Folding@Home: Could not CosmHTTPOpen / Requesting User ID from server
There is a current bug related to the 6.29 Linux client that has been affecting more recent versions of Linux. Known distributions with issues are Fedora and Arch (and likely anything else with very recent glibc versions). The symptoms of this issue are that your client seems to hang on retrieving or reporting work units.
Kind of like this:
Launch directory: /opt/foldingathome
Executable: ./fah6
Arguments: -smp -advmethods -forceasm -verbosity 9
[10:52:32] - Ask before connecting: No
[10:52:32] - User name: username (Team 11298)
[10:52:32] - User ID: P1L30FDG4RB4G3L8L
[10:52:32] - Machine ID: 1
[10:52:32]
[10:52:32] Loaded queue successfully.
[10:52:32] - Autosending finished units... [May 16 10:52:32 UTC]
[10:52:32] - Preparing to get new work unit...
[10:52:32] Cleaning up work directory
[10:52:32] Trying to send all finished work units
[10:52:32] + No unsent completed units remaining.
[10:52:32] - Autosend completed
[10:52:32] + Attempting to get work packet
[10:52:32] Passkey found
[10:52:32] - Will indicate memory of 1024 MB
[10:52:32] - Connecting to assignment server
[10:52:32] Connecting to http://assign.stanford.edu:8080/
[10:52:32] - Could not CosmHTTPOpen
[10:52:32] + Could not connect to Assignment Server
[10:52:32] Connecting to http://assign2.stanford.edu:80/
[10:52:32] - Could not CosmHTTPOpen
[10:52:32] + Could not connect to Assignment Server 2
[10:52:32] + Couldn't get work instructions.
[10:52:32] - Attempt #1 to get work failed, and no other work to do.
Waiting before retry.
[10:52:48] + Attempting to get work packet
[10:52:48] Passkey found
[10:52:48] - Will indicate memory of 1024 MB
[10:52:48] - Connecting to assignment server
[10:52:48] Connecting to http://assign.stanford.edu:8080/
[10:52:48] - Could not CosmHTTPOpen
[10:52:48] + Could not connect to Assignment Server
[10:52:48] Connecting to http://assign2.stanford.edu:80/
[10:52:48] - Could not CosmHTTPOpen
[10:52:48] + Could not connect to Assignment Server 2
[10:52:48] + Couldn't get work instructions.
[10:52:48] - Attempt #2 to get work failed, and no other work to do.
Waiting before retry.
To fix this issue, you simply need to run the nscd daemon. This can be done in the following way(s):
Fedora:
chkconfig nscd on && service nscd start
Arch Linux:
/etc/rc.d/nscd start
note: Remember to add nscd to your rc.conf DAEMONS array
Gentoo:
/etc/init.d/nscd start && rc-update add nscd default
Source: Christer Edwards