Ethereum Mining Frustrations: Constantly Dropped Connection
As a long-time Bitcoin user, I recently started mining Ethereum on my Debian 9 server out of curiosity rather than for any profit. However, my experience with Ethereum mining has been marred by constant connection drops.
For those who may not know, Ethereum is a Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchain that requires significant computing power to validate transactions and create new blocks. I use cpuminer software to mine Ethereum on my Debian 9 server, which allows me to take advantage of the latest CPU architecture.
To connect to the BTC.com pool, I followed the instructions provided by the website, which included running the following command:
./cpuminer -pool -network=decentraland
This command initiates a new miner session with the specified network and pool address. The -pool option is used to specify the Bitcoin Core executable, while the -network option identifies the Ethereum network (in this case, DECENTRALAND).
However, I encountered connection interruptions on several occasions, resulting in lost transactions and loss of computing power.
Troubleshooting Steps
To resolve these issues, I followed the following steps:
- Check server resources: Make sure my Debian 9 server has enough CPU, memory, and disk space to handle mining activity. I increased the swap space and reduced the number of running processes on my server.
- Update cpuminer: Make sure the latest version of cpuminer is installed and up to date. The latest version (1.6.0) provides several bug fixes and performance improvements.
- Disable CPU frequency scaling
: Disable CPU frequency scaling to avoid unnecessary throttling. You can do this by adding the following command to your
~/.bashrcfile:ulimit -l 1024
- Check pool configuration
: Check that the BTC.com pool is configured correctly, including the address and network ID. You can check the pool status using the following command:
btcctl pool status
- Try a different miner: If none of the above steps solve the problem, try using a different mining software, such as MultiMiner or EasyMiner.
Conclusion
Mining Ethereum is not without its challenges, and the constant connection interruptions can be frustrating. By following these troubleshooting steps and experimenting with different mining options, I was able to improve my mining performance and reduce the number of interrupted sessions. However, it is clear that there is still work to be done to optimize Ethereum mining for servers.
If you are experiencing 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 Ethereum mining on servers.