$Id: FAQ,v 1.10 2003/06/23 17:32:41 aquamaniac Exp $ This file contains "Frequently Asked Questions" and their answers. If you have problems with Libchipcard then please first read this file. If the problem still persists please drop an email to "martin@libchipcard.de" or join the mailing list "libchipcard-devel". The homepage of libchipcard (http://www.libchipcard.de) contains a link to the subscription page. All tools ========= Q: Why do I always get the error "command not found" ? A: Please make sure that the path to the command files is correctly set and that this path really contains "*.cmd" files. You can do so by editing the configuration file by hand ("PREFIX/etc/chipcardc.conf", where PREFIX is the path libchipcard has been installed to, in most cases this is "/usr/local" or "/usr"). This file should contain a line saying "commands=xyz", this specifies the path to the command files. It defaults to "PREFIX/share/libchipcard/commands". A: Try to upgrade Libchipcard, some older versions contained bugs that prevented libchipcard to fully read a configuration file. Q: Why do I always get the error message "service unreachable" ? A: It seems that "chipcardd" is not running. You can verify this by typing "ps ax". If there are not two lines containing "chipcardd" then the server is not running. If it is, then you should check the address and port settings in client and server. Please use KCardSetup for this purpose. Please note that since version 0.7 the chipcard server must be started to allow working with libchipcard. Q: I have a Reiner-SCT-Cyberjack reader with a keypad, but why does secure pin verification not work ? A: This might happen if the driver has been compiled with an older kernel. So if this problem occurrs to you I recommend recompiling the CTAPI driver of this reader. See the Libchipcard homepage for download links. KCardSetup ========== Q: If I click on "Test" in the reader edit menu I always get the answer "reader not found", when I'm sure there is one ? A: If the manufacturer is "other" (instead of "towitoko", "kobil" or "cyberjack") then please try some other values for the port settings (numeric values 0-xxx). Otherwise: Simply try again, sometimes it works on the second try (I really don't know why, but it does). Memorycards, ctfstool, memcard ============================== Q: I format a memory card with "ctfstool" but when reading data from the card ("ctfstool info") I get an error "bad filesystem". What's wrong ? A: Maybe you have one of those cards which do not allow writing to some parts of it. Some 2KB cards have been reported to not allow modification of the first byte (in all cases the reader was a Towitoko reader) To verify this try: - first write some data to the card: "memcard write -a 0 -s -f " - then read the data back: "memcard read -a 0 -s -f " - compare both files: If they are not equal then some bytes could not be modified Those cards can not be used with "ctfstool", sorry :-( Q: Why am I unable to read or write from/to my memory card with a size of more than 8KB ? A: This problem appears with Kobil readers (even with Kobil Kaan Professional). It seems to be a problem of the reader's firmware. The support of Kobil could not help me there, so for now you can not use such cards with a Kobil reader. I have to add that currently Reiner-SCT cyberjacks do not work either with those cards. This reader does return data, but not exactly that what was written to the card :-/ PC/SC ===== Q: Libchipcard does not find PC/SC readers. Why is that ? A: You have to make sure that the "pcscd" daemon (PC/SC daemon) is running BEFORE starting the chipcardd daemon. When using binary packages you also have to make sure that you are using packages with support for pcsc. Some packages (like those for Redhat 8.0 and SuSE 8.1) are compiled without PC/SC support (at least up to Libchipcard version 0.8.1). If using PC/SC you have to setup the PC/SC configuration file (reader.conf). Some distributions do this automatically, but you can do it by hand or by using the tool "KPCSCSetup". Q: Do I have to setup readers when using PC/SC ? A: No, you don't have to. Libchipcard enumerates all PC/SC driven readers upon startup of chipcardd. However, PC/SC does not tell Libchipcard about the capabilities of the reader, such as the availability of a keypad etc. So if your reader has a keypad that you should want to use, then you have to list the reader in the file chipcardd.conf. Please see the example configuration file in the example folder. Current versions of KCardSetup allow to automatically enumerate all PC/SC driven readers. Orga HML5021 ============ Q: What seetings are needed to use such a device with KVKd ? A: "Ausgabemedium" must be set to "PC(ASN-1)", "Betriebsart" must be set to "MKT". XFree86 ======= Q: Why does my X server crash while chipcardd is running ? A: This has been reported by one person only. It is not an error of Libchipcard, it is rather a configuration error. If you have a reader attached to a serial port and your X server is configured to search for a mouse on the same port then both the X server and chipcardd try to concurrently access the port. However, chipcardd find what is is looking for (a card reader) on that port, but the X server thinks that it found a mouse and tries to work with it. Since a card reader is quite unlike a mouse the X server most likely crashes. You can fix this by configuring your X server correctly, especially by telling it where your mouse really is attached to ;-)