Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

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jedimstr
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2014 3:25 am
os: mac

Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by jedimstr »

I want to continue merge mining Namecoin on my p2pool node (on a MacPro) but currently stuck on 3.8.0 which i've read is useless now for mining. I've been able to build namecoind off the new namecore branch but always had issues making the QT app.

Is there anyone out there willing to build and host beta binaries of Namecoin Core QT for the Mac?

Thanks

cassini
Posts: 336
Joined: Sun May 26, 2013 6:36 pm

Re: Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by cassini »

jedimstr wrote:I've been able to build namecoind off the new namecore branch
Hi jedimstr! Nice to hear you are still in the network as a P2Pool merged-miner.
Do you really need a Qt (i.e. GUI) client? The point is that the Qt part is "mothballed" at the moment, and we are discussing if we update it in the near future or switch to phelix's Python nameGUI front-end (still very beta; works out of the box on top of OSX Yosemite's built-in Python package. No need to install any extra software).

As you've already been able to build Namecoin Core you already have a working "namecoind" and "namecoin-cli" executable, haven't you? In this case you've got an RPC or cli setup that is much faster and more reliable than the old RPC interface of Namecoin-Qt.

jedimstr
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2014 3:25 am
os: mac

Re: Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by jedimstr »

cassini wrote:
jedimstr wrote:I've been able to build namecoind off the new namecore branch
Hi jedimstr! Nice to hear you are still in the network as a P2Pool merged-miner.
Do you really need a Qt (i.e. GUI) client? The point is that the Qt part is "mothballed" at the moment, and we are discussing if we update it in the near future or switch to phelix's Python nameGUI front-end (still very beta; works out of the box on top of OSX Yosemite's built-in Python package. No need to install any extra software).

As you've already been able to build Namecoin Core you already have a working "namecoind" and "namecoin-cli" executable, haven't you? In this case you've got an RPC or cli setup that is much faster and more reliable than the old RPC interface of Namecoin-Qt.

I guess I could, but it was "easier" to view transactions for when a coin was generated from the QT client.

If I use the namecoind client I compiled, will it utilize the same wallet, db, conf and already downloaded share chain that the QT client used under ~/Library/Application Support/Namecoin/, or totally different?

biolizard89
Posts: 2001
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os: linux

Re: Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by biolizard89 »

cassini wrote:
jedimstr wrote:I've been able to build namecoind off the new namecore branch
Hi jedimstr! Nice to hear you are still in the network as a P2Pool merged-miner.
Do you really need a Qt (i.e. GUI) client? The point is that the Qt part is "mothballed" at the moment, and we are discussing if we update it in the near future or switch to phelix's Python nameGUI front-end (still very beta; works out of the box on top of OSX Yosemite's built-in Python package. No need to install any extra software).

As you've already been able to build Namecoin Core you already have a working "namecoind" and "namecoin-cli" executable, haven't you? In this case you've got an RPC or cli setup that is much faster and more reliable than the old RPC interface of Namecoin-Qt.
For the record, nameGUI is, in my opinion, not a good solution, because (1) its usability sucks compared to something built into the wallet, (2) it doesn't benefit from upstream improvements in Bitcoin wallet GUI's, (3) it can't do coin control easily, and (4) it can't be built reproducibly. Porting Namecoin-Qt's manage names tab to Namecoin Core seems like a much better solution, and moa has offered to sponsor a bounty for it.

(Not trying to derail the thread, just trying to make it clear that there is definitely not universal support for nameGUI.)
Jeremy Rand, Lead Namecoin Application Engineer
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cassini
Posts: 336
Joined: Sun May 26, 2013 6:36 pm

Re: Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by cassini »

jedimstr wrote:will it utilize the same wallet, db, conf and already downloaded share chain
I haven't tested this with my latest NamecoinCore build. An upgrade test with a build from earlier this year was able to reuse the Qt blockchain data.
Just to make sure you don't need to download the whole blockchain again, I recommend the following:
Backup your data directory (~/Library/Application Support/Namecoin/) to a different place on the harddisk, or to an external storage medium. Then start the new client. If something goes wrong and corrupts the datadir you can always restore your backup. In that case post here or drop me a line, and I'll post instructions on how to run NamecoinCore and Namecoin-Qt on the same machine in parallel. NamecoinCore then automatically "downloads" the blockchain data from the local Namecoin-Qt client.

wallet.dat: Both clients use the same wallet file format.
namecoin.conf: Make sure the file is named "namecoin.conf", or use the -conf= parameter.
The contents are usually identical. There are a lot of new options available in NamecoinCore (see ./namecoind -help).
Some of the more exotic args can have a different meaning than before, e.g. -namehistory. If you run NamecoinCore without -namehistory, it doesn't keep the name_history of the names anymore. (Warning: if you change the -namehistory arg and run the client again then it reindexes the internal name db which takes several hours!)

jedimstr
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2014 3:25 am
os: mac

Re: Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by jedimstr »

Well, namecoind runs, but has been making p2pool throw errors (latest commit version that includes fixes for core based clients), so that's a no-go.

I'll have to disable namecoin merge mining for now and just wait until you guys have a more viable solution out. Don't have a lot of time to debug on this.

biolizard89
Posts: 2001
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:25 am
os: linux

Re: Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by biolizard89 »

jedimstr wrote:Well, namecoind runs, but has been making p2pool throw errors (latest commit version that includes fixes for core based clients), so that's a no-go.

I'll have to disable namecoin merge mining for now and just wait until you guys have a more viable solution out. Don't have a lot of time to debug on this.
Thanks for trying.

Just out of curiosity, did P2Pool throw errors relating to a "target" field not being present? It's renamed to "_target" in Namecoin Core.

Someone here should do some thorough testing with P2Pool and see how things go....
Jeremy Rand, Lead Namecoin Application Engineer
NameID: id/jeremy
DyName: Dynamic DNS update client for .bit domains.

Donations: BTC 1EcUWRa9H6ZuWPkF3BDj6k4k1vCgv41ab8 ; NMC NFqbaS7ReiQ9MBmsowwcDSmp4iDznjmEh5

jedimstr
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2014 3:25 am
os: mac

Re: Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by jedimstr »

biolizard89 wrote:
jedimstr wrote:Well, namecoind runs, but has been making p2pool throw errors (latest commit version that includes fixes for core based clients), so that's a no-go.

I'll have to disable namecoin merge mining for now and just wait until you guys have a more viable solution out. Don't have a lot of time to debug on this.
Thanks for trying.

Just out of curiosity, did P2Pool throw errors relating to a "target" field not being present? It's renamed to "_target" in Namecoin Core.

Someone here should do some thorough testing with P2Pool and see how things go....
If I remember correctly it was getting a chunk of error code which ended with a 404 as part of the response, but don't remember target. Forrestv made a recent commit to "fix" incompatibilities with new core based merge mining clients, specifically the "target/_target" change you mentioned: https://github.com/p2pool/p2pool/commit ... e941ac76be
Since I'm running with that commit as HEAD I'm probably not seeing that error.

Using the same namecoin.conf file as my QT 3.8.0 app which still works with p2pool, so shouldn't be an RPC issue (unless the API changes were more extensive that mentioned).

biolizard89
Posts: 2001
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:25 am
os: linux

Re: Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by biolizard89 »

jedimstr wrote:
biolizard89 wrote:
jedimstr wrote:Well, namecoind runs, but has been making p2pool throw errors (latest commit version that includes fixes for core based clients), so that's a no-go.

I'll have to disable namecoin merge mining for now and just wait until you guys have a more viable solution out. Don't have a lot of time to debug on this.
Thanks for trying.

Just out of curiosity, did P2Pool throw errors relating to a "target" field not being present? It's renamed to "_target" in Namecoin Core.

Someone here should do some thorough testing with P2Pool and see how things go....
If I remember correctly it was getting a chunk of error code which ended with a 404 as part of the response, but don't remember target. Forrestv made a recent commit to "fix" incompatibilities with new core based merge mining clients, specifically the "target/_target" change you mentioned: https://github.com/p2pool/p2pool/commit ... e941ac76be
I see. Thank you for the info.

Hopefully we'll find time to do P2Pool testing soon. We're already in discussions with Forrestv about switching merged mining protocols to make P2Pool sharechains work, but if there are problems with solo mining too, that sounds like much lower-hanging fruit that we should look at.
Jeremy Rand, Lead Namecoin Application Engineer
NameID: id/jeremy
DyName: Dynamic DNS update client for .bit domains.

Donations: BTC 1EcUWRa9H6ZuWPkF3BDj6k4k1vCgv41ab8 ; NMC NFqbaS7ReiQ9MBmsowwcDSmp4iDznjmEh5

cassini
Posts: 336
Joined: Sun May 26, 2013 6:36 pm

Re: Mac Binaries for Namecoin Core Beta?

Post by cassini »

Meanwhile domob posted the technical and historical details about the target/_target field:
https://forum.namecoin.info/viewtopic.p ... 806#p15806
I haven't checked if this gives jedimstr an option to easily resolve the problem. (Probably either upgrade the p2pool mining software, or apply a simple patch to namecoin core).

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