I'm running linux Mint 22.1
boinc version 7.24.1

My user name is in the boinc group

service appears to be running

boinc 1605 0.0 0.0 38568 15616 ? SNsl 22:34 0:01 /usr/bin/boinc

This problem seem to come up regularly.

Is there any true solution ?

I should point out that I had a version of boinc installed under a different OS (it's a long story) and was running Einstein@Home. Maybe leftover files are causing trouble ?

18-Feb-2025 23:01:44 [Einstein@Home] URL https://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 13215235; resource share 100
18-Feb-2025 23:01:44 [---] Setting up GUI RPC socket
18-Feb-2025 23:02:13 [---] GUI RPC bind to port 31416 failed: 98
18-Feb-2025 23:02:14 gstate.init() failed

I see all my own answers and FAQ. 😉

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=10385
https://boinc.mundayweb.com/wiki/index.php?title=GUI_RPC_bind_to_port_31416_failed:_98

lsof -i:31416

returns nothing. What does this say about the statement

"Something is already using TCP port 31416 on your computer"

?

so if 31416 is not being used, and there is no firewall (really, there is no firewall) then assigning a different port is unlikely to work, but I'll try it anyway.

boinc --gui_rpc_port 31417

boincmgr --gui_rpc_port=31417

shockingly that did work !

Even though nothing appears to be using 31416, 31416 doesn't work, but 31417 does.

Still seems like there is some sort persistent bug in boinc.

I still think this problem deserves the description "dreaded". ;-)

The other things that's odd is that this seems to show mostly on ubuntu systems...

In reply to driftingalong's message of 21 Feb 2025:

The other things that's odd is that this seems to show mostly on ubuntu systems...

On my Ubuntu box I just get

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.

This is both in 24.10 boinc8.1.0 installed via apt following instructions on this site and also on Plucky in a vm, again 8.1.0 but compiled from source.

That's amazing, because I encountered this problem with a fresh install of Mint.
Now, I still had the same home directory and I'm suspicious that had left over files that have screwed something up.

Meanwhile I'v gone back and trie the 31416 port again and it still does not work even though lsof -i:31416 still reports the port as not being used.

edit.
LOLOL. It just fixed itself. I found an alternate way to check for port use

sudo netstat -ap | grep 314

edit2.

this is just ridiculous. the first time i rat boincmgr it ran just fine.
The _second_ time it went back to the same error. wtf ?!

saw this

tcp 0 0 localhost:31416 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 3741/boinc

thought , that's weird, i wonder if boincmgr will work, and lo and behold it did.

edit2.
what is going on.
boincmgr worked the FIRST time.
I quit and the second time I get the RPC error.
what is going on ???

wow.

it's the STARTING directory.

When it worked i was running from a directory _different_ from my home directory.

Change directories get an RPC error , makes perfect sense.

i get the password empty message if I start boinc in _any_ directory other than my home directory.
this dependency on which directory you are in when you start boincmgr affecting the results is very confusing.

I thought I would summarize for future travelers.

Under mint 22.1 (which is currently using boinc 7.24.1) running boincmgr from the menu works !

To summarize.

With the boinc client (service) already running, boincmgr gives the rpc error about port 31416 when run from the command line in my home directory.
running from any other directory works.
running in my home directory requires starting boinc on a different port and then running boincmgr on that same port (31417 in my case).

What I then found was this

stop the service
run boinc from the command line in my home directory
now run boincmgr from the command line in my home directory
it works, and it works on port 31416

finally
run boincmgr from the menu . it works just fine but I get the initialization dialog (?!) even though I've already been running boinc.
However, the fact that the initialization dialog popped up means something is different when running from the menu.

when I look at properties for boincmgr there are not any magic flags being passed to it.

However, as I stated everything works fine when running anywhere other than the home directory, so the answer may be that the menu version is simply running from a different directory (which is likely).