How are you checking the last update for the openssl and other packages? I ask because I'm downloading an Archlinux ISO now and note that the latest [EDIT: current] release is Sept. 7, 2012.

Woh that's an important message I missed here, so I went through my log and found this part which seems relevant:

07-Sep-2012 08:16:24 [World Community Grid] Started download of 75f9660976be7b87b22568d4e01ea0ee.dat.gzb
07-Sep-2012 08:16:24 [World Community Grid] Started download of f163b023f2123e3a7c787065e401c0ca.dat.gzb
07-Sep-2012 08:16:27 [World Community Grid] Finished download of 75f9660976be7b87b22568d4e01ea0ee.dat.gzb
07-Sep-2012 08:16:27 [World Community Grid] Finished download of f163b023f2123e3a7c787065e401c0ca.dat.gzb
07-Sep-2012 08:16:27 [World Community Grid] Started download of hcmd2.1HCI_A.clustersOccur.pdb.gzb
07-Sep-2012 08:16:27 [World Community Grid] Started download of hcmd2.2RDO_7.clustersOccur.pdb.gzb
07-Sep-2012 08:16:30 [---] Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
07-Sep-2012 08:16:30 [World Community Grid] Temporarily failed download of hcmd2.2RDO_7.clustersOccur.pdb.gzb: transient HTTP error

A few seconds later, another download started ( X0960067810623200604261923_X0960067810623200604261923.jp2) and succeded, and as far as I can tell it was the last one to succeed.

As I suppose the date are in local time, I should precise that I am living in Paris, and with Daylight Saving Time I'm currently at GMT+2. I've tried to look up BST on wikipedia to cross-reference with you, but there's apparently at least 5 points around the world using this acronym :p. But the bug seem to have happened to us within half a day apart.

Funnily enough, according to /var/log/pacman.log i updated my system the very same day at 03:52 AM, so 3 and a half hour before the bug, and then nothing until 8:45AM, so 30 minutes after the bug...


It's starting to look like it's not an update issue on Arch side. Is there a WCG tech here who could tell us if something was changed server side ?

Just an update, I experimented a little and 'temporarily' renamed my OpenSSL libraries (libssl.so.1.0.0 and libcrypto.so.1.0.0) to '.old', and created links named after them to OpenSSL 0.9.8 (libssl.so.0.9.8 and libcrypto.so.0.9.8) instead, I restarted BOINC, and at once work units downloaded freely. It works with 0.9.8.

So I can confirm it is an OpenSSL issue and seems it is related to the 1.0.1 bug: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=138103.

The only problem I have is that BOINC downloaded WCG units before the 7th of September, I'm thinking something was updated during maintenance which is triggering the bug with OpenSSL 1.0.1c, even with the workaround flag.

In any case, the current OpenSSL 1.0.1 patch and flag workaround doe's not work now in BOINC.

Another discovery, the provided download from WCG 'BOINC client version 6.10.58 for linux(x86)', also works with no workarounds, it looks like it was compiled with OpenSSL 0.9.8g, but seems to work with the my Archlinux systems lib32-OpenSSL 1.0.1c.

That would explain why these problems are occuring, although I still think OpenSSL 1.0.1 is the root cause. I followed the link and tried again using the information there, unfortunately, its still a no go, and using the older OpenSSL 0.9.8 libs got it to download, but I have to revert to the Archlinux default of 1.0.1c otherwise other packages will break.

I did have an application suffer with a bug that effected users of OpenSSL 1.0.0 and above, when session id's are enabled server side, the server drops the connection after the initial 'hello' message, the workaround was something like clearing the SSL session id cache using curl, but this would require a patch applied to BOINC directly most likely, I'll carry on looking and keep it updated here.

@RetiredTech well, glad that you're able to download new WU ;)

Little update on my part too, I've done the same trick as peaceseeker - renaming and symlinking - and I've also been able to downloads new tasks. I profited of the occasion to buffer 3 days worth of work, so at least my machine won't be idle while we keep fixing this thing ;)

Also it'll be interesting to see if finished tasks are able to upload correctly - I seem to recall that they do, but it never hurts to double check.

I also decided to post a thread on the Archlinux forums since it seems to be Archlinux-related, or at least GNU/Linux-related. Plus it might bring awareness to some users who just keep BOINC in the background and don't trouble about it so they might fix it too once a solution has been found.

[EDIT] Well, reports seems to be uploading fine, so I assume that it's really a one-way problem...