How to use Ethminer for open-source mining? (CMD interface)

Setting Up Ethminer on Windows via Command Line

1. Download the latest stable release of Ethminer from its official GitHub repository, ensuring compatibility with your GPU architecture and Windows version.

2. Extract the ZIP archive to a dedicated folder such as C:\ethminer, avoiding spaces or special characters in the path.

3. Open Command Prompt as Administrator and navigate to the extracted directory using cd C:\ethminer.

4. Verify installation integrity by executing ethminer --version; output must display the build hash, CUDA/OpenCL support flags, and driver linkage status.

5. Ensure NVIDIA drivers are updated to at least version 515.xx or AMD Adrenalin 22.5.1+, confirmed via nvidia-smi or amdconfig --list-adapters.

Configuring Pool Connection Parameters

1. Identify a compliant Ethereum Classic (ETC) or Ropsten testnet pool supporting Stratum v1 or v2; mainnet ETH mining is obsolete post-Merge but legacy forks remain active.

2. Construct the command line with mandatory fields: --pool for endpoint URI, --pool-port for port number, and --wallet for your hex-encoded address.

3. Append --worker to assign a unique identifier visible in pool dashboards, aiding device-level performance diagnostics.

4. Specify GPU selection explicitly using --devices 0,1 if multiple cards exist, preventing accidental CPU fallback or thermal throttling on unlisted units.

5. Add --report-hashrate to emit real-time hashrate metrics every 30 seconds, logged directly to console without file I/O overhead.

Tuning GPU Performance Flags

1. Introduce --cl-global-work 256 for AMD GPUs to align thread group size with GCN architecture memory bandwidth constraints.

2. Apply --cuda-grid-size 8192 --cuda-block-size 128 for NVIDIA cards, optimizing occupancy on Turing and Ampere SMs while avoiding register spills.

3. Insert --dag-load-mode 1 to preload DAG files into VRAM before kernel launch, eliminating mid-mining stalls during epoch transitions.

4. Enforce memory clock offsets via --gpu-memclock 2200 only after validating stability under FurMark stress tests; undervolting requires separate MSI Afterburner profiles.

5. Disable desktop compositing with --no-color and --disable-cuda-graphs to reduce context-switch latency on Windows 10/11 WDDM drivers.

Monitoring and Log Management

1. Redirect stdout to a rotating log file using ethminer ... > miner.log 2>&1, enabling forensic analysis of stale share rejections or network timeouts.

2. Parse log entries for 'Accepted', 'Rejected', and 'Stale' counters using PowerShell’s Select-String to quantify pool-side validation failures.

3. Monitor VRAM temperature via --log-level 3 which exposes NVML sensor reads every 10 seconds alongside share submission timestamps.

4. Detect driver crashes by scanning logs for 'CUDA_ERROR_LAUNCH_FAILED' or 'clEnqueueNDRangeKernel failed', triggering automatic restart scripts.

5. Use --api-port 3333 to expose JSON-RPC endpoints for integration with Prometheus exporters or custom Grafana dashboards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does Ethminer support Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2)? A: No. Ethminer relies on native OpenCL/CUDA drivers unavailable inside WSL2; GPU access remains restricted to Windows host APIs.

Q: Can I mine ETHW (EthereumPoW) with the same binary? A: Yes. Replace the pool URL and wallet address; ensure the fork uses Ethash and maintains identical DAG epoch schedule as pre-Merge ETH.

Q: Why does ethminer crash immediately after launching with “Failed to initialize CUDA”? A: This indicates mismatched CUDA runtime libraries. Reinstall Visual C++ Redistributable 2019 and confirm cudart64_110.dll resides in the ethminer directory.

Q: Is it safe to run ethminer alongside gaming workloads? A: Not recommended. Concurrent GPU usage causes unpredictable memory allocation conflicts, leading to rejected shares and driver timeouts observed in pool statistics.