Missing inetd.conf file causes File Sharing crash

Jan 24, '02 11:20:33PM

Contributed by: robg

In our first "transference" hint from the new forums site, 'Crusty' wrote about the Sharing Prefs panel crashing whenever it was opened -- see "Sharing Prefs Messed Up". After a few back and forth "try this" exchanges, 'Thundarr' wrote that he had experienced the same problem and had a potential solution.

The resolution? Somehow, the inetd.conf file in /etc had either become damaged or (in this case) was actually missing. Ideally, you should replace the file with a fresh copy, but this may not always be feasible (note to self -- back up inetd.conf now!).

However, it turns out that as long as a placeholder for the file exists, then the Sharing Prefs will work. So if your Sharing Prefs panel is crashing, open a terminal and check for inted.conf in /etc ('ls /etc inetd.conf'). If it's not there, then type sudo touch /etc/inetd.conf. This will create an empty inetd.conf file, and fix your Sharing Prefs crash. Sure enough, when 'Crusty' created the file, the Sharing Prefs started working again!

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