#768927 opensc: OpenCT missing. Was removed in 760258

Package:
opensc
Source:
opensc
Description:
Smart card utilities with support for PKCS#15 compatible cards
Submitter:
Cornelius Koelbel
Date:
2025-08-17 17:47:49 UTC
Severity:
important
Tags:
#768927#5
Date:
2014-11-10 08:51:08 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,


   * What led up to the situation?

     OpenSC is the "driver"/"middleware" for talking to smartcards.
     It depends on OpenCT, which is the driver for the Card Terminals.
     OpenCT is also maintained by the opensc project, which is now hosted
     at github.
     With bug #760258 openct was removed, so that opensc can not be used
     anymore, since tools like the opensc-explorer do not find any card
     terminal anymore.

   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?

     Tried to run Aladdin eToken Pro 64K. It could not be found, due to
     the missing openct package. The card terminal could not be found.

   * What was the outcome of this action?

     the card terminal software was not available. No card terminal / card
     reader could be found, aladdin etoken could not be found and not be used.

   * What outcome did you expect instead?

     OpenSC needs to be available. OpenSC should contain a dependency on
     OpenCT. OpenCT should be installable and the etoken should be accessed.
#768927#12
Date:
2014-11-11 17:32:15 UTC
From:
To:
* Cornelius Koelbel (corny@cornelinux.de) wrote:

openct is basically dead upstream and I consulted with the opensc devs
on its removal.

Have you tried installing pcscd? I just realized there's no recommends
on it which there probably should be.
#768927#17
Date:
2014-11-11 18:03:46 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Eric,
Am 11.11.2014 um 18:32 schrieb Eric Dorland:
Yes, but to my up-to-now-knowledge using pcscd and opensc is not enough.
As soon as we installed openct things worked fine.
I will ask the opensc guys.

Kind regards
Cornelius
#768927#22
Date:
2014-11-23 20:40:52 UTC
From:
To:
* Cornelius Kölbel (corny@cornelinux.de) wrote:
[snip]

Did you have any luck making it work with pcscd?
#768927#29
Date:
2014-11-30 17:32:51 UTC
From:
To:
Hello,

I'm in the same situation. I own a ACR30U-EGC smart-card reader
(identified as 072f:0001 Advanced Card Systems, Ltd AC1030-based
SmartCard Reader) which does not work with opencs/pcscd/libccid.

Installing openct from [1] and following the instructions in [2]
everything seems to work fine (well, the card reader gets detected and
so my smart card; did not tried to actually use it). It clearly all
depended from the files installed by openct:

$ dpkg -S /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/*
libccid: /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle
openct: /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/openct-ifd.bundle
libccid: /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/serial

So, I think openct should be reintroduced in Debian because it provides
some smart card drivers. I read about the package removal in [3], but
not many users are also subscribers of Debian ML... :)

Regards
--
Alessio Gaeta

[1] http://snapshot.debian.org/package/openct/0.6.20-1.2/
[2] https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/118996 (comment #6)
[3] http://opensc.1086184.n5.nabble.com/Is-openct-dead-td14661.html
#768927#34
Date:
2014-11-30 18:09:01 UTC
From:
To:
Just to add some more information.

AFAIU, pcsc-lite only supports CCID/ICCD readers. So, anything not
CCID-compliant is not (and will not be) supported by pcsc-lite. But
could be supported by openct.

Just as an example, see the difference between my old unsupported
ACR30(U), the relatively new but unsupported ACR38U and the (only one)
supported ACR38U-CCID:

http://www.acs.esoftkey.com/smart-card-reader.php
http://pcsclite.alioth.debian.org/ccid/supported.html#0x072F0x90CC

Regards
--
Alessio Gaeta
#768927#39
Date:
2014-12-05 07:56:24 UTC
From:
To:
http://acsccid.sourceforge.net/

OpenCT as a Linux only, unmaintained software interface should be
discouraged and is hardly a sensible choice with modern and
standards-compliant hardware (check the list of supported readers of
libccid)
#768927#44
Date:
2014-12-05 08:04:43 UTC
From:
To:
If, for some reason, you need to access old non-standard hardware (like
aladdin etoken) for what a "native" PC/SC ifdhandler is not available,
someone could consider packaging the PC/SC ifdhandler from OpenCT for
the specific purpose.

But OpenSC should still use it through PC/SC as I guess there is noone
out there who would like to debug/support an old software stack.
#768927#49
Date:
2014-12-06 13:58:19 UTC
From:
To:

Well, I have a very strange reason to do it... I own an old card reader
which worked until now and now does not anymore... :)

BTW, packaging the handler only seems a good way to go. Maybe the list
of supported readers should be eventually purged from readers already
supported by OpenSC or not supporting PC/SC standard at all (i.e. my
ACR30U does, see [1]).

I hope this issue could be addressed. Thanks!

Regards