How to set up BOINC on Fedora 24

[stratacast1]

I love using my computer for BOINC, but it has always been an unfruitful venture for me on Fedora. However, I just managed to get it working! So here is what I came up with.

First, you need to install the proper packages:

sudo dnf install boinc-client boinc-manager

Once installed, you need to create a directory somewhere in your user's ~/ directory to symlink a file. I made my directory ~/.boinc. Next, we will symlink the needed file:

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

Then give the boinc user/group permissions to that link:

sudo chown boinc:boinc gui_rpc_auth.cfg

Then, we need to set some directory permissions:

sudo chmod g+rw /var/lib/boinc

sudo chmod g+rw /var/lib/boinc/*.*

Then start the client service, and enable it so it loads on boot:

sudo systemctl start boinc-client.service

sudo systemctl enable boinc-client.service

I want to say from here you can just launch boincmgr from your desktop, but I didn't try that so I'm not sure if it will work right away at this point. But here is what I did from here. Go to the ~/.boinc directory (or whichever you chose in the earlier steps), and run the "boincmgr" command. You should get a window now to select your projects and login. Once that is complete, go back to the terminal and kill the boincmgr process. Now you should be able to open up boinc-manager from your desktop with one caveat. This instance isn't connected to the client. So you have to go to File..Select Computer and enter 127.0.0.1 for your local machine, then copy the string out of gui_rpc_auth.cfg into the password field. Now you should be done!

[sidebrnz]

Thanx! This worked like a charm for me.

BTW, I posted a link at the BOINC project forum and a moderator claimed that it's insecure:

Access to the content of gui_rpc_auth.cfg allows anyone to control your locally installed BOINC client. Anyone with read access to client_state.xml can read your authenticator and login with your account at your projects. Securing the client directory and presetting a password was done intentionally by the Fedora packager.

Personally, I think he's wrong, because even if you're running this on a box with multiple accounts, it's trivial to set the permissions on ~/.boinc to forbid access to others.

[antikythera]

very odd response. I'm with you about the triviality of permission setting. also, you can set the firewall to drop all incoming connection attempts. so unless they are sat at the machine, good luck to them...

I've been BOINCing for fedora team for a little under 2 weeks run time now and it's processing quite nicely. I have it running on a schedule during 08:00 and 17:00 set in the GUI. I also have a tablet processing on the same schedule when connected to mains power.

[stratacast1]

sizebrnz, you're right about that. There's no point in having multiple users have access to this login since it's all just one machine running this, so you would then want to have your user running BOINC have the only read-only permissions of the gui_rpc_auth. You can also just leave your permissions at something like 600 or 700 for that file too, so even if someone could get it remotely, they'd have to be you. No bother in it really. I'm pretty sure these are the instructions on Debian pages too

[sidebrnz]

Two weeks? I first started with BOINC on Dec 31, 2004 at 8 AM UTC. At first it was on a Win 98 box that wasn't on 24/7, but even so, I've racked up roughly 2.25 years of computing time. And, I've recently installed it on my Android phone. Like yours, it only runs when the phone's plugged in (hard coded into the software) and only reports back when you're on WiFi to keep from eating capped data. Mostly that means that it runs during the night when the phone's charging, but sometimes I'll plug it in while driving to get more compute time and to avoid eating battery power when I'm using the GPS.

[antikythera]

Two weeks? I first started with BOINC on Dec 31, 2004 at 8 AM UTC. At first it was on a Win 98 box that wasn't on 24/7, but even so, I've racked up roughly 2.25 years of computing time. And, I've recently installed it on my Android phone. Like yours, it only runs when the phone's plugged in (hard coded into the software) and only reports back when you're on WiFi to keep from eating capped data. Mostly that means that it runs during the night when the phone's charging, but sometimes I'll plug it in while driving to get more compute time and to avoid eating battery power when I'm using the GPS.

yeah i used to do it years ago for folding@home. I lost the account details so it was simpler to start from scratch and widen the projects a little with world community grid this time. i have them running during those hours because it's daylight so the machines are powered by solar electric. I'd be interested in a Tesla Wall or Mercedes equivalent if they weren't so damn expensive still.

[TruboXL]

sorry for necro, but I think boinc on fedora is too much of a hassle

selinux nagging errors
wxwidgets incompatibility, resulting in weird gui manager, too big on 1366*768
gpu detection is broken (or working with an "insecure" workaround)

then the boinc on wine on fedora has incomplete cpu priority support and 60-90% performance compared to native Windows, based on BOINC own cpu benchmark on my laptop

I stopped boincing on fedora nowadays and mostly on android and Windows...

EDIT: also boinc wiki has some seriously outdated instructions on how to install boinc on fedora...

[stratacast1]

TruboXL, I have to 100% agree, the state of BOINC on Fedora is a disaster right now, which is why I also stopped. Same with folding@home since it requires Python2.6, which Fedora doesn't ship. Linux BOINCing I have found only works well and easy on Debian-based distros, so I sadly stopped using those altogether since I'm only on Windows a few hours a week to play games, and that's virtually it

[antikythera]

It's seemingly still working okay with CentOS 7 apart from the advanced view in the GUI manager which is static. The simple view shows progress in realtime for each task still. according to system monitor the quad-core CPU is maxed out when BOINC is crunching at full capacity. Of course if I run another task that demands more than 50% CPU time it suspends activity.

[hrsetrdr]

TruboXL, I have to 100% agree, the state of BOINC on Fedora is a disaster right now, which is why I also stopped. Same with folding@home since it requires Python2.6, which Fedora doesn't ship. Linux BOINCing I have found only works well and easy on Debian-based distros, so I sadly stopped using those altogether since I'm only on Windows a few hours a week to play games, and that's virtually it

Yea, I just finished traveling this same path. I found some BOINC setup info here, but was unsuccessful... perhaps there may be some important differences between the Fedora 24 method, and setting up BOINC on fedora 27(MATE).

I'm running rosetta@home in BOINC under Wine on my fedora box; the Debian machines were trouble free to set up and run BOINC, for reasons I don't fully understand. SElinux policy, or ? Eventhough I uninstalled firewalld the BOINC manager still could not connect to the client.

[antikythera]

it's a fiddly beast to get up an running. it's essentially to do with user rights and the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file creation. I'm not sure why the setup procedure is still so clunky for linux but it sadly is. try this

First kill boincmgr if it's running and remove gui_rpc_auth.cfg if it already exists in your home directory, then...

sudo systemctl enable boinc.service
sudo systemctl start boinc.service
sudo gpasswd -a [username] boinc
ln -s /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg gui_rpc_auth.cfg
sudo chmod 640 gui_rpc_auth.cfg

as you've already started the program, this time it should work because gui_rpc_auth.cfg will have been generated in /var/lib/boinc/

[hrsetrdr]

Well now, running BOINC native, rather than through Wine. Not sure what the key was, I shouldn't do late night computer projects...
I did uninstall firewalld, uninstalled boinc-manager & boinc-client, deleted the boinc directory in /var/lib.

This morning re-installed boinc-manager & boinc-client.....got a config window, put the rosetta@home url and my account info, getting work now!

[justinacolmena]

Well, I have to confess I failed art appreciation class, and I do not get along with the dudes who share images on IRC ....

[antikythera]

Well, I have to confess I failed art appreciation class, and I do not get along with the dudes who share images on IRC ....

what if anything has this got to do with setting up and using BOINC?