World Community Grid - View Thread - BOINC: Error "Scheduler request failed: peer certificate cannot be authenticated with known CA certificates"

This error most frequently occurs because of incorrect time & date setting on the connecting computer, but could also relate to using a separate cc_config.xml option to store the WCG data in a different place i.e. the ca-bundle.crt file in a different location than the program expects it to be.

9-2-2006 4:33:20|World Community Grid|Resetting project
9-2-2006 4:33:28|World Community Grid|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user
9-2-2006 4:33:28|World Community Grid|Requesting 527040 seconds of new work
9-2-2006 4:33:29||Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
9-2-2006 4:33:31||Access to reference site succeeded - project servers may be temporarily down.
9-2-2006 4:33:34|World Community Grid|Scheduler request failed: peer certificate cannot be authenticated with known CA certificates
9-2-2006 4:33:34|World Community Grid|Deferring communication for 15 min 27 sec
9-2-2006 4:33:34|World Community Grid|Reason: scheduler request failed

Why does this problem only affect WCG, and not other BOINC projects?

This is because WCG is at the time of this writing, the only BOINC project that requires a secure connection to the server. Other projects permit falling back to an insecure connection.

Do check that the security software is not filtering the certificate information. This was resently found to be the case with for instance ESET NOD32.

In case the choice was made to employ the <data_dir> configuration option, new for version 5.10.20 cc_config.xml, the certificate needs to be placed in the data directory instead of the program directory!

The option is useful if wanting to place the data into a location outside e.g. C:\Program Files\ structure and into the User Data area for e.g. routine back up purposes or permission/security reasons. See FAQ: How to set up BOINC with a separate Data directory? for details.

Also do check if the ca-bundle.crt certificate file is still valid, with emphasis on bundle as there are multiple certificates in the file. Find it in the BOINC data_directory which is printed in the BOINC start_up log such as "Data directory: /var/db/boinc" and open it. The expiration date should be in the future. The example below shows the validity through July 11, 2009. There are multiple certificates further into the file which do not expire until 2019 and 2034! The BOINC installer package includes the file, but for some Linux distros packages the file is x-linked to the system certificate set!

If all of the above does not lead to a solution, follow these instructions and post the message/event log so we can read the detail debug log:

Please create or edit the cc_config.xml file (see http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Client_configuration) in C:\ProgramData\BOINC (Windows 7) with the following fields.

<cc_config>
<log_flags>
<http_debug>1</http_debug>
<http_xfer_debug>1</http_xfer_debug>
<file_xfer_debug>1</file_xfer_debug>
<proxy_debug>1</proxy_debug>
</log_flags>
</cc_config>

then restart BOINC and force the uploads/downloads to try again by hitting Update in the Project tab of BOINC Manager, advanced view. [Select the WCG line first]

Fore detail for various Linux variations:

FreeBSD and Mageia solution to obtain certificate file from standard Ubuntu package and extract, then copy the file to the appropriate data directory: https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14751#c3
An Ubuntu specific discussion superseded by workaround to get the ca-bundle.crt file into the correct place. Follow above FreeBSD/Mageia lead.[/url]"
Ubuntu Karmic install instructions by the WCG Technician, including resolution for the certificate issue
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,27806
Under Gentoo, the same error can show due an incorrect certificate link, merge and missing libnsspem.so. See the next discussion link for problem and resolution: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,30401 (post 10 has the fix)

Notably, detaching from this project is not required: Please follow supplemental advise here on our BOINC support forum

Related Topic:
BOINC error: "Scheduler request failed: problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?)"

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