DCENT_OS FAQ — Honest Answers on the Open-Source Firmware

Every answer on this page is drawn from the DCENT_OS repository's own documentation and evidence records, not from marketing copy. Where the honest answer is "experimental" or "not yet," that is the answer you get. Source paths are cited per section.

Money and licensing

Is DCENT_OS really free, with no developer fee?

No mandatory developer fee applies. October default configuration disables donations at 0%; retained miner settings may differ. Optional contributions redirect scheduled Stratum V1 mining time from 0 to 5%; saved changes require a daemon restart. Accepted-share, payout and wall-clock percentages are not guaranteed. Review donation configuration.

What license is it under? Can I fork it?

The project's own Rust daemon, dashboard and Buildroot integration are published under GPL-3.0. Fork rights apply to those licensed components. Finished Antminer images also reuse third-party kernel, boot and FPGA components whose exact source correspondence and redistribution permission remain unverified. Development signing-key approval does not clear licensing. Read the scoped source-delivery record and limitations.

Historical July hardware registry evidence

Is DCENT_OS production-ready?

No. DCENT_OS is a public beta; the repo's install guide states plainly: "Public beta (not production-stable). No model is stable." The published S9 and S19j Pro packages are guarded experimental artifacts — downloadable does not mean production-ready, and it can brick hardware without a recovery path. Do not run it on revenue-critical machines. Source: docs/INSTALL/README.md; beta-20260709 artifact index.

Which Antminer models actually work?

The current exact-board status record lists every qualified local package and its separate static download availability. Physical boot, pool-accepted shares, endurance and recovery remain pending. Match the complete model and confirmed controller; a family name does not establish eligibility. Raw-image inspection rows forbid boot-media preparation, while other stated routes require exact authorized lab or existing-runtime prerequisites.

What about Bitaxe-class miners?

The ESP32-S3 member of the family ships today as DCENT_axe — you can flash it from the browser at /flash/ onto sixteen Bitaxe, Lucky Miner and Hammer Miner boards. The repo's DCENT_OS_ESP/ tree is the source route for the same family: build with the esp-rs toolchain and flash over USB with espflash, per TESTING.md Tier 1. Bitaxe Max / Ultra / Supra / Gamma / Hex-class boards are covered — Gamma live-verified, the others driver- and host-tested — with a built-in MCP (AI-control) server. Source: root README.md (supported-hardware table); TESTING.md (Tier 1); the DCENT_axe page.

What about Avalon and WhatsMiner?

Both are in development — Avalon (Canaan) architecture is scaffolded, WhatsMiner (MicroBT) reverse engineering and bring-up are underway. The repo makes no mining claim for either yet. Source: root README.md (platform table).

What is the "universal hash board" feature?

Zynq-era Antminers share an 18-pin hash-board connector and UART protocol. DCENT_OS detects the chip via the ChipID command (0x1387 = S9, 0x1397/0x1398 = S17/S19, 0x1362 = S19j Pro) and loads the right driver — so in validated/lab configurations an inexpensive S9 control board can drive supported later-generation hash boards. Treat mixed-generation rigs as per-route lab work until their exact control board, hash board, power and recovery path is listed in the platform matrix. Source: docs/PLATFORMS.md; docs/FAQ.md.

Do I need a smart PSU or a Loki board? Does 120 V work?

No smart PSU or Loki board is required. Three PSU modes are supported: Bypass (estimate power from frequency/voltage tables; run any dumb PSU), Auto-Detect (probe a PMBus-capable PSU), and PMBus Monitor (full telemetry from a smart PSU). APW3 / APW7 / APW12 and generic bench supplies are supported through these modes on proven lanes, and 120 V household power is supported via PSU bypass on the appropriate hardware. Caveat from the same page: Amlogic and BeagleBone PSU-bypass behavior remains live-soak gated — don't infer those lanes from S9 proof. Source: docs/PLATFORMS.md ("Power supplies").

Trying, installing, undoing

Can I try DCENT_OS without owning a miner?

Yes — Tier 0 of the repo's test ladder runs entirely on your computer (Linux or Windows WSL): the daemon test suite (the same one CI runs) and the full dashboard driven by ~70 mocked API endpoints:

cd DCENT_OS_Antminer/dcentrald
rustup toolchain install 1.90.0
cargo +1.90.0 test --workspace --locked

cd ../dashboard
npm ci && npm run build
python3 scripts/preview-with-mocks.py --port 4173
# open http://127.0.0.1:4173 — Space Heater / Mining / Hacker modes, no miner required

Source: TESTING.md (Tier 0). Full walk-through: Run DCENT_OS in 15 minutes — no miner required.

How do I install it?

Use the current exact-board installation boundaries. Seventeen native SD sets run with the card inserted and do not authorize NAND writes. Base S9 has a first-install-only archive requiring a confirmed source-firmware route. S19j Pro Zynq has a guarded existing-DCENT_OS inactive-slot update requiring verified restore preparation and a runtime that already accepts the development authority. Host key selection does not change miner trust. Keep existing firmware if the exact route is unavailable.

Can it brick my miner? Is there an undo?

It can. The repo's golden rule: "always keep a known-good recovery path (SD card, stock/BraiinsOS slot, or a full NAND backup) before writing anything persistent to a miner" — and its install guide warns that automatic failed-boot rollback is not guaranteed. The reversible tiers exist precisely for this: the S9 SD-boot trial touches no NAND (pull the card to undo), and the /tmp runtime trial on an SSH-accessible Antminer is undone by a reboot. Source: TESTING.md (golden rule, quoted verbatim; Tier 2); docs/INSTALL/README.md (public-beta warning, Option A).

How do I go back to stock firmware?

Depends on how you installed:

• S9 SD-boot trial: the full uninstall is removing a card:
  1. Power the miner off.
  2. Remove the SD card and return JP4 to the original position you photographed before the trial.
  3. Power on. The previous NAND firmware boots, exactly as you left it — the trial never wrote to NAND.
• Bitaxe-class: reflash stock ESP-Miner with esptool or the Bitaxe web flasher at any time; the flash is fully rewritable over USB.
• /tmp runtime trial: reboot — the trial lived in RAM; the incumbent firmware boots untouched.
• Persistent Antminer installs:For persistent Antminer installs, DCENT_Toolbox documents a per-vendor revert-to-stock lane — dcent install --revert-to-stock — covering BraiinsOS recovery-mode NAND rewrite, VNish firmware/remove, and DCENT_OS/LuxOS uninstall.sh. The honest label from its own README: this lane is code-complete and operator-gated, with BraiinsOS/VNish live proof still pending.

Every exit, in one place: Uninstall DCENT_OS / restore stock. Source: docs/INSTALL/README.md (Option A); TESTING.md (Tier 1/Tier 2 undo); DCENT_Toolbox README.md (capabilities table).

How do I verify a download is genuine?

Choose the exact release and board card, preserving original filenames and companions. For beta20261002, verify with the explicitly announced development public key; the July key and default trust pins remain unchanged. Checksums check bytes but do not authenticate the publisher. Native SD verification checks the outer signature, media layout, component hashes and signed runtime with exported companions. Sysupgrade archives require their signed payload manifest. Use the card's complete read-only verification before writing; host verification does not change running miner trust.

Running it

Will DCENT_OS make my miner quieter?

Quiet home operation is a design goal, not a verified comparative result for the current Experimental packages. Physical qualification remains pending. Compare measured noise and wall power on the same exact controller, cooling, PSU and firmware versions using the benchmark protocol.

Is it faster than Braiins OS+ or VNish?

This Experimental release establishes no performance superiority over Braiins OS+, VNish, LuxOS, ePIC UMC OS or Mujina. Compare measured hashrate, accepted shares, wall power and noise on the same exact model and controller, with the same cooling, PSU, pool conditions and identified firmware versions. Package verification and software features do not replace measurements. Read the benchmark protocol, which is a measurement method rather than a published comparison result.

Can I run an old miner as a space heater?

Heat reuse is a design goal, with build- and controller-specific limits. The retained October source does not advertise a room-temperature setpoint or closed-loop thermostat capability. In the S19j Pro Xilinx hybrid lane, the 600, 900 and 1200 W presets are saved requests that are not applied by a watt-control owner. A displayed BTU/h value is calculated from the power value and inherits that value's measurement or estimation limits; it is not a room-heating or thermal-safety qualification. Read the S9 heat-mode lab validation protocol and the measurement protocol before treating any result as demonstrated behavior.

Can I mine to any pool?

The source implements configurable Stratum V1 pool routes; this Experimental publication does not establish accepted-share qualification for every pool or controller. Stratum V2 remains default-off behind its readiness gate. October default donation configuration is disabled at 0%; retained settings may differ. An optional donation route is separate from your own pool configuration and does not guarantee share or payout percentages. Review configuration and the current exact release limits.

Does it phone home or need a cloud account?

No. The dashboard is served locally off the miner — no cloud account, no telemetry phone-home, no remote-management backdoor. All UI assets ship with the firmware (no Google Fonts, no CDN). Source: docs/FAQ.md.

Why is it written in Rust?

A miner is critical infrastructure sitting in your home, controlling real voltage and heat. A memory-safety bug in firmware can brick hardware or worse; Rust eliminates that entire class of bug by construction, which is why dcentrald is written in it. Source: docs/FAQ.md.

Community

Can I contribute? Where do I report bugs or security issues?

Contributions are welcome — bug reports and bring-up findings go through GitHub Issues (use the platform-bring-up template; community test reports, success or failure, are how bring-up models get promoted). Security issues go to security@d-central.tech, not a public issue. Source: docs/FAQ.md; TESTING.md ("Reporting results"); repo SECURITY.md.

Answers adapted from DCENT_OS_Antminer/docs/FAQ.md, TESTING.md, docs/PLATFORMS.md and docs/INSTALL/README.md (fetched 2026-08-13). Where the site and the repository disagree, the repository's per-model evidence tables win. Full docs: the documentation hub.