How to setup a cgminer using xubuntu 11.04 live on a USB courtesy of Kano

Software
========
Short hardware comment:
Your mining computer doesn't need any HDD or CD/DVD/BD as long as it has at
least 2GB of RAM, can boot USB, has some network connection to the internet and
of course a reasonable mining ATI graphics card
... Or you can boot a windows PC with the USB to only do mining ... and ignore
the system HDD ... wasting energy Smiley

To create the USB, you need of course a 4GB USB and temporarily need a PC with a
CD (or DVD/BD) writer, a USB port and of course an internet connection to the PC

1) Download the xubuntu 11.04 desktop live CD iso for amd64
   ( look here for mirrors: http://www.xubuntu.org/getubuntu )

2) Burn it to CD then boot that temporarily on any PC with a CD/DVD/BD and a USB
port (this and the next 2 step won't effect that PC)

3) Plug in your 4GB USB device and it should appear on the desktop - you can
leave it's contents as long as there is at least 2.8GB free

4) Now run "Startup Disk Creator" in "Applications->System" (the system menu is
the little rat in the top left corner)

(if you have no mouse you can get the menu with <ctr><esc> and navigate the menu
with the arrow keys and <return> key)

From here select the boot CD as the "Source" and the USB as the "Disk to use"
lastly move the slider to 2GB for reserved extra space

The 2GB should be enough for modifications

Click: "Make Install Disk"
After about 10-15 minutes you have a base xubuntu 11.04 boot USB
(you can shut down this computer now)

5) Boot your cgminer PC with this USB stick, select "English"
   then select "Try Xubuntu without installing" and wait for the desktop to
appear
   (this happens by default if you wait for the timeouts)

6) Start a terminal
   "Applications->Accessories->Terminal Emulator"

7) sudo apt-get install openssh-server screen

   if you have a problem here then it's probably coz the internet isn't
available ... sort that   out by reading elsewhere about routers etc

8) sudo apt-get install fglrx fglrx-amdcccle fglrx-dev
   sudo sync
   sudo shutdown -r now

N.B. always do a "sudo sync" and wait for it to finish every time before
shutting down the PC to ensure all data is written to the USB

9) sudo aticonfig --lsa
   this lists your ATI cards so you can see them
 sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --odgt
   this checks it can access all the cards ...

10) aticonfig --adapter=all --initial
   this gets an error - no idea why but the xorg.conf is OK
 sudo sync
 sudo shutdown -r now

11) sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --odgt
   this checks it can access all the cards ...

12) get AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64.tgz from
 http://developer.amd.com/sdks/amdappsdk/downloads/pages/default.aspx
  ( http://developer.amd.com/Downloads/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64.tgz )

 sudo su
 cd /opt
  (replace /home/ubuntu/ with wherever you put the file: )
 tar -xvzf /home/ubuntu/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64.tgz

 cd AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64/
 cp -pv lib/x86_64/* /usr/lib/
 rsync -avl include/CL/ /usr/include/CL/
 tar -xvzf icd-registration.tgz
 rsync -avl etc/OpenCL/ /etc/OpenCL/
 ldconfig
 sync
 shutdown -r now

 You now have an OpenCL enabled xubuntu

13) cgminer:
 sudo apt-get install curl

 get the binary linux cgminer (see the bitcoin forum cgminer thread for where to
get it)

 ./cgminer -n
   this shows you the GPU's it found on your PC

14) An OC option:
 sudo apt-get install libwxbase2.8-0 libwxgtk2.8-0

 http://sourceforge.net/projects/amdovdrvctrl/
  for an Over/underclocking application and get the file listed below then:
 sudo dpkg -i amdoverdrivectrl_1.2.1_amd64.deb

15) set the screen saver to ONLY blank ...

 Move the mouse to the bottom of the screen and you see a set of icons like on
an Apple PC
 Click on Settings, then in the Settings window "Screensaver"
 Set "Mode:" to "Blank Screen Only"

Edit: originally left this somewhat useful addition out:
16) apt-get install ntpd
 An accurate clock is always a good idea Smiley

Initial setup complete.

========

If you want to SSH into the machine and run cgminer:
 From a terminal on the miner display each time after you boot:
  xhost +

Then after ssh into the machine:
 export DISPLAY=:0
before running cgminer

Also note, that you should force the screen to blank when mining if the ATI card
is displaying the screen (using the screen saver application menu)
In my case it takes away 50Mh/s when the screen isn't blanked


This is of course just the basics ... but it should get you a computer up and
running and able to run cgminer

========

You should keep an eye on USB disk space
The system logger writes log files in the /var/log/ directory
The two main ones that grow large are 'kern.log' and 'syslog'
If you want to keep them, save them away to some other computer
When space is low, just delete them.

The 'df' command will show you the current space e.g.:

Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
aufs                   2099420    892024   1100748  45% /
none                   1015720       628   1015092   1% /dev
/dev/sda1              3909348   2837248   1072100  73% /cdrom
/dev/loop0              670848    670848         0 100% /rofs
none                   1023772       136   1023636   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                  1023772        16   1023756   1% /tmp
none                   1023772       124   1023648   1% /var/run
none                   1023772         0   1023772   0% /var/lock


This shows the 2GB space allocated when you setup the USB as '/' (aufs)
In this example, it's currently 45% full with almost 1.1GB of free space