[SmartcardServices-Users] [Fed-Talk] Trying to attach smart card reader to VM on OS 10.8

Henry B. Hotz hotz at jpl.nasa.gov
Tue Dec 11 17:57:58 PST 2012


Apologies for the cross-post, but I want to finish the thread.  (I wish there were more traffic on the SC Services list.)

My memory of the situation was that I couldn't configure VirtualBox to capture the device until after it had already captured it.  A bit of a catch 22.

I'm not currently running VB (running Parallels so I can't verify this) but I guess the recommended procedure would be:

1) Start VirtualBox
2) Connect SC reader
3) kill pcscd (under MacOS)
4) Capture the reader in a VB VM (before pcscd gets restarted)
5) Configure VB to auto-capture the device.
6) Shut down VB.
7) Reboot

Afraid I no longer remember details about whether the card was in the reader or not when I was playing with this.

On Dec 10, 2012, at 8:10 AM, Shawn Geddis wrote:

> John / Henry / others...
> 
> Two quick points of interest....
> 
> • SmartCard discussions should always be over at the project:  SmartCardServices at MacOSForge.Org
> 	http://smartcardservices.macosforge.org/trac/wiki/MailLists
> 
> • Manually killing any component of SmartCard Services (ie. pcscd) under OS X ...
>  - This will only make your environment unstable from that point on.
>  - If you insert a reader into your hardware under OS X, it will auto-launch pcscd under strict control of securityd
>  - After two minutes of no smart card insertion, securityd will auto-kill pcscd and remove control.
> 
> Work arounds
>  - Your VT solution should always allow you to capture/block the hardware in the active environment.
>  - if you Launch the Windows environment and insert reader then, prior to insertion under OS X, it will capture it there.
> 
> Killing processes under OS X just to access a device that is automatically handled is not a suggested approach.
> 
> -Shawn
> 
> On Dec 10, 2012, at 8:22 AM, "Myers, John (NIH/NICHD) [C]" <john.myers at nih.gov> wrote:
>> Thanks Henry. I'll try to find the process and kill it. Alternatively I'll try a different server. 
>> 
>> Chris
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Henry B. Hotz [mailto:hotz at jpl.nasa.gov]
>> Sent: Friday, December 07, 2012 10:14 PM
>> To: Myers, John (NIH/NICHD) [C]
>> Cc: Apple Fed-Talk <fed-talk at lists.apple.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Fed-Talk] Trying to attach smart card reader to VM on OS 10.8
>> 
>> Parallels seems to do it OK.
>> 
>> Back when I was playing with VB, I was able to configure it to auto-snarf the reader when it was plugged in.  Absent that setting, I had to manually kill pcscd before VB could grab the reader.  Been a while, so I forget the details of where the setting were.  MacOS 10.6.something.
>> 
>> Also you needed to have the "extras" package installed or it didn't have USB support at all.  Looks like that's not your problem though.
>> 
>> On Dec 7, 2012, at 11:28 AM, Myers, John (NIH/NICHD) [C] wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi everyone,
>>> 
>>> Do any of you know a way to get a Virtual Server (Virtualbox in this
>>> instance) to bind a PIV card reader when plugged into a Mac running
>>> 10.6.8?  Every time I try I get the message "failed to attach"Š"device in
>>> is use by someone else."
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> Chris

------------------------------------------------------
The opinions expressed in this message are mine,
not those of Caltech, JPL, NASA, or the US Government.
Henry.B.Hotz at jpl.nasa.gov, or hbhotz at oxy.edu



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