If I click on the BOINC Manager icon in the Ubuntu Unity launcher, it flashes for a while and then stops flashing, rather than flashing for a while and the application opening about a second after I click the icon.

It's 1000 times quicker to take actions through this UI than through using command

boinccmd

, so I'd really rather get it running again. I've rebooted the computer, but it still didn't work.

I suspended all my projects just before I had to shut down the computer about 2 hours ago, so nothing's happening on any of them right now.

I see on https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Boinccmd_tool that I can start tasks one at a time, but I can't see any way to use boinccmd to "resume all tasks" or "suspend all tasks".

Out of sheer desperation, I just used the command

sudo boincmgr

and the UI started, so I am able to operate for the time being, however some problem has occurred within the last couple of hours, and I would like any help that anyone can provide to fix the problem and be able to start the UI by clicking the icon, as I have always been able to do for years until earlier this afternoon.

Out of sheer desperation, I just used the command

See When requesting help - need versions please

Also you need to look at and post error messages possibly in two files logged in

~/.BOINC/stderrgui.txt
~/.BOINC/stdoutgui.txt

This looks like the lockfile issue on Linux. Check in your home directory if there is a file called 'BOINC Manager-<USERNAME>' where <USERNAME> is your actual username. If there is you can simply delete it and you should be able to use the Unity Shortcut again.

My apologies. I know perfectly well that I need to state version number of applications when looking for support. I must have just forgotten yesterday in my exasperation.

I use BOINC Manager version 7.6.31 (x64).

Yep that was it.

I don't know anything about

the lockfile issue on Linux

. Is it worth knowing?

Yep that was it.

That's good news, thanks for feeding back.

Was anything posted in either of those logfiles?

I don't know anything about

the lockfile issue on Linux

. Is it worth knowing?

boinc manager should display an error if a problem exists with lockfile, possibly indicating something about another manager is running.

I'm guessing if you typed

boincmgr -m

You may have seen an error about another instance running.

Was anything posted in either of those logfiles?

I don't know anything about
the lockfile issue on Linux
. Is it worth knowing?

I gather you mean

~/.BOINC/stderrgui.txt
~/.BOINC/stdoutgui.txt

which in my case would probably be

/mnt/InternalHDD/boinc-client/stderrgui.txt
/mnt/InternalHDD/boinc-client/stdoutgui.txt

because I've located all high-write-cycle stuff onto the HDD instead of the SSD.

I'm guessing if you typed

boincmgr -m

You may have seen an error about another instance running.

It's too late to find out.

In any case, the important thing is I'm up and running again. Hap-hap-happy.

Uh-oh. It was still fine yesterday, but I just tried to start BOINC Manager and the icon flashed but the application didn't start.

I then checked, and

~/BOINC Manager-el_gallo_azul

is there again. I'll delete it again now, but is there a nice clean way of preventing it from occurring again?

PS I did a quick

boincmgr -m

and it said that another instance is already running. I just had a quick look in

gnome-system-monitor

and there is no other instance running, so it seems to be a problem with that lockfile not being automatically deleted occasionally.

Someone needs to simply fix it: https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/issues/1576

Yes, there are several things to fix.

boincmgr should not exit silently on error conditions.

boingmgr -m should run if there is a file.

The file stores a PID so that should be helpful and seems it's not uncommon looking at the link http://trac.wxwidgets.org/ticket/17046

Probably the best workaround until fixed is to write a clean-up script via lightdm conf

[SeatDefaults] 
session-setup-script=/usr/bin/boincmgr.clearlock.sh

If it sees the lockfile but no boincmgr running, then remove the lockfile.

Strangely i have never come across this problem in my world.