Ethereum Mining Frustrations: Constant Disconnections
As a long-time Bitcoin user, I recently started mining Ethereum on my Debian 9 server out of curiosity, not for profit. However, my experience with Ethereum mining has been plagued by constant disconnections.
For those who are not familiar, Ethereum is a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain that requires significant computing power to validate transactions and create new blocks. I use the cpuminer software to mine Ethereum on my Debian 9 server, which allows me to take advantage of the latest CPU architecture.
I followed the instructions on the website to connect to the BTC.com pool, which involves running the following command:
./cpuminer -pool -network=decentraland
This command initializes a new miner session with the specified network address and pool. The “-pool” option is used to specify the Bitcoin Core executable, while the “-network” option identifies the Ethereum network (in this case, DECENTRALAND).
However, we experienced several connection failures, which led to lost transactions and a loss of computing power.
Troubleshooting Steps
I took the following steps to resolve the issues:
- Check server resources: Make sure that my Debian 9 server has enough CPU, memory, and disk space to handle the mining activities. I increased the swap space and reduced the number of processes running on my server.
- Upgrade Cpuminer: Make sure you have the latest version of cpuminer installed and updated. The latest version (1.6.0) offers some bug fixes and performance improvements.
- Disable CPU Frequency Scaling: To avoid unnecessary throttling, disable CPU frequency scaling. You can do this by adding the following command to the file.
~/.bashrc:ulimit -l 1024
- Check Pool Configuration
: Make sure your BTC.com pool is configured correctly, including the network address and ID. You can check the status of your pool with the following command:
btcctl pool status
- Try a different miner: If none of the above steps solve the problem, try a different mining software, such as MultiMiner or EasyMiner.
Conclusion
Ethereum mining is not without its challenges, and constant disconnections can be frustrating. By following the troubleshooting steps and experimenting with different miner options, I was able to improve my mining performance and reduce the number of dropped sessions. However, it is clear that more work needs to be done to optimize Ethereum mining for servers.
If you encounter similar issues, feel free to share your experiences and suggestions in the comments below. Together, we can work to improve the reliability and efficiency of mining on Ethereum servers.