Xmrig is an open-source project for mining Monero cryptocurrency. It allows you to mine locally for a pool and receive Monero for your efforts.

Here, you can launch Xmrig in a Podman or Docker container and to easily run it on Kubernetes, or your local computer using standard Docker commands.

To mine for your wallet, you need a Monero wallet (see MyMonero) and follow the instructions below to configure the container accordingly.

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest
# podman
podman run --rm -it ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest

By default, without any options, you will mine for me, which is a way to support the project. To mine for your wallet, modify the options using environment variables:

export POOL_URL="your pool URL"
export POOL_USER="Your public Monero address"
export POOL_PASS="can be empty for some pools, otherwise use it as miner ID"
export DONATE_LEVEL="Xmrig project donation in percent, default is 5"

# Update the image
docker pull ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest
# or with podman
podman pull ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest
# Launch the Docker container
docker run --name miner --rm -it \
    -e POOL_URL=$POOL_URL \
    -e POOL_USER=$POOL_USER \
    -e POOL_PASS=$POOL_PASS \
    -e DONATE_LEVEL=$DONATE_LEVEL \
    ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest
# or with podman
podman run --name miner --rm -it \
    -e POOL_URL=$POOL_URL \
    -e POOL_USER=$POOL_USER \
    -e POOL_PASS=$POOL_PASS \
    -e DONATE_LEVEL=$DONATE_LEVEL \
    ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest

DONATE_LEVEL is not a donation to me, it's the donation included in the Xmrig project to support its developers. Please leave it at the default value of 5 or higher to contribute to the project.

Press CTRL+C to stop the container, and it will be automatically removed.

• POOL_USER: your wallet address (default is mine)
• POOL_URL: the pool address (default is xmr.metal3d.org:8080)
• POOL_PASS: the pool password or worker ID (default for me is "donator" + UUID)
• DONATE_LEVEL: percentage of donation to Xmrig.com project (leave the default at 5 or higher)
• PRIORITY: CPU priority (0=idle, 1=normal, 2 to 5 for higher priority)
• THREADS: number of threads to start (default is number of CPU / 2)
• ACCESS_TOKEN: Bearer access token to access the Xmrig API (served on port 3000, default is a generated token (UUID))
• ALGO: mining algorithm (default is empty, refer to Xmrig documentation)
• COIN: coin option instead of algorithm (default is empty)
• WORKERNAME: naming the worker (generated with a random UUID if not specified)
• CUDA: activate CUDA (set to "true"). Requires GPU sharing to containers (refer to Nvidia documentation)
• NO_CPU: deactivate computation on CPU (useful for mining only on CUDA)

Follow instructions from Nvidia documentation and the page for Podman using CDI if you prefer Podman.

To use CUDA devices:

# Replace podman with docker if you are using Docker
podman run --rm -it \
    --device nvidia.com/gpu=all \
    --security-opt=label=disable \ # podman only
    -e CUDA=true \
    ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest

# You can compute only on GPU, but it's not recommended due to frequent GPU errors
podman run --rm -it \
    --device nvidia.com/gpu=all \
    --security-opt=label=disable \ # podman only
    -e CUDA=true \
    -e NO_CPU=true \
    ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest

Xmrig requires setting MSR (Model Specific Registry) to achieve optimal hashrates. If MSR is not allowed, your hashrate will be low, and a warning will appear in the terminal. To enable MSR inside the container (for Podman), use the following commands:

# Basic mining with CPU (replace podman with docker if you are using Docker)
sudo podman run --rm -it \
    --privileged \
    ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest

# To use CUDA devices
sudo podman run --rm -it \
    --privileged \
    --device nvidia.com/gpu=all \
    -e CUDA=true \
    ghcr.io/metal3d/xmrig:latest