How to automate mining Z-Cash, in a suprnova.cc pool, running MAC OS High Sierra on your hackintosh with an Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU

Today, you are going to learn how to mine Z-Cash on your newly built Hackintosh (or Mac Pro) running an NVidia GTX 1080 GPU in my first guide and tutorial for Nerd-Tech.net.

Preperation

(or click here to skip to step 1)

1. Be sure you have properly installed your up-to-date  alternate Nvidia Webdrivers for Mac OS on your hackintosh. If you do not have these installed, research the Tonymacx86 website on how to download and install them. Or use my quick links to download NVIDIA Alternate Graphics Drivers for macOS 10.13.4 (17E202) or download NVIDIA Alternate Graphics Drivers for macOS 10.13.4 (17E199).
2. To determine what download link you should use, you must first determine what build of mac OS you are running. To determine your Mac OS Build, click on the icon, and then select “about this mac”. Once the about menu pops up, you must click your mouse on the version number (maybe double click) “10.13.4” in order to reveal the build version of your Mac OS. Once the version is revealed, you can use that build number to download the matching NVIDIA graphics driver installation package. Do this, and then install your Nvidia driver by double clicking on the downloaded package.
3. This is as far of detail as I am going to go to get your webdrivers working, as if you are reading this article, they should be working already. On to step 1 for more downloads and preparation.

Step 1) Install the Nvidia Cuda drivers for Mac OS High Sierra.

Before running nheqminer on Mac OS, you will need to go to the Nvidia Website and select latest Cuda Driver release (currently CUDA 396.64 driver for MAC:Release Date: 05/17/2018) and follow the links to Download it. Otherwise you can download it by clicking HERE. After it’s downloaded double click on the file “cudadriver_396.64_macos.dmg” to open it. Then double click on the “CUDADriver.pkg” to run the installer. Follow the steps all the way through until it is fully installed. If the installer asks you to reboot, do it.  Then move to step 2.

Step 2) Install Cuda Toolkit Version 9.1.128

Before proceeding, if you think you may have already installed Cuda Toolkit, you can go a head and check by opening up the terminal app, copying and pasting this the following command:

cat /usr/local/cuda/version.txt

Then pressing Enter interminal to run it. If you do have cuda toolkit already installed, the command should return something like

CUDA Version 9.1.128

If cuda toolkit is not installed terminal will return something like

cat: /usr/local/cuda/version2.txt: No such file or directory

If it is not installed, then proceed with the instructions. Otherwise you can skip to the step 3. Next, go to the Nvidia Cuda downloads archive HERE, and click on the download button for cuda_9.1.128_mac.dmg, or, you can just download it directly by clicking on this link. Once you have fully downloaded the file “cuda_9.1.128_mac.dmg”, double click on it, and then double click on “CUDAMacOSXInstaller.app”, to open and start running the installation. Note: Mac OS may ask you for your password at this time. If it does, type it in  and click OK. Wait for the installer to finish. At this time you may be asked to reboot your  mac (hackintosh). If so, do it, then come back to this page and proceed to step 3.

Step 3) Install Apple’s Command Line Tools macOS 10.13 for Xcode 9.2

Go to https://developer.apple.com/download/more/ and login with any valid Apple ID username and password. Once you have logged in, scroll down until you see “Command Line Tools (macOS 10.13) for Xcode 9.2”. Click on it, then click on the blue text “Command Line Tools macOS 10.13 for Xcode 9.2.dmg” to the right of it and start downloading. Once the file is downloaded, double click on it to open up a window. Then in that new window, double click on the “Command Line Tools (macOS High Sierra version 10.13.pkg” file, to open up the installer. When the installer window pops up, Click the “Install” button, enter your Mac OS password, and proceed with the instructions to complete the install. Once finished, Mac OS may ask you to reboot. If so, do it.

Step 4) Install a Z-Cash wallet (recommended JAXX)

Go to https://jaxx.io/downloads.html and click the Download link next to “Desktop (Mac)”.  Once the “Checksums” window pops up, click the Download button again. Leave the sha1sum popup window open while you wait for your download to finish. Once your file entitled “sha1sum Jaxx-1.3.15.dmg” is finished downloading, and then open up terminal copy (the entire contents of the box including white space) and paste this code:

shasum -a 1 

Once you have pasted the above code into the terminal app, open up your downloads folder and drag your download file “Jaxx-1.3.15.dmg” to the terminal. Once you do that, your terminal should look like

shasum -a 1 /Users/yourusername/Downloads/Jaxx-1.3.15.dmg

If it does look similar, press enter in terminal, and hit enter. You should see a return text with random numbers similar to

136aa4666f1e11c9e894585c40bafc48b16065b1

If you see this, go back to the popup window in your web browser on the Jaxx Website, and highlight and copy (Apple Key + C) the random numbers displayed underneath “sha1sum Jaxx-1.3.15.dmg”. Once you have copied these numbers, go back to your terminal click on it, and then hit (Apple Key + F). This will open up the search bar at the top of your terminal window. Click on this search bar so your curser is displayed in it. Then paste (Apple Key + V) your text in the box and press enter. If you see a matching number in yellow highlighted text inside of terminal, then your downloaded file is intact and has not been modified by hackers or maliciousness. Now you are good to go and should proceed install Jaxx, by double clicking on your downloaded DMG file, and dragging the Jaxx.app to your applications folder. From here, if you are new to crypto-wallets, double click on the Jaxx.app, and follow the instructions to set it up. Otherwise you can use the resources at https://support.decentral.ca/hc/en-us/sections/204038798-Getting-Started to help you get Jaxx up and running. Once Jaxx is running, and you have created a password and recovery phrase, click on the options icon (the icon three horizontal bars, located on the top right of the Jaxx window). This button opens up a menu with the options “MENU”, “WALLETS”, and “CURRENCY”. Click on the “WALLETS” menu item. This will open a list of many different types of currency. Scroll down this list until you see “ZEC – ZCash”, and click the box to the left of it to make sure it is checked. Once it’s checkmarked, you may click back on the main Jaxx screen. Then click on the little blue “ZEC” icon on the top of Jaxx. Below this, you should see the words “Your Current ZCash Address”, with a bunch of random numbers and letters beneath that. These random numbers and letters are the Jaxx wallet address to receive Z-Cash that you have mined. Now, Minimize Jaxx, open up your web browser again, and proceed to the next step.

Step 5) Register and set up a mining pool account with suprnova

With your web browser open, go to the following address: https://zec.suprnova.cc/index.php?page=register and register yourself with zec.suprnova.cc. Once in the suprnova website and logged in, set up your account. Then proceed to set up your worker. In the Suprnova menu on the left, click on “My Account” then click on “My Workers”.  A screen will show up with an “Add New Workers” box. In this box fill in your worker name as “user”, and your Worker password as “password”. Now, hit the “Add New Worker” button. If done correctly, you should now see a box under “Worker Login”, that displays your user name on the left, and then your new worker labeled “user”, on the right. Your worker password “password” should be filled in on the “Worker Password” field. Next, go back to the left side of your browser and click on “My Account” again. On the “My Account” page, you will see a text box entitled “Payment Address”. Now, go back to your Jaxx App. In Jaxx, Click on the blue icon with “ZEC” next to it. Below that is “Your Current ZCash Address:”, and just to the right of that is a little icon of two pieces of paper.  Click on this icon until the bottom of Jaxx shows a green popup that says “Copied To Clipboard”. Go back to your Suprnova web page. Click on the empty field under “Payment Address”, and paste your copied text into that box! Then change the “automatic Payout Threshold” field to 0.001, click the “Update Account” button beneath that. Then log out of Suprnova, and proceed to step 6.

Step 6) Download and set up nheqminer for macOS

Go to the nheqminer releases page at https://github.com/kozyilmaz/nheqminer-macos/releases and click on the big blue link labeled: “nheqminer-macos-v7.tar.bz2” to download the latest release of nheqminer for mac. Otherwise, you can download it directly from THIS LINK. Once downloaded, double click the compressed file to extract it. A folder named “nheqminer-macos-v7” should appear. Drag this folder to your “Applications” folder. Proceed to step 7.

Step 7) Automate your Mac (Hackintosh) to start mining Z-cash on boot with Script editor.

Go to my downloads page and click on the download entitled “Terminal – Start nheqminerv7 and start mining Z-Cash (Nerd-Tech.net).scpt”, located under the “Mac OS Scripts” section of the Downloads outline. If you can’t find it, you can also just download it by clicking on THIS LINK. Once the file “Terminal – Start nheqminerv7 and start mining Z-Cash (Nerd-Tech.net).scpt.zip” is downloaded, double click the zip file to extract the .scpt file. Now right click on the newly extracted file named “Terminal – Start nheqminerv7 and start mining Z-Cash (Nerd-Tech.net).scpt”, and select “Open With>Script Editor”. Script editor will open a window and you will see the following code

tell application "Terminal"
	if not (exists window 1) then reopen
	activate
	delay 15
end tell
activate application "Terminal"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke return
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "cd /Applications/nheqminer-macos-v7"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke return
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "./nheqminer-gpu -l zec.suprnova.cc:2142 -u usernamegoeshere.user -p password -cv 0 -cd 0"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke return
tell application "Terminal"
	activate
	delay 2
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Terminal" to set visible to false

Now you are going to edit this code and put your own mining information in there. With your mouse, Highlight the part that says “usernamegoeshere” without the parantheses. Do not highlight the period. Then replace the phrase “usernamegoeshere”, by typing in your username for zec.suprnova.cc. For example, if your username is “Mistermonkey”, after adjusted, the entire line of code would and should look like this:

"./nheqminer-gpu -l zec.suprnova.cc:2142 -u Mistermonkey.user -p password -cv 0 -cd 0"

Once everything looks good, go to the “File” menu and select “Save”. Now that you have your script set up with the proper username and worker (user), it’s time to save this script as an app, and make it launch at boot. Doing so will automatically make your mac start Z-Cash every time it boots. In Script editor, click on “File”, then select “Export”. A save window will pop up. In the “File Format:” dropdown menu, select “Application”, then click the “Save” button in the bottom right of the window. Next, Locate your new app file labeled “Terminal – Start nheqminerv7 and start mining Z-Cash (Nerd-Tech.net).app”, and drag your new app to your applications folder. Now that you have saved your script as an app, its time to start mining at boot. Open System Preferences. Click on the “Security & Privacy tab”, scroll down to Accessibility and click on it. If your preferences are locked, now is the time to click the unlock button in the bottom left of the preferences pane, then, enter your password. Next, hit the + symbol. In the window that pops up, locate your “Terminal – Start nheqminerv7 and start mining Z-Cash (Nerd-Tech.net).app” file within your Applications folder. Select your app file and click “Open”. Now, double check to make sure your new app is check marked in that window. If not, check it. If so, read forth. Next Click on your main “System Preferences” window, then click on the “Users & Groups” category. Select your user name, then click on the “Login Items” tab. Beneath the “Login Items” tab, is another + (plus) sign. Click on the Plus sign, and once again locate your newly created app and then click the “Add” button. Close System Preferences. At this point, if you’ve done everything correctly, you should be able to reboot, and on boot, your new mac app will automatically open the Terminal and start mining, depositing mined coins directly into your Jaxx Wallet. Give it a try. If it doesn’t work, you or you get errors, you might  have to adjust the “Delay X” command in the apple script you created to compensate for slow load times at boot. Otherwise, go back and repeat all of the steps carefully.

Step 7b) Mining with iTerm instead of Terminal (Optional)

If you would like to start mining using the “iTerm2” app to do your mining, instead of the default terminal app, Then you can instead download the “iTerm – Start nheqminerv7 and start mining Z-Cash (Nerd-Tech.net)” script from my Downloads Outline page. Getting iTerm2 to work on boot is a little bit trickier. The script that I wrote for it works, but it carries a few assumptions that aren’t set iTerm settings, that aren’t the default settings. Therefore, in order for the script to work, you must go into iTerm and configure it’s hotkey settings. In iTerm>Profiles>Keys (tab)>Configure Hotkey Window (button). Click on the “Configure Hotkey Window” Button. Once this window opens, click in the “Hotkey:” Box, and creat the global hotkey to be , that is; the command key, the shift key, and the #9 key all together. That needs to be your global hotkey in iTerm2 settings.  Furthermore, the iTerm2 “General” page, should look like the below picture: The Hotkeys settings section should look like this: Lastly, once again, you may want to adjust the

delay 15

settings to either longer than 15 seconds, or shorter than 15 seconds, depending on how slow/fast your computer is, and how long it takes for apps to fully load. If your script errors out, chances are you need a longer delay. Keep in mind, when testing the script with the “Run The Script” button in Scripts Editor, you will always get faster load times with apps in that “Test Environment”, than you will if you were just booting up and Mac OS is trying to load everything it’s got all at once. Therefore, what you think may be a good delay time, because it works when testing the script in script editor, might actually not be long enough for an app trying to load at boot. You will need to use trial and error to figure this out for yourself. I don’t know of any other workarounds for this.

DONATE! If this tutorial it worked for you (which it should have), you could spread the love back and donate some change to my paypal, bitcoin address, or altcoin addresses.

PAYPAL:

BITCOIN (BTC) ADDRESS:

bc1qxsqy0nl8f2rqsgpzzr8eh3c67vz7kjr2djyku4

BITCOIN CASH (BCH) ADDRESS:

qzdkv8sz8zf57urafd8urhg7jdej6u892v3z088nvr

ETHEREUM (ETH) ADDRESS:

0x8C33CD44a083D605DBb65Ba4eC201f30Af88705c

ZCASH (ZEC) ADDRESS:

t1dxu9KN1pSYNoMNxYMzCNhcHJhGZmwPW9n

MONERO (XMR) ADDRESS:

4A2p4k6vSGviUxoZvwQkAX8VBQE6tQncmZUS5mZ8YS9cZ2BQ4cc2CZXdMVg4vtFoxh3XrXQECWm95Gq2FpyRtvFz2yNZuYy

Final Info: Hash Rates

Unless Someone on the mac side refines and improves the code for the 1080 being run on Mac OS, You aren’t going to get hash rates that are better than Windows or Ubuntu. But if you absolutely need to use your mac (or Hack) with Mac OS often, and figure, mining something is better than mining nothing, well here you go. My hash rates range anywhere from 368.933 Sols/s to 406.667 Sols/s. If you manage to get hash rates higher then that please post and let us know your formula!

FINISHED! If you have any further questions, feel free to take a look at my Contact Form to get in touch with me. Cheers and happy Mac Mining!