Been running BOINC for years, been running it on Linux Mint for >1 year and now I can't get it to bring up the Manager. Tried restarting, tried a couple of simple command line things (sudo service boinc-client restart), quick searched the message boards.

I'm no pro at Linux; anyone have any advice for what to try next?

Been running BOINC for years, been running it on Linux Mint for >1 year and now I can't get it to bring up the Manager. Tried restarting, tried a couple of simple command line things (sudo service boinc-client restart), quick searched the message boards.

I'm no pro at Linux; anyone have any advice for what to try next?

There was a similar message from David Pickett. He ran a strace on it and it would look like there is a desktop file that might be causing the issue. See this message

That suggests that in your home folder there will be a file called BOINC Manager-xxx that probably stores information about where to position it on your desktop.

---

MarkJ

Correct. This is the Manager lockfile. Try deleting it and restarting the host to recreate it.

That did it.

For anyone else who has this problem:

Go to your home directory, and then the user directory.

rm BOINC\ Manager-xxxx

where "xxxx" = the suffix at the end of your manager file.

Thanks, all.

You can also start htop:

sudo htop

Press the 'F4' key, and type 'mgr' or 'boinc'.
'boinc' is less recommended, because it'll show your active WUs and the client as well, which can show a lot of lines if you have a lot of CPU cores.

You'll see if a Boinc manager is still running, and how many instances are opened.
You can kill the process by pressing 'F9'.
then restart Boinc manager.

An extra Manager doesn't necessarily have to be running to cause the issue. All it takes is for the Manager lockfile to be corrupted or left behind and it will prevent the Manager from starting. Deleting the left behind lockfile will always work and allow a new instance of the Manager to start.

An extra Manager doesn't necessarily have to be running to cause the issue. All it takes is for the Manager lockfile to be corrupted or left behind and it will prevent the Manager from starting. Deleting the left behind lockfile will always work and allow a new instance of the Manager to start.

Indeed, I have noticed that some programs e.g. browsers allow more than one instance to run at the same time but a left behind corrupted lockfile stops one from opening even if none is currently running.

in my case, I just always F9 all the boinc entries.
It'll just restart fine

Again, no Manager or BOINC processes need to be running to prevent the Manager from starting. Do this experiment. While the Manager is running, find the BOINC Manager-{username} file in BOINC directory or /home location and mark it non-deleteable by running this command:

sudo chattr +i -V BOINC Manager-{username}

Now exit BOINC. Now try and restart the Manager. You won't be able, because the lockfile prevents it. You will need to remove the chattr immutable flag with this command:

sudo chattr -i -V BOINC Manager-{username}

to get the Manager to restart.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

That intermittent problem has been bugging me since I started - I know what to do now :-)