Building a Smart Card Based Linux System?

Alvaro asks: "My question is rather simple: i've recently acquired a Soyo K7V Dragon+, an excellent Ahtlon XP motherboard which includes by default a smart card reader. My intention is to get this smart card reader working on Linux, but i've no idea on how to start. Is it a serial interface? Does it have an embedded controller in the MB? Does it need kernel support? Which programs should I use to access (read from/write to) the smart cards? I've searched the web to find useful information, but so far, no luck. The final idea is to use the smart cards to hold the key to decrypt an EFS (Encrypted File System), and the computer won't boot if the card isn't inserted since the BIOS also supports booting on smart card insert! Can anyone help me?"

Comments

Good place to start

[whoda]

Try this to start:

http://www.scia.org/knowledgebase/aboutSmartCard s/ stand.html

Then try this for more detailed information:

http://www.scia.org/knowledgebase/aboutsmartcard s/ iso7816_wimages.htm

Re:Good place to start

[DeadSea]

Why don't we just link them then?

Try this to start

Then try this for more detailed information

Some links

[joe52]

MUSCLE - Movement for the Use of Smart Cards in a Linux Environment looks kind of helpful.

And to use a smartcard reader for your login here.

The SmartCard reader is ITE chip

[raul]

The smartcard reader is a ITE SuperIO chip and one of his chanels can work as SCR(Smart Card Reader). You can get the info how to do it from the company website(I think it is www.iteusa.com).
I have tryed to do it but i am so busy that i only got the document to begin with it http://www.iteusa.com/pc/it8712f_SCR_v02.PDF.
Hop e it helps you, and you can do muscle driver so i can use it :).

Saludos y dime si te puedo ayudar en algo mas.

MUSCLE - Linux Smart Card Development

[storem]

I was a developer in the smartcard field before. A few good places for Linux smartcard resources were: Movement for the Use of Smart Cards in a Linux Environment and the CT-API for Linux pages.

The SuperChip ...

[ProfMoriarty]

is from ITE (as other have pointed out) but is the ITE 8705F ... not the 8712F ...

Here's are the specifications for that chip.

The Sigma-Box plugs into the motherboard using 2 cables, 1 for the SCR, and the other USB.

I've been trying to get it to work (PC/SC) under Win2K, but there are no drivers that appear to work. The demonstration app goes directly to the hardware to talk.