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Topic: CGWatcher 1.4.0, a GUI/monitor for CGMiner & BFGMiner to help minimize downtime - page 35. (Read 402303 times)

member
Activity: 98
Merit: 10
I like the "Restart if total current hashrate falls below XXX" feature ... but one problem.

Every now and then, I get a period where no work is being done. GPU usage is 0%, and BFGMiner reports that the GPU hash rate is "WAIT" ... I'm pool mining on Eligius.st, and not sure if my connection to the pool timed out and so the miner can't get new work. Sometimes I'll get a message about "Longpoll requested work update" or that the pool is issuing work on an old block.

Can anyone tell me why this is happening?

At any rate because of this, CGWatcher will restart BFGMiner if I enable the above feature (seems to work well, but it's on a hair trigger). I guess my concern is that CGWatcher pulls the trigger too quickly, and it would be nice to have a user-specified wait period (like Restart if total hashrate falls below XXX for YYYY seconds).

Thanks, and keep up the good work! I'm going to test CGWatcher a little more, and if I keep it, I will definitely send BTC your way!
member
Activity: 99
Merit: 10
Looks great, going to give it a shot right now.

Thanks
member
Activity: 98
Merit: 10
Awesome, going to try it with BFGMiner!
sr. member
Activity: 434
Merit: 251
CGWatcher & CGRemote
Wow, I've been working on a lot of improvements and features in the program and hadn't checked back here in a while. More comments than I expected, sorry for not getting back here sooner. I'll definitely make sure to check here regularly. 500+ downloads so far, and a lot of new things coming in the next update.

A few things I've already fixed in the next update (hoping to have it ready in the next week, but may be a little longer)

  • Scrypt support - CGWatcher detects whether you are using SHA256 or scrypt and adjusts displayes the hashrate accordingly.
  • Problem-catching improvements - Options to restart if shares (accepted,rejected, etc) do not increase ove time, as this indicates a problem. Also if CGWatcher has full API access but then loses it (in the same process), this indicates CGMiner is having a problem as well. In both cases, hashrate may continue to show normal numbers, but you won't be submitting any work. When I've seen these problems happen, I think it's been pool issues. With all of the DoS attacks, I think they will be helpful and make sure you have backup pools in your config file.
  • Config File Editor - Create profiles for different configurations. All config options are listed so you don't have to look them up. Just fill in the values you want and the cgminer.conf file is created for you.
  • Fixed culture problems created when Windows culture settings were set to use a comma (,) as decimal separator or if period (.) is set as group separator. CGMiner uses periods regardless so CGWatcher has to account for this. This is why you may have seen very high (Gh/s) rates if you use a comma as the decimal separator.
  • If you saw Chinese characters (or other garbled characters) returned when you sent commands to CGMiner, or in your Pool or GPU list if you have several of either one, this is now fixed. (Had buffer too small, oops.)
  • Update - The About tab now has a button to check for updates. If an update is found, a link is given to download it.
  • Remote Monitor - This is taking most of the time. The idea is to run CGWatcher on each computer that CGMiner (or BFGMiner) is running on, as this allows it to correct any problems with that miner. A new program (probably called CGRemote) can be ran on any computer and will communicate with the each CGWatcher, allowing you to monitor and control all mining on many computers from one place. I had to do it this way because sometimes the CGMiner needs to be relaunched, and this requires a listener to be running on the mining computer. It makes sense to use CGWatcher as that listener and create a portable interface allowing you to list all of your miners. Communication is protected with a passkey to keep unauthorized commands being sent to CGWatcher by anyone else.

I mine with CGMiner but these should all be applicable with BFGMiner. There may be differences between the two I haven't found yet so I will account for them as they are found. I am hoping any chart problems will be fixed in this next update as well. I started an IRC channel on freenode called #cgwatcher and will check often to help anyone having problems.
newbie
Activity: 21
Merit: 0
Hi JackBits, thanks again for your reply.

This is how I would describe the crash: The screen flickers black for a moment and then back to the desktop, there's then a pop up that says something along the lines of "Your display driver crashed and has recovered...".

The fans are running fine on auto-fan and the temperatures are good (~70 degrees) when it crashes, it doesn't seem to be temperature related. It's not overclocked (stock 925/1250), but I've tried lowering the clock speeds and it still crashes the display driver. I've also tried playing with the intensity with no success. The power has not been disturbed and I've checked on it to make sure.

I've tried reinstalling the drivers, I will reseat them and then reinstall both cgminer and the drivers and then report back. As I said it's very strange as nothing has changed as far as I can tell, and they've been running fine for over a week or so on intensity 19 and with various overclocks. It seems I can't post outside of the newbie section of the forum yet.

Again, thanks.

OK, I've had this happen quite often. In my case it was related to thread concurrency and intensity. These values can vary depending on which card you have. Post your card details and settings in a new topic, since we're off topic here. Or check the cgminer thread for the settings for your card.
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
Hi JackBits, thanks again for your reply.

This is how I would describe the crash: The screen flickers black for a moment and then back to the desktop, there's then a pop up that says something along the lines of "Your display driver crashed and has recovered...".

The fans are running fine on auto-fan and the temperatures are good (~70 degrees) when it crashes, it doesn't seem to be temperature related. It's not overclocked (stock 925/1250), but I've tried lowering the clock speeds and it still crashes the display driver. I've also tried playing with the intensity with no success. The power has not been disturbed and I've checked on it to make sure.

I've tried reinstalling the drivers, I will reseat them and then reinstall both cgminer and the drivers and then report back. As I said it's very strange as nothing has changed as far as I can tell, and they've been running fine for over a week or so on intensity 19 and with various overclocks. It seems I can't post outside of the newbie section of the forum yet.

Again, thanks.
newbie
Activity: 21
Merit: 0
Hi again guys, I'm having another issue I hope someone here might be able to help me out with.

After a couple of minutes of mining cgminer crashes my display driver. The driver then quickly recovers but mining is interrupted and it takes some time for cgwatcher to realise and try restarting cgminer.

Has anyone had this display driver crashing issue? And does anyone have any ideas of how to fix it? I've tried changing my drivers and tweaking the intensity but nothing seems to work.

A key point to make is up until this afternoon it's been working fine for roughly a week. The only thing thats happened since it was working correctly (cgminer running for hours upon hours without crashing) is I've unplugged one of my hard drives (the one where cgminer is located), plugged it into another computer and back again.

Cheers

What type of crash is it (black screen, windows popup error etc) ?

Is the fan running at a good RPM? How are the card temperatures? Is it overclocked? Were any of the power connectors disturbed while disconnecting/reconnecting the hard drive? Try reseating them. Also try reinstalling cgminer and the display drivers. Check over in the cgminer and maybe hardware sections and post this question there once you have enough posts.
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
Hi again guys, I'm having another issue I hope someone here might be able to help me out with.

After a couple of minutes of mining cgminer crashes my display driver. The driver then quickly recovers but mining is interrupted and it takes some time for cgwatcher to realise and try restarting cgminer.

Has anyone had this display driver crashing issue? And does anyone have any ideas of how to fix it? I've tried changing my drivers and tweaking the intensity but nothing seems to work.

A key point to make is up until this afternoon it's been working fine for roughly a week. The only thing thats happened since it was working correctly (cgminer running for hours upon hours without crashing) is I've unplugged one of my hard drives (the one where cgminer is located), plugged it into another computer and back again.

Cheers
newbie
Activity: 21
Merit: 0
...snip...

Hi JackBits, thanks for the help.

The problem was I had 2>logfile.txt in my miner arguments. Everything is working fine now.

Thats great. Glad I could help. Here is the workaround if you want to log to a text file while using CGWatcher:
(Hopefully the author of CGWatcher can fix this in a future update)

Create a cgminer.cmd(or name it whatever) file with the following line in it:
cgminer.exe 2>logfile.txt

Then point CGWatcher to the cmd file instead of to the cgminer.exe in the Path box on the Settings tab.

I tested this by using a .conf file with the rest of the settings in it that I had in the cmd line previously - not sure if it will work if you have any arguments in the CGWatcher box, but they may propogate through.

Hope this helps.


legendary
Activity: 3206
Merit: 1069
very good program, but it doesn't show the correct hashrate, it say 10,19gh(but i have only a 670, yeah i know it's bad, but i did not know that the ati cards were good for mining, or i would have bought those instead...)

ok i get it, it doesn't detect automatically the vga
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
Hi, this software looks great. I'm just having a slight problem getting it up and running, I wondered if you or anyone here could help?

When I click "Start" the cmd window running CGMiner flashes up briefly but then closes. I have the correct miner arguments set and the relevant software installed (.NET etc).

When I click "Stop" CGWatcher tells me "I only have read-only access to CGMiner...". I think it could be to do with this? I am running both programs as administrator and as far as I can tell both have all the relevant permissions.

Many thanks

If the cmd window disappears right away, this is usually caused because an error occured. Double check the command line arguments. Make sure cgminer will run fine by itself first with the same command line - run it from a .cmd or .bat file or use the conf instead. Note that the command line argument to output to a log file(2>logfile.txt) will cause this with CGWatcher(I have a workaround for this - let me know if you need it and I will give details).

The permission issue might be related to the api-allow argument.



Hi JackBits, thanks for the help.

The problem was I had 2>logfile.txt in my miner arguments. Everything is working fine now.
newbie
Activity: 14
Merit: 0
Looks good,  I'll give it a try,  thanks
newbie
Activity: 21
Merit: 0
Hi, this software looks great. I'm just having a slight problem getting it up and running, I wondered if you or anyone here could help?

When I click "Start" the cmd window running CGMiner flashes up briefly but then closes. I have the correct miner arguments set and the relevant software installed (.NET etc).

When I click "Stop" CGWatcher tells me "I only have read-only access to CGMiner...". I think it could be to do with this? I am running both programs as administrator and as far as I can tell both have all the relevant permissions.

Many thanks

If the cmd window disappears right away, this is usually caused because an error occured. Double check the command line arguments. Make sure cgminer will run fine by itself first with the same command line - run it from a .cmd or .bat file or use the conf instead. Note that the command line argument to output to a log file(2>logfile.txt) will cause this with CGWatcher(I have a workaround for this - let me know if you need it and I will give details).

The permission issue might be related to the api-allow argument.

newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
Hi, this software looks great. I'm just having a slight problem getting it up and running, I wondered if you or anyone here could help?

When I click "Start" the cmd window running CGMiner flashes up briefly but then closes. I have the correct miner arguments set and the relevant software installed (.NET etc).

When I click "Stop" CGWatcher tells me "I only have read-only access to CGMiner...". I think it could be to do with this? I am running both programs as administrator and as far as I can tell both have all the relevant permissions.

Many thanks
newbie
Activity: 32
Merit: 0
Thank you very much. I will try.
newbie
Activity: 21
Merit: 0
This is a great program and that icon rocks. Thank you for sharing it with us. The only problem I have with it is that the graph is not working. "Current Total Hashrate" is always at 0. All the other readings are good. I'm using CGWatcher 1.1.2 with cgminer 2.11.4 on Windows 7.

I also noticed that it seems to be showing Kh/s instead of Mh/s for BTC mining.
legendary
Activity: 1143
Merit: 1000
Thank you for work, I'll try it for sure!
member
Activity: 106
Merit: 10
I'll definitely try this one, it looks nice!

Maybe you could add litecoin mining support as well? (just a few extra commands I suppose?)

Mods:This topic should be moved to the appropriate section! It deserves better than the newb-section Smiley
newbie
Activity: 34
Merit: 0
sr. member
Activity: 434
Merit: 251
CGWatcher & CGRemote


CGWatcher - a GUI/monitor for CGMiner and BFGMiner

Latest version: 1.4.0
Latest version release date: June 29, 2014


New in this version:
  • Improved support for SGMiner 4.2.x.
  • New setting to prevent CGWatcher from modifying config file to enable API in case this causes problems with new miners.
  • SGMiner pool property settings better handled, able to use or not use "pool-" prefix depending on what names are used in the config file. Also a setting has been added to specify whether pool settings should begin with "pool-" by default.
  • "Disable temporary config file creation" setting not being saved correctly fixed.
  • Other minor fixes and improvements.

Description
CGWatcher is a GUI for bitcoin miners CGMiner and BFGMiner. Along with giving a graphical interface to the miner, it has several options to monitor the miner and correct problems when they are detected. It helps to minimize downtime while providing something a little easier to look at.

It works via the miner's API, which was created for this purpose - to allow other software to communicate with the miner. While there are several web applications to allow remote monitoring of these miners, that is not the purpose of CGWatcher. It is designed to run on the same computer as the miner, and will watch for the conditions you set to determine if the miner is working properly. If it is not, CGWatcher takes the appropriate actions to correct the problem (usually restarting the miner.) The idea is to create a program that does the monitoring for you, so you don't have to use those web applications to constantly check on your miners.

CGWatcher is a small and portable .NET application. It will run as a 32-bit application in 32-bit Windows, or a 64-bit application in 64-bit Windows so it can work with 64-bit miners. It can be run inside sandbox environments like Sandboxie if you don't trust it (although settings may not be saved after closing.) Included in the archive is the ReadMe text file, and libraries (links to library information are on the CGWatcher download page.) The program creates its own config file (CGWatcher.exe.ini), log (cgwatcher.log) and a couple data files once started to store profile and config file data. It also creates miner.log that records some mining-specific information like pool changes, hardware errors, GPU or pool status changes, etc. You can start CGWatcher while the miner is running, or use it to launch the miner (preferred).


                   

               

Screenshots of each tab in CGWatcher as of version 1.2.0

Profiles
CGWatcher allows you to create mining profiles using different miners, config files, and/or arguments. When you first use it, it will create a default profile and try to locate a miner if one is running or one is located in the same directory or subdirectories of CGWatcher. If it cannot find a miner, you will have to manually specify where it is located and (optionally) a config file and/or arguments you want to use. You can do this by clicking the 'Manage Profiles...' button in the Settings tab. You can create as many profiles as you'd like for the different crypto-currencies you mine. You can also rename the default profile if you'd like, it just names the first one Default because I had to name it something. When you switch to a new profile ("activate" a profile), CGWatcher will use that profile's settings any time it starts or restarts the miner. However, if you switch profiles while a miner is running, you will obviously need to restart the miner in order for the new profile to be used. You can see which profile a currently running miner is using on the Status tab. Ideally it would always be the same as the active profile you've set... but if you changed profiles while mining and chose not to restart the miner when prompted, keep in mind that the miner will still be running on the previous profile until it is restarted (or stopped and started).


Monitor
The main purpose of CGWatcher is to keep the miner running properly. To do this, the monitor must be enabled (default). You can enable it by checking the first option on the Monitor tab, and set the interval (seconds) for how often it checks the miner's status and refreshes information. Monitor options include:
  • Restart the miner if the total hashrate falls below X for a specified number of seconds.
  • Restart the miner after X hours of continuous mining to cover any problems that other checks may have missed. That ensures that should all other checks fail to detect a temporary problem, at worst the downtime should be limited to the number of hours you set here.
  • Restart the miner if accepted shares or total shares do not increase for X number of minutes.
  • Restarting the miner or computer when a sick or dead GPU is detected since sometimes the miner is unable to restart it itself.
  • Restart the miner if it had full API access but now only has read-only (in the same miner process), as I've learned this usually indicates a problem. It will also restart if it had any API access to the miner process but now it has none.
  • Ensure the miner stays running unless you pause or stop it inside CGWatcher. If this option is enabled and the miner is closed for any reason outside of CGWatcher (including you closing the miner window), it will be restarted.
  • Scheduled mining - Scheduled actions give you complete control over what your miner does and when. Actions include start mining, stop mining, restart mining, restart computer, change intensity, switch profile, etc. Along with creating actions to run at specified times, you can create actions that run at set intervals.
    You can create profiles for each coin you mine, then set CGWatcher to switch to whatever is most profitable at the times or intervals you specify.
    You can also set CGWatcher to increase GPU intensities when the computer is idle or at certain times or intervals, and have it return them to their original values once you start using the computer again. You set the intensity, you set how long the computer must be idle before intensities are changed.


Statistics
These miners provide a lot of information. CGWatcher attempts to present it in an easier-to-read interface, using tabs to separate information. Ultimately I'd like it to record some data so you can see statistics over a given time period.

Control
You can easily change miner settings while it is running. Change GPU core, memory, voltage, or intensity. Re-prioritize and enable/disable pools. A large Pause/Resume button allows you to easily stop and resume mining (using "exit" command so GPUs and fans are returned to normal values.) Changing miner settings while it is running is temporary, as the changes will be lost when the miner closes. If you want to make the changes permanent, you can change the profile's settings or use the Config File Editor (or Notepad) to edit the profile's config file.

Overheat Protection
CGMiner provides overheat protection for AMD cards. Using the temp-target, temp-overheat, and temp-cutoff settings, it can adjust fan and clock speeds to maintain a target temperature and disable devices that get too hot (if auto-gpu is enabled.) CGWatcher now also provides similar protection for cards not protected by the miner (including Nvidia cards) by adjusting intensity to maintain the target temperature and disabling GPUs that get too hot. It will enable and/or slowly raise intensity back to their original values once temperatures cool down back into the target range. I'm not sure if anyone mines with Intel HD integrated graphics since modern CPUs have better OpenCL support. Currently CGWatcher does not support overheat protection for Intel devices, but I will be doing some tests to see whether the CPU temperatures it is now capable of getting are enough to provide similar support for these devices. You can see if the miner or CGWatcher is providing overheat protection for a GPU in the GPU tab next to the temperature.

For GPUs that miner is providing overheat protection for (AMD), CGWatcher takes a hands-off approach except for when the miner disables them for exceeding temp-cutoff. Although the miner tries to re-enable them once they return to target temperatures, this usually isn't successful so CGWatcher will restart the GPU once it has returned to temp-target temperature.

You can disable CGWatcher's overheat protection in the Monitor tab if you don't want it to perform any of these actions.

Config File Editor
The Config File Editor attempts to make editing your miner's configuration easier. To start, it displays the config file in a grid allowing you to see all available settings and a description of each. Settings that can only be enabled or disabled will have a true or false option. Settings that allow numbers only (not including lists of numbers) will only allow numbers. The 'Validate' button attempts to check your settings for errors that may prevent the miner from starting or working correctly. Some things to know about the Config File Editor:


  • Settings that are set to default values are not written to the config file upon saving. They are also not converted to arguments, because they are set to default values and don't need to be explicitly set.
  • To add, edit, or remove pools, locate Pools in the config file grid. (There may be a Pools category heading as well in Category view mode), but you want the Pools that says '(Collection)' in the cell next to it. Click on the word '(Collection)' and a small [...] button will appear in the cell. Click on this [...] button to open the pool window. If you've ever used a property grid in Microsoft or similar software, you will recognize this type of grid and the accompanying collection editor.
  • When editing pools, you can create names for them as well so they are more easily identifiable when editing them later on. Pool names are saved inside the config file, but will not cause a problem with the miner. To change pool priorities, use the up and down arrows in the pools window to move pools up and down the list. The top of the list is the first priority, the bottom of the list is last priority.
  • 'Name #' textbox - You can name your config files so when you're using them in profiles they will be easier to access. Enter a name for the config file in the Name textbox. Then when managing your profiles, you can select a Named config file from the Config File textbox drop-down instead of needing to browse your computer for it. After clicking out of the Config File textbox, it will be converted to the config file path automatically.
  • 'Validate before saving' : By default, the Config File Editor will check most settings to make sure the values are valid and in the correct format. If you experience problems with validation failing due to your operating system's culture settings and are sure the values are correct, you can un-check this box to bypass validation.
  • 'Ensure API is enabled upon saving' : If enabled, the API access needed by CGWatcher will always be enabled when saving the config file, regardless if these settings were enabled in the grid. It will not affect other groups/IP address in the api-allow setting, it only makes sure api-listen is enabled and that 127.0.0.1 is included in the W: group of api-allow.
  • The Config File Editor Menu
         ■ File -> New - Create a new config file.
          ■ File -> Open - Open an existing config file.
          ■ File -> Save (As) - Save the current config file.
          ■ File -> Close - Close the Config File Editor.
          ■ Tools -> Import Settings -> From Config File... - select an existing config file to import settings from. The current settings will be overwritten, but will not be permanent until you save the config file.
          ■ Tools -> Import Settings -> From Named Config File ->
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