Thread 'Cannot connect remotely to Boinc Client via GUI RPC - CentOS 7.7.1908 Minimal on headless host'
Message boards : Questions and problems : Cannot connect remotely to Boinc Client via GUI RPC - CentOS 7.7.1908 Minimal on headless host
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Send message Joined: 22 Sep 19 Posts: 2 
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Hi everyone, I'm a long-time Boinc contributor (since 2010) but never felt the need to post on the forum, previously I mainly used Windows hosts, but as Windows 10 introduced forced updates and correlated forced restarts, while becoming more resouces intensive than previous versions of Windows, I'm starting to switch to a minimal and robust version of Linux, CentOS in particular, as it happens to me to lay my hands on it from time to time, having become a Windows and VMware certified sysadmin in the meantime. All of this because I didn't want anymore to be forced to stop auto updates via local policy or set up autologon on Windows for security reasons while still be able to let Boinc start crunching at startup and using both CPU and GPU (installing as a service under Windows prevents the GPU to be used); add to this that some of my hosts are a bit old (~10 years circa) and low on RAM amount installed (~2GB), and that old versions of Windows are a living security threat themselves, so installing XP nowadays is out of the question. Anyways, I googled extensively and also searched in the forum for an answer which could help me solve this frustrating issue without finding one, so I deciced to sign up in the forum and create a new discussion; not sure if this is the correct section where to post this, feel free to move it if doesn't belong here. As stated in the title, on a fresh install of CentOS 7.7.1908 Minimal on a headless computer I installed the Boinc client via the Epel repository: yum install -y boinc-client and added the necessary libraries for 64-bit projects: yum install -y compat-libstdc++-296.i686 compat-libstdc++-33.i686 compat-libstdc++-33.x86_64 Then I enabled the firewalld rule to allow port 31416 for RPC calls to pass through: firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=31416/tcp firewall-cmd --reload issued a general package update: yum update -y && yum upgrade -y and adjusted the swappiness value to 5 by modifying the /etc/sysctl.conf file and issuing sysctl vm.swappiness=5 After a reboot I enabled the Boinc Client to run on startup: systemctl enable boinc-client and modified the /usr/lib/systemd/system/boinc-client.service file ExecStart line from ExecStart=/usr/bin/boinc to ExecStart=/usr/bin/boinc --allow_remote_gui_rpc to enable GUI RPCs from every host, as I didn't want to use the remote_hosts.cfg method. In the end i went to start the client itself: systemctl daemon-reload systemctl start boinc-client and i verified that all went fine: systemctl status boinc-client
● boinc-client.service - Berkeley Open Infrastructure Network Computing Client
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/boinc-client.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since lun 2019-09-23 00:26:24 CEST; 2s ago
Docs: man:boinc(1)
Process: 30459 ExecStopPost=/bin/rm -f lockfile (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 30450 ExecStop=/usr/bin/boinccmd --quit (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 30584 (boinc)
CGroup: /system.slice/boinc-client.service
└─30584 /usr/bin/boinc --allow_remote_gui_rpcChecking /var/log/messages confirmed: cat /var/log/messages ... Sep 23 00:26:24 scatorcio-bassa systemd: Started Berkeley Open Infrastructure Network Computing Client. Sep 23 00:26:24 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:24 [---] cc_config.xml not found - using defaults Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Starting BOINC client version 7.16.1 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Libraries: libcurl/7.29.0 NSS/3.36 zlib/1.2.7 libidn/1.28 libssh2/1.4.3 Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Data directory: /var/lib/boinc Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] No usable GPUs found Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] [libc detection] gathered: 2.17, GNU libc Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Host name: scatorcio-bassa Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz [Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13] Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] 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 lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf eagerfpu pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] OS: Linux CentOS Linux: CentOS Linux 7 (Core) [3.10.0-1062.el7.x86_64|libc 2.17 (GNU libc)] Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Memory: 1.75 GB physical, 2.00 GB virtual Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Disk: 49.98 GB total, 48.62 GB free Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Local time is UTC +2 hours Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Config: GUI RPC allowed from any host Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Last benchmark was 18161 days 22:26:24 ago Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] No general preferences found - using defaults Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Preferences: Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] max memory usage when active: 896.23 MB Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] max memory usage when idle: 1613.21 MB Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] max disk usage: 44.98 GB Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] don't use GPU while active Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25% Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager) Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Setting up project and slot directories Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Checking active tasks Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Setting up GUI RPC socket Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] Checking presence of 0 project files Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 [---] This computer is not attached to any projects Sep 23 00:26:25 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 23-Sep-2019 00:26:25 Initialization completed ... I also checked that the boinc_client process was active and listening on port 31416: ss -nutlp | grep boinc
tcp LISTEN 0 128 *:31416 *:* users:(("boinc",pid=30584,fd=5))ps -ax | grep boinc 11542 pts/1 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto boinc 30584 ? SNsl 0:02 /usr/bin/boinc --allow_remote_gui_rpc boinccmd --version boinccmd, built from BOINC 7.16.1 But, when I tried to connect from the Boinc Manager installed on my Windows 10 PC, it got stuck at "Communicating with the Boinc client, please wait..." message forever. What I tried in order to solve the issue: 1) Editing the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file with a password different from the default and restarting the boinc.client service for it to take effect 2) Adding firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-source=192.168.1.0/24 --permanentto the firewall ruleset and issuing firewall-cmd --reloadto apply the changes; this was the resulting ruleset: firewall-cmd --list-all public (active) target: default icmp-block-inversion: no interfaces: enp0s25 sources: 192.168.1.0/24 services: dhcpv6-client ssh ports: 31416/tcp protocols: masquerade: no forward-ports: source-ports: icmp-blocks: rich rules: 3) While leaving in place the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file I created a /var/lib/boinc/remote_hosts.cfg file and added to it every single IP address in my subnet (192.168.1.0/24), restarted the boinc-client service and verified it took effect: Sep 22 23:55:29 scatorcio-bassa systemd: Started Berkeley Open Infrastructure Network Computing Client. Sep 22 23:55:29 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:29 [---] cc_config.xml not found - using defaults Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Starting BOINC client version 7.16.1 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Libraries: libcurl/7.29.0 NSS/3.36 zlib/1.2.7 libidn/1.28 libssh2/1.4.3 Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Data directory: /var/lib/boinc Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] No usable GPUs found Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] [libc detection] gathered: 2.17, GNU libc Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Host name: scatorcio-bassa Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz [Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13] Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] 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 lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf eagerfpu pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] OS: Linux CentOS Linux: CentOS Linux 7 (Core) [3.10.0-1062.el7.x86_64|libc 2.17 (GNU libc)] Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Memory: 1.75 GB physical, 2.00 GB virtual Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Disk: 49.98 GB total, 48.62 GB free Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Local time is UTC +2 hours Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Config: GUI RPC allowed from any host Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Config: GUI RPCs allowed from: Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] 192.168.1.1 Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] 192.168.1.2 Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] 192.168.1.3 [...] [b](TRUNCATED)[/b] Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] 192.168.1.252 Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] 192.168.1.253 Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] 192.168.1.254 Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Last benchmark was 18161 days 21:55:29 ago Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] No general preferences found - using defaults Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Preferences: Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] max memory usage when active: 896.23 MB Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] max memory usage when idle: 1613.21 MB Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] max disk usage: 44.98 GB Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] don't use GPU while active Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25% Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager) Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Setting up project and slot directories Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Checking active tasks Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Setting up GUI RPC socket Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] Checking presence of 0 project files Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 [---] This computer is not attached to any projects Sep 22 23:55:30 scatorcio-bassa boinc: 22-Sep-2019 23:55:30 Initialization completed 4) Undid the /usr/lib/systemd/system/boinc-client.service modification, reloaded the systemctl daemon and restarted the boinc-client service, to only allow the hosts specified in remote_hosts.cfg to be able to access the client 5) Deleted the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file and restarted the service to recreate another one with a random password to be used in the manager 6) Stopped and disabled the firewalld service 7) From an elevated PowerShell on my Windows machine, issued [code]telnet <IP_of_CentOS_host> 31416[/code] and, by pressing CTRL + C while trying random combinations of keys, i got [code]<boinc_gui_rpc_reply> <unauthorized/> </boinc_gui_rpc_reply>[/code], so the client is probably able to communicate 8) With the firewall disabled, I reedited the boinc-client.service file with the [code]ExecStart=/usr/bin/boinc --allow_remote_gui_rpc[/code] line, deleted remote_hosts.cfg and edited gui_rpc_auth.cfg with my previous password of choice, then reloaded the boinc service again 9) I threw various computer restarts in the middle, especially when messing with firewalld 10) Installing the Boinc manager on another freshly installed Windows 10 machine on the same subnet to access the CentOS machine from there
- The affected PC has SELinux turned on as per default settings, haven't tried disabling it during my various fiddlings with the machine - I have another headless PC with CentOS 6.10 Minimal running Boinc, version 7.2.33 installed from repository, which starts as a service and has a custom gui_rpc_auth password too; I am able to control it via remote manager from both the two Windows 10 PCs mentioned above without issues; the only notes that have to be done are that this PC has SELinux disabled, iptables disabled and the boinc-client service starts with the root user and uses the /root directory as data directory; I had to modify the /etc/rc.d/init.d/boinc-client file to make it work like this, because issuing [code]service boinc-client start[/code] returned an error, and issuing the [code]boinc[/code] command in its place made it start using the root user and the /root directory, in place of the boinc user and the /var/lib/boinc directory; why it did so is still unclear to me, probably it needed the --dir /var/lib/boinc argument passed to it, it would be strange anyways, because I had to reinstall from scratch said machine due to a failed hard drive, and on the previous installation it used the correct data path and user automatically, but this is another story - The above point implicates that the issue doesn't happen because of the Windows machines, as they are able to access this CentOS 6.10 PC without disabling the Windows Firewall or using some other kind of workaround, in contrast to the newer CentOS 7.7 machine; the Windows Firewall on both machines already has an automatic rule to allow Boinc to communicate
ZadoRash ID: 92911 ·  |
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Send message Joined: 22 Sep 19 Posts: 2
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*** UPDATE *** I tried disabling SELinux and repeated the tests above, but the situation remains unchanged. I also noticed that, if I insert a wrong password in the remote manager, I get the message "The password you inserted is not correct, please try again". Also, when I insert the correct password for the remote client and the manager says "Connecting with the remote client, please wait", if I press on the Cancel button or attempt to close the Manager window using the red X button on the top right corner, the program freezes and I have to force close it via Task Manager. Should I downgrade to version 7.14.2? I saw some message from other users in the forum which are having issues with this release, like this one:https://boinc.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=13112 I'm thinkink of reporting this issue as a bug on Github, will update the thread in the case. Regards ZadoRash ID: 92933 · |
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