Install CentOS 6.10 minimal

This tutorial will show you the simple steps of installing a modern Linux Distribution CentOS 6.10 – minimal installation no GUI, this installation is suitable for base server installation. We are going to install it on our modern hardware – Asus X399 with AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and NVIDIA 1080 TI. First we tried UEFI mode installation, but during loading of the kernel the system hanged up. Then we booted the installation in BIOS mode and no problem with the installation and after that.
Here we install CentOS 6.10 minimal in BIOS mode on the whole SSD drive (which means the installation will erase everything on the SSD device). No GUI installed.
The kernel is 2.6.32 (2.6.32-754.el6) – as you can see pretty old branch with many back-ports, but still old. CentOS 6 will be updated until November 30 2020! Many enterprise software still support CentOS 6 and you can have a pretty stable system with it for many years. The support is at least 10 years from the initial release!
Here you can see more technical details – Technical details of a default CentOS 6.10 minimal installation What software you could expect to install, what is the default hard drive layout, what is the memory footprint of a newly installed CentOS 6.10 minimal and so on. You should definitely check it!

Here are the steps to install CentOS 6.10:

SCREENSHOT 1) Here is our “UEFI BIOS->Boot->Boot Override” and in most modern motherboard you can choose to override the default boot devices.

Choose the “HL-DT-STDVDRAM…” to boot and install CentOS 6.10. We chose this option here because our system cannot boot in UEFI mode.

main menu
Boot from DVD/USB Installation

Keep on reading!

Technical details of a default CentOS 6.10 minimal installation

This article is for those of you who do not want to install a whole new operating system only to discover some technical details about the default installation like, disk layout, packages included, software versions and so on. Here we are going to review in several sections what is like to have a default installation of CentOS 6.10.
Despite the old kernel, as you can see branch 2.6.x (2.6.32) it detects successfully the new RYZEN/Threadripper AMD and the system is stable (though we could not boot in UEFI mode!).

Software

The CentOS 6.10 you can have

  • Xorg X server – 1.17.4
  • GNOME (the GUI) – 2.28.2
  • K Desktop Environment – Workspace 4.3.4
  • linux kernel – 2.6.32 (2.6.32-754.el6)
  • linux-firmware – no version, multiple packages for the drivers
  • QT – 4.6.2
  • libc – 2.12
  • gnu gcc – 4.4.7
  • coreutils – 8.4
  • yum – 3.2.29
  • cups – 1.4.2
  • MySQL server – 5.1.73
  • PHP – 5.3.3
  • python – 2.6.6
  • perl – 5.10.1
  • ruby – 1.8.7.374
  • OpenJDK – 1.8.0.191.b12 and also includes 1.6.0.41 and 1.7.0.191

Note: Not all of the above software comes installed by default.
Installed packages are 268 occupying 717M space:

[root@srv ~]# yum list installed|wc -l
268
[root@srv ~]# df -h /
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/vg_srv-lv_root
                       50G  717M   46G   2% /

Keep on reading!

How to compile xmr-stak (2.5) under CentOS 6 for CPU mining cryptocurrencies in November 2018

In continuing our crypto series with xmr-stak we update the old article How to compile xmr-stak (2.4.5) under CentOS 7 for CPU mining cryptocurrencies with the new version 2.5 and tested the build procedure with the old CentOS 6.

In crypto mining it is important to have latest version of the mining software, because crypto world is super dynamic with thousands crypto currency and tens of algos, which ever month might be changed and updated!

Thanks to xmr-stak we can have one application capable of mining many different cryptocurrencies based on different algorithms. XMR-STAK is GPU and CPU miner, here we present only the CPU ability. Here are the steps you should do to install (in fact install dependencies and compile the miner) and to begin CPU mining:

STEP 1) Update your system and install the following dependencies

Because xmr-stak need a newer version of GNU GCC than the CentOS ships with you must install GNU GCC 5.1 at least. Because the latest versions have better optimizations for the processors we use here GNU GCC 7 from Software Collection repository – more information for this repository here: How to install new gcc and development tools under CentOS 7

[root@srv ~]# yum update -y
[root@srv ~]# yum install -y centos-release-scl epel-release
[root@srv ~]# yum install -y cmake3 devtoolset-7-gcc* hwloc-devel libmicrohttpd-devel openssl openssl-devel make git screen

STEP 2) Compile the mining program xmr-stak

[root@srv ~]# scl enable devtoolset-7 bash
[root@srv ~]# git clone https://github.com/fireice-uk/xmr-stak.git
Initialized empty Git repository in /root/xmr-stak/.git/
remote: Enumerating objects: 1, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1/1), done.
remote: Total 6002 (delta 0), reused 1 (delta 0), pack-reused 6001
Receiving objects: 100% (6002/6002), 1.86 MiB | 1.02 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (4283/4283), done.
[root@srv ~]# mkdir xmr-stak/build
[root@srv ~]# cd xmr-stak/build
[root@srv build]# export CFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -msse3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
[root@srv build]# export CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
[root@srv build]# export CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
[root@srv build]# export LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
[root@srv build]# cmake3 .. -DCUDA_ENABLE=OFF -DOpenCL_ENABLE=OFF
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 7.3.1
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 7.3.1
-- Check for working C compiler: /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/root/usr/bin/cc
-- Check for working C compiler: /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/root/usr/bin/cc -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/root/usr/bin/c++
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/root/usr/bin/c++ -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Looking for pthread.h
-- Looking for pthread.h - found
-- Looking for pthread_create
-- Looking for pthread_create - not found
-- Looking for pthread_create in pthreads
-- Looking for pthread_create in pthreads - not found
-- Looking for pthread_create in pthread
-- Looking for pthread_create in pthread - found
-- Found Threads: TRUE  
-- Found OpenSSL: /usr/lib64/libssl.so;/usr/lib64/libcrypto.so (found version "1.0.1e") 
-- The ASM compiler identification is GNU
-- Found assembler: /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/root/usr/bin/cc
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /root/xmr-stak/build
[root@srv build]# make -j 8
Scanning dependencies of target xmr-stak-asm
[  3%] Building ASM object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-asm.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/crypto/asm/cryptonight_v8_main_loop.S.o
[  6%] Linking C static library bin/libxmr-stak-asm.a
[  6%] Built target xmr-stak-asm
Scanning dependencies of target xmr-stak-c
[ 10%] Building C object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-c.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/crypto/c_blake256.c.o
[ 13%] Building C object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-c.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/crypto/c_jh.c.o
[ 20%] Building C object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-c.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/crypto/c_keccak.c.o
[ 20%] Building C object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-c.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/crypto/c_groestl.c.o
[ 24%] Building C object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-c.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/crypto/c_skein.c.o
[ 27%] Linking C static library bin/libxmr-stak-c.a
[ 27%] Built target xmr-stak-c
Scanning dependencies of target xmr-stak-backend
[ 34%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/jconf.cpp.o
[ 34%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/cpuType.cpp.o
[ 37%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/jconf.cpp.o
[ 44%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/version.cpp.o
[ 44%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/hwlocMemory.cpp.o
[ 55%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/minethd.cpp.o
[ 55%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/backend/backendConnector.cpp.o
[ 55%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/backend/globalStates.cpp.o
[ 58%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/backend/cpu/crypto/cryptonight_common.cpp.o
[ 62%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/http/httpd.cpp.o
[ 65%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/http/webdesign.cpp.o
[ 68%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/misc/console.cpp.o
[ 72%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/misc/executor.cpp.o
[ 75%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/misc/telemetry.cpp.o
[ 79%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/misc/uac.cpp.o
[ 82%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/misc/utility.cpp.o
[ 86%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/net/jpsock.cpp.o
[ 89%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak-backend.dir/xmrstak/net/socket.cpp.o
[ 93%] Linking CXX static library bin/libxmr-stak-backend.a
[ 93%] Built target xmr-stak-backend
Scanning dependencies of target xmr-stak
[ 96%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/xmr-stak.dir/xmrstak/cli/cli-miner.cpp.o
[100%] Linking CXX executable bin/xmr-stak
[100%] Built target xmr-stak

Execute the program to see if everything is OK. With the help output you can see how many algorithms are supported as of version 2.5 of xmr-stak:

[root@srv build]# cd bin
[root@srv bin]# ./xmr-stak --help
Usage: xmr-stak [OPTION]...
 
  -h, --help                 show this help
  -v, --version              show version number
  -V, --version-long         show long version number
  -c, --config FILE          common miner configuration file
  -C, --poolconf FILE        pool configuration file
  --benchmark BLOCKVERSION   ONLY do a benchmark and exit
  --benchwait WAIT_SEC             ... benchmark wait time
  --benchwork WORK_SEC             ... benchmark work time
  --noCPU                    disable the CPU miner backend
  --cpu FILE                 CPU backend miner config file
  -i --httpd HTTP_PORT       HTTP interface port
 
The following options can be used for automatic start without a guided config,
If config exists then this pool will be top priority.
  -o, --url URL              pool url and port, e.g. pool.usxmrpool.com:3333
  -O, --tls-url URL          TLS pool url and port, e.g. pool.usxmrpool.com:10443
  -u, --user USERNAME        pool user name or wallet address
  -r, --rigid RIGID          rig identifier for pool-side statistics (needs pool support)
  -p, --pass PASSWD          pool password, in the most cases x or empty ""
  --use-nicehash             the pool should run in nicehash mode
  --currency NAME            currency to mine

Supported coin options: 
        - aeon7
        - bbscoin
        - bittube
        - cryptonight
        - cryptonight_bittube2
        - cryptonight_masari
        - cryptonight_haven
        - cryptonight_heavy
        - cryptonight_lite
        - cryptonight_lite_v7
        - cryptonight_lite_v7_xor
        - cryptonight_v7
        - cryptonight_v8
        - cryptonight_v7_stellite
        - graft
        - haven
        - intense
        - masari
        - monero
        - qrl
        - ryo
        - stellite
        - turtlecoin

Version: xmr-stak 2.5.2 752fd1e
Brought to by fireice_uk and psychocrypt under GPLv3.