Switching controlling user

archae86
archae86
Joined: 6 Dec 05
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Topic 226351

This is really a BOINC question, but perhaps a friendly fellow Einstein user will give advice.

I customarily run Einstein under BOINC installed for control by a single user.  That just means I run the installer when logged in to my account on the machines for which I am the primary user, and under my wife's for the machine where she is primary.

Her computer died this morning.  I have backups from last night, so should have her running on the shared machine which in normal times mostly hosts backups by the end of the afternoon.  But when she logs in Einstein will stop running.

The conceptually easiest way out I can think of is for me to uninstall BOINC, then log into her account, and run the installer again, specifying the same Einstein account I always use, and single-user control.

Any better ideas?

I've set No New Tasks in preparation, but I keep a husky queue, so waiting or wastage may be in prospect.

 

 

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
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Don't know how to handle that

Don't know how to handle that under Windows.  Under Linux it would be as simple as adding your wife's userid (login name) to the boinc group as a permitted user of BOINC.

 

Ian&Steve C.
Ian&Steve C.
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i believe if you install as a

i believe if you install as a service, you might be able to get cross account (or even no account before login), however this comes with the caveat that you will not be able to do GPU crunching, if that matters at all for the host in question.

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archae86
archae86
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I only do GPU crunching in

I only do GPU crunching in recent years (power efficiency).

I think I learned years ago that single-user control was, as a practical matter, the way to go.  I'm seeking an efficient way to transition which user is the single user.

Ian&Steve C.
Ian&Steve C.
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I think your initial idea of

I think your initial idea of removing the BOINC install from your account and transitioning it to her account sounds reasonable. however as long as BOINC was installed AFTER both accounts were created, then BOINC should be able to be configured to be used by both accounts, either during install or in the windows properties for the application. somewhere there should be a setting like "Allow all users on this computer to control BOINC". I'm not a heavy Windows user anymore so someone else will have to clarify the details on exactly how to enable this settings. I just know it's possible.

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Harri Liljeroos
Harri Liljeroos
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The selection is made when

The selection is made when you install Boinc. You can select the current user or all users. I have tried it but unfortunately I couldn't get it to work even with the same user as before. The Boinc manager was unable to connect with the client. But this was many years ago, maybe new versions are better at it.

Ian&Steve C.
Ian&Steve C.
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in this scenario it may be

in this scenario it may be more important to have matching gui_rpc_auth files between the accounts. also according to Jord, best to fully log off each account, rather than doing the user switching.

 

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=8699

 

admittedly this post is quite old, not sure how relevant the info is anymore, but worth trying.

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archae86
archae86
Joined: 6 Dec 05
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Thanks for the comments. I

Thanks for the comments.

I decided I was in a hurry and went with plan A.

I downloaded the currently offered 64-bit Windows BOINC installer

I stopped BOINC while logged in to my own account.

I uninstalled BOINC from Control Panel (oddly it was down at the bottom, out of alphabetical order)

I logged out of my account in Windows on the PC and logged in to my wife's account.

I ran the BOINC installer.

I think I supplied my BOINC credentials

Apparently it found the old files just fine (accepted default file locations and specified single-user control)

clicking on Projects I found Einstein already there

Clicking on tasks I found my tasks from before, all suspended because benchmarks were running.

So for the moment it appears that the obvious solution worked, with no massacre of innocent unstarted tasks.

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