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I trying to script the launch of cgminer based on a crontab.

Using a crontab entry that fires up a bash shell script that launches cgminer. Running the script directly launches cgminer flawlessly. Running the script from crontab always give the "no gpus usable" error.

I have triple checked that all vars are set (DISPLAY, GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT, GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1), that the paths are correct, etc.

The entry is in the crontab accessible when being (sudo -s).

Any clues on what could be wrong ?

Again, drivers and SDK are installed correctly as everything works correctly when I launch the script manually.

The script launches cgminer with a basic cmd : 

cd dir_where_cgminer_is_stored 
./cgminer -c /folder/myconfig.conf

Thanks

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  • 2
    I guess you should be logged in and Xserver should be started before you can start cgminer.
    – Art Shayderov
    Feb 28, 2014 at 14:07
  • Crontab is usually used for repeated jobs
    – Art Shayderov
    Feb 28, 2014 at 14:08
  • @ArtShayderov It makes sense to launch a miner during certain times (e.g. during your sleeping break).
    – user6049
    Feb 28, 2014 at 19:45
  • Have a look at cron's documentation (manpage?) and find its logging. Chances are it has trouble talking to the X server or some other user-/permission-related issue, in which case you will likely see an error message that will point you in the right direction. To go out on a limb: Does cron launch it as a user with permissions to access /folder/myconfig.conf? Does that user have access to X using your DISPLAY environment variable? Is cron really using the environment variables you have set up for launching your shell commands? Is a shell indeed launched to execute them? ...?
    – user6049
    Feb 28, 2014 at 19:50
  • Thanks pyramids, I didn't know root cannot use another user's X session.
    – user2991576
    Feb 28, 2014 at 19:58

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Actually, I forgot to start cgminer with the user running X (being autologged in).

Doing 

su user_running_the_x_session -c "/home/user/mine.sh"

worked perfectly.

BTW Art Shayderov, yes, cron is used for repeated jobs, like for example the one I am talking about here ;)

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  • Oh, right. I'm using dedicated rigs myself and it's really hard to look from another person's/usecase viewpoint. I was thinking "Why would someone want to switch his rig on and off?". Now I see. It's not a dedicated rig.
    – Art Shayderov
    Mar 1, 2014 at 8:09
  • Actually it is a dedicated rig. But I am running a cron to periodically check if cgminer is running, relaunch it if needed, and download new settings from a server when they change.
    – user2991576
    Mar 3, 2014 at 7:39
  • If this is a dedicated rig why check cgminer periodically? Why not have a background process montitoring cgminer at all times? Are you trying to save CPU cycles? I'm piping the output of "tail -f cgminer.log" to ruby script. I'm not saying this is ideal, but tail -f uses inotify on linux and is pretty efficient, if that's your concern.
    – Art Shayderov
    Mar 14, 2014 at 9:25

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