How to use Rigel Miner for Nexa? (Config File)

Understanding Rigel Miner Configuration for Nexa

1. Rigel Miner is a GPU-accelerated mining application designed specifically for the Nexa blockchain’s Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism. It supports CUDA-enabled NVIDIA GPUs and requires precise configuration to connect to Nexa’s mining network.

2. The core of its operation lies in the rigel.conf file, which must be placed in the same directory as the executable binary. This file dictates pool connection parameters, device selection, and hashing behavior.

3. Unlike generic miners, Rigel enforces strict adherence to Nexa’s block header structure and difficulty adjustment logic. Misconfigured values—especially in algorithm or coinbase-addr—will result in rejected shares or complete failure to submit work.

4. The miner does not auto-detect pools or wallet addresses. Every field in the config must be manually specified, including port numbers that match Nexa’s official stratum endpoints such as stratum.nexa.org:3333.

5. Users must verify that their GPU driver version meets the minimum requirement of CUDA 11.8, as earlier versions produce undefined kernel execution errors during nonce search loops.

Essential Configuration Parameters

1. pool defines the stratum URL and must include protocol prefix: stratum+tcp://stratum.nexa.org:3333. Omitting stratum+tcp:// causes immediate socket handshake failure.

2. wallet accepts only valid Nexa base58check addresses beginning with NXA. Invalid formats trigger internal address validation aborts before GPU initialization.

3. worker sets the identifier used by the pool for statistics tracking. It must contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores—no spaces or special symbols.

4. algo must be set exactly to nexa. Any variation—including uppercase letters or extra whitespace—results in algorithm mismatch exceptions during startup.

5. gpu specifies device index numbers visible via nvidia-smi. Multiple GPUs require comma-separated integers like 0,1,2, not ranges or wildcards.

GPU-Specific Tuning Options

1. intensity controls memory bandwidth utilization per GPU. Valid values range from 10 to 24; setting above 24 induces memory overflow on GDDR6X cards and crashes the miner process.

2. threads determines concurrent kernel launches per device. Default is 2, but high-end RTX 4090 systems benefit from 3 threads without thermal throttling.

3. max-temp triggers automatic intensity reduction when GPU core temperature exceeds the threshold. Values below 65°C may cause premature downclocking under sustained load.

4. fan-speed accepts percentage values from 30 to 100. Setting below 40% risks thermal shutdown on air-cooled rigs operating above ambient 30°C.

5. lock-clocks fixes GPU core and memory frequencies. Requires root privileges on Linux and administrator rights on Windows. Incorrect clock values cause immediate OpenCL error 0x00000007.

Common Runtime Errors and Fixes

1. 'Failed to initialize CUDA context' indicates incompatible driver version or insufficient GPU compute capability. Nexa mining requires compute capability 6.1 or higher.

2. 'Invalid share submitted' usually stems from incorrect coinbase-addr or time drift exceeding ±5 seconds relative to NTP-synchronized pool servers.

3. 'Connection refused' points to firewall blocking outbound TCP on port 3333 or DNS resolution failure for stratum.nexa.org.

4. 'GPU X: out of memory' occurs when intensity exceeds VRAM capacity. Reduce intensity by 2 steps and monitor VRAM usage via nvidia-smi -q -d MEMORY.

5. 'Stale share detected' signals network latency above 300ms or pool-side block propagation delay—not a local configuration issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can Rigel Miner run on AMD GPUs? A: No. Rigel Miner exclusively supports NVIDIA GPUs with CUDA compute capability 6.1 or higher. ROCm-based implementations are not available.

Q: Is there a built-in watchdog to restart the miner after crash? A: Rigel Miner does not include an internal watchdog. External process supervisors like systemd or Windows Task Scheduler must handle automatic restarts.

Q: Does changing the worker name affect mining rewards? A: No. The worker name serves only for identification in pool dashboards. Payouts depend solely on valid shares attributed to the configured wallet address.

Q: What happens if the rigel.conf file contains unrecognized parameters? A: Rigel Miner ignores unknown keys silently. It does not log warnings or errors for unsupported fields, making syntax validation entirely manual.