Installation

Getting Started

This document is a quick-start guide on how to install Braiins OS+ on your mining device. There are two ways to test and use Braiins OS+:

  1. Boot from SD card with Braiins OS+ image, effectively keeping the stock firmware in the built-in flash memory. In case you encounter any issues, you can simply boot the stock firmware from the internal memory. This is a safe method we suggest to start with.

  2. Permanently re-flash the stock firmware, effectively replacing the manufacturer’s firmware completely with Braiins OS+. In this method, the only way to go back to the default stock setup is to restore the manufacturer’s firmware from a backup that you create during install or by flashing a factory firmware.

Due to the aforementioned reasons, it is highly recommended to install Braiins OS+ firmware only on devices with SD card slots.

In order to start mining using Braiins OS+ and BOSminer+ you will need to:

  • have a supported ASIC miner

  • get the latest version of Braiins OS+

  • install Braiins OS+

  • configure Braiins OS+ and start mining

Note: Commands used in this manual are for instructional purposes. You might need to adjust file paths and names appropriately.

Installation/Upgrade Guide

For better navigation among different installation/upgrade paths, use the following guide:

SD card Method

  • Download the latest release of transitional firmware image from our website. You can verify the signatures using the public key, which is available here.

  • Flash the downloaded image on an SD card (e.g. using Etcher).

  • Adjust the jumpers to boot from SD card (instead of NAND memory), as shown below.

    S9 Jumpers S9 Jumpers Board

  • Insert the SD card into the device, then start the device.

  • After a moment, you should be able to access the Braiins OS+ interface through the device’s IP address.

Using single SD card on multiple device

The most recently used MAC address is stored on the SD card overlay partition to check if the SD has been inserted into the same device. If the current MAC address differs from the previous one, then the network and system configuration is reset to its default and /etc/miner_hwid is deleted.

HW_ID is determined from NAND if it stores Braiins OS firmware. If NAND is corrupted or it contains stock firmware, then the file /etc/miner_hwid is used if it exists, otherwise a new HW_ID is generated and stored to /etc/miner_hwid to preserve HW_ID until the next boot.

Flash Braiins OS+ from SD card to the internal memory (NAND)

It is also possible to install Braiins OS+ on the internal memory (NAND) while running the firmware from the SD card. In order to permanently flash Braiins OS+ on the NAND, connect to the miner via SSH and use the following command:

miner nand_install

Remote (SSH) Method

Installation of Braiins OS+ using the so-called SSH Method consists of the following steps:

  • (Custom Firmware) Flash stock firmware (this step can be skipped if the device is running on stock firmware or on a previous versions of Braiins OS).

  • (Only Windows) Install Ubuntu for Windows 10 available from the Microsoft Store here.

  • Run the following commands in your command line terminal (replace the placeholder IP_ADDRESS accordingly) :

(Note that the commands are compatible with Ubuntu and Ubuntu for Windows 10. If you are using a different distribution of Linux or a different OS, please check the corresponding documentation and edit the commands as necessary.)

# Prepare the enviroment and download the firmware (this step can be skipped if it was already done before)
sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3 python3-virtualenv virtualenv
wget -c https://feeds.braiins-os.com/20.03/braiins-os-plus_am1-s9_ssh_2019-02-21-0-572dd48c_2020-03-29-1-6b4a0f46.tar.gz -O - | tar -xz && cd ./braiins-os_am1-s9_ssh_2019-02-21-0-572dd48c_2020-03-29-1-6b4a0f46
virtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python3 .env && source .env/bin/activate && python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt && deactivate

# Install Braiins OS+ on the device
cd ~/braiins-os_am1-s9_ssh_2019-02-21-0-572dd48c_2020-03-29-1-6b4a0f46 && source .env/bin/activate
python3 upgrade2bos.py IP_ADDRESS

Installing/Upgrading multiple devices

In case when you need to perform installation or upgrade on multiple devices, you can use our configuration spreadsheet that will will generate commands for different use cases.

The spreadsheet is available here