Hello I have been running World Community Grid on Windows for many years and I would like now to install it on a Linux PC (openSUSE 13.1). I don't care much what BOINC version I get as long as it runs and it can connect to WCG. It's not working after trying for a while; I have read all the faq and help I could find and searched the forums.

I've tried to go the easy way and get BOINC from the repository via Apper. The version available is 6.12.43; there appear to be different builds or something: "6.12.43-6.1.3", "6.12.43-6.8.1" and "6.12.43-6.12.1". I've tried a couple, I'm now with "6.12.43-6.1.3". I have installed the packages boinc-client, boinc-manager, boinc-manager-lang and libboinc6.

The problem is when I open the BOINC Manager it fails to "retrieve current status" (more easily seen on the simple view) and I am not prompted/able to add any projects. After a while it changes from "wait" to "error" and there comes a popup saying that the "client has exited unexpectedly 3 times within the last 3 minutes. Would you like to restart it again?" If I choose yes it just tries and in the end fails again.

I see another symptom that may be important, whenever I open a new bash tab there is an error message: "bash: complete: default-boinc: invalid option name". Due to my low knowledge of Linux I don't know where this comes from or how to try and correct it by hand.

I also tried downloading BOINC directly from here but following the instructions it didn't work either, though now I don't remember all the details. I can try again. I'm also willing to try compiling from source if it's not too much of a bother, or whatever works. Thanks in advance for any help.

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I don't really understand where you are getting those 6.12.43 versions and why those versions have so weird version string. As far as I can see, openSUSE 13.1 should have 7.2.42 packaged.

Anyway, your problem. BOINC client can be set up to require a password to connect to it. When you were on Windows BOINC was probably installed so that you had permissions to read the password file. openSUSE appears to be different, by default only 'boinc' user/group can read the password file. See Installing BOINC on Fedora for instructions on how to set up BOINC. It says Fedora but openSUSE should be similar enough.

Thank you I have tried the steps from your link (recommended procedure keeping the password) but it isn't working yet. I ran the commands and put the login details in the boinc manager.

I'm not sure if the link implies that without following these steps the boinc manager should prompt me for the gui rpc password, because it never did, it just fails. I suspect I have other problems. I also keep getting the error message every time I open a shell.

Should I be now able (after the usermod step) to read gui_rpc_auth.cfg without sudo? Because my regular user still doesn't have permission.

This is a work computer so I don't know very well how it's configured or why this way, regarding the boinc version etc. Perhaps I should try again installing from the download here. It's also set to use /localhome/ instead of /home/ for users.

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Should I be now able (after the usermod step) to read gui_rpc_auth.cfg without sudo? Because my regular user still doesn't have permission.

Yes. Did you remember to log out and back in? After logging in you can use 'id' or 'groups' commands to see if your account is really in boinc group.

Thank you I have tried the steps from your link (recommended procedure keeping the password) but it isn't working yet. I ran the commands and put the login details in the boinc manager.

I'm not sure if the link implies that without following these steps the boinc manager should prompt me for the gui rpc password, because it never did, it just fails.

As it happens, I've been testing a really old version of BOINC for other reasons and that version does nag about the password. Current version of BOINC doesn't do that and hasn't done for a good while. Don't ask why, I don't know.

If you already did the log out and back in and checked the groups, then the next step is to make sure the BOINC client is really running. It should be started automatically when the computer is started. I don't know if the install script starts it right after installation. Use your favourite process manager application and make sure a program called 'boinc' or 'boinc_client' is running.

I also keep getting the error message every time I open a shell.

That seems to be a bug in the old package you have. It should be fixed in the more recent versions.

This is a work computer

Do you have permission to run BOINC on it? If you don't you may suddenly find yourself unemployed.

Perhaps I should try again installing from the download here.

The package available from this site is compiled on Ubuntu. I believe it's not compatible with openSUSE.

Thanks and sorry I take a while to follow up... I'm at work, also I had an unrelated driver issue on this PC, and I tried uninstalling but considering your last tip I'll keep trying the strange repository version.

Don't worry about the work PC, it's up to me (and it's really personal not any kind of server). However can boinc run with a lower CPU priority like I'm used to see on Windows, or how can it be configured this way on Linux? I do need it to fall back whenever any other process needs the CPU (of course).

I did log out and in again, but now I've tried fresh this sequence:

- Uninstall boinc
- Clean files (delete gui_rpc_auth.cfg at home and whole /var/lib/boinc/ dir)
- Reinstall boinc "6.12.43-6.1.3" and full restart

- I am prompted to generate a key by KGpg: this did not happen the previous time!
- Without really knowing what I'm doing, on KGpg I export my key to server hkp://keys.gnupg.net
- Full restart.
- Still failing to connect... I'm not prompted to enter any passphrase either.

> ls -l ~/gui_rpc_auth.cfg 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user1 users 31 Mar 23 14:00 /localhome/user1/gui_rpc_auth.cfg -> /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg
> cat ~/gui_rpc_auth.cfg 
cat: /localhome/user1/gui_rpc_auth.cfg: No such file or directory
> ls -ld /var/lib/boinc
drwxr-xr-x 2 boinc boinc 4096 Mar 17  2014 /var/lib/boinc

My id looks correct, although I had changed it before following the instructions on your link:

> id
uid=50007(user1) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),33(video),479(boinc)
> id boinc
uid=106(boinc) gid=479(boinc) groups=479(boinc)

I'm not sure what else to do, as it looks like the kind of permission changes detailed in your link should have been made by the installation?

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However can boinc run with a lower CPU priority like I'm used to see on Windows, or how can it be configured this way on Linux? I do need it to fall back whenever any other process needs the CPU (of course).

It should run at idle priority just fine.

- I am prompted to generate a key by KGpg: this did not happen the previous time!

No idea. Stock BOINC doesn't use GnuPG for anything and I don't see why SUSE packaged would either.

Did you check if the client is running? Run for example 'ps -A | grep boinc'. I don't know how to query service statuses on OpenSUSE. On Debian/Ubuntu I can check the status with 'service boinc-client status' and if the service isn't running start it with 'sudo service boinc-client start'.

Thanks... There was an unrelated problem with this pc and the sysadmin tried reinstalling the OS from scratch (without clearing ~ == /localhome/) which did not help, so I will be using a different pc from Friday, but with the same openSUSE/corporate configuration. So trying again...

1. Installed boinc "6.12.43-6.12.1".
2. Service boinc-client was not running. Started it manually.

> sudo /usr/sbin/service boinc-client status
boinc-client.service - LSB: BOINC daemon providing boinc-client
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/boinc-client)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2016-03-30 16:42:19 CEST; 17min ago
  Process: 6345 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/boinc-client start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   CGroup: /system.slice/boinc-client.service
           `-6353 /usr/bin/boinc-client --dir /var/lib/boinc

Mar 30 16:42:19 nlniedtb8vlg4j boinc-client[6345]: Starting BOINC Client ..done

> ps -A | grep boinc
 6353 ?        00:00:00 boinc-client
 7314 ?        00:00:03 boinc-gui

3. Still not connecting, not asking for password.
4. Repeated steps here (except linking the .cfg file which seems to be already done).
5. Log out and back in, still not connecting, not asking for password.

By the way the boinc manager process usually becomes zombie if I try to exit (Ctrl+Q) and I have to kill it before starting it again.

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https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/stat/viewMemberInfo.do?userName=XavierP

Do you have firewall active by any chance? BOINC client and Manager communicate over TCP port 31416. And the client needs ports 80 and 443 open to communicate with projects.

Could you check that the client really has the port 31416 open? You can try for example the following commands depending on what you have available:

lsof -a -c boinc -i
netstat -a -p -A inet

Next, if the port is open, lets try boinccmd.

boinccmd --passwd password --get_state

boinccmd may be called boinc_cmd in your distro. Replace 'password' with the contents of gui_rpc_auth.cfg . Do you get connection error or authentication/authorization error? (If you actually get the state no need to copy-paste it here.)

Thanks sorry I don't have Linux knowledge about firewall etc. How can I open it?

Also it seems to be jumping to a different port every time it fails, but not in predictable steps, so I don't know which one it will try next. I can't find where to configure this port number on the boinc manager.

> lsof -a -c boinc -i
COMMAND     PID  USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
boinc-gui 15584 user1   14u  IPv4  58367      0t0  TCP localhost:39816->localhost:xqosd (CLOSE_WAIT)

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Thanks sorry I don't have Linux knowledge about firewall etc. How can I open it?

I was kind of hoping for something like 'Oh right we have that corporate policy about firewalls. There's firewall icon in system tray. Let me open the ports there'. I don't use firewalls so I don't really know how to even check if you have one.

> lsof -a -c boinc -i
COMMAND     PID  USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
boinc-gui 15584 user1   14u  IPv4  58367      0t0  TCP localhost:39816->localhost:xqosd (CLOSE_WAIT)

My mistake, sorry. Turns out you can see open ports of only your own processes with lsof. Could you re-run it as root with sudo?

When everything works correctly you should see something like this:

COMMAND   PID USER   FD   TYPE  DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
boinc    2148 juha    5u  IPv4   18132      0t0  TCP localhost:31416 (LISTEN)
boinc    2148 juha    7u  IPv4  761117      0t0  TCP 192.168.1.33:54844->georgem.ssl.berkeley.edu:http (CLOSE_WAIT)
boinc    2148 juha    8u  IPv4 1739259      0t0  TCP localhost:31416->localhost:58536 (ESTABLISHED)
boincmgr 4926 juha   12u  IPv4 1739254      0t0  TCP localhost:58536->localhost:31416 (ESTABLISHED)

The first line tells that the client is listening on port 31416. Seconds line tells that the client has communicated with a server in Berkeley. Third and fourth line are an open connection between the client and Manager, one line for both sides of the connection.

In your case 31416 is shown as xqosd. No need to worry about that. IANA has registered port 31416 for some other protocol but it's unlikely enough that there would really be something other than BOINC using that port.

Another thing that came to my mind. BOINC Manager has an option to select which host it should connect to. The menu option is called something like "Select computer". I can't remember which menu had it in the version you have. If you find it put 127.0.0.1 in the host name field and put the contents of gui_rpc_auth.cfg in the password field. 127.0.0.1 is normally the same as localhost but don't use localhost, Manager has some bugs in how it handles that name.

It's not as nice as automatically connecting to the client but maybe it helps to see where things fail for you.

Another thing that came to my mind. BOINC Manager has an option to select which host it should connect to. The menu option is called something like "Select computer". I can't remember which menu had it in the version you have. If you find it put 127.0.0.1 in the host name field and put the contents of gui_rpc_auth.cfg in the password field. 127.0.0.1 is normally the same as localhost but don't use localhost, Manager has some bugs in how it handles that name.

Replacing "localhost" with "127.0.0.1" did the trick! I didn't thought about trying something so silly. Finally I got the opportunity to log into a project and get tasks.

This menu option is at "Advanced > Select computer..." and it was mentioned on the wiki link you provided (but instructing to enter "localhost", so I didn't think twice about it). Maybe should be edited?

Thanks so much for all the patient help!

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https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/stat/viewMemberInfo.do?userName=XavierP

So client was running and was using the right port and everything else worked except the Manager couldn't read or find gui_rpc_auth.cfg file.

Do you want to continue troubleshooting so that the Manager can connect to the client automatically?

Sure how is that? As in the wiki link? Also I'm not sure what step is not being done automatically, since I don't usually log out or shut down this machine.

And how can I check if the client is configured to start automatically? I had to do "/usr/sbin/service boinc-client start" by hand.

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https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/stat/viewMemberInfo.do?userName=XavierP

Also I'm not sure what step is not being done automatically,

I meant that when you start Manager you wouldn't need to type in host name and password. Instead the Manager would figure out all that by itself.

And how can I check if the client is configured to start automatically? I had to do "/usr/sbin/service boinc-client start" by hand.

openSUSE 13.1 uses systemd as init system. The BOINC package you have now pre-dates systemd and uses whatever the init system before systemd was called. I would have imagined that systemd has some backward compatibility thing with the previous system but guess not.

You could download boinc-client.service file from openSUSE Build Service and put it in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ . I won't promise it will work with the older package though. On second thought, you could actually download 7.2.42 from the same page. That would sort out the automatic start and it should have a fixed bash-completion file too. You can find the package files by clicking 13.1 on the left side of the page. You shouldn't need the debug, devel and src packages or the xml and buildenv files. On Ubuntu I have to install multiple packages that have cross dependencies on the command line, the GUI tool can install only one package at a time. I don't know if openSUSE has better GUI tool or even what command to use on the command line.

While on the OBS page notice the comment at the end of the page. It was there when we started the troubleshooting but I only now actually saw it. I'm not sure if it's a bug in Manager or what's going on. Try editing /usr/bin/boinc-manager and add "-d /var/lib/boinc" at the end of the exec line.

Thanks, and sorry again for the late reply. I will try these things first of all when I can.

The package manager for Suse is called zypper. The GUI frontend (Apper) does detect and handle dependencies.

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