I upgraded the OS two days ago. I am able to start the BOINC Manager, although it is very laggy (slow to react) but I am unable to add any projects. Until the OS upgrade, I had 8 projects running.

When I try to

Tools>Add project or account manager...

I receive the error message

BOINC Manager - Unexpected Exit
The BOINC client has exited unexpectedly 3 times within the last 5 minutes. Would you like to restart it again?

Lots of unclear information:
- Did you update the OS without uninstalling programs, expecting them to work again later?
- Did you check beforehand for compatibility problems with various programs between the distros?
- Did you install BOINC from Berkeley, or repository?
- Did you really mean 7.2.7, or did you mean 7.2.27, or even something else?
- What if you update to a newer version than what you have, if must be one of the latest 7.3 alpha versions?
- What, if anything, does it say in the various stderr*.txt and stdout*.txt log files?
- Did you even start the client, or only BOINC Manager? Under Windows will BOINC Manager start the client, but I don't think it does so under Linux and OS X.

---

- Did you update the OS without uninstalling programs, expecting them to work again later?

Yes

- Did you check beforehand for compatibility problems with various programs between the distros?

No. I have never done that before, and I have upgraded since Ubuntu 10.04 (or possibly earlier, but I can't remember before 10.04). Occasionally, one application might not work for a little while, until its updated version appears in the upgraded OS repository.

- Did you install BOINC from Berkeley, or repository?

From the Ubuntu 13.04 repository, before I updated the OS to 13.10.

- Did you really mean 7.2.7, or did you mean 7.2.27, or even something else?

I have
BOINC Manager: boinc-manager 7.2.7+dfsg-1
BOINC: boinc 7.2.7+dfsg-1

- What if you update to a newer version than what you have, if must be one of the latest 7.3 alpha versions?

I haven't tried that yet. I would do that, but as a last resort if I can't find any way to get my currently installed version working again.

- What, if anything, does it say in the various stderr*.txt and stdout*.txt log files?

/media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client/stderrdae.txt seems to have repetitions of

dir_open: Could not open directory 'slots' from '/var/lib/boinc-client'.
SIGSEGV: segmentation violation

/media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client/stdoutdae.txt is empty.

- Did you even start the client, or only BOINC Manager? Under Windows will BOINC Manager start the client, but I don't think it does so under Linux and OS X.

The file /etc/default/boinc-client includes the text

# Set this to 1 to enable and to 0 to disable the init script.
ENABLED="1"

which means that the client is running (or attempts to, when I try to add projects).

- Did you really mean 7.2.7, or did you mean 7.2.27, or even something else?

I have
BOINC Manager: boinc-manager 7.2.7+dfsg-1
BOINC: boinc 7.2.7+dfsg-1

Well, here's the problem I have with that... it never was a BOINC client released for Linux. It was for World Community Grid (as a 32bit version) and it was for Android (as a test app), but never for Linux, Windows or Macintosh in all the glorious versions available as the normal versions of BOINC are.

So whatever the version is that you have, it's pre-alpha at best, which means that although it may have run stable and steady for you in the past, it will easily topple over when it encounters new libraries and such that you have in a new OS.

In which case I urge you to update to a newer version first. 7.2.27 is better than your version. 7.2.42 is the present recommended one. And there are several 7.3 to try. Your choice.

If you insist in running pre-alpha ware, at least try to do ldd boinc-client and ldd boinc-manager (or whatever the binary name is of the manager in Linux). To check for compatibility issues between the binaries and any libs installed on your system. Oh, that's el-dee-dee.

---

- Did you really mean 7.2.7, or did you mean 7.2.27, or even something else?

I have
BOINC Manager: boinc-manager 7.2.7+dfsg-1
BOINC: boinc 7.2.7+dfsg-1

Well, here's the problem I have with that... it never was a BOINC client released for Linux. It was for World Community Grid (as a 32bit version) and it was for Android (as a test app), but never for Linux, Windows or Macintosh in all the glorious versions available as the normal versions of BOINC are.

So whatever the version is that you have, it's pre-alpha at best, which means that although it may have run stable and steady for you in the past, it will easily topple over when it encounters new libraries and such that you have in a new OS.

In which case I urge you to update to a newer version first. 7.2.27 is better than your version. 7.2.42 is the present recommended one. And there are several 7.3 to try. Your choice.

If you insist in running pre-alpha ware, at least try to do ldd boinc-client and ldd boinc-manager (or whatever the binary name is of the manager in Linux). To check for compatibility issues between the binaries and any libs installed on your system. Oh, that's el-dee-dee.

For Ubuntu and Debian, the repositories have various Boinc versions, I understand the version gets frozen to a version at some point, afterwards there may be an Update version, and maybe a backport,
For Saucy Salamander it is frozen at Boinc 7.2.7, for Trusty Tahr it is 7.2.42:

“boinc” package in Ubuntu

I suggest that he just upgrades his package to the current package for his current OS, if there is a newer version available.

Claggy

First of all, is this the same system as in your SSD thread?

I have
BOINC Manager: boinc-manager 7.2.7+dfsg-1
BOINC: boinc 7.2.7+dfsg-1

You also have boinc-client 7.2.7+dfsg-1 . The package "boinc" is a metapackage whose only purpose is to pull in both manager and client packages.

- Did you even start the client, or only BOINC Manager? Under Windows will BOINC Manager start the client, but I don't think it does so under Linux and OS X.

The file /etc/default/boinc-client includes the text

# Set this to 1 to enable and to 0 to disable the init script.
ENABLED="1"

which means that the client is running (or attempts to, when I try to add projects).

Well actually it doesn't. BOINC package for Debian (and Ubuntu and other derivatives) is intended to be started when the OS starts. The ENABLED setting allows you to override that.

To see if the client is running run the following command:

service boinc-client status

or use something like System Monitor.

To control the client run the following command:

sudo service boinc-client [command]

where command is one of start, stop, restart, force-reload, status or schedule .

Now, what output do you get when you try to start the client from command line and what are the corresponding messages in std{out,err}dae.txt?

I suggest that he just upgrades his package to the current package for his current OS, if there is a newer version available.

Claggy

I currently have the latest version of BOINC, BOINC Manager and BOINC Client for Ubuntu 13.10.

14.04, Trusty Tahr, is due out on the 17th. So, any hour now.

And it should have the equivalent of the current Berkeley "latest public release", 7.2.42 with it. Or soon after.

First of all, is this the same system as in your SSD thread?

I have
BOINC Manager: boinc-manager 7.2.7+dfsg-1
BOINC: boinc 7.2.7+dfsg-1

You also have boinc-client 7.2.7+dfsg-1 . The package "boinc" is a metapackage whose only purpose is to pull in both manager and client packages.

Yes

- Did you even start the client, or only BOINC Manager? Under Windows will BOINC Manager start the client, but I don't think it does so under Linux and OS X.

The file /etc/default/boinc-client includes the text

# Set this to 1 to enable and to 0 to disable the init script.
ENABLED="1"

which means that the client is running (or attempts to, when I try to add projects).

Well actually it doesn't. BOINC package for Debian (and Ubuntu and other derivatives) is intended to be started when the OS starts. The ENABLED setting allows you to override that.

Yes that's true. In the past, when BOINC was working, I would always have boinc-client running from boot to shutdown, and only stop it manually if I needed to use the CPUs for another demanding purpose.

To see if the client is running run the following command:

service boinc-client status

or use something like System Monitor.

To control the client run the following command:

sudo service boinc-client [command]

where command is one of start, stop, restart, force-reload, status or schedule .

Now, what output do you get when you try to start the client from command line and what are the corresponding messages in std{out,err}dae.txt?

el_gallo_azul@greg-W2600CR:~$ service boinc-client status
 * Status of BOINC core client: stopped
el_gallo_azul@greg-W2600CR:~$ sudo service boinc-client start
 * Starting BOINC core client: boinc                                     [ OK ] 
 * Setting up scheduling for BOINC core client and children:             [ OK ] 
el_gallo_azul@greg-W2600CR:~$ service boinc-client status
 * Status of BOINC core client: running
 * Scheduling of BOINC core client: 56963
pid 56963's current scheduling policy: SCHED_OTHER
pid 56963's current scheduling priority: 0
 * OOM killer status for BOINC core client:
PID 56963: adj 0
, score 
0

el_gallo_azul@greg-W2600CR:~$ service boinc-client status
 * Status of BOINC core client: stopped
el_gallo_azul@greg-W2600CR:~$ 

I ran

service boinc-client status

twice after starting boinc-client. The first time, boinc-client was running (as expected). The second time, about 15 seconds later, boinc-client had been stopped by something. This would be exactly the same something that happens when I try to add a project to boinc-manager.

/media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client/stderrdae.txt

... contains nothing except 24 instances of

dir_open: Could not open directory 'slots' from '/media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client'.
SIGSEGV: segmentation violation
Stack trace (10 frames):
/usr/lib/libboinc.so.7(boinc_catch_signal+0x70)[0x7f1be041a4c0]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0xfbb0)[0x7f1bdf21fbb0]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(fputs+0x21)[0x7f1bde6996e1]
/usr/bin/boinc(+0x6ecc3)[0x7f1be08efcc3]
/usr/bin/boinc(+0x6f323)[0x7f1be08f0323]
/usr/bin/boinc(+0x2179a)[0x7f1be08a279a]
/usr/bin/boinc(+0x7f4b8)[0x7f1be09004b8]
/usr/bin/boinc(+0xbf3c)[0x7f1be088cf3c]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf5)[0x7f1bde64bde5]
/usr/bin/boinc(+0xc33d)[0x7f1be088d33d]

Exiting...

/media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client/stdoutdae.txt

...is completely empty.

14.04, Trusty Tahr, is due out on the 17th. So, any hour now.

And it should have the equivalent of the current Berkeley "latest public release", 7.2.42 with it. Or soon after.

I'm looking forward to that, because since updating to 13.10 four days ago, there are a number of things that I was using daily in 13.04 that have stopped working.

If you insist in running pre-alpha ware, at least try to do ldd boinc-client and ldd boinc-manager (or whatever the binary name is of the manager in Linux). To check for compatibility issues between the binaries and any libs installed on your system. Oh, that's el-dee-dee.

I don't insist on anything. I would like to run at least 8 projects in BOINC (as I used to) because I think BOINC is one of the most useful applications of the internet.

el_gallo_azul@greg-W2600CR:~$ ldd boinc-client
ldd: ./boinc-client: No such file or directory
el_gallo_azul@greg-W2600CR:~$ ldd boinc-manager
ldd: ./boinc-manager: No such file or directory

I have never used

ldd

command before. The binary names are correct for the client and the manager.

I don't insist on anything.

Excuse me for the tone I set. It was before I learned that your Ubuntu doesn't have an more up-to-date version in repository.

el_gallo_azul@greg-W2600CR:~$ ldd boinc-client
ldd: ./boinc-client: No such file or directory
el_gallo_azul@greg-W2600CR:~$ ldd boinc-manager
ldd: ./boinc-manager: No such file or directory

I have never used

ldd

command before. The binary names are correct for the client and the manager.

That is a problem with the license manager file on your system. It may also be why the BOINC client refuses to run.

You may want to try ldd lmver in a terminal.
I'm sure one of the Linux guru's can walk you through the required steps to update to the correct LM version on your distro. Or check further which version it is, in what state it is and if corrupt how to update it.

---

Ok. Since BOINC can't open slots directory and doesn't write anything to stdoutdae.txt lets guess that this is a permissions problem.

Run the following:

sudo chown -R boinc:boinc /media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client

Then restart BOINC.

If it still doesn't work run the following:

cd /media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client && sudo -u boinc boinc

That starts BOINC as user boinc. All the messages go to your terminal instead of the various files. Copy-paste the messages here, maybe there's something useful in them.

If the client doesn't crash but keeps running you can stop it by pressing Ctrl-C (it may take a few seconds to respond.)


Btw. Do you mount sdb1 automatically at system startup or manually? If manually it's obviously not going to work well with automatically starting BOINC.

And what filesystem is sdb1? In particular, does it support normal UNIX permissions and you are not mounting it with some silly options like noexec?

That is a problem with the license manager file on your system. It may also be why the BOINC client refuses to run.

You may want to try ldd lmver in a terminal.
I'm sure one of the Linux guru's can walk you through the required steps to update to the correct LM version on your distro. Or check further which version it is, in what state it is and if corrupt how to update it.

What?! It's not like I haven't pulled guesses out of my a** but... license manager??? Do I want to know how you got from BOINC crashes to bad license manager? :)

ldd doesn't take a command name but a file name, in this case /usr/bin/boinc. ldd lists libraries that the binary depends on. It is usually used to tell what libraries you are missing. Here BOINC starts but crashes later on so missing libraries is not the problem this time.

What?! It's not like I haven't pulled guesses out of my a** but... license manager??? Do I want to know how you got from BOINC crashes to bad license manager? :)

Please, there's no need for profanity, or any such thing. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from speaking to me in such a way in the future. It's not like I am talking like that to you, am I? And I am not completely mesjogge as I looked at how ldd would give the "no such file or directory" response, and that's due to a missing or improper license manager file on the distro.

Here BOINC starts but crashes later on so missing libraries is not the problem this time.

Perhaps, but ldd being incapable of giving a response on what libraries boinc-client and boinc-manager need or load, is a problem with the license manager file. And since there's only one on the distro, it doesn't hurt to look at it.

---

That previous message was supposed to have some humor in it. If you feel offended I guess I failed miserably. Sorry. edit: That smiley should have tipped me off that I failed... /edit

As for the ldd, lets try with a quick example:

juha@mint ~ $ ldd boincmgr
ldd: ./boincmgr: No such file or directory
juha@mint ~ $ ldd boinc/boincmgr
	linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007fffd13db000)
	libwx_gtk2u_html-2.8.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwx_gtk2u_html-2.8.so.0 (0x00007f462f8ed000)
[...]

That "./" tells that ldd is trying to find the file from current directory. I was in home directory and the manager binary is not in there but it's in boinc directory under my home directory.

ldd is in my distro (Mint) a wrapper around the OS dynamic linker/loader. I would expect it to be the same in other distros too.

I checked the lmver with Google and that points to Flexlm. That's used to handle licenses for commercial software. Flexlm is itself of course commercial software. While I have some proprietary programs installed none of them need license managers. So I don't have any license managers installed and I also don't have any license manager files.

I also checked what Google gives for "ldd no such file or directory". In some of the hits the error message wasn't printed by ldd on purpose but the script hits an error. I'm not sure but it looks like in those cases the examined binary was expecting that the OS linker/loader would have a different name than what it did.

Btw. Do you mount sdb1 automatically at system startup or manually? If manually it's obviously not going to work well with automatically starting BOINC.

And what filesystem is sdb1? In particular, does it support normal UNIX permissions and you are not mounting it with some silly options like noexec?

sdb1 is mounted automatically at system startup, and is Ext4 filesystem. I have not set any options at all for it.

PS Rather than use any trial-and-error at all, I'll keep it simple and wait until Ubuntu 14.04 appears and try BOINC with that.

Everything was working nicely in 13.04 until five days ago, which is when I updated to 13.10.

I updated from Ubuntu 13.10 to Ubuntu 14.04 today. A couple of other broken things were fixed through that process (and other other things were broken). Happily, BOINC Manager, boinc-client and boinc are now version 7.2.42.

If I start BOINC Manager (with Advanced View) > Menu > Tools > Add project or account manager..., I get exactly the same result as I did with Ubuntu 13.10 last week, ie. I receive the error message

BOINC Manager - Unexpected Exit
The BOINC client has exited unexpectedly 3 times within the last 5 minutes. Would you like to restart it again?

I checked that:

1. The directory

/media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client

is OK.

2. The file

/etc/default/boinc-client

contains

# This is the data directory of the BOINC core client.
BOINC_DIR="/media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client"

3. The symbolic link

/var/lib/boinc-client

which points to

/media/sdb1/var-lib-boinc-client/boinc-client

is OK.

I'm not going to do anything about it right now, but maybe I'll give the boinc user stuff from Message 53667 a try tomorrow. I'd love to get BOINC running again.

After all that, since a few things had stopped working during updates:

1. From Ubuntu 13.04 to Ubuntu 13.10; and

2. From Ubuntu 13.10 to Ubuntu 14.04;

I did a clean installation (from DVD) of Ubuntu 14.04 yesterday. That seemed to iron out the problems, and a fresh BOINC (boinc-manager and boinc-client version 7.2.42) was working again, but I have been unable to get BOINC to use my HDD for BOINC work files, instead of my SSD, as described in this post.