30 KiB
WORK IN PROGRESS - ETA: December 25th, 2022
Gupax is a (Windows|macOS|Linux) GUI for mining Monero on P2Pool, using XMRig.
To see a 3-minute video on how to download and run Gupax: click here.
Contents
- What is Monero/P2Pool/XMRig/Gupax?
- How-To
- Simple
- Advanced
- Connections
- Community Monero Nodes
- Build
- License
- FAQ
What is Monero/P2Pool/XMRig/Gupax?
Monero is a secure, private, and untraceable cryptocurrency.
The Monero GUI software lets you run a Monero node (among other things). A Monero node connects you to other peers and lets you download Monero's blockchain.
P2Pool is software that lets you create/join decentralized peer-to-peer Monero mining pools.
P2Pool as a concept was first developed for Bitcoin but was never fully realized due to many limitations. These limitations were fixed when SChernykh rewrote P2Pool from scratch for Monero. P2Pool combines the best of solo mining and traditional pool mining:
- It's decentralized: There's no central server that can be shutdown or pool admin that controls your hashrate
- It's permissionless: It's peer-to-peer so there's no one to decide who can and cannot mine on the pool
- It's trustless: Funds are never in custody, all pool blocks pay out to miners directly and immediately
- 0% transaction fee, 0 payout fee, immediate ~0.0003 XMR minimum payout
XMRig is an optimized miner which mines Monero at higher speeds.
Both Monero and P2Pool have built in miners but XMRig is quite faster than both of them. Due to issues like anti-virus flagging, it is not feasible to integrate XMRig directly into Monero or P2Pool, however, XMRig is still freely available for anyone to download with the caveat being: you have to set it up yourself.
Gupax is a GUI that helps with configuring, updating, and managing P2Pool & XMRig (both originally CLI-only).
Recap:
- XMRig mines to P2Pool which fetchs blocks from a Monero node
- Monero GUI runs the Monero node
- Gupax runs P2Pool/XMRig
By default, though, Gupax will use a Community Monero Node so you don't even have to run your own full Monero node to start mining on P2Pool:
How-To
- Download the bundled version of Gupax for your OS here or from gupax.io
- Extract somewhere (Desktop, Documents, etc)
- Launch Gupax
- Input your Monero address in the
[P2Pool]tab - Select a
Community Monero Nodethat you trust - Start P2Pool
- Start XMRig
You are now mining to your own instance of P2Pool, welcome to the world of decentralized peer-to-peer mining!
Notes:
- What is bundled? What is standalone?
- If you'd like to get deeper into the settings, see Advanced.
Simple
The Gupax/P2Pool/XMRig tabs have two versions, Simple & Advanced.
Simple is for a minimal & working out-of-the-box configuration.
Gupax
In this tab, there is the updater and general Gupax settings.
If Check for updates is pressed, Gupax will compare your current Gupax/P2Pool/XMRig versions against the latest releases using the GitHub API and update them automatically if needed.
Below that, there are some general Gupax settings:
| Setting | Function |
|---|---|
Update via Tor |
Causes updates to be fetched via the Tor network. Tor is embedded within Gupax; a Tor system proxy is not required |
Auto-Update |
Gupax will automatically check for updates at startup |
Auto-P2Pool |
Gupax will automatically start P2Pool at startup |
Auto-XMRig |
Gupax will automatically start XMRig at startup |
Ask before quit |
Gupax will ask before quitting (and notify if there are any updates/processes still alive) |
Save before quit |
Gupax will automatically saved any un-saved setting on quit |
P2Pool
P2Pool Simple allows you to ping & connect to a Community Monero Node and start your own local P2Pool instance on the Mini sidechain.
To start P2Pool, first input the Monero address you'd like to receive payouts from. You must use a primary Monero address to mine on P2Pool (starts with a 4). It is highly recommended to create a new wallet since addresses are public on P2Pool!
Warning: There are negative privacy and security implications when using Monero node not in your control. Select a community node that you trust, or better yet, run your own node. If you'd like to manually specify a node to connect to, see Advanced.
XMRig
XMRig Simple has a log output box, a thread slider, and Pause-on-active setting.
If XMRig is started with Pause-on-active with a value greater than 0, XMRig will automatically pause for that many seconds if it detects any user activity (mouse movements, keyboard clicks). This setting is only available on Windows/macOS.
Windows:
Gupax will automatically launch XMRig with administrator privileges to activate mining optimizations. XMRig also needs a signed WinRing0 driver (© 2007-2009 OpenLibSys.org) to access MSR registers. This is the file next to XMRig called WinRing0x64.sys. This comes in the bundled version of Gupax. If missing/deleted, a copy is packaged with all Windows XMRig releases. A direct standalone version is also provided, here.
macOS/Linux:
Gupax will prompt for your sudo password to start XMRig with and do all the things above.
XMRig Simple will always mine to your own local P2Pool (localhost:3333), if you'd like to manually specify a pool to mine to, see Advanced.
Advanced
Verifying
It is recommended to verify the hash and PGP signature of the download before using Gupax.
Download the SHA256SUM file, download and import my PGP key, and verify:
sha256sum -c SHA256SUM
gpg --import hinto-janaiyo.asc
gpg --verify SHA256SUM
Q: How can I be sure the P2Pool/XMRig bundled with Gupax hasn't been tampered with?
A: Verify the hash.
You can always compare the hash of the P2Pool/XMRig bundled with Gupax with the official hashes found here:
Make sure the version you are comparing against is correct. If they match, you can be sure they are the exact same. Verifying the PGP signature is also recommended:
- P2Pool -
SChernykh.asc - XMRig -
xmrig.asc
Command Line
Gupax comes with some command line options:
USAGE: ./gupax [--flag]
--help Print this help message
--version Print version and build info
--state Print Gupax state
--nodes Print the manual node list
--no-startup Disable all auto-startup settings for this instance
--reset-state Reset all Gupax state (your settings)
--reset-nodes Reset the manual node list in the [P2Pool] tab
--reset-pools Reset the manual pool list in the [XMRig] tab
--reset-all Reset the state, the manual node list, and the manual pool list
--ferris Print an extremely cute crab
By default, Gupax has auto-update & auto-ping enabled. This can only be turned off in the GUI which causes a chicken-and-egg problem. To get around this, start Gupax with --no-startup. This will disable all auto features for that instance.
Key Shortcuts
The letter keys (Z/X/S/R) will only work if nothing is in focus, i.e, you are not editing a text box.
An ALT+F4 will also trigger the exit confirm screen (if enabled).
*---------------------------------------*
| Key shortcuts |
|---------------------------------------|
| F11 | Fullscreen |
| Escape | Quit screen |
| Up | Start/Restart |
| Down | Stop |
| Z | Switch to Left Tab |
| X | Switch to Right Tab |
| S | Save |
| R | Reset |
*---------------------------------------*
Resolution
The default resolution of Gupax is 1280x960 which is a 4:3 aspect ratio.
This can be changed by dragging the corner of the window itself or by using the resolution sliders in the Gupax Advanced tab. After a resolution change, Gupax will fade-in/out of black and will take a second to resize all the UI elements to scale correctly to the new resolution.
If you have changed your OS's pixel scaling, you may need to resize Gupax to see all UI correctly.
The minimum window size is: 640x480
The maximum window size is: 2560x1920
Fullscreen mode can also be entered by pressing F11.
Tor/Arti
By default, Gupax updates via Tor. In particular, it uses Arti, the official Rust implementation of Tor.
Instead of bootstrapping onto the Tor network every time, Arti saves state/cache about the Tor network (circuits, guards, etc) for later reuse onto the disk:
State:
| OS | Data Folder |
|---|---|
| Windows | C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\torproject\Arti\data |
| macOS | /Users/USER/Library/Application Support/org.torproject.Arti |
| Linux | /home/USER/.local/share/arti |
Cache:
| OS | Data Folder |
|---|---|
| Windows | C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\torproject\Arti\cache |
| macOS | /Users/USER/Library/Caches/org.torproject.Arti |
| Linux | /home/USER/.cache/arti |
Disk
Long-term state is saved onto the disk in the "OS data folder", using the TOML format. If not found, default files will be created.
Given a slightly corrupted state.toml file, Gupax will attempt to merge it with a new default one. This will most likely happen if the internal data structure of state.toml is changed in the future (e.g removing an outdated setting). The node/pool database cannot be merged.
If Gupax can't read/write to disk at all, or if there are any other big issues, it will show an un-recoverable error screen.
| OS | Data Folder | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | {FOLDERID_RoamingAppData} |
C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Gupax |
| macOS | $HOME/Library/Application Support |
/Users/USER/Library/Application Support/Gupax |
| Linux | $XDG_DATA_HOME or $HOME/.local/share |
/home/USER/.local/share/gupax |
The current files saved to disk:
state.tomlGupax state/settingsnode.tomlThe manual node database used for P2Pool advancedpool.tomlThe manual pool database used for XMRig advanced
Logs
Gupax has console logs that show with increasing detail, what exactly it is is doing.
There are multiple log filter levels but by default, INFO and above are enabled.
To view more detailed console debug information, start Gupax with the environment variable RUST_LOG set to a log level like so:
RUST_LOG=(trace|debug|info|warn|error) ./gupax
For example:
RUST_LOG=debug ./gupax
In general:
ERRORmeans something has gone wrong and that something will likely breakWARNmeans something has gone wrong, but things will likely be fineINFOlogs are general info about what Gupax (the GUI thread) is currently doingDEBUGlogs are much more verbose and include what EVERY thread is doing (not just the main GUI thread)TRACElogs are insanely verbose and shows the logs of the libraries Gupax uses (HTTP connections, GUI polling, etc)
Swapping P2Pool/XMRig
If you want to use your own P2Pool/XMRig binaries and/or want to swap them, you can:
- Edit the PATH in
Gupax Advancedto point at the new binaries - Change the binary itself
By default, Gupax will look for P2Pool/XMRig in folders next to itself:
Windows:
Gupax\
├─ Gupax.exe
├─ P2Pool\
│ ├─ p2pool.exe
├─ XMRig\
├─ xmrig.exe
macOS (Gupax is packaged as an .app on macOS):
Gupax.app/Contents/MacOS/
├─ gupax
├─ p2pool/
│ ├─ p2pool
├─ xmrig/
├─ xmrig
Linux:
gupax/
├─ gupax
├─ p2pool/
│ ├─ p2pool
├─ xmrig/
├─ xmrig
Gupax
Along with the updater and settings mentioned in Simple, Gupax Advanced allows you to change:
- The PATH of where Gupax looks for P2Pool/XMRig
- Gupax's resolution
- The selected tab on startup
Warning: Gupax will use your custom PATH/binary and will replace them if you use Check for updates in the [Gupax] tab. There are sanity checks in place, however. Your PATH MUST end in a value that appears correct or else the updater will refuse to start:
| Binary | Accepted values | Good PATH | Bad PATH |
|---|---|---|---|
P2Pool |
P2POOL, P2Pool, P2pool, p2pool |
P2pool/p2pool |
Documents/my_really_important_file |
XMRig |
XMRIG, XMRig, Xmrig, xmrig |
XMRig/XMRig |
Desktop/ |
If using Windows, the PATH must end with .exe.
P2Pool
P2Pool Advanced has:
- Terminal input
- Overriding command arguments
- Manual node list
- P2Pool Main/Mini selection
- Out/In peer setting
- Log level setting
The overriding command arguments will completely override your Gupax settings and start P2Pool with those arguments.
Warning: If using this setting, use --no-color and make sure to set --data-api <PATH> & --local-api so that the [Status] tab can work!
The manual node list allows you save and connect up-to 1000 custom Monero nodes:
| Data Field | Purpose | Limits | Max Length |
|---|---|---|---|
Name |
A unique name to identify this node (only for Gupax purposes) | Only [A-Za-z0-9-_.] and spaces allowed |
30 characters |
IP |
The Monero Node IP to connect to with P2Pool | It must be a valid IPv4 address or a valid domain name | 255 characters |
RPC |
The RPC port of the Monero node | [1-65535] |
5 characters |
ZMQ |
The ZMQ port of the Monero node | [1-65535] |
5 characters |
The Main/Mini selector allows you to change which P2Pool sidechain you mine on:
| P2Pool Sidechain | Description | Use-case |
|---|---|---|
Main |
More miners, finds blocks faster, has a higher difficulty | Suitable for miners with MORE than 50kH/s |
Mini |
Less miners, finds blocks slower, has a lower difficulty | Suitable for miners with LESS than 50kH/s |
Given enough time, both Main and Mini will result in the same reward (as will solo mining):
| Mining Method | Share Behavior | Payout/Output Behavior | Example | Total (it's the same) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
P2Pool Main |
LESS frequent shares that are MORE valuable | Results in MORE outputs worth LESS | 20 shares, 100 outputs worth 0.006 XMR |
0.6 XMR |
P2Pool Mini |
MORE frequent shares that are LESS valuable | Results in LESS outputs worth MORE | 100 shares, 20 outputs worth 0.03 XMR |
0.6 XMR |
Solo mining |
No shares, only payouts | 1 output | 1 output worth the block reward: 0.6 XMR |
0.6 XMR |
In the end, it doesn't matter too much which sidechain you pick, it will all average out. Getting LESS but more valuable outputs may be desired, however, since the transaction cost to combine all of them (sweep_all) will be cheaper due to being comprised of less outputs.
The remaining sliders control miscellaneous settings:
| Slider | Purpose | Default | Min/Max Range |
|---|---|---|---|
Out peers |
How many out-bound peers P2Pool will connect to | 10 |
10..450 |
In peers |
How many in-bound peers P2Pool will allow to connect to you | 10 |
10..450 |
Log level |
Verbosity of the P2Pool console log | 3 |
0..6 |
XMRig
XMRig Advanced has:
- Terminal input
- Overriding command arguments
- Custom payout address
- CPU thread slider
- Manual pool list
- Custom HTTP API IP/Port
- TLS setting
- Keepalive setting
The overriding command arguments will completely override your Gupax settings and start XMRig with those arguments.
Warned: If using this setting, use [--no-color] and make sure to set [--http-host <IP>] & [--http-port <PORT>] so that the [Status] tab can work!
The manual pool list allows you save and connect up-to 1000 custom Pools (regardless if P2Pool or not):
| Data Field | Purpose | Limits | Max Length |
|---|---|---|---|
Name |
A unique name to identify this pool (only for Gupax purposes) | Only [A-Za-z0-9-_.] and spaces allowed |
30 characters |
IP |
The pool IP to connect to with XMRig | It must be a valid IPv4 address or a valid domain name | 255 characters |
Port |
The port of the pool | [1-65535] |
5 characters |
Rig |
An optional rig ID; This will be the name shown on the pool | Only [A-Za-z0-9-_] and spaces allowed |
30 characters |
The HTTP API textboxes allow you to change to IP/Port XMRig's HTTP API opens up on:
| Data Field | Purpose | Default | Limits | Max Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
HTTPS API IP |
The IP XMRig's HTTP API server will bind to | localhost/127.0.0.1 |
It must be a valid IPv4 address or a valid domain name | 255 characters |
HTTP API Port |
The port XMRig's HTTP API server will bind to | 18088 |
[1-65535] |
5 characters |
The remaining buttons control miscellaneous settings (both are disabled by default, as P2Pool does not require them):
| Button | Purpose |
|---|---|
TLS Connection |
Enables SSL/TLS connections (needs pool support) |
Keepalive |
Enables sending keepalive packets to prevent timeout (needs pool support) |
Connections
For transparency, here's all the connections Gupax makes:
| Domain | Why | When | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| https://github.com | Fetching metadata information on packages + download | [Gupax] tab -> Check for updates |
update.rs |
| Community Monero Nodes | Connecting to with P2Pool, measuring ping latency | [P2Pool Simple] tab |
node.rs |
| DNS | DNS connections will usually be handled by your OS (or whatever custom DNS setup you have). If using Tor, DNS requests for updates should be routed through the Tor network automatically | All of the above | All of the above |
Community Monero Nodes
These are the community nodes used by Gupax in the [P2Pool Simple] tab. If you would like to have a node added/removed, please submit an Issue with the reasoning.
In general, a suitable node needs to:
- Be fast
- Have good uptime
- Have RPC enabled
- Have ZMQ enabled
- Have an owner known by the general Monero community
| Name | IP/Domain | RPC Port | ZMQ Port |
|---|---|---|---|
| C3pool | node.c3pool.com | 18081 | 18083 |
| Cake | xmr-node.cakewallet.com | 18081 | 18083 |
| CakeEu | xmr-node-eu.cakewallet.com | 18081 | 18083 |
| CakeUk | xmr-node-uk.cakewallet.com | 18081 | 18083 |
| CakeUs | xmr-node-usa-east.cakewallet.com | 18081 | 18083 |
| Feather1 | selsta1.featherwallet.net | 18081 | 18083 |
| Feather2 | selsta2.featherwallet.net | 18081 | 18083 |
| MajesticBankIs | node.majesticbank.is | 18089 | 18083 |
| MajesticBankSu | node.majesticbank.su | 18089 | 18083 |
| Monerujo | nodex.monerujo.io | 18081 | 18083 |
| Plowsof1 | node.monerodevs.org | 18089 | 18084 |
| Plowsof2 | node2.monerodevs.org | 18089 | 18084 |
| Rino | node.community.rino.io | 18081 | 18083 |
| Seth | node.sethforprivacy.com | 18089 | 18083 |
| SupportXmr | node.supportxmr.com | 18081 | 18083 |
| SupportXmrIr | node.supportxmr.ir | 18089 | 18083 |
| XmrVsBeast | p2pmd.xmrvsbeast.com | 18081 | 18083 |
Build
General Info
You need cargo, Rust's build tool and package manager.
The --release profile in Gupax is set to prefer code performance & small binary sizes over compilation speed (see Cargo.toml). Gupax itself (with all dependencies already built) takes around 1m30s to build (vs 10s on a normal --release) with a Ryzen 5950x.
Linux
You'll need the development versions of libraries like OpenSSL, SQLite, and maybe some other ones already installed on your system. Read the compiler errors to see which ones are missing from your system and search around to see which packages you'll need to install depending on your distro.
After that, run:
cargo build --release
macOS
You'll need Xcode.
On macOS, if you want the binary to have an icon, you must install cargo-bundle and compile with:
cargo bundle --release
This bundles Gupax into a Gupax.app, the way it comes in the pre-built tars for macOS.
Windows
You'll need Visual Studio.
There is a build.rs file in the repo solely for Windows-specific things:
- It sets the icon in
File Explorer - It statically links
VCRUNTIME140.dllinto Gupax (the binary will not be portable without this)
After installing the development tools, run:
cargo build --release
This will build Gupax with the MSVC toolchain (x86_64-pc-windows-msvc). This is the recommended method and is how the pre-compiled release binaries are built.
License
The GUI library Gupax uses is egui. It is licensed under MIT & Apache 2.0.
Many other libraries are used that have various licenses.
Gupax, P2Pool, and XMRig are licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
FAQ
Where are updates downloaded from?
The latest versions are downloaded using the GitHub API.
- Gupax
https://github.com/hinto-janaiyo/gupax - P2Pool
https://github.com/SChernykh/p2pool - XMRig
https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig
GitHub's API blocks request that do not have an HTTP User-Agent header. For privacy, Gupax randomly uses a recent version of a Wget/Curl user-agent.
Can I quit mid-update?
If you started an update, you should let it finish. If the update has been stuck for a long time, it may be worth quitting Gupax. The worst that can happen is that your Gupax/P2Pool/XMRig binaries may be moved/deleted. Those can be easily redownloaded. Your actual Gupax user data (settings, custom nodes, pools, etc) is never touched.
Although Gupax uses a temporary folder (gupax_update_[A-Za-z0-9]) to store temporary downloaded files, there aren't measures in place to revert an upgrade once the file swapping has actually started. If you quit Gupax anytime before the Upgrading packages phase (after metadata, download, extraction), you will technically be safe but this is not recommended as it is risky, especially since these updates can be very fast.
Bundled vs Standalone
Bundled Gupax comes the latest version of P2Pool/XMRig already in the zip/tar.
Standlone only contains the Gupax executable.
How much memory does Gupax use?
Gupax itself uses around 100-300 megabytes of memory.
Gupax also holds up to 500,000 bytes of log data from P2Pool/XMRig to display in the GUI terminals. These logs are reset once over capacity which takes around 1-2 hours.
Memory usage should never be above 500~ megabytes. If you see Gupax using more than this, please send a bug report.