Karabiner-elements: Reciever: failed to bind

[rpzrpzrpz]

Any idea why elements is generating error in log:

receiver: failed to bind?

[ascander]

macOS: 10.15.3
KE: 12.9.0

I'm also seeing this as of today, after updating to macOS 10.15.3.

Starting KE gives me the preferences pane, a spinning beach ball for a few seconds, and nothing else. Checking the console log, I see:

[2020-01-29 20:57:52.992] [info] [kextd] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:57:53.177] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:57:53.279] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:57:53.525] [info] [kextd] KextManagerLoadKextWithURL: kOSReturnSuccess
[2020-01-29 20:58:03.234] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:03.328] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:11.842] [info] [session_monitor] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:11.844] [info] [session_monitor] receiver is initialized
[2020-01-29 20:58:11.844] [info] [session_monitor] session_monitor_receiver_client is started.
[2020-01-29 20:58:11.846] [info] [session_monitor] on_console_changed: true
[2020-01-29 20:58:11.846] [info] [session_monitor] receiver: bound
[2020-01-29 20:58:13.296] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:13.370] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:23.346] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:23.411] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:32.164] [info] [console_user_server] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:33.401] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:33.457] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:43.456] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:43.506] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:52.206] [info] [console_user_server] receiver is initialized
[2020-01-29 20:58:52.206] [info] [console_user_server] receiver: failed to bind
[2020-01-29 20:58:53.227] [info] [console_user_server] receiver: failed to bind
[2020-01-29 20:58:53.534] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:53.558] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:54.297] [info] [console_user_server] receiver: failed to bind
[2020-01-29 20:58:55.369] [info] [console_user_server] receiver: failed to bind
[2020-01-29 20:58:56.433] [info] [console_user_server] receiver: failed to bind
[2020-01-29 20:58:57.494] [info] [console_user_server] receiver: failed to bind

Starting the EventViewer crashes immediately. I've also checked the logs at /var/log/karabiner/*. Here's what I see:
grabber.log

[2020-01-29 21:04:15.356] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:04:25.407] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:04:35.461] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:04:45.515] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:04:55.568] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:05.619] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:15.674] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:25.727] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:35.782] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:45.836] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0

observer.log

[2020-01-29 21:04:55.593] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:05.643] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:15.698] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:25.752] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:35.805] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:45.861] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:05:55.913] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:06:05.968] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:06:16.023] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 21:06:26.088] [info] [observer] version 12.9.0

session_monitor.503.log

[2020-01-29 20:58:11.842] [info] [session_monitor] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:58:11.844] [info] [session_monitor] receiver is initialized
[2020-01-29 20:58:11.844] [info] [session_monitor] session_monitor_receiver_client is started.
[2020-01-29 20:58:11.846] [info] [session_monitor] on_console_changed: true
[2020-01-29 20:58:11.846] [info] [session_monitor] receiver: bound

and finally kextd.log

[2020-01-29 20:57:52.992] [info] [kextd] version 12.9.0
[2020-01-29 20:57:53.525] [info] [kextd] KextManagerLoadKextWithURL: kOSReturnSuccess

I've uninstalled KE using the "uninstall" button in the app, deleted all the org.pqrs plist files in /Library/LaunchAgents and deleted everything in ~/.config/karabiner and ~/.local/karabiner just to be extra sure. After a restart and fresh install, I see exactly the same behavior.

This is a huge bummer, and if there's any information I can provide to help get this working again, I'd be happy to share. This is a fantastic app and has become an essential part of my daily workflow. I've been accidentally capitalizing things all day (yay muscle memory) and it's very frustrating.

FWIW, I'm seeing this on a managed machine (read: work laptop) with a dedicated APFS volume for Nix (see https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/2925#issuecomment-539570232). It's been managed forever, and the Nix volume has been ever since upgrading to Catalina, and KE worked fine then. The only major change has been the macOS upgrade.

[pkassios]

I am having exactly the same issue after an update to Catalina 10.15.3 :-( My machine is also managed but I dont have an APFS mount.

[sihde]

Confirming it broke for me too upon upgrade to MacOS 10.15.3, with Karabiner-Elements 12.9.0. Log entries I see are the same as the comment above.

[ascander]

Update:

Karabiner Elements mysteriously started working for me again yesterday. I got popups requesting that I allow karabiner_observer, karabiner_grabber, and Karabiner-EventViewer.app to monitor input. I did, and now everything Just Works™

I'm thrilled to have my functionality back, but deeply confused about how/why this suddenly started working, since I did not update, restart, or otherwise tell my computer to try using Karabiner again. Log outputs all seem quite reasonable now. Is there any light to be shed on this?

[dlehman]

I confirm that it also broke for me in the same way with install of 10.15.3. :(

[console_user_server] receiver: failed to bind

[dlehman]

FIXED!

Just a note that I was also having issues with other apps (1Password constantly crashing) after the macOS 10.15.3 upgrade, and the culprit turned out to be SentinelOne, which is a corporate malware scanner. Once the SentinelOne agent was updated to v3.6.1 (which mentions "support for Catalina 10.15.3"), both Karabiner and 1Password are working again.

(This may explain why it started working again for @ascander -- his IT staff pushed an S1 update.)

Anyways, the receiver: failed to bind error is gone in the Log, and i'm happy. Cheers!

[simonbasle]

That would explain why it failed and subsequently magically reworked for me as well! 👍

[sihde]

Same for me -- my laptop also has Sentinel on it from my IT department and mine also started working again.

[ascander]

Yup.

I definitely have the same corporate ~malware~ software installed on this machine. Wishing now that I had tried on my personal lappy to triage sooner. I verified that /Library/Sentinel/sentinel-agent.bundle shows v3.6.1 in the Finder, which is consistent with @dlehman's findings.

Thanks again for posting that note! The only situation worse than things breaking mysteriously is things working mysteriously.

[mickeymammoth]

On 10.5.4, this started happening/karabiner stopped working yesterday. My corp uses Cisco AMP for Endpoints, so I imagine that's the problem. Anyone know any workaround?

[mickeymammoth]

I updated to the beta version (12.9.6), and it started working again. No more "failed to bind" problems.

[trbielec]

I have no corporate security on my device. I have a fresh install of Karabiner-Elements on OSX Catalina and this same issue is blocking app functionality.

karabiner_grabber cannot be found in the System Accessibility Settings, only karabiner_observer. Have tried restarting karabiner several times, no luck.

grabber.log:
[2020-05-15 11:24:51.730] [info] [grabber] version 12.9.0
[2020-05-15 11:24:57.755] [warning] [grabber] device_open_forbidden

The solution for me was to kill the grabber process so it would restart and I could then see and enable it in accessibility settings.

Devs: If karabiner recognizes the accessibility services haven't been enabled (when the popup is shown), then the application should automatically restart the grabber process. ALSO when you restart Karabiner-Elements in the Misc settings pane, that should also restart the processes associated with it.

[noragrossman]

Just had the same problem after updating to Catalina, with no corporate security on my device. Like @trbielec I could see karabiner_observer in my System Accessibility Settings but there was no karabiner_grabber. I fixed this by clicking the + button, searching for karabiner_grabber, and adding it that way. After making that change, Karabiner-Elements works again!

[stale[bot]]

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