Hi all

For many years I've been running boinc as a service on my Mac(s), because I have several accounts on the machine (family Mac) and I want to be sure that's it's always running. I had this setup working fine for years, with several versions of boinc.

I used a script found on the wiki to do that, that installed a "BOINCManager.plist" and then I can use

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.BOINC.BOINCManager.plist

to start the service

or

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.BOINC.BOINCManager.plist

to stop it (because start and stop command are not enough, it will restart quickly by itself)

I know it's running as a service then because I see

24-Apr-2016 14:51:54 [---] Running as a daemon

However for quite a long time now (but I never took time to try to solve it, I have a workaround) and I think it started with v7 version of boinc, when running as a service it cannot connect to the network / internet anymore.

This happens :

24-Apr-2016 14:52:18 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:18 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: numberfields.asu.edu (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:18 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'numberfields.asu.edu'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:18 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 14
24-Apr-2016 14:52:18 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:18 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://pogs.theskynet.org/pogs/notices.php?userid=3067&auth=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:19 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:19 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: pogs.theskynet.org (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:19 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'pogs.theskynet.org'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:19 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 15
24-Apr-2016 14:52:19 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:19 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://www.primegrid.com/notices.php?userid=19866&auth=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:20 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:20 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: www.primegrid.com (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:20 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'www.primegrid.com'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:20 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 16
24-Apr-2016 14:52:20 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:20 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://www.rnaworld.de/rnaworld/notices.php?userid=5433&auth=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:22 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:22 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: www.rnaworld.de (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:22 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'www.rnaworld.de'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:22 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 17
24-Apr-2016 14:52:22 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:22 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/notices.php?userid=8158921&auth=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:23 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:23 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: setiathome.berkeley.edu (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:23 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'setiathome.berkeley.edu'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:23 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 18
24-Apr-2016 14:52:23 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:23 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://gene.disi.unitn.it/test/notices.php?userid=66&auth=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:24 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:24 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: gene.disi.unitn.it (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:24 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'gene.disi.unitn.it'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:24 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 19
24-Apr-2016 14:52:24 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:24 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://universeathome.pl/universe/notices.php?userid=6564&auth=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:25 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:25 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: universeathome.pl (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:25 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'universeathome.pl'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:25 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 20
24-Apr-2016 14:52:25 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:25 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://lhcathome2.cern.ch/vLHCathome/notices.php?userid=159&auth=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:26 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:26 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: lhcathome2.cern.ch (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:26 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'lhcathome2.cern.ch'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:26 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 21
24-Apr-2016 14:52:26 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:26 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://bearnol.is-a-geek.com/wanless2/notices.php?userid=4029&auth=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:27 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:27 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: bearnol.is-a-geek.com (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:27 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'bearnol.is-a-geek.com'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:27 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 22
24-Apr-2016 14:52:27 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:27 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/viewNoticesRSSFeed.action?userIdHash=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:28 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:28 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: www.worldcommunitygrid.org (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:28 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'www.worldcommunitygrid.org'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:28 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 23
24-Apr-2016 14:52:28 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:28 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://wuprop.boinc-af.org/notices.py?userid=742&auth=<key>
24-Apr-2016 14:52:29 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:29 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: wuprop.boinc-af.org (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:29 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'wuprop.boinc-af.org'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:29 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 24
24-Apr-2016 14:52:29 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:35 [---] [network_status] need_phys_conn 0; trying http://www.google.com/
24-Apr-2016 14:52:35 [---] Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
24-Apr-2016 14:52:35 [---] [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://www.google.com/
24-Apr-2016 14:52:36 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
24-Apr-2016 14:52:36 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Could not resolve: www.google.com (Could not contact DNS servers)
24-Apr-2016 14:52:36 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Couldn't resolve host 'www.google.com'
24-Apr-2016 14:52:36 [---] [http] [ID#0] Info: Closing connection 25
24-Apr-2016 14:52:36 [---] [http] HTTP error: Couldn't resolve host name
24-Apr-2016 14:52:36 [---] BOINC can't access Internet - check network connection or proxy configuration.

So I have to stop the service with unload and then start boinc manager so it will start in a normal mode, and then all is working fine and projects can be contacted.

And not running it as a service is what I've been doing for a long time now so "I can live with it" but then why is it not working as a service ?

Thanks for your help.

Is it possible that the service runs in a different session than the drivers for the network card do and that it therefore needs special enhancements?

Can you tell which OS X this is under and with which version number of BOINC?

---

Mac OS X 10.11.4 and Boinc 7.6.22.

This started several boinc (and Mac) versions in the past, "I think" from boinc 7.x, with the same Mac (I had this one since early 2010) but probably older version of OS X, but I can't tell which one).

Here is the content of the plist :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
	<dict>
		<key>Disabled</key>
		<false/>
		<key>Label</key>
		<string>com.BOINC.BOINCManager</string>
		<key>Program</key>
		<string>/Applications/BOINCManager.app/Contents/resources/boinc</string>
		<key>ProgramArguments</key>
		<array>
			<string>/Applications/BOINCManager.app/Contents/Resources/boinc</string>
			<string>--allow_remote_gui_rpc</string>
			<string>--daemon</string>
			<string>--redirectio</string>
			<string>--dir</string>
			<string>/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/</string>
		</array>
		<key>UserName</key>
		<string>boinc_master</string>
		<key>RunAtLoad</key>
		<true/>
		<key>KeepAlive</key>
		<true/>
		<key>OnDemand</key>
        <false/>
	</dict>
</plist>

I do have "boinc_master" and "boinc_project" users, there are also used when running boinc in normal mode.

I found an older thread with similar problem connecting to DNS server, maybe the tip there helps.

BOINC on OS X 10.9 refuses to connect to internet

Although I have no idea why it works for you in normal mode but not as service.

Sorry for the wait on this, but I forwarded this thread to the developer of BOINC on the Mac. Perhaps that he knows what causes this.

---

OK thanks, hopefully they have some idea!

Answer from Charlie:
Charlie Fenton wrote:

Hi Jord,

I compared his plist with the one installed by the script I have provided at http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/Make_BOINC_Service.sh and found a couple of possibly significant differences. The one installed by the Make_BOINC_Service.sh script has the following 2 key/value pairs:

        <key>GroupName</key>
        <string>boinc_master</string>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>edu.berkeley.boinc</string>

while JeromeC has the following key/value pair:

                <key>Label</key>
                <string>com.BOINC.BOINCManager</string>

I don't know if these make a difference or not.

Cheers,
--Charlie

---

That's definitively an interesting finding, the fact that my definition is missing the name of the group (ie user ?) to be used, thus having an impact on the capacity to use some system level functions.

My plist is most certainly a very old one, I never thought it could eventually be updated, I'll try to do this asap.

Thanks !

Changing this parameter in my plist was a bit chaotic, somehow I managed to make it impossible to stop boinc as a service now, I cannot start it from boinc manager anymore, the launchctl command I used to use doesn't want to unload it anymore, it *has* to run as a service now...

... but, but, boinc as a service can now connect to internet !

So I hope it keeps working because I'll be in a big trouble if it doesn't :)

Thanks !!

Great! Thanks, I'll let Charlie know. :-)

Oh by the way, the not being able to stop the service, can't that be something to do with permissions, or lack thereof? You could try looking through http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Tools_for_Mac_OS_X for help on that (rerun permissions).

---

Hi Jerome,

For more information please download and read the comments in http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/Make_BOINC_Service.sh (or use the link to it from http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/Make_BOINC_Service.sh). Basically, I believe you should be able to stop the service with:

sudo launchctl stop edu.berkeley.boinc

and restart it with:

sudo launchctl start edu.berkeley.boinc

If you have installed the boinccmd utility in the BOINC Data folder, you can also stop the daemon using:

cd "/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data"
./boinccmd --quit

If all else fails, you might try removing your plist file from the /Library/LaunchDaemons folder, run the Make_BOINC_Service script and restart the system. This will install a plist named edu.berkeley.boinc.plist in the /Library/LaunchDaemons folder. If that all works for you, then you can then modify my script as you wish (such as to add the --allow_remote_gui_rpc argument.)

---

Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Hi Charlie

Actually I had done a mess : I had both edu.berkeley.boinc.plist and com.BOINC.BOINCManager.plist inside /Library/LaunchDaemons/ :)

Therefore, boinc couldn't access Internet this morning, and then after messing around it could again, then the boinc manager couldn't connect to boinc at the first try, but at the second it could...

==> I deleted com.BOINC.BOINCManager.plist and now I think it's OK !

Thanks for your help.

Very weird : each time I start the Mac I have the problem again, it's running as a service and cannot connect to the net...

But now it's different : I use "sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/edu.berkeley.boinc.plist" which stops the service, but then it restarts by itself quickly as a service (and before when I used to stop my previous plist file, it would stop completely that way...), and then it works well, boinc can connect to the net !

Also now I have issues with boinc manager that has a hard time connecting to boinc by itself (it normally starts automatically with my session) and I have to disconnect / reconnect to the client via the menu, and then it works.

So I'm a bit confused with the evolution of this issue...

Gee I don't understand anything... today I start up the Mac, boinc manager cannot connect to boinc, I have to manually select localhost, but then I see boinc is running as a service and can connect to the net without me doing anything else...

So basically "sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't" :/

Hi Jerome,

My best guess is that it is a question of timing during the startup process. Perhaps if the BOINC client is started too early problems arise? I'm not sure how to adjust that timing. You could also try the latest BOINC 7.6.32 development build.

Are you using the plist created by my Make_BOINC_Service.sh script or your modification of it?

---

Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Hi Charlie

The plist should be the one created by the script that I rerun the other day :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>GroupName</key>
	<string>boinc_master</string>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>edu.berkeley.boinc</string>
	<key>Program</key>
	<string>/Applications/BOINCManager.app/Contents/Resources/boinc</string>
	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
		<string>/Applications/BOINCManager.app/Contents/Resources/boinc</string>
		<string>-redirectio</string>
		<string>-daemon</string>
	</array>
	<key>RunAtLoad</key>
	<true/>
	<key>UserName</key>
	<string>boinc_master</string>
	<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
	<string>/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/</string>
</dict>
</plist>

I only have one in the LaunchDaemons folder (edu.berkeley.boinc.plist).

This morning the same happened, the service did start up automatically

07-May-2016 10:14:50 [---] Starting BOINC client version 7.6.22 for x86_64-apple-darwin
07-May-2016 10:14:50 [---] log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
07-May-2016 10:14:50 [---] Libraries: libcurl/7.39.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1j zlib/1.2.5 c-ares/1.10.0
07-May-2016 10:14:50 [---] Running as a daemon

but when my session opened I had to select manually the localhost from boinc manager cause it couldn't find it, and then I saw network errors,

07-May-2016 10:26:41 [https://am.statseb.fr/] Account manager RPC failed: can't resolve hostname
07-May-2016 10:26:41 [GoofyxGrid@Home] Scheduler request failed: Couldn't resolve host name
07-May-2016 10:27:16 [LHC@home 1.0] Sending scheduler request: Requested by project.
07-May-2016 10:27:16 [LHC@home 1.0] Requesting new tasks for CPU
07-May-2016 10:27:18 [LHC@home 1.0] Scheduler request failed: Couldn't resolve host name
07-May-2016 10:27:31 [RNA World] Sending scheduler request: Requested by project.
07-May-2016 10:27:31 [RNA World] Not requesting tasks: don't need (CPU: not highest priority project; AMD/ATI GPU: )
07-May-2016 10:27:35 [RNA World] Scheduler request failed: Couldn't resolve host name
07-May-2016 10:27:44 [WUProp@Home] Sending scheduler request: Requested by project.
07-May-2016 10:27:44 [WUProp@Home] Not requesting tasks: non CPU intensive
07-May-2016 10:27:46 [WUProp@Home] Scheduler request failed: Couldn't resolve host name

I only "stopped the connected client" from the menu, the service did start up again by itself,

07-May-2016 10:27:49 [---] Exiting
07-May-2016 10:27:52 [---] Starting BOINC client version 7.6.22 for x86_64-apple-darwin
07-May-2016 10:27:52 [---] log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
07-May-2016 10:27:52 [---] Libraries: libcurl/7.39.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1j zlib/1.2.5 c-ares/1.10.0
07-May-2016 10:27:52 [---] Running as a daemon

and then it was working fine with net access...

07-May-2016 10:28:37 [GoofyxGrid@Home] Sending scheduler request: Requested by project.
07-May-2016 10:28:37 [GoofyxGrid@Home] Not requesting tasks: non CPU intensive
07-May-2016 10:28:47 [GoofyxGrid@Home] Scheduler request completed

(I usually don't stop my computer daily but I have family in that room at the moment so I have to turn it off every night)

This morning, situation :

- i can see you are right, the service takes quite some time to really start boinc, I can see boinc process in memory not launching anything for a good moment, and then after several minutes the boinc tasks are loaded in memory
- boinc manager did start at the same time, so I guess it doesn't find boinc process is already running
- when I open it it's not connected, I have to select computer localhost and it's ok (not a big deal)
- and this morning net access was OK from the beginning, I didn't have to do anything actually...

I have thought of a couple of suggestions which may help.

If you don't already have your BOINC preferences set to suspend network activity when the computer is in use, try setting that. If you set it to suspend network activity when the computer has been in use within the last 3 minutes (for example), then I believe this will prevent network activity for the first 3 minutes after the system is booted. This may ensure that everything needed for the system to access the Internet is operational before BOINC tries to contact project servers.

To do this, set BOINC Computing Preferences to "Suspend when computer is in use" and set the Activity menu to "Network activity based on preferences". If you don't want to suspend CPU and GPU activity when the computer is in use, you can set "Run always" and "Run GPU always" in the Activity menu.

Also, you might try removing the BOINCManager login item (under System Preferences / Users and Groups / Login items) to ensure that BOINC Manager doesn't try to start the client at the same time the LaunchDaemon plist is trying to start it as a service. If you do this, then you will need to start the manager manually when you wish to use it.

---

Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer