My sync wont start, what can I do?

Question

I have used Bitcoin previously via Windows GUI miners, but never faced an issue like this before. I am now running Ubuntu 12.04 amd64 and using an updated 0.7.1 Satoshi client.

The sync looks like it is working, but the first block never loads. I have had the wallet synchronizing, but it is forever stuck at zero. My Internet connection is fine and have cleared the bitcoin directory and rebooted with no change.

While I am writing this I am watching my other rig drop blocks fine and its running Mint 13 with about a third of the resources I have on the computer giving the issues.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Specs:

• UBUNTU 12.04 updated
• AMD Phenom IIx4
• 4 GB ddr3
• Nvidia EVGA 9800GTX

Answer 1

Do you have the exact same configuration on your other rig? If you do, copy the configuration exactly. Sometimes if you don't have long-polling turned on and using the correct port, in some rare cases you will keep going if you are using the wrong protocol for a said port.

In general, if you are doing Bitcoin mining on a Phenom of your type, and you are doing SHA256D hashes, you should wait around 5 minutes.

If it doesn't immediately say long-polling activated, you've got a problem and need to configure your mining application to do so.

From the time you get the Long-Polling started message, anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes is normal.

I have my scan time set for 1 second, by default it's set for 5 seconds but depending on your hardware and the pool you're in they might tell you to set it for 10 to 30 seconds.

Are you using Slush's Mining Proxy too? I know that can stall out if you're not using the correct configuration for that too.