Problem with starting boinc

Support Software & Applications
1

I have been having issues stating boinc. I have followed all the Arch wiki instructions and the only way I can get it to work is the following. Just clicking on the menu entry gives the following error:

gui_rpc_auth.cfg exists but can’t be read.  See https://boinc.berkeley.edu/gui_rpc.php

So here is what I have to do to get it to launch without an error.

First go to CLI and type in the following commands:

sudo usermod -a -G boinc $USER
exec su $USER

Then while in the cli type the command:

boincmgr

It then launches and I can use it.

I would like to just use the menu choice without having to do all the above stuff.

Any ideas on what is going on?

Thanks

Edit:

something is wrong with my code tags

2

Yes, because you were escaping them unnecessarily, as this shows:

\[code\]

I have replaced them for you, using a row of three backticks above and below the command examples – it’s much simpler. Cheers.

3

Some thoughts:

1 boinc has a dependency webkit2gtk-4.1 . Since gtk2 is being fased out (read the unstable thread anouncement. (you are on unstable according to your profile) this might have something to do with it? It might not tho.

2 There is a service to connect to and it needs acces to the credentials, have your read and executed this (from the wiki)

BOINC via the GUI

By default, a password is created in /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg for connecting to the daemon. To simplify connection of the GUI to the daemon, create a link to this file in your home directory.

$ ln -s /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg ~/gui_rpc_auth.cfg

3 post the contents of the .desktop file that starts the boinc manager so users can see what you start and why it could fails.

4

It looks like the “new shiny” might be webkitgtk-6.0 but his is only conjecture, at best.

I don’t know that boinc supports it, but as gtk2 is being phased out (as mentioned) it might be worth trying – but, be aware, it also installs a lot of … stuff – please perform your own research before considering it.

Treat this only as a guess.

5

Evidently this hasn’t been phased out yet. boinc installs correctly

I have the service enabled and started.

I created the link per that command already

I never can find where the .desktop files are located. Can you point me where to find it? I never mess with them,

6 
$ pamac list --files boinc |grep desktop                                                                                                                                                              
/usr/share/applications/boinc.desktop

Is the default file from the package

7

Normally, .desktop files can be found in:

/usr/share/applications

Some foreign applications might install them under your /home/$USER directory, instead; example:

~/.local/share/applications/

Note that if you can’t find a launcher in the Menu, try looking in “Lost+Found”, or use the Menu search – type boinc and see what is found.

8 
[demo@Manjaro applications]$ cat boinc.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Version=1.0
Exec=/usr/bin/boincmgr
Path=/var/lib/boinc
Icon=boinc
Categories=System;Monitor;GTK;
Name=BOINC Manager
GenericName=BOINC monitor and control utility
GenericName[cs]=Monitorovací a ovládací nástroj pro BOINC
GenericName[de]=BOINC Überwachungs- und Kontrollprogramm
GenericName[pt]=Monitorização BOINC e utilitário de controlo
Comment=Configure or monitor a BOINC core client
Comment[cs]=Monitoruje a nastavuje klienta BOINC
Comment[de]=BOINC Basis Client konfigurieren oder überwachen
Comment[pt]=Configurar ou monitorizar o cliente básico do BOINC

Edit 1:

Today I launched it from the menu and it worked as expected.

I didn’t do anything different and didn’t make any changes.