BOINC: empty gui_rpc_auth.cfg doesn't work anymore

[StefanR5R]

As far as I can tell, recent boinc-client versions force you to have a non-empty gui_rpc_auth.cfg.

On dedicated DC computers on which the utility of a GUI RPC password is questionable, one now needs to ensure that all client instances have the same gui_rpc_auth.cfg (e.g. a symlink to /var/lib/boinc-client/gui_rpc_auth.cfg) and that this file is readable by all users who control boinc. This should work for boinccmd and boincmgr.

But as far as I understand, that doesn't work for boinctui and BoincTasks. There you apparently need to enter the password separately in the respective configuration dialogues, or edit the underlying xml config files.

 

[cellarnoise]

Does this relate to having multiple instances? I'm have trouble getting multiple instances working again on a puter where it was working.

Likely user error as the user has not used multiple instances in awhile.

 

[StefanR5R]

This is independent of whether there is one or several client instances on a computer. It becomes obvious at the moment when you create a new instance (regardless whether that's the only one or a "secondary" one) if you have a recent boinc version installed:

When the client starts for the first time and sees an empty gui_rpc_auth.cfg file in its data directory, it generates a random password and tries to write this into the file. (This activity can be seen from messages in the client's log.) If this succeeds, then you need to look up that password in order to control this client, obviously. But if this fails, e.g. because the client does not have write permission to the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file, the client refuses to be controlled without password. (I only tried with boinctui though when I observed this issue.)

Older client versions used to accept an empty gui_rpc_auth.cfg file on first start, as well as all subsequent starts, and could thus be controlled without password from the get go.

On the computer on which you have got issues with multiple client instances, check in the data directories whether the instances have unexpected content in gui_rpc_auth.cfg.

 

[Ken g6]

I once had a machine that somehow required me to input an empty password to access it. E.g. `boinccmd --passwd ''` Does that help?