How to start BOINC Manager

Hello,

   From the OpenSuse 12.3  repository I installed the BOINC Client and Manager. The manager shows "retrieving current status" then stops after a few minutes and displays "Error". It appears to be unable to connect the outside servers. Thanks for any assistance.

I did the same install. But could not connect to localhost (even not after giving the password from /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg, adding myself to the Boinc user group with YAST). No show:(

After much ado I gave up.
I removed Boinc client and manager with software management and then installed Boinc with this variant:
64 bit OpenSuSE u. Solaris BOINC
It gives you a *.sh. After making this executable you can start it by executing it through cli. It worked out of the box and I’m helping to cure Malaria right now. I need to find out still, but I installed locally as a test, so I don’t think the installation will persist after reboot.

Is there anyone out there who succeeded in using the repo version?

I read my post and saw the BOINC-related anger cooking. After some herbal tea I’m easy now. So let’s try again.

You’re problem could be related with mine, but I have no way to determine. You can see in my signature the system I’m using. What’s yours? openSUSE 12.3, I presume, with KDE? Gnome? Xfce? Which version? Perhaps you could give the exact error?

Since I removed the packaged version from the repos, I can not reproduce my error. As far as I can recall, these were the steps I took:
1 First thing I did was installing the following

su -c'zypper in boinc-client boinc-client-doc boinc-client-lang boinc-manager boinc-manager-lang libboinc6'

I’m not sure libboinc6 is necessary, but it seemed to do no harm.

2 I started the BOINC Manager, I saw there was no connection in the manager window and then I was offered with a second window that asked my for a computer and a password. It didn’t work and it reported that it kept trying to connect (when I tried to reconnect through the pulldown-menu in the Managers window). I checked the documentation that came with the boinc-client package (something like SUSEREADME) and followed the instructions: I typed “localhost” and then the password that resides in

/var/lib/boinc/ gui_rpc_auth.cfg

.
3 It still said it could not connect with the localhost. On the internet I saw that I as a regular user need to be a member of the BOINC-user group. So I started YAST and opened the user management tool, edited the regular user and added “boinc”. After this I restarted my system and loged in. In a terminal I used the following command to check that a BOINC process was running:

ps aux | grep boinc
username    23036  0.0  0.0   8328   860 pts/1    S+   22:47   0:00 grep --color=auto boinc

Oké, something BOINC-ish was running. I assumed it was the client, but I could have been wrong.
But the manager still could not connect with localhost. Thus I could not login and load a project.

After many Google-searches (to no avail), I found the website I mentioned in my first post.
I removed the BOINC packages I installed earlier on with YAST.
I downloaded the script, put it in my /home/username/bin. Then I made it executable and executed it. It installed a /home/username/bin/BOINC and instructions how to start the BOINC manager:

/home/username/bin/BOINC/run_manager

After running this I was presented with the list of projects and off I went downloading the Malaria project and SETI after that.

Is this helpfull?

I still don’t have a clue why the packaged version is not working, though. Anyone?

I know I got it working after a struggle a while ago. The readme included in the package is found here: https://build.opensuse.org/package/view_file?expand=1&file=README.SUSE&package=boinc-client&project=openSUSE%3A12.3


#####################################################################################################################
Exported from http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC on May 15, 2010, see current version online.
#####################################################################################################################

Installing BOINC on openSUSE


    * 1 Basic installation 
    * 2 What the installer does 
    * 3 Verify the installation 
    * 4 Set up your accounts 
    * 5 Optional setup hints 
    * 6 Uninstallation 
    * 7 Known problems 

    Basic installation

Installs BOINC Client as a daemon (autostarts the BOINC client at boot
time) and puts a BOINC Manager icon on the applications menu. The steps
are:

   1. Open a terminal, enter |su|, give the root password when prompted.
   2. Enter |zypper install boinc-client boinc-manager|
      (be patient while the BOINC package downloads and installs).
   3. Optional: after the installation is finished, enter
      |/sbin/chkconfig boinc-client on|
      to have Linux auto-start the boinc-client daemon at boot time.
      (See Stop or start BOINC daemon after boot
       page for helpful
      commands for managing the daemon) 


    What the installer does

   1. Creates the daemon script at /etc/init.d/boinc-client.
   2. Places the BOINC binaries (boinc_client, boinc_cmd and boincmgr)
      in /usr/bin/.
   3. Creates /var/lib/boinc/ for BOINC data files and the slots and
      projects directories.
   4. Names the daemon boinc-client.
   5. Creates a user named boinc. For security, boinc owns the BOINC
      data directory (/var/lib/boinc/) and all the data files and
      sub-directories it creates in the data directory. 


    Verify the installation

   1. If you elected to have Linux start the daemon at boot time (see
      step 3 in section Basic installation), logout and reboot Linux now
      and login under your normal user account.
   2. If you elected to not have Linux start the daemon at boot time,
      start the daemon manually with |/sbin/service boinc-client start|
   3. Open a terminal and enter |ps aux | grep boinc| to print a partial
      list of running processes. You should see |boinc_client --daemon|
      in that list, if not then something went wrong in the steps above. 


    Set up your accounts

To use the GUI to set up your accounts and monitor progress:

    * Start "boincmgr" on the command line or select Applications ->
      System Tools -> Boinc Manager from the GNOME menu.
    * Select Advanced -> Select computer... from the Boinc Manager menu.
    * Put "localhost" in for "Host name" and the contents of
      /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg for "Password" and hit "OK". 

If you do only the basic installation as described above, BOINC manager
will not be able to automatically connect to the client. To connect the
client you will be required to give the GUI RPC password every time you
start BOINC manager. That is not a bug, it is a security feature to
prevent other users from using the manager to manipulate the client,
change your projects, etc.

If you don't want to put the password every time you run the BOINC
manager, you can:

   1. disable the password at all *not recommended*]
      To make the GUI passwordless, do "echo >
      /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg" (which replaces the contents of
      the file with a newline) and then restart boinc-client (with e.g.
      "/sbin/service boinc-client restart").
   2. *with boinc-client-6.4.7-1.r17542svn and newer* it is enough if
      you just add your user account into the "boinc" group, e.g. by
      typing |/usr/sbin/usermod -G boinc -a username|
   3. *with older versions* the procedure is a bit more complicated:
      Boinc (the user named boinc) owns /var/lib/boinc/ and all the
      files and directories in it so you will not be able to edit those
      files easily from your regular user account. The steps below add
      your username to the boinc group and adjust some permissions so
      that BOINC manager will automatically connect to BOINC client
      whenever you start the manager from your regular Linux user
      account. Also you will be able to edit files in the BOINC
      directory without becoming root. As you type in each command
      below, substitute your Linux username wherever you see |username|.
      Enter the following commands in a terminal, as root:
         1. |/usr/sbin/usermod -G boinc -a username|
         2. |chmod g+rw /var/lib/boinc|
         3. |chmod g+rw /var/lib/boinc/*.*|
         4. |ln -s /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg
            /home/username/gui_rpc_auth.cfg|
         5. |chown boinc:boinc /home/username/gui_rpc_auth.cfg| 


    Uninstallation

As root, in a terminal, enter

 yum remove boinc-client boinc-manager


    Known problems

boinc-client sometimes has problems connecting to the network, if the
network connection comes up after the client has already started. This
is a known BOINC bug, which is filed as #707.

In the meantime, you can fix this by restarting boinc-client. On the
command line as root, do "/sbin/service boinc-client restart".
Alternatively, from the GNOME menu, you can choose System ->
Administration -> Services and then stop and start the boinc-client
service.

Thank you for your reaction. This is the procedure I used to install BIONC without result. Appearently, you had no errors connecting to localhost. I wonder how this is possible? I will try to reproduce the connection error one more time and will report back in two days or so (sorry, work and stuff).

I installed boinc-client and boinc-manager. Next I added myself to the boinc group using YaST. After a log out and back in I ran sudo systemctl start boinc-client and then I ran boinc-gui.

It asked me to setup my account, which I have SETI@Home, but it seems to be down? Not sure if that is a program error or not. Though it works easily enough here.

http://i.imgur.com/feMG5MIl.png](http://imgur.com/feMG5MI)

Nightwishfan:

I know I got it working after a struggle a while ago. The readme included in the package is found here: https://build.opensuse.org/package/v…penSUSE%3A12.3

Oké, I followed the procedure you referred to, as I did before, up untill the first start of the BOINC Manager. And I’m as stuck as MikeRgs was with what looks like the same error

From the OpenSuse 12.3 repository I installed the BOINC Client and Manager. The manager shows “retrieving current status” then stops after a few minutes and displays “Error”. It appears to be unable to connect the outside servers. Thanks for any assistance.

In more detail: after loading the BOINC Manager from a terminal the first time, it displays in its window “retrieving current status”. After a while (about 15 seconds), it says “error”. The terminal is a bit more informative, though: it shows

linux-g02n: # boincmgr

(boinc-gui:17237): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_widget_get_direction: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

I have no clue though what it means. Google never heard of this failure message.

This time no mentions of “could not connect to localhost”.
It would also be very nice if the person who started this thread cares to comment on his proceedings?:sarcastic:

I have gave up, after endless attempts, to get Boinc running. The World Community grid is important to me, so I have un-installed OpenSuse and installed Boinc on Ubuntu. Thanks for all the help.

Tnhx, MikeRgs for your reaction. A bit of a shame though that you gave up already without participating in this thread. I’m possitive you could have made this work with the help of the community here and it proved to be a nice puzzle.
But I’m glad we could help you a bit and perhaps we hear from you again in the future.

Any new information? I also get the can’t connect to localhost error. I’ve tried everything in this thread without success. The last time this happened, I rolled back to an earlier version. I have run boinc for years and always have a problem with an OS update. This worked until I upgraded to 13.1 Also get Error 2 when starting from cli.

I’m sorry to say that I gave up on this one. I never got it to work easily on openSUSE and choose to spend my energy on smth else. Hopefully someone else can help you.

As has been posted, the BOINC client that works on OpenSuse 13.1 can be downloaded here: http://www.rechenaugust.de/boinc/

The BOINC software available at boinc.berkeley.edu is unfortunately compiled and made to run on Ubuntu. I believe it looks for the GTK dependency files in /usr/lib64/ whereas on OpenSuse 13.1 x64 those files are in /usr/lib64/wx-2.8-stl. I wonder if copying the files from /usr/lib64/wx-2.8-stl/ to /usr/lib64/ would allow the client to run.

don’t copy make a link

Unfortunately, those versions of boinc won’t work on my 32-bit system. Not being sure of which files to link (or exactly how and where to do it), I fell back on an old solution. I start boinc-manager from a root terminal. It throws up some errors. But, as long as the terminal is open, boinc runs normally. Somewhere, boinc starts itself at boot, which won’t work because I have to do the root terminal thing. Then, it is hard to kill to get a clean version started. My solution is to not shutdown once boinc is running.:wink:

I have the same problem. No matter if I’m using BOINC version 6 or 7, the BOINC manager fails to connect to the client (which itself is running properly in the background, as seen by systemctl status boinc-client). It seems to try and spawn its own boinc process and fails repeatedly, then says “disconnected”. Though if I cd to /var/lib/boinc and run sudo boinccmd --run_benchmarks, the benchmarks do get run. So at least that’s something, although not quite ideal…

If all problems seem to go away when run from root cli, it seems we must be having a permissions problem. How is that overcome?

Yea, the problems do go away when using the CLI as root. I was able to register to a project and start contributing that way without issues. So it’s just the GUI (in my case, even when launched as root, the GUI doesn’t connect properly).

On Fri 28 Mar 2014 09:16:01 PM CDT, GreatEmerald wrote:

Yea, the problems do go away when using the CLI as root. I was able to
register to a project and start contributing that way without issues. So
it’s just the GUI (in my case, even when launched as root, the GUI
doesn’t connect properly).

Hi
I just downloaded the BOINC manager from their website;
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

Created a work directory owned by my user, ran then installed, then the
manager app and it complained about some missing
libwx_x_x-2_8-0-wxcontainer libraries, installed those and it works
fine?

http://paste.opensuse.org/296e9805


Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.11.10-7-desktop
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Well yes, but that’s a workaround; it obviously doesn’t integrate into the OS properly and does not use the package manager. The real solution would be to fix the officially provided packages (I’m using https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?project=network&package=boinc-client right now).

Speaking of which, the bugzilla doesn’t seem to list anything about BOINC. Maybe it would be a good idea to create a bug entry for this?

Hi
Just to clarify the ‘official’ package is version 6.12.43-6.12.1 form oss update, the one you link to is the development repository ie the development release and unofficial.

So if the version I indicated is not working then for sure a bugzilla against openSUSE 13.1, else for that one you need to click on the ‘Report Bug’ link (just below the description) on the boinc-client page (this will create the appropriate bugzilla).