Windows Boinc Manager and gui_rpc_auth.cfg

OpenlySecular
OpenlySecular
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Topic 227642

While my Windows PC crunches regularly per schedule and uploads results, I am unable to get the Boinc Manager to authenticate - it always shows 'no connection' and I receive pop-up prompts to change my password

Given that the PC is authenticated, in which file/folder can I find the password? Reinstalling Boinc doesn't appear to be a solution. My Chrome Browser is where I hold web site authentication passwords .

I used to keep a copy of the subject .cifg file which I could drop into the Boinc directory, but that approach no longer works.

Julian Pedley BSc, MSc

Julianrani-[at]-gmail.com

UK, Nottinghamshire 

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
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The file is the

The file is the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file.  It is in the Data directory where BOINC is installed.

It normally has an auto generated salted password derived from your email address and the machine hardware.

But you can put in your own password.

It used to be not be able to be left blank.  But the latest BOINC version removed that restriction but is not released yet.

 

OpenlySecular
OpenlySecular
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Hi Keith, Thanks for the

Hi Keith,

Thanks for the insight: In fact I had already deleted the .cfg file from the BONCDATA directory, but by restarting the service, it did recreate the .cfg file with an embedded password in plain text: however it is not recognised by the Boinc manager client.

After restarting the service, and then the Boinc manager, the manager initially seems to try to connect to my project, but then starts displaying various tabular data, before issuing a “Invalid client RPC password-reinstall. BOINC”. However the crunching continues in the background until Boinc screensaver is displayed, showing that crunching continues.

Any more insight, perhaps where I might find the cruncher’ password? 

Julian Pedley BSc, MSc

Julianrani-[at]-gmail.com

UK, Nottinghamshire 

OpenlySecular
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Further to your suggestion,

Further to your suggestion, what password should I insert to replace the one that was auto-generated, would you suggest?

 

Thanks again for your insights.

Julian Pedley BSc, MSc

Julianrani-[at]-gmail.com

UK, Nottinghamshire 

OpenlySecular
OpenlySecular
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Credit: 97,335,148
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Further to your suggestion,

DUPLICATE POST DELETED

Julian Pedley BSc, MSc

Julianrani-[at]-gmail.com

UK, Nottinghamshire 

.clair.
.clair.
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I had a look at mine with

I had a look at mine with notepad and it is 32 digits long and has a mix of numbers and lower case letters . I have no idea how long they can be .

so to make one yourself I would , make a file in notepad named - gui_rpc_auth.txt including the underscores not spaces then dream up a password with letters and numbers ,

something like - b2ba2ceb3976fc33f7dc67dh7900f785 {don't use this one its public now - not mine}

rename it from .txt to .cfg and see what happens

OpenlySecular
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Thanks. I will try that

Thanks. I will try that later, but how will that be accepted/processed differently from the auto-generated password that is already in the new .cfg file?

Julian Pedley BSc, MSc

Julianrani-[at]-gmail.com

UK, Nottinghamshire 

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
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It can be anything for a

It can be anything for a password.  It just cannot be left blank.

It can be very simple.  It does not need to 32 characters long or contain special characters.

I just have single word as my password in the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file

Start the PC from scratch or at least restart BOINC to get the Manager to pick up the new password from the client.

You can also start the Manager in the Terminal with the boinccmd utility passing the password on the input line.

boinccmd [--host hostname] [--passwd passwd] boincmgr

 

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
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OpenlySecular wrote: Thanks.

OpenlySecular wrote:

Thanks. I will try that later, but how will that be accepted/processed differently from the auto-generated password that is already in the new .cfg file?

The trick is to get both the client and the Manager to resync on the new password.

 

OpenlySecular
OpenlySecular
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Thanks, I will try tomorrow.

Thanks, I will try tomorrow. But why isn’t the default new password in the .cfg file successful ? (I don’t see what value I am adding by contriving a new one?)

Julian Pedley BSc, MSc

Julianrani-[at]-gmail.com

UK, Nottinghamshire 

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
Joined: 11 Feb 11
Posts: 4,885
Credit: 18,419,208,837
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I just stumbled onto a

I just stumbled onto a recalcitrant Pi4 that I did not realize I wasn't able to access with BoincTasks as I am able to do with the rest of my crunching farm.

Didn't have permission to access the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file.

I looked in the /etc/boinc-client directory and all I found was the file with normal permissions.

It should be a soft symlink back to /var/lib/boinc-client with all the rest of the user configurable files.

So I added it back in with:

$ cd ~/
$ ln -s -f /etc/boinc-client/gui_rpc_auth.cfg /var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg 
# chmod 640 gui_rpc_auth.cfg

And now I have normal access to the host with BoincStats because I now have user permissions to access the file.

And BOINC Manager can read the file also now.

Give that location a look and you should see symlinks all pointing to /etc/boinc-client for:

cc_config.xml

global_preferences_override.xml

remote_hosts.cfg

and the reverse for gui_rpc_auth.cfg

If you use ls -ail it will print out the destination symlinks for files.

 

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