Author

Topic: Windows Update KB5004237 prevent strap driver installation of CLAYMORE mining (Read 268 times)

jr. member
Activity: 325
Merit: 2
I am writing this here so that someone with proper knowledge could propose a permanent fix to this issue.
Do not use Microsoft Windows for mining. Explore other mining systems and choose whichever you like best. You can even use multiple systems on one computer. You can work on Windows and mine on another system.
Or use tweaks that block updates, but Microsoft is constantly struggling with this and updates come even to unlicensed operating systems.
Windows 10 OS will soon be left to have enough breathe very soon, windows 11 is here and if your PC doesn't meet requirements you won't be able to upgrade to W11, I heard your CPU have to be latest to use Windows 11, anyways I just find windows mining to be more easier probably because that's what I am used to from day one
This means you have few mining farms or they are close to you.
Remote administration of Windows is very inconvenient for mining, I set up each farm individually.
In that Hive Os, in a few seconds, you can change algorithms on 10 farms.
When you try Linux mining systems, you will understand what I mean.
W11 will definitely not give you a higher hashrate on older video cards. Don't make mistakes.

topic starter can't use Linux, because strap driver was only created for Windows. I agree with everything else, MS will never care about miners so any new updates will not increase mining speed, and more likely slow it down or break something.
jr. member
Activity: 325
Merit: 2

Second, Claymore miner's .exe file was never signed. How come respected developer didn't sign his product? I make life easy for you and answer - because Claymore didn't want to reveal himself and you have to give out all of your personal info to get personal certificate.



I think you are correct in this regard. Because for years I have been bugging Claymore to sign his executables because I never liked those free hosts where he kept posting his software. Most crypto products are almost always signed in some way to prevent virus and malware from spreading and usually the first thing you do before you install a new piece of crypto software is verify the authenticy first.

Claymore never posted any signed software or even a simple SHA256 hash. I would have to hash the executable and ask him, "does this verify" and only then he would say it does. And I always found it very strange.

What is strange is that he could of just posted some SHA256 sums and it would of been sufficent. He didn't need to sign an actual certificate.

Probably he trusted himself and mega.nz and he was thinking that it's enough for not using hash sums, like if link to his miner was posted by him at his topic, and that link was same as before and leads to mega.nz, it means everything is okay. But I agree, SHA256 should be used.
legendary
Activity: 3808
Merit: 1723

Second, Claymore miner's .exe file was never signed. How come respected developer didn't sign his product? I make life easy for you and answer - because Claymore didn't want to reveal himself and you have to give out all of your personal info to get personal certificate.



I think you are correct in this regard. Because for years I have been bugging Claymore to sign his executables because I never liked those free hosts where he kept posting his software. Most crypto products are almost always signed in some way to prevent virus and malware from spreading and usually the first thing you do before you install a new piece of crypto software is verify the authenticy first.

Claymore never posted any signed software or even a simple SHA256 hash. I would have to hash the executable and ask him, "does this verify" and only then he would say it does. And I always found it very strange.

What is strange is that he could of just posted some SHA256 sums and it would of been sufficent. He didn't need to sign an actual certificate.
legendary
Activity: 1834
Merit: 1131
I am writing this here so that someone with proper knowledge could propose a permanent fix to this issue.
Do not use Microsoft Windows for mining. Explore other mining systems and choose whichever you like best. You can even use multiple systems on one computer. You can work on Windows and mine on another system.
Or use tweaks that block updates, but Microsoft is constantly struggling with this and updates come even to unlicensed operating systems.
Windows 10 OS will soon be left to have enough breathe very soon, windows 11 is here and if your PC doesn't meet requirements you won't be able to upgrade to W11, I heard your CPU have to be latest to use Windows 11, anyways I just find windows mining to be more easier probably because that's what I am used to from day one
This means you have few mining farms or they are close to you.
Remote administration of Windows is very inconvenient for mining, I set up each farm individually.
In that Hive Os, in a few seconds, you can change algorithms on 10 farms.
When you try Linux mining systems, you will understand what I mean.
W11 will definitely not give you a higher hashrate on older video cards. Don't make mistakes.
full member
Activity: 1424
Merit: 225

More Epochs Mod is not Claymore Miner, it's a binary hack of Claymore Miner. No one will issue a certificate
for a product created by hacking.

It is not a hack and its speeds are above all other miners I have checked. I thank the developers for continuing this. you can write your hate messages somewhere else if you cannot propose a logical solution.
I have checked, excavator, Gminer, ethminer, t-rex miner, phoenix miner and still claymore is faster about 1 to 1.5%.

Aren't you the smart one with your 4 posts from youir newbie account. You ask for help then shit on answers you don't like.
Fuck off snowflake.
newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0

More Epochs Mod is not Claymore Miner, it's a binary hack of Claymore Miner. No one will issue a certificate
for a product created by hacking.

It is not a hack and its speeds are above all other miners I have checked. I thank the developers for continuing this. you can write your hate messages somewhere else if you cannot propose a logical solution.
I have checked, excavator, Gminer, ethminer, t-rex miner, phoenix miner and still claymore is faster about 1 to 1.5%.
jr. member
Activity: 325
Merit: 2

More Epochs Mod is not Claymore Miner, it's a binary hack of Claymore Miner. No one will issue a certificate
for a product created by hacking.

First of all, MoreEpochs Mod is not a "hack". Claymore miner stopped working at epoch 384 at the end of december 2020. MoreEpochs mod gave that legendary miner second life, and many people are happy to continue to use it.

Second, Claymore miner's .exe file was never signed. How come respected developer didn't sign his product? I make life easy for you and answer - because Claymore didn't want to reveal himself and you have to give out all of your personal info to get personal certificate.

Third, when Claymore released first version of his miner with strap driver, driver was signed with test certificate and required Windows test signing mode to work. Later Claymore signed the driver, but not with his personal certificate (which he never had) as some people thinks, but instead with certificate that was freely available on the internet. You can check it, if you have original Claymore miner archive, install strap driver with command
"ethdcrminer64.exe -driver install" and go check c:\windows\system32\drivers\cmdrv64.sys, right click, properties, digital signature.
You will see that it is signed with "HT Srl", which is obviously not personal certificate, with expired root certificate.

Original strap driver doesn't work on AMD drivers 20.5.1+, and after I've completed unique and very hard task of updating that strap driver, so it can support AMD drivers 20.5.1+, I have to resign it.  I've resigned it with same free available certificate that Claymore was using. You can check it by installing MoreEpochs mod 2.5 and then install updated strap driver with "ethdcrminer64.exe -driver install" and go check c:\windows\system32\drivers\cmdrv64.sys to see that it's signed with same "HT Srl" cert.

With update KB5004237 MS removed many expired certificates, and of course the one that Claymore and I was using to sign strap driver. So right now there is only one way to continue to use signed strap driver - remove update KB5004237 and disable automatic updates. Also I can resign driver with test cert (as Claymore did in first version of strap driver) and it will require Windows test signing mode to work.
 
full member
Activity: 1424
Merit: 225

More Epochs Mod is not Claymore Miner, it's a binary hack of Claymore Miner. No one will issue a certificate
for a product created by hacking.
newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
Claymore miner hasn't been updated in a long time. The cerificate was probably revoked because it expired.
This is a clue to look for another miner that is more actively maintained. If you want to continue using an old
miner you should use an OS of the same age.

claymore more epochs is maintained as a mod and is as good. see its link:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/more-epochs-mod-v11-for-claymore-eth-miner-15-epochs-385-work-new-version-5305046
full member
Activity: 1424
Merit: 225
Claymore miner hasn't been updated in a long time. The cerificate was probably revoked because it expired.
This is a clue to look for another miner that is more actively maintained. If you want to continue using an old
miner you should use an OS of the same age.
member
Activity: 196
Merit: 11
I am writing this here so that someone with proper knowledge could propose a permanent fix to this issue.
Do not use Microsoft Windows for mining. Explore other mining systems and choose whichever you like best. You can even use multiple systems on one computer. You can work on Windows and mine on another system.
Or use tweaks that block updates, but Microsoft is constantly struggling with this and updates come even to unlicensed operating systems.
Windows 10 OS will soon be left to have enough breathe very soon, windows 11 is here and if your PC doesn't meet requirements you won't be able to upgrade to W11, I heard your CPU have to be latest to use Windows 11, anyways I just find windows mining to be more easier probably because that's what I am used to from day one
legendary
Activity: 1834
Merit: 1131
I am writing this here so that someone with proper knowledge could propose a permanent fix to this issue.
Do not use Microsoft Windows for mining. Explore other mining systems and choose whichever you like best. You can even use multiple systems on one computer. You can work on Windows and mine on another system.
Or use tweaks that block updates, but Microsoft is constantly struggling with this and updates come even to unlicensed operating systems.
jr. member
Activity: 325
Merit: 2
Today 15/7/2021 I have noticed my miner reboots frequently. after checking the situation I have noticed that the strap drivers were unable to get installed so the watchdog reboots the miner. more investigations revealed that the driver permissions are revoked explicitly by the issuer (that is what the event manager reports when trying to install the driver)
the error during installation was "Failed to install "driver," error 1002"
further investigation revealed windows has released a security update today (KB5004237) on windows 10 which revoked the driver installation certificate.
After uninstalling this security update and rebooting the computer, the issue was resolved.
I am writing this here so that someone with proper knowledge could propose a permanent fix to this issue. It seems somehow, Microsoft is trying to prevent any software without a certificate to be installed on windows.

Edit: again today the system reinstalled the update on its own even after disabling the automatic update, Microsoft is up to something, please help me add my driver signature.

Answered in my topic: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.57464483
newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
Today 15/7/2021 I have noticed my miner reboots frequently. after checking the situation I have noticed that the strap drivers were unable to get installed so the watchdog reboots the miner. more investigations revealed that the driver permissions are revoked explicitly by the issuer (that is what the event manager reports when trying to install the driver)
the error during installation was "Failed to install "driver," error 1002"
further investigation revealed windows has released a security update today (KB5004237) on windows 10 which revoked the driver installation certificate.
After uninstalling this security update and rebooting the computer, the issue was resolved.
I am writing this here so that someone with proper knowledge could propose a permanent fix to this issue. It seems somehow, Microsoft is trying to prevent any software without a certificate to be installed on windows.

Edit: again today the system reinstalled the update on its own even after disabling the automatic update, Microsoft is up to something, please help me add my driver signature.
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