Topic: Is there a tutorial for using screen to auto start cgminer? (Read 29286 times)

./cgminer   2> log.$now.$$.txt

For BTC Keeper

At the outset I dont know shit about Linux but the following works for me. It basically came from this post Topic but it took me a while to get it sorted out. Everybody who posts seems to assume that every one else reading has the same skill levels as they do and they leave little "Important" bits out. I will try not to do that so if it is all a bit basic I aplogise!

Use these two scripts, the first named "stminer.sh" the second named "cgmlaunch.sh" As you can see both these are .sh files. You need to create those .sh files with the posted text inside. And make them executable
----------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
screen -dmS 051 ./cgmlaunch.sh
------------------------------------------------
and
------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
sleep 60
export DISPLAY=:0
xhost +
now="`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`"
cd /home/miner/cgminer-2.3.2
./cgminer   2>log.$now$$.10151.txt
------------------------------------------------
If you look at the second script you will see the line "cd /home/miner/cgminer-2.3.2"
That shows you the directory where both scripts need to be put ie your equivalent of /home/miner. Where miner is your "named" directory. You need to give both scripts execution rights by chmod or the easy way just use the properties box/permissions and check "allow execution". You need to change "cgminer-2.3.2" to whatever you have called your installed version of cgminer and it must be in that "/miner" directory

The first script starts Screen, names it .051 and then it starts the second script, which waits 60 seconds then starts cgminer and creates a log file called 10151.txt in your cgminer directory. If you dont want the log file delete "2>log.$now$$.10151.txt" from the last line of the second script
(Use the cgminer.config file in  /home/miner/.cgminer for your GPU parameters.)

To get the first script to run at start-up you need to use the Startup Applications in Ubuntu, go to System/Preferences/Startup Applications click Add, put in a description eg "Start CGMiner" then browse to find the first script, in my case called "stminer.sh" select it, make sure the box is ticked and exit.

If all has gone according to plan and I have not left any important little bits out. When you reboot you machine will eventually start and run your cgminer. BUT it will start in "Headless Mode"
You can ssh into the machine and use Screen to view the CGMiner data.
I am guessing but I think, if you dont want Screen to run then maybe if you were to select the second script ie "cgmlaunch.sh" instead of the first in the Startup Application then maybe it will start cgminer directly.

Hope this ease's the pain.

I am sure there are more elegant and sophisticated ways of doing the above. However this has worked flawlessly for me on two machines for more than 6 months. Both on USB boot and HDD boot and its Newbie do-able!


Edit:- corrected last line of the second script to read as per the correction in Kano's post below.

This is cut and paste of the last line of the second script from one of my running miners:-  ./cgminer 2>run.$now.$$.log10151.txt

I notice you have a capital "M" there as in Miner-launcher.sh where the script has it not capitalized. I am not sure that you named the script Miner-launcher.sh, but if you did it would not launch from rc.local unless it matches case.

I know these are old post but please do Noob a favour and explain how

I am using Xubuntu 11.04 (on HDD) and CGMiner 2.3.2

I have followed the instructions in post #14 to the letter. (I think?)

 I can start the Miner from a terminal e.g “ Miner-launcher.sh” Everything works fine. Have Screen, SSH etc etc.
However I cannot get the thing to “auto start” via the /etc/rc.local
 (done  chmod +x  /etc/rc.local)

I have in /etc/rc.local as below, I have tried commenting out “rc.local” and “exit 0“ and “-e" with chmod +x after any changes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash -e
/usr/local/bin/miner-launcher.sh 60 &
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.



exit 0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For someone who knows Linux this is probably ridiculously easy!

Thanks

Finally got this working bump 

count me in. thanks.

It may not be a bug in your code maybe just by Linux noobishness showing (for a MS SQL database architect this is way outside my comfort zone ).  It seems like /etc/rc.local isn't even executing?  Is that possible?

On edit:  Don't have time to test it but I think it was just that I forgot to chmod +x rc.local ...

I'll get to debugging it when I'm done with my work for today, it's gotta be some minor quirk as the code looks fine.
For the record, I came up with this three-file approach when JWU42 asked for advice.
I launch my miners in an even more convoluted way

I tried your method jake and I can call miner-launcher manually and it starts cgminer however despite having the above line in etc/rc.local "nothing" happens on boot.  Any ideas?

Forget apt-get, use aptitude. It has an awesomely useful parameter why to help you sort out the dependencies:

# aptitude why python
i   python-pyopencl Depends python (>= 2.5)

# aptitude why openssl
i   cups     Depends ssl-cert (>= 1.0.11)
i A ssl-cert Depends openssl (>= 0.9.8g-9)


You can also put any package (it does not have to be installed) on hold which will prevent installation, removal, or upgrade:
aptitude remove gnome-bluetooth && aptitude gnome-bluetooth= should do the job

It's in the README already ...
But 'poclbm' Eh?

It's a good thing that jake262144 is n00b friendly...

A Debian install guide would be excellent with a compile cgminer from source section with suggestions on methods to locate dependancies.
To locate dpendencies I use 'apt-cache search' and 'apt-cache show', but they're not useful for things outside the repo's like libpcap or poclbm p2pool.
A minimal install including only absolutely necessary services. For instance, when I install Ubuntu it always runs bluetooth as it boots up. Since I don't have anything bluetooth I resort to 'apt-get remove 'package' ' but some things are tied to network manager and audio so must be selective when on a usable desktop.


So far, this bash session has been great. Thanks.

Why the sad face? Do you think I didn't read the man page?
I was just faster with man screen | grep Reattach  

Reading manpage I see you are correct... 

alias rbcm='screen -d -r cgm'

You don't want to go the '-d -R' way because -R would even create an empty screen session which won't help.
If there's no screen session that means cgminer must have died so we need to run the miner-launcher.sh

If for whatever reason the miner software gets unstable and keeps dying every now and then defining
alias nrbcm='screen -d -r cgm || miner-launcher.sh'
might be useful (n as in necro rbcm - raise from the dead if necessary )

To re-attach to an attached session do...

Is there a way to reattatch but if it is already attached, detach and then reattach.  Sometimes I check on rigs from multiple locations so it becomes
screen -r cgminer
"there is no session to attach"
screen -d cgminer
screen -r cgminer

I mean I am lazy that is a LOT of typing.   

Jake,

Thanks for this - let me get it working and will happily tip you for the efforts!

Oh, one other thing.
If having to constantly type screen -r cgm is bugging you, a good solution might be creating an alias in your .bashrc file.
You need to append the following line to ~/.bashrc:
Your system just learned a new command: rbcm (as in reattach bitcoin miner) will be translated to screen -r cgm.
Nifty.

Just keep in mind that when you su as root, you use root's home directory instead of your own so you need to update /root/.bashrc with that alias as well.