I recently had a disk problem and had to restore my backup to a new disk. Now when I launch BOINC Manager I get this dialog message:

Communicating with BOINC client. Please wait …

I tried:

1. Reinstalling boinc_7.6.12_macOSX_x86_64
2. Turning off my Mac's system software firewall.

What else can I do to try getting BOINC running again?

Thank you for your help.

- nello

Run the stand-alone security script (Mac_SA_Secure.sh) available from http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Tools_for_Mac_OS_X#Using_BOINC.27s_security_features_with_the_stand-alone_BOINC_Client.

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I downloaded the file and read the comments and have some questions:

# Make a BOINC installation "secure" on a Macintosh with stand-alone BOINC Client
# The BOINC installer does this for a Macintosh installation with BOINC Manager;
# the BOINC Manager contains the BOINC client embedded in its bundle.
# if you ran the BOINC installer, you do not need to use this script unless you
# wish to run a separate copy of the stand-alone client in the BOINC Data
# directory.

I ran the BOINC Installer on my Mac. I'm happy to run this script, but according to this comment, it seems that it's already been run.


# Execute this as root in the BOINC directory:
# cd {path_to_boinc_directory}
# sudo sh {path}/Mac_SA_Secure.sh

Sorry to ask a stupid question, but is the BOINC directory:

/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data

I ran the script, but there is an error about not finding the switcher application:

Argus:~ nello$ sudo sh /Library/Application\ Support/BOINC\ Data/Mac_SA_Secure.sh
Password:
Changing directory /Volumes/MacUsers/User/users/nello file ownership to user and group boinc_master - OK? (y/n)
y
Can't find switcher application in directory /Volumes/MacUsers/User/users/nello; exiting
Argus:~ nello$


Did I run it from the wrong directory? How do I get the switcher application?

Sorry to ask a stupid question, but is the BOINC directory:
/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data

yes, You must do this first:

cd "/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data"

(note the quotation marks!) or

cd /Library/Application\ Support/BOINC Data"

(without quotation marks)

An easier way to do this is to type cd followed by a space, then drag the BOINC Data folder from a Finder window on to the Terminal window.

But the message

Communicating with BOINC client. Please wait …

is normal. You may need to wait a minute or two for it to go away.

If it does not go away after several minutes, I doubt that running there script will help. I would try running the installer again.

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Looks like a reboot solved the problem.

Sorry for bothering everyone.

Thank you.

- nello

Looks like a reboot solved the problem.

What's the #1 step in resolving a computer problem?

"Is the system powered on?"
"Is the system plugged in?"
"Have you rebooted the system?"

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My Detailed BOINC Stats

I'm running BOINC Manager 7.6.12 on a recent iMac. I have set up older machines to run their daily back-ups when the user is logged out. And on logging in BOINC Manager would start up as a login item. This works perfectly under 10.6.8 but fails under 10.10.5. BOINC Manager hangs when 'Communicating with BOINC client', all its menus are greyed out and I have to quit. Relaunching BOINC Manager does not cure the problem. The only cure is to reboot the computer, this isn't a disaster but rather an annoyance. Is there a way to overcome this hang?

Try running the "Uninstall BOINC" utility (in the Extras folder) and then running the BOINC Installer again.

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Try running the "Uninstall BOINC" utility (in the Extras folder) and then running the BOINC Installer again.

Done that without rebooting and got the same message to the effect that BOINC Manager was trying to 'connect to localhost' which it failed to do. I suspect that the 'cure' is rebooting and that I'll have to do at login after the back-ups that run when I'm logged out, have run. Maybe a result of the extra security in Yosemite over that in Snow Leopard?

I can't reproduce this with BOINC 7.6.12 running under OS 10.10.5 on my Early 2008 Mac Pro. You don't say how long you wait for the Communicating with BOINC client alert to go away. Although it never lasts more than 15 or 20 seconds for me, please allow several minutes before you assume that it failed.

Other than that, I don't have any more ideas for you. Sorry.

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

I can't reproduce this with BOINC 7.6.12 running under OS 10.10.5 on my Early 2008 Mac Pro. You don't say how long you wait for the Communicating with BOINC client alert to go away. Although it never lasts more than 15 or 20 seconds for me, please allow several minutes before you assume that it failed

I've left it for as much as five minutes without any joy.

Wnen I logged in this morning after Mac sleep, BOINC Manager started up as one of my login items. Again it failed to find the localhost. I decided to restart, the restart was cancelled by BOINC Manager. BOINC Manager also refused to quit and I had to force quit it in order to restart. Once restarted BOINC Manager started up normally. It seems that this BOINC Manager gets locked up when it hasn't managed to find the localhost, is there no way to 'force' the connection?

Again it failed to find the localhost.

Failing to find localhost is a completely different thing than what you wrote before, 'Communicating with BOINC client'. Failing to find localhost usually means that the client crashed. I did see that once in my tests with OS 10.10.5, but the manager successfully restarted the client in that test.

'Communicating with BOINC client' generally means that it found the client but there is a delay getting a response from it, though I suppose it might be possible that the client crashed after communication was established.

Open Activity Monitor (in /Applications/Utilities/) to see if boinc is running in addition to BOINC Manager. Be sure to set All Processes in Activity Monitor's View Menu.

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Again it failed to find the localhost.

Failing to find localhost is a completely different thing than what you wrote before, 'Communicating with BOINC client'. Failing to find localhost usually means that the client crashed. I did see that once in my tests with OS 10.10.5, but the manager successfully restarted the client in that test.

'Communicating with BOINC client' generally means that it found the client but there is a delay getting a response from it, though I suppose it might be possible that the client crashed after communication was established.

Apologies for being unclear. BOINC Manager (BM) was reporting 'Communicating with BOINC client, Please wait' ... while the message 'Connecting to localhost' appeared in the border of the BM window. After several minutes BM wait no communication was established so I clicked 'Quit BOINC Manager'. Restarting or reinstalling was unsucessful. The sole solution was reboot.

After a night of computer sleep (i.e. no-one logged in) BM refused to allow me to restart/shut down and once again I was forced to force-quit BM. Since then I've looked at the BOINCManager messages in Console where I've found:

07/11/2015 09:28:46.081 BOINCManager[31117]: WARNING: 'The Gestalt selector gestaltSystemVersion is returning 10.9.5 instead of 10.10.5. Use NSProcessInfo's operatingSystemVersion property to get correct system version number.
Call location:'

By the way boinc itself reported

07/11/2015 09:32:17.401 boinc[589]: [CL_INVALID_OPERATION] : OpenCL Error : Failed to retrieve device information! Invalid enumerated value!

These messages may mean nothing but better to report them than not. The next time I find this problem, I will check Activity Monitor as you suggest.

Those console messages are normal.

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Those console messages are normal.

OK. Earlier I wrote:

Apologies for being unclear. BOINC Manager (BM) was reporting 'Communicating with BOINC client, Please wait' ... while the message 'Connecting to localhost' appeared in the border of the BM window. After several minutes BM wait no communication was established so I clicked 'Quit BOINC Manager'. Restarting or reinstalling was unsucessful. The sole solution was reboot.

I think that I've hound an inelegant solution. Just before before logging out last evening I quit BM. This morning BM started up as a login item and started up as it should.