Bug#753763: add user to boinc in order to see the graphics?

[Gianfranco Costamagna]

>Thank you for finding out that "adduser me boinc" fixes this! But why
>this problem doesn't exist before? Some recent permission changes on
>/var/lib/boinc-client/slots/?


Seems that in some API changes, there has been introduced a requirement where
the program needs to "write" some sort of status prior to read the progress value.

>This solution (requiring a user to be in the boinc group) is not so
>problematic. It's just similar to the cdrom/floppy/... groups, where
>debian-installer adds the first (non-root) user to those groups, and
>other group management task is up to the system admin.

>Two concerns here:
>- Security? when a user is in the boinc group, he/she is considered as
>  an admin for the boinc daemon, and should be able to do whatever
>  he/she wants with boinc. Thus no problem here.


this might fix the problem of restarting boinc or the problem that "boinc doesn't quit"
or "can't start boinc after quitting the daemon"

>- UI? Instead of crashing badly, there should be an error message about
>  not being in the boinc group. (I don't know if upstream supports
>  this.)


they have a nice code for MacOSX that might be adapted, some sort of api (a kind of sandbox) not requiring
the user to be in the boinc group, but upstream doesn't want (now) to port that on linux, so since I have
really no time to look at it seems to be the best but unfeasible solution.

cheers,

Gianfranco