MV

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

EID card reader on Ubuntu... what a mess

Installing a card reader on ubuntu isn't that hard, there exists even good documentation... but Ubuntu seems to mess up the middleware with some updates, kernel updates seem to be most likely.

So each time I need my card reader (let's say 1 time every three months), it has become out of order when trying to connect to a site with my EID, giving either error:

"ssl_error_handshake_failure_alert" or "ssl_error_bad_cert_alert"

This is what helps for me:

A. Reinstall middleware:
1. Download the middleware: here
If the link doesn't work, try this page (in Dutch) which contains a link to the binary.
2. Unpack the .tgz file: tar xvf beid-middlew...tgz
3. cd install
4. Execute "sudo ./install.sh" and follow the instructions. The execution can end with the following lines:

libqtgui4 is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
./install.sh: 390: [[: not found
checking pcscd running...
./install.sh: 390: [[: not found
./install.sh: 390: [[: not found
Follow the instructions in the documentation to:
- register the software in Firefox.
- set the environment variable MOZILLA_CERTIFICATE_FOLDER

Please read the README file and licensing information for more information about
libraries this software and the software it is depending on


Try again in Firefox to connect to site with EID.

B. Certificate issues
1. uninstall the beid add-on in firefox, if already installed.
2. Open Firefox
3. Go to this page.
4. Click "Add to firefox".
5. Click "Install Now"
6. Restart firefox.
7. Go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Encryption and click View Certificates
8. On Authorities tab, select Belgium CA Root certificate and click Edit.
9. Select the 3 available options and click OK until you return to firefox.
10. Restart firefox to complete the update.

Hooray for ubuntu updates... next time take care of the middleware

2 comments:

  1. Hi, the middleware is available in the default universe.
    Just install the packages beid-tools and beidgui via the package manager.

    ReplyDelete
  2. and if the beidgui is installed and working. With firefox you don't need to use the addon but you can simply install the module yourself by going to the

    Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Encryption > Security Devices > Load > 'provide a name and browse to /usr/lib/libbeidpkcs11.so.2 (or a specific version'

    ReplyDelete