe you would want to look at a product called "cpuminer". Asteroid is a front-end interface to cgminer, and cgminer no longer has CPU mining enabled as a feature any more, for various reasons (slow, used by botnets, etc).

Ah, thanks! What is your experience with the Iris graphics? Iris (and Iris Pro) is being used in Apple's latest models which run Haswell.

Karin

member

Activity: 109

Merit: 10

Quote from: iLoveXojo on October 28, 2013, 01:19:01 AM

I'm having a problem: I cannot get mining started on my iMac 8,1. I'm mining Litecoins and whenever I start the miner, I get this error message:

"No devices enabled, waiting...". I have tried to do this with CPU and GPU mining. Any ideas?

Thanks.

My guess is that perhaps your early 2008 iMac doesn't have a graphics card compatible with Apple's implementation of OpenCL, which is necessary for using GPUs for cyptocoin mining on a Mac. You could explore CPU mining for litecoin, in which case I believe you would want to look at a product called "cpuminer". Asteroid is a front-end interface to cgminer, and cgminer no longer has CPU mining enabled as a feature any more, for various reasons (slow, used by botnets, etc).

iLoveXojo

newbie

Activity: 13

Merit: 0

I'm having a problem: I cannot get mining started on my iMac 8,1. I'm mining Litecoins and whenever I start the miner, I get this error message:

"No devices enabled, waiting...". I have tried to do this with CPU and GPU mining. Any ideas?

Thanks.

DiCE1904

legendary

Activity: 1118

Merit: 1002

Send in my feedback so you could see what I'm working with. I have a Little single and 10 Erupters but only one erupter mines out of all of them.

Very excited to see the progress you have made with this program. Keep it up!

gweedo

legendary

Activity: 1498

Merit: 1000

Can i use this to mine on the testnet using my bitcoind? Didn't see a way to do that.

Karin

member

Activity: 109

Merit: 10

Quote from: crazy_rabbit on September 25, 2013, 12:01:56 PM

I seem to have gotten Asteroid working with some caveats: The Miner Console gives me output that it's working, but the GUI itself seems screwed up. Too many problems to list. However, the pool does show that's mining, so if you can overlook the fact that the GUI is just totally broken, it does seem to mine.

I wouldn't say it's totally broken, but there are a few known issues.

To bypass the UI display bug, wait until the miner has started mining before clicking on the triangle to show all your devices. Users have been active in submitting feedback and I'm hoping to be able to tackle more of them soon!

crazy_rabbit

legendary

Activity: 1204

Merit: 1002

RUM AND CARROTS: A PIRATE LIFE FOR ME

I seem to have gotten Asteroid working with some caveats: The Miner Console gives me output that it's working, but the GUI itself seems screwed up. Too many problems to list. However, the pool does show that's mining, so if you can overlook the fact that the GUI is just totally broken, it does seem to mine.

zpply

member

Activity: 62

Merit: 10

Anyone have this working with ppcoin?

Topic: Asteroid -- a new Mac mining client (0.9.7) - page 3. (Read 46464 times)