User Guide

Table of contents
NiceHash OS 3
Quick setup guide
Detailed setup guide
Prerequisites
Concepts
Creating NiceHash OS flash drive
Finish

How to create NiceHash OS bootable flash drive 4

Prerequisites
Install software for writing to USB flash drive
Preparing NiceHash OS Flash drive
Flashing to SSD or HDD

How to configure NiceHash OS 6

What you will need
NiceHash OS configuration
Rig
Access
Network

NiceHash OS local access 9

Prerequisites
How to log in to the system
Places to check out
System configuration
System logs
System usage

Manual OC settings (advanced) 10

TDP (valid for both NVIDIA and AMD)
Core_clocks & memory_clocks (NVIDIA)
Core_clocks & memory_clocks (AMD)

Algorithm IDs 11

NiceHash OS bug reporting 12

Prerequisites
Bug Reporting
NiceHash OS
QUICK SETUP GUIDE

Below is a list of steps get NHOS up and running.

- Download NiceHash OS image from our website.

- Flash downloaded NiceHash OS image to the USB flash drive.
- Update NiceHash OS configuration file with your data.

DETAILED SETUP GUIDE

Prerequisites

- Your mining rig needs at least 2GB of RAM

- GPUs attached to your rig (NHOS does not support CPU mining).

Concepts

NiceHash OS is an operating system which loads from USB flash drive and runs from computer memory. It
contains all the tools and drivers needed to bring your mining machine to life.

NiceHash OS flash drive is divided into two partitions, SYSTEM and NHOS. SYSTEM partition contains boot-
loader, Linux kernel and RAM file system, while NHOS partition contains NiceHash OS configuration file.

Creating NiceHash OS flash drive

There are two steps required to create a fully functional NiceHash OS flash drive

1.) Create a USB flash drive containing an operating system. Detailed instructions are available on
How to create NiceHash OS flash drive page.
2.) Update NiceHash OS configuration file with your data. Detailed instructions are available on
How to configure NiceHash OS page.

Note
This is a guide on how to prepare one NiceHash OS flash drive. If you plan to use the same setup on multiple
machines then you can do the following. Go through the steps mentioned above for each NiceHash OS flash drives
you need. After this, you will have multiple NiceHash OS flash drives which contain a invalid (empty) configura-
tion. Now use valid configuration from your initial NiceHash OS flash drive and copy it to all newly created Nice-
Hash OS drives.

FINISH

At this point you should have everything prepared to start using NiceHash OS. All you need to do now is to
plug in NiceHash OS flash drive in to your mining machine and turn it on!

Note
Information on how to access mining machine locally is available on NiceHash OS local access page.

Note
Information on how to report bugs is available on NiceHash OS bug reporting page.

Note
Advanced users who want to squeeze the last atom of power out of their graphics cards cant experiment with
graphics cards overclocking. Beware that sometimes graphics cards overclocking can have a negative impact on
system stability. Information on how this is done for NiceHash Miner is available on Manual OC settings page.

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How to create NiceHash OS bootable flash drive
This guide provides information on how to create bootable flash drive with NiceHash OS. Following the
instructions below, you will download NiceHash OS image (an .img.gz file), and then use special application
that writes an image to a USB drive. You cannot simply copy the image file to a USB drive, you must use
special software to write it properly.

PREREQUISITES
- A computer connected to the internet with a Windows, macOs or Linux operating system.
- USB flash drive with at least 2 GB of space.
- You have a special software to write image file to USB flash drive.

Note
For creating NiceHash OS flash drive, you will need elevated privileges on your system (administrator privileg-
es on Windows and root privileges on macOS or Linux).

! Warning
The process described below will delete any data currently on your flash drive. Make sure to back up your
flash drive's data to another storage location before proceeding.

INSTALL SOFTWARE FOR WRITING TO USB FLASH DRIVE

There are many tools available for writing image files to USB drive. NiceHash is providing specially crafted
NiceHash Flash Tool just for preparing bootable NiceHash OS flash drive(s). If you prefer to use something
else there are a number of well established tools like Etcher, easy to use cross-platform image burning tool.

Note
On systems like macOS and Linux users can also use command line tool dd to write image files to USB drive.

PREPARING NICEHASH OS FLASH DRIVE

1. Using NiceHash Flash Tool (preferred)

NiceHash Flash Tool tool not only provides cross-platform image burning capabilities, but it is also extremely
easy to use. There is no need to download NiceHash OS image beforehand, this tool will do this for you.

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2. Using other tools

When using tools other that NiceHash Flash Tool, you need to download the latest NiceHash OS image from
our website beforehand and then write it to USB drive using aforementioned Etcher or any other similar tool.

Note
If you prefer to use command line tools instead, there are three simple steps to write an image file using dd
tool

1. Decompress NiceHash OS image file

gunzip nhos-x.x.x.img.gz

2. Define output device to write an image file to

/dev/sda

3.Start image writing process

dd if=nhos-x.x.x.img of=/dev/sda bs=4M && sync

! Warning
Be careful defining output device, wrong usage of dd tool can lead to irreversible damage to your system!

3. Flashing to SSD or HDD

NHOS Flash Tool does not support flashing to SSD or HDD due to security reasons. Instead you should either
use Etcher balena software and enable Experimental option that will allow you to flash to your SSD or HDD.

You can also use SSD/HDD hub and connect it to you PC via USB cable. This way, your drive will be recognized
as external drive and NHOS will recognize it.

! Warning

Be extra careful, as flashing to your SSD or HDD will delete the content of the drive.

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How to con gure NiceHash OS
This guide provides information on how to correctly configure NiceHash OS to work once a flash drive has
been created. If you do not have NiceHash OS flash drive created yet then jump to How to create NiceHash
OS flash drive page for further instructions.
What you will need

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Here is the list of preconditions that must be met before you can proceed:

- Computer with one of the following operating system: Windows, MacOs or Linux.
- NiceHash OS flash drive.
- Text editor you are familiar with.

Note
Any text editor is fine as long as it does not modify the file format being edited. Depending on the operating
system, you can use the native text editor(Notepad for Windows, TextEdit for MacOs, Vi for Linux), or any of the
3rd party editors listed below:

Visual Studio
Atom Brackets Notepad++ Nano Geany KWrite
Code

Windows x x x x

Mac OS
x x x

Linux x x x x x x

NICEHASH OS CONFIGURATION

NiceHash OS flash drive is divided into two partitions, SYSTEM and NHOS, where NHOS partition contains the
configuration data for system to operate correctly.

When NiceHash OS flash drive is inserted into your computer, the system should automatically detect NHOS
partition and show it in system file manager (Windows Explorer, macOS Finder, Linux Nautilus, etc.) as disk
on Windows or as a mounted device on macOS and Linux. Using your file manager, navigate to the location of
the NHOS disk or mount point. There you will find a single configuration file named configuration.txt.

To modify NiceHash OS configuration, open this configuration file with your preferred file editor where you
will see the following file content structure:

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 {
"rig": {
"btc": "",
"worker": "",
"group": ""
},
"access": {
"ssh": {
"key": "" }
},
"network": {
"wireless": {
"ssid": "",
"key": ""
}
}
}

Configuration is divided into different sections: rig, access and network. All the sections contain configuration
entries which are named to be as self explanatory as possible.

BTC address is the only mandatory information that needs to be present in the configuration and is part of
the rig section, while access and network sections can be left empty or removed from the configuration file if
not needed.

Rig

This section is used to configure NiceHash OS mining feature.

btc - Your NiceHash BTC address. [mandatory]

worker - Name of your mining machine (sometimes referred to as rig name). Have in mind, that worker name
is limited to alphanumeric characters from English alphabet, a to z, A to Z, 0 to 9 and characters - (hyphen), _
(underscore). [optional]

group - Put your mining machine into group. [optional]

Access

This section is used to configure SSH user for the remote network access to the mining machine. If you want to
have remote network access to your mining machine, you must fill in this section, otherwise leave it empty or
remove from configuration file.

ssh - SSH public key for user authentication. [optional]

Note
There is no special configuration for local shell user access. More information on how to access mining machine
locally is available on NiceHash OS local access page.

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Network

This section is used to configure mining machine network settings. There is only wireless configuration entry
here, and if you are using wireless infrastructure, you must fill in this section, otherwise leave it empty or
remove from configuration file.

ssid - SSID to provide the name for a wireless network access. [optional]
key - Security key for wireless network access authentication. [optional]

Note
For security reasons only WPA and WPA2 security protocols are supported.

Note
There are no configuration entries to configure wired network setting. Also there are no configuration entries to
define static IP address to be assigned to the mining machine. No matter if you are running mining machine on a
wired or wireless infrastructure, IP address is always assigned dynamically using DHCP protocol.

Example on how configuration might look like after modification.

{
"rig": {
"btc": "2N8xDN798uKMgPxTt35pgmGcdpJnSAvgsMF",
"worker": "centaurus",
"group": "constellation"
},
"access": {
"ssh": {
"key": "ssh-rsa
AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCoWwJIm9JNgWzPrsMAeYWdM4nAkCET4j1kONsGPE2GeKul/
4dTiq8X8aTKVdLLXOTQxBsOjb6J4umgVioTuorthjD0lYM3HDp55BnBgcnXXm7TfKzWKyCcbXvpOZA1pdzLKT
o8bSBWjq4P2J0xPO6A6QHQvQs2LDPc5SyDMYrXOKrPLHfNxzxg9mvry49RtQJSzBICnBWDc28pNSCjvKbeHzE
A85Quy4ctR7A7cHHeR0G3k/Xozdc8/
eUptxhbW2M4t4uUg4Tnh4OQEPJKQ5j4zvkqRxrzMV1Kvxuarxbouwci569ulaOYDUQI0S8BB57d5IP3HRvsG4
Ok8HosIxTJ"
}
},
"network": {
"wireless": {
"ssid": "zodiac",
"key": "8!Lf@I5s3tpY"
}
}
}

When you are done with configuration modifications, save your changes and safely unplug NiceHash OS flash
drive from your computer.

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NiceHash OS local access
This guide provides information on how to access NiceHash OS locally.

PREREQUISITES

- Access to the mining machine with a running NiceHash OS system

- Keyboard and monitor connected to the mining machine.

HOW TO LOG IN TO THE SYSTEM

On system start, you are presented with a screen where you can enter access credentials to log in to the
system. There is only one user configured for accessing NiceHash OS and there is no password required to
log in locally. Just enter username nhos and hit Enter key (Return on some systems).

NiceHash OS is a minimal Linux operating system based on Tiny Core Linux. If you are familiar with any Linux
distribution, then you will feel comfortable using NiceHash OS as well.

PLACES TO CHECK OUT

System configuration

NiceHash OS configuration prepared while creating NiceHash OS flash drive is located under /mnt/nhos direc-
tory in configuration.txt file.

System logs
System startup and application logs are located under /var/log/nhos directory.

nhos_boot.log - contains information on NiceHash OS boot sequence

nhos_nhm.log - contains information on NiceHash Miner operations
nhos_update.log - contains information on NiceHash OS update service operations

SYSTEM USAGE

There are no special usage cases logging in to the NiceHash OS system other than checking system config-
uration and logs in case something is not working as expected. Please remember that NiceHash OS is running
completely from computer memory and any changes you might have done to the system are lost on reboot.
The only location where changes are persisted are the ones under /mnt/nhos directory.

! Warning
Make sure that the motherboard BIOS time is set correctly, or the NHOS will not boot.

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Manual OC settings (advanced)
You can apply overclocking (OC) settings by manually changing the parameters in the device_settings.json file.

device_settings.json is generated on your NHOS bootable USB drive after the first successful boot on your
mining rig. After that you can open device_settings.json file and change power (TDP) settings, core and memory
clocks for every device and algorithm separately.

tdp:
core_clocks:
memory_clocks:

TDP (VALID FOR BOTH NVIDIA AND AMD)

TDP is set as a percentage parameter for both NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards. If you want to change TDP you
have to change the “default” value.

For example, if you want to set TDP to 85% then you have to change this value to "tdp": 85.
For example, if you want to set TDP to 110%, then you have to change this value to "tdp": 110.

Core_clocks & memory_clocks (NVIDIA)

If you want to change core and memory clocks for NVIDIA graphics cards you have to change the “default” value.
Value is relative to card default value.

For example, if you want to raise your core or memory clock for 50 Hz then you have to change this value to
"core_clocks": 50 or "memory_clocks": 50.
For example, if you want to lower your core or memory clock for 50 Hz then you have to change this value to
"core_clocks": -50 or "memory_clocks": -50.

Core_clocks & memory_clocks (AMD)

If you want to change core and memory clocks for AMD graphics cards you have to change the “default” value.
Values for AMD cards are absolute.

For example, if you want to raise your core or memory clock from 1800 to 1850 Hz then you have change this
value to "core_clocks": 1850 or "memory_clocks": 1850.
For example, if you want to lower your core or memory clock from 1800 to 1750 Hz then you have change this
value to "core_clocks": 1750 or "memory_clocks": 1750.

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ALGORITHM IDs
In the table below you can find IDs for every algorithm

AlgorithmAlgorithm ID
ID Algorithm
Algorithm ID
ID
Scrypt
Scrypt 0 Zhash 36

SHA256
SHA256 1 GrinCuckaroo29 38

ScryptNf
X11 3 GrinCuckatoo31 39

X11
X13 4 40
Lyra2REv3

X13
Keccak 5 CrpytoNightR 42

Keccak
Nist5
Nist5 7 CuckoCycle 43

X15
NeoScrypt
NeoScrypt 8 GrinCuckarood29 44

L
Qubit 11 Beamv2 45

Quark 12 X16Rv2 46

Lyra2REv2 14 RandomXmonero 47

DaggerHashimoto 20 48
Eaglesong

Decred 21 Cuckaroom 49
C t

Lbry 23 GrinCuckatoo32 50

Equihash 24 Handshake 51

Blake2s 28 KAWPOW 52

Lyra2Z 32 Cuckaroo29BFC 53

X16R 33 BeamV3 54

SHA256AsicBoost 35

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NiceHash OS bug reporting
This guide provides information on how to report a bug concerning NiceHash OS.

PREREQUISITES

Access to the mining machine with a running NiceHash OS system

You are familiar with a Linux shell and how to access your mining machine locally or remotely.

BUG REPORTING

If you believe that you've found a bug that should be reported to NiceHash, then make sure to describe it as
precise as possible. But be sure to also send us a copy of the NiceHash OS system dump file, as this will be
of great help to our developers.

There are two commands available which you can use to generate NiceHash OS system dump file.

nhos_system_dump_save - will generate system dump file and save it to the USB flash drive.
nhos_system_dump_push - will generate system dump file and push it to the NiceHash network storage.

Note
If you are familiar with the Linux operating system then it should be fairly simple to retrieve system dump file from
your mining machine. You can access your mining machine locally and then just copy the file to an external media
or access your mining machine remotely using SFTP client (WinSCP, FileZilla, CyberDuck, etc.) and get the file this
way.

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