Trying to script the editing and re-reading of /etc/boinc-client/global_prefs_override.xml. To do this, we can edit that file, and poke boinccmd to re-read the global prefs override file via:

boinccmd --read_global_prefs_override

On Ubuntu server 14.04, this works fine:

$ boinccmd -V
boinccmd,  built from BOINC 7.2.42 

$ sudo boinccmd --read_global_prefs_override

But on Fedora server 22, it errors out:

$ boinccmd -V
boinccmd,  built from BOINC 7.2.42 

$ sudo boinccmd --read_global_prefs_override
Operation failed: Error -1                                      <<<<---- oops

Uncertain how to get a more verbose error message.

Note that on Ubuntu, the global prefs override file is where we expect:

/etc/boinc-client$ ls -al | grep override
-rw-rw-r--   1 root  boinc  2121 Mar  4 00:04 global_prefs_override.xml

However, on Fedora, this didn't exist, and instead it's only here:

/var/lib/boinc-client$ ls -al | grep override
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root  root      43 Feb 13 14:34 global_prefs_override.xml -> /etc/boinc-client/global_prefs_override.xml

, tried creating a symlink (guessing that this might be a problem) but it didn't help.

/etc/boinc-client]$ ll
total 1
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 40 Mar  4 00:17 global_prefs_override.xml -> /var/lib/boinc/global_prefs_override.xml

Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this?

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~Fermulator

Note that on Ubuntu, the global prefs override file is where we expect:

/etc/boinc-client$ ls -al | grep override
-rw-rw-r--   1 root  boinc  2121 Mar  4 00:04 global_prefs_override.xml

However, on Fedora, this didn't exist, and instead it's only here:

/var/lib/boinc-client$ ls -al | grep override
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root  root      43 Feb 13 14:34 global_prefs_override.xml -> /etc/boinc-client/global_prefs_override.xml

, tried creating a symlink (guessing that this might be a problem) but it didn't help.

/etc/boinc-client]$ ll
total 1
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 40 Mar  4 00:17 global_prefs_override.xml -> /var/lib/boinc/global_prefs_override.xml

Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this?

Didn't you just create a deadlock here? Two symbolic links linking to each other? You should put the real file in /etc/boinc-client so the symlink from /var/lib/boinc-client has a target. You should also check the Ubuntu installation. There should also be a symlink from /var/lib/boinc-client to /etc/boinc-client

Another thing you should keep in mind. If you ever change the global preferences using the manager the symlink possibly get's overwritten. You should test this out.

In addition to what Christian said.

This looks like a password problem. In Debian/Ubuntu the BOINC client is set up to not require password when connecting to it. I believe this is not the case for Fedora.

The password is stored in gui_rpc_auth.cfg file in BOINC's data directory, in /var/lib/boinc-client in this case. boinccmd tries to read the password file from current directory so you can either change the current directory to BOINC's data directory, or you can specify the password on boinccmd command line (boinccmd --passwd abcd).

The password is usually readable by boinc account only. To have access to BOINC's files I like to add my account to boinc group, others like to use sudo.