Linux client: Boinc Manager Computing Preferences window refuses to display any information (both Ubuntu and Debian)

Author	Message
Carl Fink Send message Joined: 2 Jul 23 Posts: 2	Message 112220 - Posted: 2 Jul 2023, 1:53:12 UTC Half a year ago, I had an issue on an Ubuntu box that when I opened the Computing Preferences, I got a gray, empty dialog. The only control was the "x" Close button at top right. I posted about it at the Ask Ubuntu Stack Exchange: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1450296/boinc-manager-compute-preferences-blank/1475177#1475177 I eventually just gave up on running BOINC on that box. However, I just got a new, faster system and tried again. BOINC installs from the Debian (Bookworm) repo with no issues, I logged into the two projects I had been contributing to, and ... the Computing Preferences dialog shows nothing but a Close button and some blank, gray space. I figured maybe it would be the right thing to do, to report the issue to the BOINC team. The "Report a Bug" page says to go here first, so I am. In another weird bug, BOINC Manager refused to start the projects, saying my system was on battery. This is a mini-pc system that does not have the ability to run on battery. I was able to use boinctui to "Restart" the projects, although some sort of "what key does what" guide would make that even more useful. However, it does not currently have Computing Preferences. I did read the "When requesting help" messages. In a truly odd and totally unrelated bug, I can't follow them. The instructions say to get the BOINC version from About >> BOINC Manager, but that doesn't exist. The actual program only has About >> World Community Grid. Yes, inexplicably, it replaced its own name with that of the first project I set up on this system. However, I can get the info from the Debian packaging system, so: Operating System: Debian Bookworm, updated an hour before I installed BOINC BOINC Version: 7.20.5 CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10885H CPU @ 2.40GHz Two GPUS: VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation CometLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics] (rev 05) TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile] [10DE:1F95] (Nouveau driver) Driver Versions: Intel: 23.1.1 Nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.17-2 Using Xorg video (not Wayland) Projects: World Community Grid and SIDock. If we can't easily get the Computing Preferences dialog to work: can someone point me to a guide to manually editing the configuration file? I'll end with 100 lines of the BOINC Manager log. Thanks for any help. Carl Fink Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Starting BOINC client version 7.20.5 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| This a development version of BOINC and may not function properly Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Libraries: libcurl/7.88.1 OpenSSL/3.0.9 zlib/1.2.13 brotli/1.0.9 zstd/1.5.4 libidn2/2.3.3 libpsl/0.21.2 (+libidn2/2.3.3) libssh2/1.10.0 nghttp2/1.52.0 librtmp/2.3 Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| No usable GPUs found Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Creating new client state file Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| libc: version 2.36 Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Host name: chatreey-nitpick Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Processor: 16 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10885H CPU @ 2.40GHz [Family 6 Model 165 Stepping 2] Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb invpcid_single ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp ibrs_enhanced tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt intel_pt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp pku ospke md_clear flush_l1d arch_capabilities Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| OS: Linux Debian: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) [6.1.0-9-amd64\|libc 2.36] Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Memory: 31.21 GB physical, 59.64 GB virtual Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Disk: 643.74 GB total, 603.86 GB free Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Local time is UTC -4 hours Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Config: GUI RPCs allowed from: Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| No general preferences found - using defaults Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Reading preferences override file Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Preferences: Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| max memory usage when active: 15979.59 MB Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| max memory usage when idle: 28763.27 MB Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| max disk usage: 579.37 GB Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| don't use GPU while active Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25% Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager) Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Setting up project and slot directories Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Checking active tasks Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Setting up GUI RPC socket Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Warning: GUI RPC password is empty. BOINC can be controlled by any user on this computer. See https://boinc.berkeley.edu/gui_rpc_passwd.php for more information. Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Checking presence of 0 project files Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| This computer is not attached to any projects Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:01:01 PM EDT \| \| Suspending computation - on batteries Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:02:34 PM EDT \| \| Fetching configuration file from https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/get_project_config.php Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:07:35 PM EDT \| \| Fetching configuration file from https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/get_project_config.php Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:16 PM EDT \| \| Fetching configuration file from https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/get_project_config.php Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:29 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Fetching scheduler list Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:31 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Master file download succeeded Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:36 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Sending scheduler request: Project initialization. Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:36 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Requesting new tasks for CPU Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Scheduler request completed: got 1 new tasks Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Project requested delay of 121 seconds Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| General prefs: from World Community Grid (last modified 07-Feb-2022 21:10:24) Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Host location: none Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| General prefs: using your defaults Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| \| Reading preferences override file Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| \| Preferences: Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| \| max memory usage when active: 15979.59 MB Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| \| max memory usage when idle: 23969.39 MB Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| \| max disk usage: 10.00 GB Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| \| don't use GPU while active Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| \| suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 50% Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:38 PM EDT \| \| (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager) Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:40 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of wcgrid_mcm1_map_7.61_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:40 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of wcgrid_mcm1_gfx_7.61_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:42 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of wcgrid_mcm1_map_7.61_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:42 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of wcgrid_mcm1_gfx_7.61_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:42 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_image01_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:42 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_image02_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:43 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of mcm1_image01_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:43 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of mcm1_image02_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:43 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_image03_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:43 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_image04_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:45 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of mcm1_image03_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:45 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of mcm1_image04_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:45 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_image05_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:45 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_image06_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:47 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of mcm1_image05_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:47 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of mcm1_image06_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:47 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_image07_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:47 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_image08_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:49 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of mcm1_image07_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:49 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of mcm1_image08_7.61.tga Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:49 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of MCM1_0201199_8302_MCM1_0201199_8302.txt Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:49 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1.dataset-sarc1.txt Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Finished download of MCM1_0201199_8302_MCM1_0201199_8302.txt Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of arp1_00_v02.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of arp1_01_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of arp1_02_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of arp1_03_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of default_00_v03.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of hst1_00_v02.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of hst1_01_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of hst1_02_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of hst1_03_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of hst1_04_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_00_v02.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_01_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_02_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_03_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_04_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_05_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_06_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mcm1_07_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mip1_00_v02.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mip1_01_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mip1_02_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mip1_03_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mip1_04_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mip1_05_v01.png Sat 01 Jul 2023 09:08:51 PM EDT \| World Community Grid \| Started download of mip1_06_v01.png ID: 112220 ·

Dave Help desk expert Send message Joined: 28 Jun 10 Posts: 2538	Message 112222 - Posted: 2 Jul 2023, 6:24:41 UTC you can use theboinccmd tool to control the client. I recently had to use it when having problems with a Windows client and manager where I still have to resolve some issues but it works equally well with a Linux installation. ID: 112222 ·

Keith Myers Volunteer tester Help desk expert Send message Joined: 17 Nov 16 Posts: 869	Message 112224 - Posted: 3 Jul 2023, 4:01:26 UTC Last modified: 3 Jul 2023, 4:17:08 UTC You should report this to the Debian Bookworm BOINC distro maintainers. Also log a issue at BOINC Github. https://github.com/BOINC/boinc Possibly a problem with the WxWidgets the Manager was built with by the maintainers. You should also try this new Dark Mode Manager. It is the latest build by the devs. Manager version 7.23.0 WxWidgets version 3.2.2 https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/suites/13632091905/artifacts/752172114 ID: 112224 ·

Dave Help desk expert Send message Joined: 28 Jun 10 Posts: 2538	Message 112225 - Posted: 3 Jul 2023, 4:55:07 UTC - in response to Message 112224. Possibly a problem with the WxWidgets the Manager was built with by the maintainers. Makes sense. I think a few of the problems I have had when rolling my own are down to the wxwidgets version I had installed at the time being different from the one used by the devs. ID: 112225 ·

Carl Fink Send message Joined: 2 Jul 23 Posts: 2	Message 112418 - Posted: 1 Aug 2023, 2:38:10 UTC Data point: in a fresh install on a new and better system, I once more get the blank Computing Preferences dialog. However, switching to the Advanced View in the BOINC Manager caused the dialog to display correctly. ID: 112418 ·

Dave Help desk expert Send message Joined: 28 Jun 10 Posts: 2538	Message 112421 - Posted: 1 Aug 2023, 6:30:54 UTC - in response to Message 112418. Data point: in a fresh install on a new and better system, I once more get the blank Computing Preferences dialog. However, switching to the Advanced View in the BOINC Manager caused the dialog to display correctly. Hadn't noticed this before, I get the same blank square if I have switched to simple view. (boinc7.23.0 built from source code from git-hub here. So I am wondering how long this has been going on with simple view? I never use it normally so missed it completely. ID: 112421 ·

Dave Help desk expert Send message Joined: 28 Jun 10 Posts: 2538	Message 112422 - Posted: 1 Aug 2023, 11:14:37 UTC Just checked using WINE This doesn't happen with the latest Windows client. ID: 112422 ·

Section8 Send message Joined: 25 Jul 23 Posts: 5	Message 112448 - Posted: 4 Aug 2023, 16:26:40 UTC - in response to Message 112422. Last modified: 4 Aug 2023, 16:26:54 UTC I am running boinc 7.22.1 on Arch Linux and also run the advanced view and never noticed this. In the simple view, I also have a blank Computing Preferences window. Even in Advanced View, this is what I see: https://imgur.com/a/vWVlnDV There are a few words that are blanked out. ID: 112448 ·

Dave Help desk expert Send message Joined: 28 Jun 10 Posts: 2538	Message 112449 - Posted: 4 Aug 2023, 16:42:16 UTC Last modified: 4 Aug 2023, 16:43:25 UTC Bug report filed with git-hub Edit: No words blanked out for me when looking at computing preferences in advanced view. ID: 112449 ·

Dave Help desk expert Send message Joined: 28 Jun 10 Posts: 2538	Message 112450 - Posted: 4 Aug 2023, 18:02:55 UTC I see Richard has already opened an issue https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/issues/4902 So mine has been closed. ID: 112450 ·

Dave Help desk expert Send message Joined: 28 Jun 10 Posts: 2538	Message 112629 - Posted: 3 Sep 2023, 16:06:39 UTC - in response to Message 112450. Still not resolved on latest nightly build of master yesterday. (7.23.0) ID: 112629 ·

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