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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Windows XP Accounts - Admin & Limited |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 10
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I am running the World Community Grid on Windows XP. I have an Admin desktop account that I use for downloads and such, and a Limited desktop account that I use for every day internet browsing.
I have only been able to get World Community Grid to work on the Admin desktop. As soon as I log out, it stops working. When I try to install and/or run the grid on my Limited desktop, I get an error message saying, "You are not authorized, please contact your administrator to add you to the Local Users group." How and where do I do this?? Is this a Windows thing or a World Community Grid thing? I haven't been able to find an option to give my Limited account permission in my Windows options or on the World Community site. =\ Please help, Sincerely, ~Isabelle~ |
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a_mobile_humanist
Cruncher Joined: May 20, 2011 Post Count: 34 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Is this Windows XP Home or Professional? Also, when you installed BOINC, was the "Protected execution mode" option checked? Also, was the "allow all users to control BOINC" option checked?
----------------------------------------From the install instructions at the Berkeley site (https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC ): Protected application execution - Run project applications under an unprivileged account. This provides increased protection against faulty applications, but it prevents BOINC from using your GPU, and it may cause graphics to not work with older applications. Allow all users on this computer to control BOINC - If selected (public mode), all users can control BOINC (attach/detach projects, etc.). If not selected (private mode), the only users who can control BOINC are: the installing user, members of the Administrator group, and members of the 'boinc_users' group. When other users run the BOINC Manager, they'll be shown a dialog saying to contact the administrator to add them to the 'boinc_users' group. if you installed BOINC with the "Protected application execution" and "Allow all users on this computer to control BOINC" options checked, then your limited account should have been added to the boinc_users group automatically. Your limited account must be a member of this group, or it will be denied access. You can check whether your limited account is a member of the boinc_users group by doing the following as an administrator: 1) Open Computer Management (Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management) 2) Double-click on "Local Users and Groups" on the left hand panel (Computer Management -> System Tools) 3) Double-click "Users" on the right hand panel 4) Double-click the name of your limited user account on the right hand panel 5) Click the "Member Of" tab Confirm that "boinc_users" is listed in the "Member of:" box. If not, click the Add button, type boinc_users into the box, click OK, and click OK again. [Edit 5 times, last edit by a_mobile_humanist at Sep 17, 2012 6:32:52 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
 Thanks, a_mobile_humanist!That is a very helpful post. Lawrence |
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a_mobile_humanist
Cruncher Joined: May 20, 2011 Post Count: 34 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I just now noticed this (old but still open
---------------------------------------- ) ticket on the Berkeley BOINC bug tracker:https://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/ticket/1025 Apparently sometimes version 6.10.58 of BOINC doesn't set up user groups and permissions correctly on Windows (7 Ultimate 64-bit as reported in the ticket). I understand that WCG rolls its own version of BOINC/Manager, and that WCG BOINC is at version 6.10.58. So, you might be experiencing this bug. The instructions above for checking and/or adding your limited user to the boinc_users group should still work. If you're using a Home version of Windows XP and the control panel applets in the instructions are not present, then check out the ticket page above for instructions on how to add your limited account to boinc_users via the command line (we can also help with that if something is unclear). Does someone know if WCG is aware of this bug? Does WCG have a bug tracker/reporting mechanism (I always get BOINC straight from Berkeley, so I only know about their facilities)? [Edit 2 times, last edit by a_mobile_humanist at Sep 17, 2012 10:57:07 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wow, okay! Thank you for all that info in both replies. The second reply is especially helpful, because I followed the instructions in the first, and discovered that I do not have "Local Users and Groups" in my Computer Management console tree.
----------------------------------------So, if I'm reading your second reply correctly, this is caused by a bug in the WCG Manager? Should I used the official BOINC Grid Manager instead? Can I still run projects from World Community using the other grid manager? Also, so my information is complete for future readers, I am using XP Home edition, it came with Service Pack 2 but has been updated to SP3. Thank you for your help, I sincerely appreciate it!  Edit: Additional Info - So I decided to uninstall the WCG Manager, and install BOINC directly. I haven't installed BAM! Grid Manager, since all my projects seem to be running through BOINC without it. This time, I did installed BOINC with the "Protected application execution" and "Allow all users on this computer to control BOINC" options checked (They were greyed out and unchecked, I chose Advanced Options to change them.) So after BOINC was up and running, I went back to computer management and there is still no "Local Users and Groups".  So I went to the ticket you mentioned, but it doesn't give clear instructions on how to add/create "Local Users and Groups". Please help! Thank you for your time, ~Isabelle~ [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Sep 18, 2012 2:18:19 AM] |
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a_mobile_humanist
Cruncher Joined: May 20, 2011 Post Count: 34 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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So, if I'm reading your second reply correctly, this is caused by a bug in the WCG Manager? Should I used the official BOINC Grid Manager instead? I don't know whether the bug is present in the WCG version. However, I use the BOINC obtained directly from Berkeley and have never had this problem (including on my XP Home machine, where BOINC runs normally). So after BOINC was up and running, I went back to computer management and there is still no "Local Users and Groups" Since you have the Home version of Windows XP, "Local Users and Groups" will not be present. This is entirely normal and BOINC will not add it. You say that BOINC is up and running. EDIT: I already know your answer, as I had a sneaking suspicion that my Home machine wasn't actually working as expected either, and I was unfortunately correct; we both have this problem. I've never noticed this behavior in Home because my normal account on that machine is an administrator (which Microsoft forces on Home users for some inexplicable reason). I'm attempting a potential solution; will report back in a few moments. EDIT again: Success. See my most recent post below for the solution. [Edit 3 times, last edit by a_mobile_humanist at Sep 18, 2012 3:22:28 AM] |
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a_mobile_humanist
Cruncher Joined: May 20, 2011 Post Count: 34 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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The boinc_users group is present in a Windows Home installation of BOINC, but adding your limited user to it will require using the command line.
----------------------------------------While logged in as your administrator account: 1) Open a command prompt (Start -> all programs -> accessories -> command prompt) 2) Type in this command at the prompt: net localgroup boinc_users your_limited_account_name_here /add Of course, substitute your_limited_account_name_here with the name of your limited account. For example, on my machine I created a limited account called "boinctest;" to add it to the boinc_users group I used the command net localgroup boinc_users boinctest /add 3) press enter You should get a message to the effect that your account was successfully added to the boinc_users group. If so, log out of your administrator account, log into your limited account, and start BOINC Manager to confirm that you can now control BOINC from a limited account. [EDIT: my-annoyance-with-Microsoft rant removed, as not really relevant  ][Edit 4 times, last edit by a_mobile_humanist at Sep 18, 2012 3:42:19 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
WOOT!! It worked!! Thank you so much, a mobil humanist!
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Great to hear.....please add [REsolved] to the topic title
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi Isabelle,
Glad your long route came to a working solution. Just wondered, did you right click the BOINC installer in Windows file explorer and choose "run as administrator"? It's what I routinely do on my Windows systems, so to ensure nothing in setting permissions can fail. We very rarely get to hear of this problem and this ticket that a mobile humanist refers to puzzles me. No one seems to have the issue on Windows 7, and rarely with XP [can't remember the last case]. At any rate, there are some lose comments at the developers along the line of "don't know why it worked in the past", and they've recoded the installation process and permission settings in the latest development client, mostly aimed at upcoming Windows 8 [where clean 6.10 installation fails]. WCG in fact now proposes members with W8 and latest Mac OS-X Lion to use client 7.0.31 [but that is not a finished product either, an interim solution]. I'm testing 7.0.36 now and it's doing fine so far with loads more bug fixes. WCG is actually in the process of testing 7.0.xx with the intend to roll out an official [WCG] release later this autumn, maybe even concurrent with the official launch of Windows 8 [October would be to early is my guess]. We'll see. Crunch On. |
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