pcscd issue

ericrhenry · n00b Joined: 02 Jul 2009 Posts: 15 Location: Bethesda, MD

I completed an install of various facilities to work with SmartCards on a new laptop. This was pretty much identical to a several-years-old install on another laptop (from the same manufacturer, FWIW). Included sys-apps/pcsc-lite, sys-apps/pcsc-tools, app-crypt/ccid, dev-libs/opensc, and perhaps a few others. This install works like a champ on the old laptop; starting /etc/init.d/pcscd lets me run pcsc_scan successfully, read certificates into a browser, etc.

The new installation is a bit more problematic. After starting the daemon, pcsc_scan hangs waiting for detection of the first card reader, opensc-tool fails to detect the reader, etc. However, lsusb shows the reader, identified as

SCM Microsystems, Inc., SCR331-LC1/SCR3310 SmartCard Reader

Moreover, instead running the daemon in the foreground from a terminal using "pcscd -a -d -f" properly detects the reader and registers card events. On a hunch, while doing this I also ran pcsc_scan in a separate terminal, and it worked just fine. This suggested that the method of starting the daemon somehow affected its functionality. When started through OpenRC, syslog shows a string of errors involving failure to open a port and others, culminating in the driver failing to init.

On a whim, I took a look at the /etc/init.d/pcscd file, and commented out the line

start_stop_daemon_args="--user pcscd:pcscd"

Upon startup, the daemon functioned correctly, with pcsc_scan detecting the card, certificates being read, etc.

I could stop here and just keep this tweak as a work-around, but I am not comfortable "breaking" one of the features of the install (running the daemon as user 'pcscd') in order to get it to work. At least I would like to know what this work-around is actually working around. Every aspect of the two installs that I have been able to probe appear to be identical: The pcscd user and group both exist, the udev rule sets for the service are identical, drivers are obviously available in both cases, etc. So I am left with some kind of possible permissions issue, beyond which I'm out of ideas.

If anyone can suggest something else to check, I would appreciate it.

Eric

harvin · n00b Joined: 16 May 2019 Posts: 2

Hi all,

I have exactly the same issue.

But I discovered this did not happen with the old kernel branches (I obviously did not test all the kernel branches).

So, with the 4.9.x Gentoo kernels, my smartcard reader works fine.
But the same configuration with the 4.14.x and 4.19.x Gentoo kernels (and probably newer kernel), I have the trouble described by ericrhenry.

I hope it will help to fix this issue...

Vincent

mega_flow · Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 4:11 am Post subject:

Hi the install log off sys-apps/pcsc-lite say

harvin · n00b Joined: 16 May 2019 Posts: 2

Hi,

Solved with :