Well, hmm. I'm pretty sure I followed the directions for moving the data folder to another drive, and set that drive to enable owners. So now Disk Utility says "Owners: Enabled" for that drive. Yet I'm still getting the errors: "BOINC Manager Error: Could not set current working directory (error 2: No such file or directory)" and "BOINC Manager: BOINC ownership or permissions are not set properly; please reinstall BOINC. (Error code -1022)."

* I turned on my external drive
* then I logged into my admin account
* then I quit BOINC
* then I copied the BOINC Data folder to my external drive
* then I renamed the BOINC Data folder in the root directory, /Library/Application Support, to "BOINC Data old"
* then in the terminal I entered: sudo ln -fhs "/Volumes/Mercury Elite Pro/other/BOINC Data" "/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data"
* then I clicked on the Mac_SA_Secure.sh link, clicked on the three dots just above the shell file (since replaced with Raw and Blame buttons), selected "copy raw content," pasted it into Text Edit, and saved it to the desktop as Mac_SA_Secure.sh
* then I entered: cd "/Volumes/Mercury Elite Pro/other/BOINC Data"
* then I entered: sudo sh ~/Desktop/Mac_SA_Secure.sh
* then I clicked on the discussion link, copied, pasted, and entered this command to enable owners for the drive, sudo /usr/sbin/vsdbutil -a "/Volumes/Mercury Elite Pro" and confirmed it in Disk Utility
* then I opened BOINC and got those two errors

BOINC version: v.boinc_7.16.21
I can't open BOINC Manager, so I can't access the BOINC Event Log that way.
CPU: 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB
OS: macOS High Sierra 10.13.6

What am I doing wrong?

Not sure what is going wrong there. My solution to moving BOINC and data to another drive is to set up BOINC in its own partition with a mount point /var/lib/boinc-client

I have done this on one machine at the time of installing BOINC. I haven't tried to move it yet.

Hmm. That would take forever, since I have several TB of data on it. So that's not really an option for me. But thanks anyway for the suggestion. Anyone else have any ideas?

Did you check https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Tools_for_Mac_OS_X#Moving_BOINC_Manager_or_BOINC_Data_Folder_to_a_Different_Drive?

Yes. Those are the directions I said I followed. And I would really like to be able to use BOINC again. Anybody able and willing to help me do so?

Hmm. That would take forever, since I have several TB of data on it. So that's not really an option for me. But thanks anyway for the suggestion. Anyone else have any ideas?

I don't suppose there is space in your machine for another drive? That would get around the problem of several TB of data to be moved. Unless you have a threadripper or a machine with more than one CPU chip in it a small SSD of say 120GB should easily suffice.

Well, maybe it wouldn't have to be moved. There are still 12.71TB left on the external drive. Can I create a 120GB partition in the free space without moving my data? If so, what with, in macOS, and what kind of partition? If not, I can connect another drive I have. But the question is, if that step's necessary, why's it not included in the instructions? Why is my issue not fixable any other way?

You should be able to copy everything over to whatever location you want, and then run the client in that location using boinccmd.

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Boinccmd_tool

Here's an example of a batch file I use on a Windoze machine.

"c:\Program Files\BOINC\boinc.exe" --gui_rpc_port 31450 --dir O:\GPU\AMD\AMD31450

---

Team USA forum
Follow us on Twitter
Help us #crunchforcures!

Really? Then I don't get why the moving instructions have been provided, if there's another, maybe simpler, way. 'Course especially if those instructions don't work, as the case seems to be. But anyway, huh. That's promising. Maybe there's finally a solution, except that as I said, I use macOS. So I would need the instructions for a script for that OS, instead of one for "Windoze." Any idea what those might be?

Really? Then I don't get why the moving instructions have been provided, if there's another, maybe simpler, way.

On Windows, yes. But Windows doesn't have as strict security measures over pointing to stuff in a different directory as MacOS and Linux do, so I wouldn't say it's easier in your situation.

So how do I set things up to run the Boinccmd tool from my external drive in macOS? Anyone know? if not, again, can I create a 120GB partition in the free space without moving my data? If so, what with, in macOS, and what kind of partition? Hmm. How frustrating. I seem to be getting nowhere with this.

Is no one who wrote or helped write the Tools for Mac OS X wiki page willing to support their claims to be able to move the data file and run BOINC with those instructions, and explain to me why I'm getting an error, or how to resolve it?

Is no one who wrote or helped write the Tools for Mac OS X wiki page willing to support their claims to be able to move the data file and run BOINC with those instructions, and explain to me why I'm getting an error, or how to resolve it?

Those instructions are quite old. It may be that those involved are not part of the BOINC community any more.

Those instructions are quite old. It may be that those involved are not part of the BOINC community any more.

The instructions were written by the developer of the BOINC app for the Mac. If something changes, he will update them accordingly. I did ask him on May 3 to come by in this thread and share his wisdom, he hasn't done so. I don't know why, I'll mail him again.

In Finder, please confirm that the entry for BOINC Data in the /Library/Application Support/ directory shows a folder icon with the little curved "alias" arrow in the bottom left corner of the icon. In Finder's Column View, selecting it should show the contents of your relocated BOINC Data folder.

The Mac_SA_Secure.sh script sets the ownership and permissions for the BOINC Data folder. It can't do that while ownership is disabled for the external drive, so you must run the script after you enable owners. I'll update the instructions to clarify that.

FWIW, the easiest way to enable owners for a drive is to do a Get Info for the drive in the Finder (command-i), click on the lock at the bottom of the Get Info window and unchecked the box "Ignore ownership on this volume." This method is available on MacOS 12 Monterey; I'm not sure about High Sierra.

Please respond and let me know if this information has solved your problem.

---

Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Really? Then I don't get why the moving instructions have been provided, if there's another, maybe simpler, way. 'Course especially if those instructions don't work, as the case seems to be. But anyway, huh. That's promising. Maybe there's finally a solution, except that as I said, I use macOS. So I would need the instructions for a script for that OS, instead of one for "Windoze." Any idea what those might be?

Actually I mixed this up. boinccmd is a utility for managing tasks and projects without using the standard GUI manager, so it's not actually needed here. I should have posted this link to the command line options instead (sorry about that). You have to start BOINC and tell it the data location, and the port if you don't want to use the default 31416.

"c:\Program Files\BOINC\boinc.exe"

This is just starting the client. I don't know what this would be on Mac. Maybe all you need to do is type boinc, which I think is what I do on my Linux machines.

 --gui_rpc_port 31450

Don't worry about this if you aren't using multiple clients.

 --dir O:\GPU\AMD\AMD31450

This would be your folder location.

On Linux I use something like this. My machines are offline for the summer so I'm going by memory.

boinc --dir ./Documents/BOINC/CPU/

I intentionally run my clients in unprotected locations so I don't have to worry about permissions, they're a hassle and I don't think the risks are very high. If that doesn't work for you then you'd have to figure that part out.

---

Team USA forum
Follow us on Twitter
Help us #crunchforcures!

Thank you very much, Charlie, for trying to help me resolve this problem. I really appreciate "hearing" from a project developer. But unfortunately, while "Ignore ownership on this volume" is indeed available in High Sierra, it was already unchecked. So now what?

@busterkeaton Please tell me if you have confirmed each of these 3 things:
[1] The entry for BOINC Data in the /Library/Application Support/ directory shows a folder icon with the little curved "alias" arrow in the bottom left corner of the icon.
[2] In Finder's Column View, selecting it should show the contents of your relocated BOINC Data folder.
[3]You have run the Mac_SA_Secure.sh script again.

Thanks.

---

Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Well, hmm. I'm pretty sure I followed the directions for moving the data folder to another drive, and set that drive to enable owners.

Could you share that tutorial? Because I'm looking for one for Linux Fedora.

Jord already did above, in Message 107877.