5 steps to set up minerstat mining OS

msOS or minerstat mining OS is an open-source Linux based operating system developed by the minerstat team. It was officially released in December 2017 and highly improved since then. After msOS is flashed and plugged into your Nvidia or AMD rig, it can be remotely managed through the minerstat dashboard.

✏️ What do you need?

To set up and use msOS you will need to prepare these four things first.

• Empty USB with a minimum of 8 GB space - we recommend USB 3.0 16 GB. You can also use any other storage device if you want to.
• A working computer on which you will be able to flash msOS to USB.
• Nvidia or AMD rig with a USB socket.
• A registered account on minerstat.

🕑 Setting up msOS will take from 20 to 30 minutes (most of it is waiting for download and flashing to complete).

1️⃣ Step 1: Download msOS

We offer you two types of downloads: slower direct download and faster torrent download. In both cases, you will download an archive you can extract with 7Zip, The Unarchiver (macOS), or any other extracting software.

2️⃣ Step 2: Flash msOS to USB

To flash msOS to USB you will need a flashing program, such as Etcher. If you are using macOS or Linux, you can flash it through the terminal as well. You can find the instructions here.

• Plug USB into your computer.
• Extract the downloaded archive to the selected location.
• Open Etcher.
• Select image (it will be named as msos-xx.img)
• Select the USB drive (if it isn’t detected yet).
• Flash.

3️⃣ Step 3: Add a new worker

While you wait for msOS to flash on USB, you can add a new worker to your minerstat dashboard.

• Navigate to the workers page.
• Click Add new worker.
• Type worker’s name.
• Select the type of your worker - in this case, it is Nvidia or AMD, depending on your rig.
• Select the system of your worker - in this case, it is msOS.
• Optionally add additional groups.
• Click Add worker .

Your worker will appear offline, waiting for the connection to be established.

4️⃣ Step 4: Update config.js file

When flashing is finished, you will be asked if you want to format USB. Cancel this action and don’t format the USB. Then unplug the USB and plug it in back to the computer. Find the config.js file and open it with notepad or any other text editor.

Replace the placeholder text with your access key and worker’s name. Please note that both, access key and worker’s name, are case sensitive so you must type in exact values. It is also important that each set is in its own line and that you keep the quotations marks, such as this example:

global.accesskey = "4cc355k3y";
global.worker = "GTX1080";

Save config.js file and unplug the USB from your computer.

If you can’t see config.js on your computer, you can use the discovery tool. Alternatively, you can also continue, and once your rig boots up, use the command mworker accesskey workername to change config.js from the rig.

5️⃣ Step 5: Plug msOS into your rig

Plug USB with msOS to your rig and wait for the connection to be established. This can be checked on your minerstat dashboard, on your worker’s details page, and should be visible within a minute or two.

After msOS is up and running, you will need to manage your worker from the dashboard. The most important step to make it running is to set up pools and wallet addresses to which you want your worker to mine. After that, you can follow our series of tutorials to explore all minerstat features, such as alerts, triggers, overclocking, and more. Start here.

🔧 Troubleshooting

There shouldn’t be any problems with steps 1, 2, and 3, but if you do have them, join our Discord and our team and community will gladly help you out.

If your computer doesn’t detect partition, make sure to assign a letter to the drive in the Disk Management.

Like mentioned before, you must also be careful in step 4, to take into account that the access key and worker’s name are case sensitive, that you didn’t forget quotations, and that both values are each in their own line. If you face any troubles, first check if this applies to your config.js file.

If your config.js file is missing from the USB, something went wrong and you should flash it again or replace the USB dongle.

If your config.js file is correct and the dashboard doesn’t detect your rig, you will need to attach a screen and a keyboard to your rig to see what is going on. Press CTRL + ALT + F1 to see the output and check if there are any errors. Don’t forget that the monitor needs to be plugged into the second GPU socket (counted from the CPU). The screen will show you if there are any problems with drivers or why it cannot continue.

You will be able to access msOS by opening the local IP (access from the local network) or remote IP (access from the remote network) in your browser. You can find it on your worker’s details page or by entering it manually in the form of https://YOUR_LOCAL_IP:4200/. To login to your msOS, you need to enter minerstat as a username, and msos as a password.

Read 10 msOS commands that will save you.

If you need help, you can find us on Discord.

⭐️ Bonus: Set up WiFi

When you have edited theconfig.js file, you can also find the network.txt file in the same folder and open it with notepad or any other text editor.

Insert your WiFi ID and password inside the quotation marks and again note that it is important that each set is in its own line and to keep the quotations marks, such as this example:

WIFISSID = "mywifi"
WIFIPASS = "mywifipassword"

⏳ Save time: Flash msOS on multiple USBs at once

If you want to flash msOS on multiple USBs or hard drives at once, we suggest you use a software called imageUSB.

This way, the deploying of msOS for bigger and large operations will be much easier and faster.