Topic: BFGMiner and USB Block Erupter Problem help needed "User privileges...COM1" (Read 15916 times)

Hi - I'm new to using BFGMiner, I just had it suggested to me to switch from cgminer to BFGMiner,

I unzipped the program into its own folder C:\bfgminer-4.7.0-win32

ran with *just* the following


Once the program loaded I selected "M" for Modify devices, then selected the plus symbol ("+") and typed in "add" and pressed enter.

I got a brief mention of "couldn't find\no permission" \\.\COM10 then after a few moments all the COM  devices loaded and off I went.

In the "D"isplay I selected "V"erbose ON then su"M"ary twice to be on the compact setting.

Couldn't have been simpler.

I had a similar problem.

Win7 x64 / bfgminer 3.10.0 x64

I have 2 devices; ASIC Block Erupter and ANT U1

My ASIC was mining just fine, running from a CMD script in F:\Crypto Coins\Miners\BFGminer\bfgminer-3.10.0-win64\asic.cmd

Then I got an ANT U1 today, plugged it in, ran a CMD script from the same folder as above, and got "Do not have user privileges required to open COM3". For a few minutes it was mining (Accepts) but then everything turned to "Rejects".

I moved my BFGminer folder to F:\bfgminer and ran the ANT script as Administrator. Am still getting the "Do not have user privileges required to open" error but no more rejects.

The ASIC script, ran from this new folder location, still works as it did before (no difference to performance etc).

So my guess is there is something in the BFGminer code logic that is slightly different between ASIC and ANT processing.

ASIC.CMD
bfgminer -S erupter:all -o stratum+tcp://de1.miningpool.co:10701 -u mfread.asic1 -p x

ANT.CMD
bfgminer -S antminer:all -o stratum+tcp://de1.miningpool.co:10701 -u mfread.ant1 -p x

(yes, I could run both devices off the one CMD line, but from time to time I like to run each one against a different pool, and yes I know I can up the clock rate on the antminer to give a better performance than stock-standard 1.6 GH/s)

This is wrong thinking, uSB 2.0 standard is 0.5A per port and that is what the BE was designed for.   Yes many USB hubs are sold with an 'undersized power supply' but this is easy to calculate.  The same is true for USB 3.0.  Reason is there is no reason to assume anyone will actually use the full power per port (except for those insane bitcoin miners)

Example.  PS is 2.0A Hub is 7 ports
2.0/0.5 per device = 4 BE will run reliable

RE power does not matter usb 3.0 or usb 2.0.

READ THE POWER SUPPLY RATING AND STAY WITHIN IT!!!!  Note some of the usb hubs are sold and do not tell you in the add the amperage, just don't buy those.  DUB-7 is very reliable, like $25, runs 6 be nonstop 3.0a ps.

That's an awesome thread, thanks!

I read through the first ten, last ten and middle ten posts.

People are saying that the USB2.0 hubs start to fail after you plug in a varying number of devices, but none of them can power Block Erupters if all of their ports are populated with them.

They are saying that the USB3.0 hubs provide 12V 3A = 36W which is more than enough to power Erupters in every port, which is consistent with my testing.

Okay, well I was implying that he could try that, instead of sending his hub back, even if its down to only one.  If it is a power per port issue, then the easiest way he can find out if he has everything configured to work is if he can get at least 1 up and mining.  If he cannot, then all he would be doing by sending back his hub is wasting his time and becoming more frustrated.

Here is a good source for tested hubs and how many BE's they can run

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/which-usb-hub-to-use-with-block-erupters-nanofury-nf1-bpmc-red-fury-ant-u1-253749

I don't recall saying that.

What I said was:

Try replacing your hub with a USB3.0 hub. The worst case scenario is that you send the hub back to Amazon with free shipping because it didn't fix the problem. On the other hand, if it does fix your problem you've only lost the cost or opportunity.

Even with one Block Erupter plugged in it's possible that if the hub can't provide adequate and consistent power for the device, even if the device were to operate, you might encounter lots of hardware errors that would significantly reduce your efficiency.

Block Erupters are already very low return mining devices. Even under ideal operating conditions I have seen that they return about 1.4% errors. Reducing the efficiency even further would just be shooting yourself in the proverbial foot.

Good info to know.  So it seems like his solution is to back out the amount of BE's he has plugged into the hub as they are exceeding its power.

The problem isn't user privileges.

bfgminer was originally written for posix-compliant operating systems that consider all devices to be files where you can set access to them by user permissions.

Windows doesn't have the capability to limit access to USB devices by user privileges.

User privileges are only available at the filesystem level, and since Windows doesn't consider non-storage devices to be filesystem components it's not possible to restrict permission to them.

This is not the same as the privileges required to install drivers for a device. You must have administrative privileges to install a device driver. Windows assumes that if you  have administrative privileges to install the driver you should be allowed to access the device even without elevated privileges.

Because of this the application doesn't know the difference between being blocked from accessing the device by the OS because of user privileges and the device not responding due to any of the issues I listed in my original post.

It only checks if the hardware is responding. If it doesn't accept commands the application assumes it's because of privileges and displays the reported error.

That said, the most likely cause of this error is that the device was detected by Windows when it was plugged in because your hub provides enough power for the USB interface, but the device can't be accessed because the hub cannot provide enough consistent power to operate the FPGA.

I was able to determine this was a problem by testing with both USB2.0 powered hubs and USB3.0 powered hubs.

Try replacing your hub with a USB3.0 hub. The worst case scenario is that you send the hub back to Amazon with free shipping because it didn't fix the problem. On the other hand, if it does fix your problem you've only lost the cost or opportunity.

You said in you OP that it says you do not have privileges to run this.  Have you tried right clicking and running the shortcut as an administrator?

I tried it both ways. It doesn't make a difference. QED.

Hmm, to start something or not.....I wont, Im in a good mood today.

Firstly, I suggested he try it.  Some things ARE in fact case sensitive, i.e. -G vs -g mean two different things (one disables gpus, the other denotes the amount of gpu threads).

Secondly, every notation I have seen on it, including my own config that I use, all have the "A" capitalized.  Did it make a difference? Dont know, just suggested he try it.  With knowing the above argument stated, it seemed like a pretty good educated guess.

Thirdly, I am not currently around any hardware to test it on, and was merely attempting to help get his problem solved in the shortest amount of down time, instead of waiting hours until I got home, pull up one of my rigs, and begin playing around to find out if it infact made a difference.

This is religious extemporization. You don't need to capitalize the letter A and this won't fix the problem. Before you recommend that someone does something to fix a problem you should try it yourself to see if it actually fixes anything.

Try capitalizing the "A" in all (i.e. -S All, or -S erupter:All), and using either one of those lines.

Hello,

Here are some things to check:

1. Realize that the devices take a LONG time to initialize after you plug them into the USB hub. If you start bfgminer before they finish initializing you'll either get the stated error or the device just won't initialize and the LED will stay solid. After you plug all of your Erupters and hubs into the computer, wait for the lights on the Erupters to stop flashing and go steady, then count 30 seconds. Then start bfgminer.


2. You need a USB hub that can power the devices. You should use a USB3.0 powered hub because only USB3.0 powered hubs provide enough power to reliably power more than one Erupter. They're around $50 each. The Broadway ones work pretty well.

3. You have to install the right driver. Use these steps:

- Go into Device manager.
- Right click the first Erupter and choose Uninstall.
- Check the box to delete the driver software and complete the removal.
- Unplug your USB hubs.
- Get this driver: http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx
- Run the setup included as administrator (right click the file and select Run as Administrator).
- After setup is done plug in your USB hubs with all your Erupters plugged into them.

Windows will re-install the devices.

If you still get this error, or any of your devices' LED lights stay on steady (meaning they're not hashing):

- Reboot your computer.
- Open up Devices and Printers.
- Switch to List view.
- Make a screen shot of the listed devices.
- Unplug the non-working devices.
- Look at the screen shot and compare it to the list of devices to find out which device isn't working.
- Plug the device in.
- Go into Device Manager and uninstall that device (check the box to remove the driver software)
- Plug the device in again and let Windows install the driver again.

When your Erupters are hashing their status light should be off and should flash intermittently as they get work.

4. In versions of bfgminer later than 3.0.7 you HAVE to specify Icarus timing or the application will crash on startup.



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in XP perhaps need to right click, 'run as administrator'?

This is the problem I am having right now. I bought 4 erupters, 2 arrived. Got one working ok. Still not sure how, scared to turn it off right now lol.

Trying to get 2nd working on my old xp pc mainly just for practice but I get this same error. I moved everything to C: drive but did not help.

Can anyone help me? Thanks.

Thank you Milone, THANK YOU!  That was the problem EXACTLY!  I transferred it all to my C:/ drive and created a new folder.  All 10 of them are running now.   

Try moving BFGMiner to a different folder, off the desktop. A similar problem (at least privilege related) and solution was posted here (scroll up to see the original problem) and while I'm not sure that it is the same as your issue, it shows that shortcuts or files on the desktop can cause this.

I'm not saying it will work or even that it makes sense (I'm not sure why Windows would do this but he didn't post enough info to investigate further). But it's something to try and rule out. Because the desktop is a user folder Windows treats it differently than something in a non-user folder?

Anyway, put the miner's folder in a folder like C:\Miners (so C:\Miners\BFGMiner) and also put your batch file in there (you may have to edit the paths in the batch file depending on how you wrote it). Browse to the folder in Explorer and double-click the batch file and see what happens. Also try right-clicking on the batch file and selecting Run as Administrator. Also don't put the folder inside the Program Files, Program Files (x86), ProgramData, or Windows folders as that may cause additional problems.

I have Win7

I have 10 BEs and 4 7950s' running on the same rig.  I tried two different ways:

1) As per BTCGuilds Guide I created a shortcut and changed it to:

C:\Users\XXX\Desktop\BFGminer\bfgminer-3.1.4-win64\bfgminer-3.1.4-win64\bfgminer.exe -o http://stratum.btcguild.com:3333 -u XXX_1 -p XXX -S all --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=100

I also tried creating a .bat file with this:
C:\Users\bit\Desktop\BFGminer\bfgminer-3.1.4-win64\bfgminer-3.1.4-win64\bfgminer.exe -o stratum+tcp://pool.50btc.com:8332 -u [email protected] -p 123 -S erupter :all

Thanks for any advice.

What arguments are you using to run bfgminer, what OS? We need more info in order to help.