poclbm

poclbm (Python OpenCL bitcoin miner) was a program that used the OpenCL framework to allow mining on a graphics card. It was the first open source GPU mining software to be produced.

Download

• Latest miner
• Sources

Flags to Use

Flags List

Command line flags	Flags descriptions
-version	Show program's version number and exit
-h, --help	Show help message and exit
-u USER, --user=USER	Set user name
--pass=PASSWORD	Set password
-o HOST, --host=HOST	Set RPC host (without 'http://')
-p PORT, --port=PORT	Set RPC port
-r RATE, --rate=RATE	Set hash rate display interval in seconds, default=1
-f FRAMES, --frames=FRAMES	Will try to bring single kernel execution to 1/frames seconds, default=30. Increase this for less desktop lag
-d DEVICE, --device=DEVICE	Set used device by id, by default asks for device
-a ASKRATE, --askrate=ASKRATE	Set how many seconds between getwork requests, default 5, max 10
-w WORKSIZE, --worksize=WORKSIZE	Set work group size, default is maximum returned by opencl
-v, --vectors	Enable vectors, which is faster on some cards.
--verbose	Enable verbose output, suitable for redirection to log file
--platform=PLATFORM	Set used platform by id
-s SLEEPTIME	Sleep for the specified number of seconds between iterations (default 0). Increase this to reduce hashing performance if your temperatures are too high.

Usage Tips

ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5xxx cards (for example, HD 5770): use '-v -w128'

('-v -f10 -w128' works even better for HD5770.)

If you find the desktop laggy while mining, use '-f60'. This may decrease performance slightly.

Please update this section if you find better settings, or good settings for a card not listed here.

FAQ

Introductory post FAQ.

Founder

m0mchil

Guides and Installation

Windows

How to get started using your GPU to mine for Bitcoins on Windows

Ubuntu

Easy Ubuntu python OpenCL mining setup

Gentoo

An poclbm ebuild can be found in the Gentoo Bitcoin overlay here

OpenSUSE

This works on 11.4, 12.1 and should work on other versions - just replace the "12.1" in the repo URLs with your version number. This also assumes that you are already familiar with running getting the BitCoin client running (to run the GUI version on OpenSUSE you will need `libqt4-x11` or `libqt4-x11-32bit` installed).

Add the Python devel repo:

# zypper ar -r http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/python/openSUSE_12.1/devel:languages:python.repo

and this user repo, which provides PyOpenCL (take a moment to appreciate this because if "scorot" didn't package it this would be a lot harder):

# zypper ar -r http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/scorot/openSUSE_12.1/home:scorot.repo

and finally this repo, which is needed for the previous to work (replace i586 with x86_64 if you're 64-bit):

# zypper ar -r http://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/12.1/ nvidia-i586

Refresh your repos:

# zypper ref

You will asked to accept the repo keys, respond with 'a' each time.

Install PyOpenCL:

# zypper in python-opencl

Get the latest version of poclbm with git (`zypper in git-core` if you don't have git installed):

$ git clone git://github.com/m0mchil/poclbm.git

This will create a poclbm folder in your current directory. Change to it:

$ cd poclbm

And run it:

$ python poclbm.py --device=0 http://user:pass@api.example.org:8332 [add whatever other flags you use]

License

public domain

See Also

• poclbm-gui GUI frontend
• A highly efficient version: poclbm-mod by Bitcoin Pool
• Pooled mining
• Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU

External Links

• Poclbm project page on GitHub
• Project Thread
• Bitcoin Mining Software