Running BOINC

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#1

Whats the deal with this BOINC Manager? I have used it on many other systems the past, Solaris, Windows, Ubuntu, never an issue getting it to work. With OpenSUSE, it seems to be an issue; I used the zypper connected respositories similar to the way Fedora would do it with yum; I installed the client based on the directions found here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC_on_Fedora;
zypper install boinc-client boinc-manager; I assume this installs the correct packages?

systemctl start boinc-client.service

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

  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. Finally, logout and login again
    so that your new group membership takes effect.

I did all this; nothing happens, the manager will not connect to the work units servers at all. Should I uninstall it and forget it?

#2

Hi
So what is the status of the service?


systemctl status -l boinc-client.service

I’ve only ever run as my user (as in install the sh package), never worried about the rpm…

I do see a later version is at the development project (and also a comment)
https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?project=network&package=boinc-client

#3

rthornton@b590:~> systemctl status -l boinc-client.service
boinc-client.service - Berkeley Open Infrastructure Network Computing Client
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/boinc-client.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2016-05-25 09:21:35 EDT; 1h 15min ago
Main PID: 1301 (boinc)
CGroup: /background.slice/boinc-client.service
└─1301 /usr/bin/boinc --dir /var/lib/boinc

rthornton@b590:~>

#4

Hi
So it is running, just not doing squat…

Perhaps try the later version from the network repo?

#5

Hi
I see from the service file there are some logs created down in /var/log, check those as well; /var/log/boinc.log and /var/log/boincerr.log

#6

I uninstalled the packages; zypper rm boinc-client etc.

I was looking at the sh version; its old, version 7.2; Ubuntu 15.10 runs 7.6; Right now I am cheating - running a vm of Ubuntu with boincmgr running.

I downloaded the src code from git and am make the objects now for version 7.7; will see how that goes.

#7

Hi
Well 7.2.42 is the recommended version according to;
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php

I’m playing with the system service file (running as my user) to see if I can figure out why the client won’t start.

#8

On Wed 25 May 2016 06:06:01 PM CDT, malcolmlewis wrote:

BSDuser;2779739 Wrote:
> I uninstalled the packages; zypper rm boinc-client etc.
>
> I was looking at the sh version; its old, version 7.2; Ubuntu 15.10
> runs 7.6; Right now I am cheating - running a vm of Ubuntu with
> boincmgr running.
>
> I downloaded the src code from git and am make the objects now for
> version 7.7; will see how that goes.
Hi
Well 7.2.42 is the recommended version according to;
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php

I’m playing with the system service file (running as my user) to see if
I can figure out why the client won’t start.

Hi
OK so just using the systemd service file from the rpm and running that
(via root user) and tweaking the file locations and just using my user
worked fine…

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
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#9

Here are some details that I found needing doing to get through the “Disconnected” problem.

  • The directory /var/lib/boinc and all sub-directories need to be owned by user “boinc” and group “boinc”
  • The password file gui_rpc_auth.cfg needs to be in the BOINC data directory /var/lib/boinc
  • The file gui_rpc_auth.cfg needs to be chmod’ed 664
#10

Unfortunately the boinc_client daemon does not recognize when the computer is “in use” during normal activities. The only time it recognizes “in use” is when text is typed into an open shell window (Example: Konsole)

#11

Another detail. A symbolic link to /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg needs to be created in the user’s home directory.

#12

It is annoying and may not be what you want to do, but I long ago gave up trying to fix boinc-manager and simply run sudo boinc-manager. Works every time. A milestone for me: just crossed the million point line! Of course, I’ve been running it for many years and changed my user name. So, I probably have 2 million points.:slight_smile:

#13

BOINC Manager runs fine for me. No need to run it as root.

I learned that the missing “in use” detection is because of security concerns. The BOINC daemon would need to be permitted to see the typing and mouse clicks of all users. It’s a purposed decision to not allow this.

Possible work-arounds are to run boinc-client as the logged-in user or to use other options to control when boinc-client runs, such as time-of-day scheduling or only when CPU % use is low.