Topic: unlocked frequencies Z9 firmware (free) - page 3. (Read 2732 times)

Thanks! Working fine for me. Sent you 0.1 Zec.

I forgot who I was quoting, the first part was directed at you (the millions lol which was sarcasm). The second half was directed at OP. Fail on my part lol

hashestohashes - I am unsure how I've thrown mud at another developer, and will fix it if I have. Please point me to it.

... as far as millions, don't we all wish...

I can't speak to the capabilities of others, but I spent a reasonable amount of time on my work (if others can do it faster, that is awesome!) and actually acquired licensed copies of IDA Professional and Hex-Rays ARM32 compiler to support this work, that alone cost $4100 USD plus tax. I also had to import a Z9, which after customs/taxes/shipping cost $4179. So before I even started the work, I was out $8279.

I've also spent numerous hours responding to email inquiries and PMs to provide support for installation, for overclocking, etc. I've spent a couple of hours this past week in 'teamviewer' helping another individual load on 8 machines....

I definitely didn't do this to "get rich". I only hacked this because I was frustrated that bitmain had locked 'my unit' after delaying it 3+ weeks.

-j

smartass111,

To get you started on adding additional functionality, here is a quick summary of what I did, and what you would need to add in.

A PE file has many segments in it (varies by file), like .data, .bss, .text ... .text is where strings are stored. From the .text segment, with a good disassembler will break those out and point you back to the assembly for the function(s) that reference those strengths.

So, I started backward.

.text -> "frequency" -> function calling it. Then I spent some time exploring that function, it's callers and callees, and started mapping out the code path around it.

In that, I found the setup functions which took in the frequency and passed it down to a function I could readily tell was calld "set_frequency_chain". Using hexrays I was able to track that back to the fact it takes a chain and a frequency as an argument (as an aside...).

The fact that bitmain limited this to 2 frequencies made it easier than it should have been.  In the calling function, I found their 2 hardcoded constansts for 500 and 550.

Initially I just modified 550 to 650 (simplest byte changes), and realized it could do 650/500 -- that's basically what the free one is. 575+500.

The "paid" version is different in that the constants are not changed, but rather the conditionals that limit it are removed.
That allows you to pass anything you want down to set_frequency_chain.

Now, to enable per-board frequency control, we can continue from there.

That same set_frequency_chain has a calling function (this is about the per-board stuff) which bitmain neutered. Right now it iterates over 4 boards (a constant) and calls set_frequency_chain for eacho f those 4 boards with the frequency passsed in.

To enable per-board freuqency, that function calling set_frequency_chain needs to be completely rewritten and the binary patched. From some research papers, I found how how to add segments to a PE file (this wasn't possible a couple of years ago). So a new function can be written to read the config file, just reeanble finding/processing bitmain-freqX, then simply iterate over the number of boards and initialize each chain. The original iterator has to be skipped, so you have to jump into what you add, then jump back.

That'll enable freq-per-board. For bonus points, an API call can be added to enable calling bitmain_ZCASH_reinit_chain on a given chain if you change the frequency. That'll overload the 'reset' condition for a board to enable changing frequency on the fly.

Add some intelligence to tune the frequencies based on observations of the data in the system, and boom, you'll have a self-tuning, maximally overclockable image.

Some of these tactics will work for any cgminer reverse engineering activity.

Thanks,

Jason

I posted it as is, will not do any other modifications
So feel free to improve your version - looks like many people need it. And it's always a big advantage to have different firmwares

There goes your Millions man.

Also, releasing it for free is great (really) but throwing mud at the other developer isn't kosher.

I test it but give me error on 675.. I drop down to 650.. again error on 1 bord chip. no  I make 643 and waiting..

https://www.imageupload.co.uk/images/2018/10/01/ScreenShot2018-10-01at23.08.03.png

ang again on 643 error . Now test on 631

Awesome! Thank you for sharing freely and openly.

.... and for the record, any one responding to my post and providing feedback, did it of their own volition. While that was 'good marketing', it was not driven by me and was completely organic.
.... and as far as comments about donations, you can see for yourself by checking the addresses for donation. The only funds sent to those were funds I mined myself during testing, and funds someone sent before talking to me asking to get the full version..

I've updated my post pointing people to you. Enjoy!

I'll stop working on per-hashboard-frequency management that would have worked on every single cgminer based miner Bitmain has released.

To do it, just add 2 more segments to cgminer, code up the frequency management reading functions back from cgminer.conf, then go into the main loop that handles frequency setting for the hashboards, jump the current function into your code, set up the same registers, and jump back into the function that actually sets the board frequencies.
Second, modify cgminer to support updating the frequencies across the boards by not having it restart. To do this, hook into bitmain_ZCASH_reinit_chain, but don't step on the functionility int he check_miner_status() function.

Also, please update the image to support auto-tuning of the frequencies once you have this done so the end users do not have to worry about the clocking manually. Many do not know how to SSH/etc.

Back to my day job!

-j

I will waiting to try. Just write link please.
best regard.

Hi all

Z9 (not Z9 mini) FW with unlocked frequencies is available for community for free

ANY OVERCLOCKING YOU TRY - ON YOUR OWN RISK
Original frequencies are 500 and 550 MHz. But almost all Z9 from first batches are good at 650 MHz (+20% hashrate)

It is based on bitmain Antminer-Z9-DEFAULT-500-DUAL-MODE-201808280957.tar.gz firmware, only minor modifications were made - freq unlocking, adding freq list, adding links and donation addresses
here they are at a glance:
cgminer is modified using disassembler and bytes patching

My collegue, efudd https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/efudd-2271429 is working on the same task, but with more features/support etc. So you have an option to have a deal with him - check topic nearby

Download https://yadi.sk/d/8XVjwLbqUzSybg
here is sha1sum of original file 5f84317263cc875fa729547d78e4384e6f811391
Update process is the same as for original firmware

You can click "thank you" here, or make donation to keep people motivated to share such things in future
BTC: 1HHzcJjKgKvs5HakqgGzsNXZ3sL6A6pJuK
ZEC: t1ZZkYfnSGrXjVP371s7Uoembu2PQAqkGeG

Please post your feedback, thank you
PS I'm not a Z9 owner, and had a chance to test modified cgminer only at 1 machine.
PPS Provided as is, no modifications or further improvements planned as for now

PPPS
I was really interested if donation system work or not, here are stats for everyone, so make your own conclusions )
as for 10/08/18
downloaded times from origin link - 217
donations received - 0,0154BTC, 0.1 ZEC, 0.1 ZEC, 0.1 ZEC, 0.5 ZEC