How do I use the Bitcoin GUI app to mine bitcoins?

I'm new to Bitcoin. I installed and ran the GUI app, checked "Generate Coins" in the Settings menu, and the status bar reads "Generating". How do I know if it's actually working?

I'm aware that mining is a CPU-intensive process that could take a long time; this is why I'm skeptical that the app is working. top reveals that bitcoin is only using about 25% CPU. I haven't limited CPU use in the Preferences.

I've read the mining guide on weusecoins.com. It says I must setup JSON-RPC, but it's ambiguous about how to do that. Do I need to set a username/password in the config file that it points to on the wiki? If so, how do I create a username?

I'm running on Mac OS X and Bitcoin 0.3.21-beta, the latest at the time of this post.

Solution 1:

When you first start, it has to download data from the Bitcoin network so that it can have something to work with. Just give it some time and it'll eventually start generating.