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 and navigate the menu with the arrow keys and 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