Can't resolve etc/hosts file ... multiclutch issues? Help!

mdude85 · Nov 7, 2011

Hi everyone,

I am trying to run a program on my Macbook Pro (Lion) and the program would not start up ... I checked the Console log and saw the following message:

System Preferences: Can't open input server /Library/InputManagers/MultiClutchInputManager.bundle

I also tried opening up the etc/hosts file with Terminal... I received the same message, then a prompt saying the etc/hosts file cannot be found.

I have no idea how to proceed from here. I don't even know what Multiclutch is ... I have not installed it on my system. I'd like to just get everything back to normal. I'd at least like to be able to open the etc/hosts file. What's happening to my computer? I tried a reboot to no avail. I haven't installed any programs recently ... I did however update a few programs that I downloaded from the App Store. And I have also recently been having problems accessing some secure websites using Chrome.

My knowledge of Mac OSX is very limited.... thank you!!

yawns · Nov 8, 2011

Multiclutch seems to be some 3rd party software that extends multitouch functionality.

http://osx.iusethis.com/app/multiclutchinputmanager

It no longer works in Lion

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1191406

When you say you're trying to run a program, do you mean a specific application isn't working (if so, what is it?) or that apps in general crash?

I would guess one of two things:

1. The application/s in question require multiclutch and you don't have it.

2. You had/have multiclutch installed and it's conflicting with the application/s, or causing general errors if you're using Lion.

This might help:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1193824

mdude85 · Nov 8, 2011

Thanks, I've been looking at that thread. Unfortunately my system is not letting me delete the InputManagers folder from the Library. I keeps saying that the directory is not found (and it is also not showing in Finder), even though I know it's there and can also see it when I browse the Library folder using Google Chrome.

The program I am trying to run is Photoshop. I think it's causing general errors as the etc/hosts file cannot be run unless the bundle is found.

I didnt even know what MultiClutch was until yesterday ... I never authorized this to be installed on my system, so perhaps it came bundled with something else.

yawns · Nov 8, 2011

You might not have permissions set on the directory. You could try deleting it from the terminal.

sudo rm -rf /Library/InputManagers

Standard disclaimer: Be careful, don't delete stuff you might need, etc..

If you want to play it safer, skip the above and try this

sudo chmod -R 777 /Library/InputManagers

And then you can probably get to it via Finder and move it to the trash.

Super extra safe approach: Skip all of the above and do the following two commands. Let us know what the output of each before proceeding.

ls -la /Library | grep -i input
ls -R /Library/InputManagers

mdude85 · Nov 8, 2011

Thanks, I ran the last two lines:

Output from 1st line
drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 68 Jun 16 19:04 Input Methods
drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 68 Nov 8 02:10 InputManagers

Ouput from 2nd line
(nothing)

However the folder is not showing up in Finder. I've used the Terminal to unhide every system file as well.

yawns · Nov 8, 2011

The /Library/InputManagers directory is empty, so you can safely delete it. You should be able to do it from your account

rm -rf /Library/InputManagers

The error you're receiving is saying that it can't find something in that directory (which really isn't there, anyway). So I'm wondering if deleting this directory alone will solve the problem. If not, you may also need to delete the preference pane for multiclutch. I Googled a bit but am not finding anything about that that might be called (but let's guess it's something with, "multiclutch," in the name...)

You can check for this from terminal:

ls -la ~/Library/PreferencePanes
ls -la /Library/PreferencePanes

If you see any multiclutch stuff in either directory, delete it.

You might also want to go through this just to ensure multiclutch is totally gone

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=11171082&postcount=16

mdude85 · Nov 8, 2011

thanks, I've deleted the inputmanager folder using the terminal command but I am still having the issue of opening the etc/hosts file.

I am trying to open the hosts file using a text editor from terminal but it keeps saying that the hosts file is not found.

The console message I receive when trying to open the hosts file is

TextEdit(871) deny file-write-data /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntlDataCache.le

yawns · Nov 8, 2011

Is Photoshop working?

/etc is a symlink to /private/etc

Code:

ls -lha / | grep etc

Should give you output like this

Code:

lrwxr-xr-x@  1 root  wheel    11B Oct 23 00:24 etc -> private/etc

If that looks good,

Code:

ls -lha /private/etc/ | grep host

Outputs

Code:

-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel    87B Oct 23 00:24 hostconfig
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel   236B Oct 23 00:24 hosts
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel     0B Aug 16 21:40 hosts.equiv

And

Code:

cat /private/etc/hosts

Outputs

Code:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1	localhost
255.255.255.255	broadcasthost
::1             localhost 
fe80::1%lo0	localhost

So, does any of that not work or look different for you?

mdude85 · Nov 8, 2011

Nope it is not working.

I ran ls -lha /private/etc/ | grep host. the output is:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 87B Jul 22 14:29 hostconfig
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 740B Oct 13 01:19 hosts.backup
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0B Jun 18 15:44 hosts.equiv
-rw-r--r--@ 1 [name] staff 742B Oct 13 01:22 hosts.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 740B Oct 13 01:19 hosts.umbrella
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 236B Jul 22 14:29 hosts~orig

Alas... I don't see just "hosts".

I ran cat /private/etc/hosts. It says "no such file or directory."

As I recall, I installed Tor Browser/Vidalia and had to edit the hosts file. It asked me to create a backup, which I did. It seems somehow the hosts file got deleted (even though I've been using Tor for a while now and this issue just cropped up a few days ago) so I would guess my best option is to change the backup file to the original file? Can I do this with the finder? I'm just not that comfortable with the Terminal.

Thanks for holding my hand thru this.

yawns · Nov 8, 2011

you could create a copy with Finder, just make sure the contents are correct. You can also create a blank file by doing

touch /private/etc/hosts

in the terminal. Then open it with whatever, copy/paste the default values (as in my post above), and edit from there.

Edit: Ah, I didn't see the connection between these two before. You're trying to edit the hosts file to prevent Photoshop from phoning home, right? I don't think that will prevent the crashing, if that's still happening. If you haven't done so, run through the, "completely uninstall..." stuff above to be sure multiclutch is gone. I just found out there's a fork of multiclutch called, "BetterTouchTool," to watch out for as well :\

mdude85 · Nov 8, 2011

Thanks, I think Multiclutch is gone for good. I'm not sure what values were in the hosts file so I think my best bet is to just copy and rename the .backup file to the actual hosts file as the backup was created not long ago. However I still want to keep the backup file just in case the original hosts file gets deleted again. I want to see if I can get the contents of the backup file back into the original hosts file.

In order to do this I opened /private/etc in Finder, copied the hosts.backup file to the Desktop, renamed it hosts (no extension) and repasted it into /private/etc in Finder. I then flushed the DNS cache.

However when I try to open the file in Terminal using a text editor, the file appears to open, then quickly closes and I receive the following message:

2011-11-08 14:40:00.713 TextEdit[1163:10d0f] NSTrackPersistentURLs: LSSharedFileListInsertItemURL() failed at inserting URL file://localhost/etc/hosts (/etc/hosts)

I also receive the following message in console:

TextEdit(1163) deny file-write-data /private/etc/hosts

yawns · Nov 8, 2011

I think it's saying you don't have write permissions to the file. Back on the terminal:

sudo nano /private/etc/hosts

Edit as usual. Hit control+x to exit, Y to save.

mdude85 · Nov 8, 2011

yawns said: ↑

I think it's saying you don't have write permissions to the file. Back on the terminal:

sudo nano /private/etc/hosts

Edit as usual. Hit control+x to exit, Y to save.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that seems to work, but I still get the error whenever I try to open in a text editor. I am using the command

sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/hosts

yawns · Nov 8, 2011

I don't know how to edit it in TextEdit as root, sorry.

sudo -b open -e /private/etc/hosts

is supposed to work, but it's still, "locked," when I do it here under Lion. Maybe the annoying "versions," is getting in the way.

mdude85 · Nov 8, 2011

That's fine, I can just edit in the terminal.

thank you so much for your help.. do you know what might have caused the host file to be deleted? is this a common occurrence?

yawns · Nov 8, 2011

No idea, sorry!

Can't resolve etc/hosts file ... multiclutch issues? Help!

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