I have been running seti@home for a long time, but because it won't send out new work units until next Monday, I thought it would be a good moment to check out some other projects.

However, the BOINC Manager doesn't let me add a new project. I choose "Attach to project" and I enter the project URL (e.g. Rosetta@home or Proteins@Home). Then I enter my e-mail address and password. After this, the wizard ends with:
"Failed to attach to project
Messages from server:
missing or bad parameter: user_name"

I'm using Gentoo Linux. I tried both the Boinc Manager available from Portage (5.8.15), and the one which can be downloaded and installed manually (5.8.16). I tried several different projects, and even different e-mail addresses and passwords. I disabled my firewall. Everything gives the same result.

Make sure you use an old account that you have with any of these projects, or to set up a new one.
Your Seti account is for Seti only. None of the other projects out there will know you if you never made an account with them.

So try the "No, new user" option, fill in your email address and a new password twice, then continue.

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Make sure you use an old account that you have with any of these projects, or to set up a new one.
Your Seti account is for Seti only. None of the other projects out there will know you if you never made an account with them.

So try the "No, new user" option, fill in your email address and a new password twice, then continue.

That's exactly what I have been doing. I get this error when trying to register as a new user. (Of course I also tried the 'existing user' method although I knew it would fail.)

OK, Proteins allows you to make a new account on their site. Go to http://biology.polytechnique.fr/proteinsathome/create_account_form.php.
But you'll be out of luck there as they only cater Windows at this moment. (See their applications list).

You can try to make an account on Rosetta as well, using this form: http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/create_account_form.php.
They do cater for Linux clients.

As to what causes the error... I don't know. But at least you can now register and use the newly created account to attach with. If all is right. :)

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As to what causes the error... I don't know. But at least you can now register and use the newly created account to attach with. If all is right. :)

Yes, this does the job. I was also surprised to find zero hits in Google when searching for that error string. But I do have a talent for generating errors that nobody else encounters.

Hi DrLex, Ageless and all people here!
I'm using Debian Etch and have recently learned of BOINC. First I downloaded the last version, which asks for GLIBC_2.4. There is not such package in the Debian repositories so I tried with the previous version. The installation was OK but when I ran the boinc manager I came up against the same message as DrLex. So I deleted it all and tried downloading the last boinc packages from Debian. The same message appeared though. So it seems it had nothing to do with the version. Now, this is what I have come across:

From http://wiki.debian.org/BOINC Section 4.3.3, second paragraph, account creation:

$ boinc_cmd --create_account http://www.malariacontrol.net [email protected] password username
$ boinc_cmd --create_account_poll
<some key printed>
$ boinc_cmd --project_attach http://www.malariacontrol.net <printed key>
$ boinc_cmd --project http://www.malariacontrol.net resume

I hope this will work in Gentoo and with any other project. It works in my box with http://climateprediction.net