CAC card not recognized

[davidlongstaff]

Like many of the posts I just purchased the PKard and during installation it will not recognize my Card. I have a SCR331. I have a new MAC book with Lion 7. I used the instructions in the other help and nothing happens when I insert my card. I know the reader is compatible so I need a fix. I will be looking for a refund if no help soon.

[carl]

David,

Welcome to the Thursby forums!
If the continue button is unavailable in PKard for Mac v1.1:

1. Is the card reader listed in PKard Assistant?
   

   

   Smart card reader was detected.

   Smart Card Reader Detected.png (66.73 KiB) Viewed 28238 times

   No
   There is a good chance that your card reader won't work with the Mac. Provide the reader manufacturer, model, and version number (if possible); and we'll see if we can find an official answer.
   Yes
   Continue with step 2.
2. Remove and reinsert your card a few times.
   
   If the Continue button is still unavailable, continue to step 3.
3. Do the following steps:
   
   1. if the card is in the reader, remove it
   2. open Terminal from the Utilities folder
   3. in Terminal, enter the command 'top'
      Top is program that runs until interrupted. It will show the current processes on the Mac with the newest process at the top of the list. Note the process at the top of the list (which should be 'top').
   4. Watch the top output as you insert your card. Note the processes that appear.
      Specifically, look for PKard. Does it launch? Does it launch and then disappear? Does it never launch?
   If PKard launches and stays running (this is normal), then Continue should highlight. If not, let me know.
   If PKard doesn't launch, let me know (we've not encountered this problem as of yet).
   If PKard launches and then quits, go to step 4.
4. Open Terminal and enter the following command:
   
   • sudo touch /Library/Logs/com.thursby.pki
   You'll be prompted for a password. Enter your password (it won't appear on the screen).
   Now, enter this command:
   
   • sudo chmod 666 /Library/Logs/com.thursby.pki
   Remove the card, wait a few seconds, and reinsert.
   After a few seconds, open /Library/Logs/ and email the file 'com.thursby.pki' to support@thursby.com.
   Please reference this forum post along with step #4.

I look forward to hearing your results.

Carl Ketterling
Thursby Software Systems, Inc.

[davidlongstaff]

I went into the terminal and did not see the pkrd launch at all. It does recognize the card reader on the assistant screen but will still not recognize the card. The card reader is a scr331. Thanks

[carl]

I was reminded that the SCM SCR331 needs to have firmware v5.25 or later to work properly with Mac OS X. You can find the firmware version of your reader by open System Profiler, selecting USB, and then selecting your reader. I tried to find a simple guide for this online, but the best information I could find was this ( https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1839398 ):

Try flashing the newest version of the SCM firmware to your SCR 331, unfortunately, you'll need to do this on a windows machine but once you update to firmware version 5.25.

You can get the firmware from SCM's website (http://www.scmmicro.com/support/pcs_dow ... hp?lang=en) and will need to download both the installer and firmware. You can google for steps on flashing the reader but essentially you run the installer and once it is complete, hook-up the reader and open the firmware zip files to install, that will push the latest version to your SCM 331…

Please let me know what happens.

[davidlongstaff]

Success, I updated the reader and it began recognizing the card. Note: on the SCIM website they had a update for MAC so I did not need to download to PC and transfer to my MAC. Thanks to all.

[Tohnloc]

Carl,

I am trying to get my CAC card to work with PKard (Macbook Pro, Lion 10.7 updated). I went through the trouble-shooting steps and I see PKard Assistant running in the terminal window (it does not quit) but I still do not get the CONTINUE to light up and the KeyChain does not see the CAC. I have tried with two separate readers with the same effect. I stop at Step 3 and am now writing you, as you request.

When I use VirtualBox and a Windows 7 install, it sees the reader and card and I have no problems using the CAC within the virtualized window. I just cannot get it to work within native OSX (same problem in Snow Leopard).

I purchased your software with the hopes of resolving this..any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

v/r
David
tohnloc@gmail.com

[carl]

Try quitting PKard Assistant and relaunching it from /Library/Application Support/PKard.

If that doesn't work, you can still do step 4 and email us ( support@thursby.com ) the log along with details of the problem.

[KaylaM]

Carl,

I tried your troubleshooting from this post, and once I reached step 4 and was working in the terminal, my computer asked me for a password for using the sudo command. It would then not allow me to type anything in for the password. Please help with this issue, as the system has not recognized my CAC despite attempting all of the other troubleshooting techniques (reinstalling, etc.). Thank you.

[carl]

In Mac OS X, passwords do not appear when typed at the terminal. Trust that you've typed the characters and press return.

[KaylaM]

Now it seems that I cannot find the file thursby.com.pki in my log. Any advice on what may be causing this problem?