Installing USB Smart Card Reader driver in Ubuntu 10.04? Total n00b here...

[MichaelD]

Disclaimer: I am a Linux n00b; I can get to the command line but need my hand held from there. :\

I have loaded Ubuntu 10.04 x86 Netbook onto my Asus EeePC. It is working fine; can surf the net, play MP3's etc.

I am trying to install the driver for a USB Smart Card Reader and have downloaded the .tar.gz file but I don't know what to do with it. It's Linux so there's no installer to click and I'm lost.

I downloaded the driver for the SCR331 USB reader from this page https://www.txsystems.com/scm-drivers/ and it's saved on my netbook. When I unzip it there are three folders and an "install" file. But clicking the install file opens it up in notepad (or whatever the Linux equivalent is).

Would someone please instruct me how to install this driver? Thanks very much.

ps
When I plug the reader in, nothing happens; no popup or anything. The light on the device is on, so it's getting power. Ubuntu just doesn't see it.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Have you tried inserting a card into the device once it's plugged into the netbook? I wouldn't be surprised if it works already.

If it isn't working, just open a console and run the following command from the "scr3xxx_2.6.x_v4.6.5_Release" directory:

sudo ./install

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, AnonymouseUser. Unfortunately, that didn't work. The installer runs just fine in the command line. It even outputs "complete" at the end. But Ubuntu still doesn't recognize the card reader. I have two different readers (SCR331 and ACR38) and tried them both. Ubuntu recognizes neither. Both readers work fine under WinXP and W7 on two diff machines.

Fortunately, I figured out how to dual-boot XP and Ubuntu 10.04; that's working great. So, I still have the card reader functionality, just under XP. It stinks though, to keep two OSes on a machine just so I can check webmail.

Any additional help/troubleshooting to get this working under Ubuntu is greatly appreciated.

Mike

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Do you have the libccid package installed? If not, install it, reboot, and try the reader again. You can probably install it with the command:

sudo apt-get install libccid

 

[MichaelD]

No, I don't have that installed.. I read about 20 different web pages last night trying different things to get it working and must've overlooked the libccid package.

Of course, I'm at work now and the netbook's at home. I will try that for sure when I get home. Thank you very much for your help, AnonymouseUser. I sure appreciate it. If I can get the card reader working correctly, I'll take XP off that machine completely. Ubuntu 10.04 (with the latest Kernel...got it from Auto Update) just flies on my Asus 1005HA netbook.

 

[MichaelD]

I installed the libccid package; still no go although when I plugged in the reader I got a lot of HD activity...but nothing onscreen. I found a page that says I have to flash the firmware on the reader in order for it to work...but there are SO MANY other steps to do after that (editing conf files copy/pasting from one thing to another, etc) that I'm afraid of nuking my install. Here's the page...most of it's over my head. I'm reading into it further and trying to understand it, though.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CommonAccessCard

*edit*
Yup, it looks like I need to update the firmware. I ran the pcsc_scan command from a term window and got the "Waiting for the first reader..." error.

At this point you should be able to verify that your cac is working by running pcsc_scan. It should output something like this.

PC/SC device scannerV 1.4.8 (c) 2001-2006, Ludovic Rousseau <ludovic.rousseau@free.fr>Compiled with PC/SC lite version: 1.3.2Scanning present readers0: SCM SCR 331 (21120725209424) 00 00Sat Sep 22 12:28:23 2007 Reader 0: SCM SCR 331 (21120725209424) 00 00 Card state: Card inserted, ATR: 3B 6B 00 00 80 65 B0 83 01 04 74 83 00 90 00ATR: 3B 6B 00 00 80 65 B0 83 01 04 74 83 00 90 00+ TS = 3B --> Direct Convention+ T0 = 6B, Y(1): 0110, K: 11 (historical bytes) TB(1) = 00 --> VPP is not electrically connected TC(1) = 00 --> Extra guard time: 0+ Historical bytes: 80 65 B0 83 01 04 74 83 00 90 00 Category indicator byte: 80 (compact TLV data object) Tag: 6, len: 5 (pre-issuing data) Data: B0 83 01 04 74 Tag: 8, len: 3 (status indicator) LCS (life card cycle): 00 (No information given) SW: 9000 (Normal processing.)Possibly identified card (using /usr/share/pcsc/smartcard_list.txt):3B 6B 00 00 80 65 B0 83 01 04 74 83 00 90 00 Gemplus GXP3 64V2N U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card (DoD CAC)

If you see this:
SCardListReader: Cannot find a smart card reader. (0x8010002E)Waiting for the first reader...... then you probably did not update your firmware. Read the instructions at the top of this article to see how to update your firmware.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Yeah, I was reading that about updating the firmware, but wasn't sure if you needed it or not (I don't know how old your device is) and you'll definitely need Windows for the update.

Once that is done, if it still doesn't work, send TX Systems' technical support an email.

 

[Nothinman]

And while you're on with them ask why they don't just release the code under the GPL so it can be incorporated into the mainstream kernel and save both of you the bullshit of jumping through all of these hoops just to use their hardware.