I've been starting BOINC from a script at system startup. It's located in a public directory. Security is NOT an issue for this system. BOINC usually runs as "root".

After over a week, I changed the preferences on one of the projects and I wanted to update the client. So I stopped the active process and started the boinc executable as my normal userid (a non-root ID). BOINC immediately wiped out all the current projects and status - without any prompting - and asked for a project URL.

I consider that to be a bug. It is aware I'm not using the same user - but wiping out all the existing work and the model seems to be a terrible way of handling the situation.

I now have a new model....and have started over. There was no other choice.

At the very least I should have been prompted about the consequences of starting boinc from a different user ID.....and given the chance to cancel out.

Anyone else had this problem?
<a href="http://www.boinc.dk/index.php?page=user_statistics&amp;project=cpdn&amp;userid=3861"><img border="0" height="68" src="http://3861.cpdn.sig.boinc.dk?142"></a>

Apparently nobody has, but thanks for the "heads up".

&gt; Apparently nobody has, but thanks for the "heads up".

I've resolved the best way to avoid the problem is to backup the relevant directory BEFORE updating prefs.....and if anything goes wrong, I just restore it.

That also gives me a good way to test this behaviour to make sure it is what it appeared to be.
<a href="http://www.boinc.dk/index.php?page=user_statistics&amp;project=cpdn&amp;userid=3861"><img border="0" height="68" src="http://3861.cpdn.sig.boinc.dk?142"></a>

&gt; &gt; Apparently nobody has, but thanks for the "heads up".
&gt;
&gt; I've resolved the best way to avoid the problem is to backup the relevant
&gt; directory BEFORE updating prefs.....and if anything goes wrong, I just restore
&gt; it.

I've just experienced something similar. I've had boinc-4.03 running for over a month, then had an update problem. It's running on a laptop that I carry to and from work. At work it needs a proxy to get out to the Internet, and it wasn't configured that way, so it got into the ever-extending update delay. I saw that boinc-4.05 was available, so I switch to that to see if it would update, but no, even with proxy stuff configured. I still got "Deferring for 1 week, 2 days..."

And now, after coming home again, it said "Resetting project... downloading", etc.

However, all may not be lost - I still have 550Mb of "stuff" under 00vs_000026129, all I need is for someone to suggest a way to get it uploaded, and/or continued. Otherwise, that's 4 weeks of processing down the tubes...