Running Ethminer on a private Ethereum network

Question

I'm trying to carry out some tests on Ethminer and was trying to run benchmarks on it before it starting returning a hashrate of 0, from what I've been able to tell this is becasuse the GPU I'm using dones't have enough RAM for the DAG.

Is it possible to create a private ethereum network using one the the Ethereum clients, like geth, and mine or benchmark using Ethminer on that network or will I run into the same issue of the size of the DAG stopping me?

Answer 1

On a private network you should be able to build the DAG.

I have a private ethereum blockchain with one GETH node and mining and it does build the dag and mine.

download geth and then use the following customgenesis.json file to launch a private network

{
 "coinbase"   : "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000001",
 "difficulty" : "0x40000",
 "extraData"  : "",
 "gasLimit"   : "0x8000000",
 "nonce"      : "0x0000000000005442",
 "mixhash"    : 
 "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
 "parentHash" : 
 "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
 "timestamp"  : "0x00",
 "alloc": {},
 "config": {
    "chainId": 19,
    "homesteadBlock": 0,
    "eip155Block": 0,
    "eip158Block": 0
 }
}

assuming your on a linux/mac and have the above customgenesis.json file in the same folder as geth run the following command

geth --datadir=./mychaindata init customgenesis.json

for windows

geth.exe --datadir=/mychaindata init customgenesis.json

Once geth has written the customgenesis.json file and created the genesis block you can then run

(Linux)

geth --datadir=./mychaindata  

Download Ethminer

Etheminer can be found at https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/guides/how-to-mine-ethereum/

It will download as cpp-ethminer.

Go through set-up wizard

Start Mining or do your benchmark test