Can you imagine the outcry if it were to be made that interesting (difficult) for Windows users?

Or for Science United users with no access to the normal help channels?

Can you imagine the outcry if it were to be made that interesting (difficult) for Windows users?

Or for Science United users with no access to the normal help channels?

Best thing that could happen to Science United :-)

Hello,

I was having problems with this error after upgrading Ubuntu 18.04.4 to 20.04.1 and also upgrading Boinc to 7.16.15 from 7.16.6.

The error was similar to other posts: invalid client rpc password

The problem persisted after removing ~/.BOINC* and uninstalling boinc-client and boinc-manager and rebooting.

What worked was redoing the Optional Setup Hints listed at the very bottom of the Debian installation page. Something about permissions on gui_rpc_auth.cfg is not getting setup correctly.

By the way, this never generated any output: sudo systemctl start boinc-client
It runs but is silent. I think it should provide an [ok] or some confirmation.

Marc

David Anderson has proposed making passwords optional again: https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/pull/4071.

It's not in the current alpha build - that's a separate conversation - but it's a move in the right direction.

However, there's no obvious way back for the people who are now stuck with a password they didn't ask for and can't (easily) access. I would have preferred that he fixed the real problem (inadequate collaboration with the people who make the distro installers), rather than leave everybody in limbo from his failed experiment.

I also had issues with Pop!_OS (20.10 version). I expected it to be easy--it wasn't. I had the gui_rpc_auth.cfg problem, and couldn't get boinc-client to start. I put my user password into the empty .cfg file, and added my username to the BOINC group. I don't know exactly which of several commands I tried actually started the client because when I finally tried the 'status' command below it had been running several minutes. I thought monitoring running processes with task manager (System Monitor 3.38.0) would help identify the problem, but after getting boinc running, only 'boincmgr' is displayed. On my Ubuntu 14.04 system, the running process is identified as /var/lib/boinc-client , and running tasks are also shown.
I was able to confirm the client start with... sudo systemctl status boinc-client. When the boinc-manager is closed, there is no indication of the status of the boinc-client. With the 7.16.11 (x64) version of BOINC Manager, there is no decision to 'Stop running tasks when closing Manager'. This forces the user to either 'Suspend' before closing the window, setting the preferences to some % of CPU activity as a trigger to suspend BOINC, kill the process with the terminal, or leave the system to take care of itself and live with any hidden performance degradation.

Years of experience with many Linux distros but no 20.X versions, and BOINC, but have not seen this problem before. Usually I just install with Synaptic and all is well. A plain-text password in a cfg file......not a good idea? Or was it all caused by a non-running boinc-client, an installation or startup error?

Probably because of this.
https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/issues/3639
Your Pop!_OS distro managers probably mangled the client service as described in the BOINC issue.

I thought monitoring running processes with task manager (System Monitor 3.38.0) would help identify the problem, but after getting boinc running, only 'boincmgr' is displayed. On my Ubuntu 14.04 system, the running process is identified as /var/lib/boinc-client , and running tasks are also shown.

Presumably it would still have shown in top or htop in a terminal.

Try running the client alone by itself in a terminal session. Navigate to the boinc executable directory and run it.

Does it stay running? You can see the output of client in the terminal. Look for reasons in the output why it is quitting.

Hi all,
I'm new to this board so please be kind.
I had some issues with getting the Einstein@Home sphere screensaver to run on my various Ubuntu 20.04 Linux computers. Some were addressed already here like making sure that if you want to install the latest version of BOINC you need to fully purge the old one. I ran into this on one of my dual boot HP notebook computer. After I did the command line purge I was able to successfully install the latest version of BOINC. Before I tried to use the Ubuntu Software briefcase to reinstall BOINC. However, BOINC would not start what so ever. Then I remembered using the command line to fully purge the aforementioned BOINC install.

Then I completed a fresh install of BOINC. I sat there watching the BOINC Manager and noticed after a while it wasn't downloading any data from Einstein@Home website after I had connected to the project. There were 4 new data sets that where tagged with downloading. However, I noticed it was taking way too long and my modem wasn't displaying any download activity. So, I decided to experiment with the Computing Preferences. I unchecked two boxes that instructed BOINC to suspend; Suspend when computer is in use and Suspend GPU computing when computer is in use. Again, I UNCHECKED these two. After I unchecked the two boxes BOINC Manager began to successfully download the new Einstein@Home data. The download took a few minutes. After it finished I noticed that the "Show Graphics" button was no longer greyed out. When I clicked on this button a new window opened with the Einstein@Home Celestial Sphere screensaver appeared and is now working!!

I also had done a fresh install on another Ubuntu 20.04 Dell notebook and kept seeing that the display graphics button for Einstein@Home was always greyed out.

When I unchecked those two mentioned above the display button changed and was no longer greyed out. So, I clicked on the button and a new window appeared with the Einstein@Home celestial sphere screensaver working as I had hoped. Why should this be the case? I am not a programmer..

Anyway, I now have BOINC and the Einstein@Home celestial sphere screensaver happy and working on my Ubuntu 20.04 Linux computers!!

So far I can't get the celestial sphere screensaver to load on my Windows 10 Home edition (only) computer. I do get the BOINC logo screensaver with the message that the Einstein@Home screensaver is loading. But, it never does.

Regards,
John

---

Hi all,

I have an update for Windows users (me too).

I unchecked those same boxes in Computing Preferences in the BOINC Manager on my Windows 10 Home edition and guess what? The Einstein@Home screensaver Celestial sphere now is operational. (I'm Completely Operational, and All My Circuits Are Functioning Perfectly!) Sorry for the HAL 9000 computers words.

Again, I am not a programmer. I wonder if there needs to be some tweaking with future BOINC Manager and client?

Regards,
John

---

The default use of BOINC is on computers when these do nothing, aka idle time computing. Thus the preferences for suspend when computer is in use are correct default settings. The network will also be suspended until the BOINC detects the computer isn't being used for N minutes. Then it'll download work. So, there's nothing broken, all settings/preferences are as they should be.

Okay Gals and Guys...
I upgraded Ubuntu 20.10 and BOINC Manager to 7.16.16 and now when I push the "Show Graphics" button nothing happens, that is no screensaver star sphere opens..

Now, having updated BOINC Manager to the latest version for Ubuntu 20.10 to 7.16.16, pushing the “Show Graphics” button on any of the 4 running tasks, nothing happens. That is, no starsphere. So, what am I now missing?

Specs

A Dell Inspiron 5737 notebook computer
Ubuntu 20.10 64bit
wxWidgets version 3.0.5
Computing Preferences are local

Running with a Genuine Intel Core i7 4500 U CPU @ 1.8 GHz 4 cores
Intel HD graphics 4400 (HSW GT2)
8 GB RAM
1.0 TB HDD

GNOME Version 3.38.3

Windows Version X11

Display 1600 x 900 (16:9) Highest available
Refresh Rate 60.1 Hz

I've purged and reinstalled several times but still no luck.

Any help will be most appreciated.

I have made this:

1 - install BOINC on Windows
2 - copy file gui_rpc_auth.cfg in /etc/boinc-client folder
3 - Open BOINC Manager


In may case the file has this content:
94860edeb661926edd6e85fb734cd971

Hi all

I'm running BOINC on Raspberry 4B with Ubuntu 20.10.
I experienced these issues, and also the issues from this thread https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=14013&sort_style=&start=0.

In addition to many of the suggestions made here, the final solution for me was to follow the Optional Setup Hints for Debian listed here.
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC_on_Debian

Hope this is helpful to someone.