Interested to see where this one goes. Not a great deal of info on the site!

No I have not and you miss the point. Whatever the cost. Undeniably it would be covered by the amount received in the initial ordering. Even if it took 75% of those initial funds to produce the just 2 or 3 prototypes. At the end of the second phase it still leaves Avalon sitting on over US$1,000,000.00 in totally untraceable, unrecoverable funds.

A considerable chunk of change! 

Discard the hyperbole and review what little has actually happened to date:  

1:-As it seems to stand at the moment we have only 2 or 3 confirmed Avalons “in the wild”  One of those was shipped “express” to an individual who has a “high profile” within the BTC community,  assuring widest exposure of its release and performance. Consider what would be the cost to produce 2 or 3 “one-off” prototypes.

2:-To date, there appears to be nobody else posting with great glee, that they have their Shipping Number or a shipping confirmation. Avalon is reticent about if they will actually ship the complete first batch before Chinese New Year

3:-There is still, as always, very limited communication from Avalon themselves. They are far from forthcoming. Just feeding tid-bits as necessary to keep the ball rolling. That is apart from the opening of the second release orders. Stressing-”no proof” “no refund” “Bitcoin only”

4:-The second tranche of orders is sold out in 24 hrs - 600 units @US$1500 =  US$900,000.00 All of which is all absolutely non trace-able, non retrievable.
    EDIT: The second tranche is not sold out: Due to issues with Bitwallet. Does anybody seriously expect the second tranche to NOT sell out ASAP?

5:-We are now approaching the Chinese New Year which as Avalon has stressed previously will close them down for two weeks.

The execution of a successful scam relies on creating trust, by taking a small payment and providing  what was initially agreed. Setting the atmosphere of confidence and trust for the “big take”
In addition in this particular scenario, we also have the Chinese New Year just co-incidentally occurring just at the time of the opening and closing of the second batch of orders. Potentially giving two weeks grace for somebody, should they be so disposed to vanish.

I am not saying it is, but I am saying that at this point in time. It is difficult to avoid recognising just how closely this situation fits the criteria of a classic scam.  

In view of the "Flak" thats flying here, I post this with some trepidation.

Really I don't know where is appropriate to post this, either here or on the Stratum Topic.
I have been watching this issue for several weeks waiting for somebody else to bring up the problem. No body has, so it seems that maybe I am the only one who is seeing this.
I have the 1.3.0 Stratum Proxy running and two Miners Xubuntu 11.04 64bit - CGMiner-2.10.4 with 6 GPU's on each.
The problem is the miners intermittently lose connection with the Local Proxy, drop a few shares and then reconnect again. Both Miners do it, but not simultaneously. There is no apparent pattern it's just random. Sometime you will get a burst of it and then it will settle down again. There is no difference in frequency of disconnects between the Miner connected on localhost or the Miner connect on the LAN. Each disconnect gets the same error message as shown below from the Proxy. I am fairly sure this is not a WAN problem.  Assuming, if the WAN went down both would show as disconnected within seconds of each other.
If I use the CGMiner Stratum and connect to the pool directly I get virtually no disconnections.
I have tried installing and running the Proxy on either one of the Miners, I have tried installing on a separate machine- with Proxy running on WinXP 32bit or Ubuntu 11.04 32bit, I get the same, - disconnects with the same error message from the Proxy.
If I use the CGMiner Stratum and connect both miners to the pool directly without the local Proxy I get virtually no disconnections.
If I run a single GPU it seems like the problem goes away.

Is anybody else getting this? if so, have I missed something?

(Xubuntu 11.04 64bit with identical hardware on both miners.)

_______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________

2013-01-20 22:00:01,851 INFO proxy client_service.handle_event # New job 1ea8 for prevhash ae4d869f, clean_jobs=False
Unhandled Error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Twisted-12.3.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/twisted/python/log.py", line 88, in callWithLogger
    return callWithContext({"system": lp}, func, *args, **kw)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Twisted-12.3.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/twisted/python/log.py", line 73, in callWithContext
    return context.call({ILogContext: newCtx}, func, *args, **kw)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Twisted-12.3.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/twisted/python/context.py", line 118, in callWithContext
    return self.currentContext().callWithContext(ctx, func, *args, **kw)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Twisted-12.3.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/twisted/python/context.py", line 81, in callWithContext
    return func(*args,**kw)
--- ---
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Twisted-12.3.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/twisted/internet/posixbase.py", line 614, in _doReadOrWrite
    why = selectable.doRead()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Twisted-12.3.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/twisted/internet/tcp.py", line 215, in doRead
    return self._dataReceived(data)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Twisted-12.3.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/twisted/internet/tcp.py", line 221, in _dataReceived
    rval = self.protocol.dataReceived(data)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/stratum-0.2.11-py2.7.egg/stratum/protocol.py", line 174, in dataReceived
    self.lineReceived(line, request_counter)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/stratum-0.2.11-py2.7.egg/stratum/protocol.py", line 185, in lineReceived
    raise custom_exceptions.ProtocolException("Cannot decode message '%s'" % line)
stratum.custom_exceptions.ProtocolException: Cannot decode message '{"params": ["XDELETED my USERX", "p��#", "�l", "���#", "58a4702a"], "id": 138, "method": "mining.submit"}'
2013-01-20 22:00:01,937 INFO stats stats.print_stats # 2 peers connected, state changed 1 times

It is well documented, but if you dont know about it you can be running around in circles trying to figure out WTF is wrong. Seems to be something about DOS and FAT formats. There was a post by someone associated with the BAMT site about using two USB sticks as a work around. First stick loaded something, when that finished, the second stick loaded BAMT. The FAQ on BAMT shows compatible hardware and lists some Gigabyte boards as Not Compatible.
I never pursued it, I simply sold the two Gigabyte M/Bs that had caused me massive angst and bought two MSI M/Bs and that was the end of the problems with USB boot and getting PCIe slots recognised and working.
Only only the Gigabyte Company could tell you why they would set up something as Fxxcked Up as that.

For Motherboards have a look here:-https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=37880.0

For info on which Motherboards need pins shorted to run PCIe Extenders, look here:-https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36061.20

Be aware that Gigabyte M/Bs can be a PITA to boot from a USB Stick.

Dual GPU Cards seem to have a reduced life expectancy compared to Single GPU Cards --- heat issues

 5870 or 5850 Reference cards are my preference.

Take a look at this link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH8spGRL3Yk

This method works on the AMD Reference Card "Squirrel Cage" type fans. It is as easy as it appears in the video. I have used it on my 5850 and 5970 Reference Cards. I use 3 dessert spoons as levers instead of the screw drivers shown in the video. Once you pop the impeller off you will see why the "drilling a hole" method can work but its really not a long term fix, and you do need to get the hole in exactly the right position.

What I take from the responses so far is, that it is likely that, given Litecoind 0.7.x. Stratum could be implemented for LTC mining.
The real question is. Opinions? if it was implemented, would it actually have any effect in reducing the stales and rejects on LTC mining.

[/quote]
earn the same as a result
but use much less network traffic to do it
we are also finding miners on stratum (using VarDiff or not) are getting substantially lower stale rates
[/quote]

That is most certainly what I have seen.

I have almost exclusively used Ozco but about 2 weeks ago I moved over to BTC Guild to try Stratum , there was such a drop in Stales and it was so stable that I stayed there until Graet got Stratum working on Ozco then I shifted back. Stratum also seems to work better on hi latency or dodgy internet connections.
What is a piss off to me is that after many months both my machines are now working better than ever, they are stable, reliable and quite slick, but after the reward halving I will no longer be profitable mining BTC and I like many others will be forced to move over to LTC mining fulltime.
My question is, can Stratum be adapted to LTC Mining and if so, would Stratum help with reducing the higher rate of stales and rejects you get with LTC mining?

This is probably a dumb question but I am willing to take the ensuing crap.

Is it possible to modify the Stratum system thats used on BTC and use it on LTC?

I am still mining BTC and the difference between Stratum and the old Long Poll system is Night and Day. Stales are way down over the old system, everything seems more stable and if you have a limited (dodgy) Internet connection with high latency, Stratum seem to do much better as well.
It is really a vast improvement.

Live in hope, die in despair! ---

It will never happen. The developers want BTC to get mainstream acceptance. The major issue that Governments and institutions have is the perceived anonymous nature of the BTC system. Therefore the developers will not countenance the idea of increased anonymity, perceived or otherwise.

Forget the word anonymous, it has all sorts of negative implications.

What we want is privacy, and privacy in our transactions is what we are talking about here. We obviously have to do it ourselves.
Therefore start a Topic, find an Escrow holder, start a Bounty for a viable but entirely separate Privacy patch to be developed.

Who is interested??

Establish an Escrow and I pledge 10BTC

I think that I am already actually doing that. Correct me if I am wrong. My system is all 5850 Reference cards, they are all on identical V,E & M settings on CGMiner and give near to identical performance in K/hs, HW errors and Rejects regardless of their using x16 or x1 extenders in their current slot positions. Therefore swapping them around would seem to be pointless. They are all underclocked to about 220 K/Hs. They dont seem to have a hardware problem.
It is the problem with stales that I am trying to resolve. 99% of all stales that I get occur just before and just after the LP. I have tried almost all the LTC Pools. I have found that if I use a pool with frequent LP's it just kills my profitability with "prev hash stale" stales. On a pool with fewer LP's I will still get stales at the LP but far fewer and sometimes none at the LP. It looks like the system cant cope with the transition/data from the LP. That's why I was interested when I saw the comment about the PCIe lanes maybe causing communication problems.

It is currently quite happily mining BTC at 2 Gh/s. I really dont want to start ripping the whole thing apart to "re-invent the wheel" if somebody has already solved this issue.

Edit:- After a fair bit of scratching around I found this command:-  lspci -vvv   Run that after sudo su and you will get mountains of info regarding the current PCIe status. Including what I think are the current lane allocations listed at LnkSta:
Run it without sudo su and you will not get all the available data.
There is more there than I care to try to understand.

Very interested to see the mention of 16x, 8x, 4x PCIe slots. Is this a verified issue? I have been trying to run 5 x 5850's on a MSI 990 FXA-GD80 M/board with 4GB of Ram. Obviously I am using PCIe extender cables, three 16x and two 1 x 16 extenders. Effectively two  full x16 one x8 and two x1. I am unsure how the M/B allocates the available resources but I doubt the two x16 slots are actually running at that.
All cards are underclocked and undervolted. This hardware setup (under volted and clocked) with CGMiner mines BTC flawlessly, trying to mine LTC at conservative settings gets, in my opinion, way too many rejects and HW errors. I have tried endless settings, nothing seems to clean it up. I had never considered the 1 x 16 extenders may be a problem?

By the way:- great topic, can we get it posted on Litecoin Forum as well? sort of parallel posts or something 

I did, yesterday all 30 odd pages and I did it twice. So, did I miss it?----- is there something particular you are try to draw my attention to?

Can anybody please tell me what it  is that I have not right here?

On a USB HDD I have a new install Ubuntu 12.04 amd64, a new install of 12.6 drivers (amd-driver-12-6-x86_64.run) installed with the “run” installer. Installed CGMiner-2.7.5 from the “built” version. Extracted in the directory same way as I have been doing for months.
CGMiner runs as usual on BTC (a truly great piece of work) 

However if I try to use “scrypt” for LTC I get these errors. Can somebody please tell me what that means --- in simple terms. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
[2012-09-09 16:34:18] Started cgminer 2.7.5
          undefined
        const uint xSIZE = CONCURRENT_THREADS;
                           ^

2 errors detected in the compilation of "/tmp/OCLFqZLWF.cl".

Internal error: clc compiler invocation failed.

 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What is it I have screwed up?
Thanks

Thank you Sir, you are a Gentleman

For BTC Keeper

At the outset I dont know shit about Linux but the following works for me. It basically came from this post Topic but it took me a while to get it sorted out. Everybody who posts seems to assume that every one else reading has the same skill levels as they do and they leave little "Important" bits out. I will try not to do that so if it is all a bit basic I aplogise!

Use these two scripts, the first named "stminer.sh" the second named "cgmlaunch.sh" As you can see both these are .sh files. You need to create those .sh files with the posted text inside. And make them executable
----------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
screen -dmS 051 ./cgmlaunch.sh
------------------------------------------------
and
------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
sleep 60
export DISPLAY=:0
xhost +
now="`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`"
cd /home/miner/cgminer-2.3.2
./cgminer   2>log.$now$$.10151.txt
------------------------------------------------
If you look at the second script you will see the line "cd /home/miner/cgminer-2.3.2"
That shows you the directory where both scripts need to be put ie your equivalent of /home/miner. Where miner is your "named" directory. You need to give both scripts execution rights by chmod or the easy way just use the properties box/permissions and check "allow execution". You need to change "cgminer-2.3.2" to whatever you have called your installed version of cgminer and it must be in that "/miner" directory

The first script starts Screen, names it .051 and then it starts the second script, which waits 60 seconds then starts cgminer and creates a log file called 10151.txt in your cgminer directory. If you dont want the log file delete "2>log.$now$$.10151.txt" from the last line of the second script
(Use the cgminer.config file in  /home/miner/.cgminer for your GPU parameters.)

To get the first script to run at start-up you need to use the Startup Applications in Ubuntu, go to System/Preferences/Startup Applications click Add, put in a description eg "Start CGMiner" then browse to find the first script, in my case called "stminer.sh" select it, make sure the box is ticked and exit.

If all has gone according to plan and I have not left any important little bits out. When you reboot you machine will eventually start and run your cgminer. BUT it will start in "Headless Mode"
You can ssh into the machine and use Screen to view the CGMiner data.
I am guessing but I think, if you dont want Screen to run then maybe if you were to select the second script ie "cgmlaunch.sh" instead of the first in the Startup Application then maybe it will start cgminer directly.

Hope this ease's the pain.

I am sure there are more elegant and sophisticated ways of doing the above. However this has worked flawlessly for me on two machines for more than 6 months. Both on USB boot and HDD boot and its Newbie do-able!


Edit:- corrected last line of the second script to read as per the correction in Kano's post below.

This is cut and paste of the last line of the second script from one of my running miners:-  ./cgminer 2>run.$now.$$.log10151.txt

I have been in the same position and asked the same question. I got no easy answer an eventually figured it out for myself. Not before it cost me 2 dead 5850's. So go to the thread below. I will post how I did it in Xubuntu 11.04. It should not be a great leap to do the same in Ubuntu.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51622.msg615490#msg615490

I have 1 x 5970 and 4 x 5850 (flashed to 5870) on one rig. CGMiner and Xubuntu 11.04 64b. The 5970 runs stable at V=0.95 E=710 M=150 & Mhs 324 per GPU. The cool core will go to E=720 but the hot Core will not take E=720 it needs 710 to stay stable. My room temp is either hot or hotter (tropical) and the fan run at 56% in an open frame rig.

There is a very good thread somewhere here on 5970's take a look. Thats where I got those settings from

Edit try here:- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=98901.0