I am encountering problems with a BOINC restart of one of my Linux Ubuntu computers. I have been away for three weeks and during that time, this computer https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=8791580 and a couple of others failed. I have restarted BOINC successfully on the others simply by logging in - BOINC just fired right up. This one is being recalcitrant. I have tried computer reboots, and the

sudo systemctl start boinc-client

command suggested in another thread, and going into the AIO BOINC directory and executing BOINC, but BOINC refuses to start. I am using the TBar All-in-one under Ubuntu. The system worked very well until the failure. BOINC Manager runs, but all menu selections other than under FILE and HELP are grayed out. BOINC Manager also shows “Disconnected” in the status bar at the bottom of the window. I have attempted to connect to “localhost”, but that fails.

I suspect that the BOINC client isn’t running.

I have two questions:
1. How do I restart the client?
2. Why didn’t it restart automatically like the other computers? What do I need to do to make it restart automatically?

As a relative LINUX newbie, I really appreciate your assistance.

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Arnie
Alberta, Canada

Until you receive a better answer.

What happening when you try to run the Boinc client directly on a terminal?

Open a terminal on the Boinc directory and type ./boinc and post the output

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I think you had some updates during the time you were away and now there are missing dependencies for the client, boinc.
Open up the AIO BOINC directory and open a Terminal in that directory. Type ldd and a space and then boinc.

ldd boinc

You should see a printout of all the dependencies that the client boinc needs. Look for any line ending in >not found. That would be the missing library that the client needs. Install whatever is missing and run ldd again to check all dependencies are satisfied.
If you have no missing dependencies, then it is possible that the password between the Manager boincmgr and boinc needs to be refreshed. The password is in the rpc_gui_auth.cfg file in the BOINC directory.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Until you receive a better answer.

What happening when you try to run the Boinc client directly on a terminal?

Open a terminal on the Boinc directory and type ./boinc and post the output

He already has done that.

going into the AIO BOINC directory and executing BOINC, but BOINC refuses to start

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Until you receive a better answer.

What happening when you try to run the Boinc client directly on a terminal?

Open a terminal on the Boinc directory and type ./boinc and post the output

I get

./boinc: error while loading shared libraries: libXss.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

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Arnie
Alberta, Canada

I think you had some updates during the time you were away and now there are missing dependencies for the client, boinc.
Open up the AIO BOINC directory and open a Terminal in that directory. Type ldd and a space and then boinc.

ldd boinc

You should see a printout of all the dependencies that the client boinc needs. Look for any line ending in >not found. That would be the missing library that the client needs. Install whatever is missing and run ldd again to check all dependencies are satisfied.
If you have no missing dependencies, then it is possible that the password between the Manager boincmgr and boinc needs to be refreshed. The password is in the rpc_gui_auth.cfg file in the BOINC directory.

The only "not found" is libXss.so.1 which means nothing to me. How do I reinstall that?

In addition, I have no rpc_gui_auth.cfg file in the BOINC directory. Could the whole installation be hosed?

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Arnie
Alberta, Canada

Until you receive a better answer.

What happening when you try to run the Boinc client directly on a terminal?

Open a terminal on the Boinc directory and type ./boinc and post the output

I get

./boinc: error while loading shared libraries: libXss.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Now follow Keith lead's he is a lot more suited to help than me, but that shows you have a missing dependency almost sure is because that your client did not start.

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sudo systemctl start boinc-client

That command is for the Repository version of BOINC installed as a Service. The All-In-One is the Berkeley Version of BOINC and is Not run as a service. The old instructions are here, https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC#The_Berkeley_Installer
Note, if you want to use the run_client & run_manager script you will need to open both of them in the Text Editor and enter the correct path, usually that involves replacing the word 'User' with your home folder name.
Besides what has already been posted, some times after a power outage a file named similar to BOINC Manager - username is left in your Home folder and some say that prevents boinc from starting. You might Stop the Manager, remove that file if there, and relaunch the Manager. Otherwise, try ldd and even running boinc from the Terminal by simply dragging and dropping boinc into the Terminal window and hitting Enter. If boinc doesn't start from the Terminal it should give a reason for not starting.

That seems to be needed for the Manager and not the Client.

libxss1
X11 Screen Saver extension library

Likely for the BOINC screen saver. Can you just install that library?

sudo apt install libxss1

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

That seems to be needed for the Manager and not the Client.

libxss1
X11 Screen Saver extension library

Likely for the BOINC screen saver. Can you just install that library?

sudo apt install libxss1

Did all this, and the install worked. BOINC client started using the ./boinc commnad. After considerable churning and chugging, it terminated with the following:

26-Sep-2019 14:10:59 [---] Suspending GPU computation - computer is in use
^C26-Sep-2019 14:11:41 [---] Received signal 2
26-Sep-2019 14:11:42 [---] Exiting

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Arnie
Alberta, Canada

That seems to be needed for the Manager and not the Client.

libxss1
X11 Screen Saver extension library

Likely for the BOINC screen saver. Can you just install that library?

sudo apt install libxss1

Did all this, and the install worked. BOINC client started using the ./boinc commnad. After considerable churning and chugging, it terminated with the following:

26-Sep-2019 14:10:59 [---] Suspending GPU computation - computer is in use
^C26-Sep-2019 14:11:41 [---] Received signal 2
26-Sep-2019 14:11:42 [---] Exiting

That's a Preferences problem. You need to change your web or local preferences so that gpu computation is allowed with the computer in use. Or raise it to a much higher value like 80%.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Keith, the reinstall of the lib seemed to do the trick. I restarted BOINC Manager and it then reconnected to the BOINC server. I selected SETI and tasks downloaded. The computing preferences were different, so I edited the local copy and I am now back in operation.

I very much appreciate your kind assistance, but I do have a follow-up question. What should I do to prevent this from happening again? My other Ubuntu box just restarted all by itself while I was a thousand kilometers away.

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Arnie
Alberta, Canada

Make sure you don't have LivePatch enabled. Make sure you don't have "Download and install automatically" enabled in Software and Updates. You only want updates installed when you are present to inspect what is going to be installed, removed or changed and approve the changes.

If you want BOINC to run automatically after an unexpected reboot, use the run_client script in the AIO BOINC directory. Make sure you edit it to the location of the BOINC directory and put the script into your Startup Programs list or folder.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Make sure you don't have LivePatch enabled. Make sure you don't have "Download and install automatically" enabled in Software and Updates. You only want updates installed when you are present to inspect what is going to be installed, removed or changed and approve the changes.

If you want BOINC to run automatically after an unexpected reboot, use the run_client script in the AIO BOINC directory. Make sure you edit it to the location of the BOINC directory and put the script into your Startup Programs list or folder.

OK! All that makes sense. I will make the changes.

Thanks again for your help.

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Arnie
Alberta, Canada

Keith, the reinstall of the lib seemed to do the trick. I restarted BOINC Manager and it then reconnected to the BOINC server. I selected SETI and tasks downloaded. The computing preferences were different, so I edited the local copy and I am now back in operation.
I very much appreciate your kind assistance, but I do have a follow-up question. What should I do to prevent this from happening again? My other Ubuntu box just restarted all by itself while I was a thousand kilometers away.

Actually that screensaver lib isn't needed to run the Client or Manager. It appears the machine dumped the preferences, it's cache, and reattached to the project. You weren't clear about what stopped the machine, "I have been away for three weeks and during that time, this computer https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=8791580 and a couple of others failed."
What do you mean by failed? If it was a power outage, then it's the luck of the draw. I've had machines reboot from a power outage without any trouble, while I've had others dump their preferences, but, I don't remember one dumping it's cache and reattaching. Just lucky I suppose. It all depends on what the machine is doing when it gets zapped.

Keith, the reinstall of the lib seemed to do the trick. I restarted BOINC Manager and it then reconnected to the BOINC server. I selected SETI and tasks downloaded. The computing preferences were different, so I edited the local copy and I am now back in operation.
I very much appreciate your kind assistance, but I do have a follow-up question. What should I do to prevent this from happening again? My other Ubuntu box just restarted all by itself while I was a thousand kilometers away.

Actually that screensaver lib isn't needed to run the Client or Manager. It appears the machine dumped the preferences, it's cache, and reattached to the project. You weren't clear about what stopped the machine, "I have been away for three weeks and during that time, this computer https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=8791580 and a couple of others failed."
What do you mean by failed? If it was a power outage, then it's the luck of the draw. I've had machines reboot from a power outage without any trouble, while I've had others dump their preferences, but, I don't remember one dumping it's cache and reattaching. Just lucky I suppose. It all depends on what the machine is doing when it gets zapped.

It appears the failure was a power outage, probably quite short. It looks like the entire cache and preferences and connection to the project were munged. Another possibility is the network connection. I am using a powerline link (for several reasons related to the strange apartment I live in) and it might have contributed to the "failure". I have another old PC on the way, and I think I will invest in a UPS for those two since they are dedicated SETI crunchers. My daily driver PC also needs a UPS since it stopped as well after the power outage. Oh well, it is only money. Sigh.

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Arnie
Alberta, Canada