Arch Linux

Franklin Yu

Member

Registered: 2022-11-14

Posts: 7

[solved] How to use Yubikey as non-root user?

After following GnuPG#GnuPG only setups I can see the key with

sudo gpg --card-status

but I cannot see the card with non-root user. Am I doing anything wrong? Note that I didn’t enable pcscd because I don’t think I need OpenSC (I don’t even know what uses it). I did saw this similar post but the error message is different. That post mentioned

selecting card failed: Service is not running

but I came across

selecting card failed: No such device

I did install “libusb-compat” (otherwise I think even the root user won’t be able to see the key).

Last edited by Franklin Yu (2025-01-26 07:02:58)

GeneArch

Member

Registered: 2013-07-28

Posts: 95

Re: [solved] How to use Yubikey as non-root user?

Did you try to enable pcscd from pcsclite package?

 

 systemctl enable pcscd.socket 

Last edited by GeneArch (2025-01-04 13:21:12)

Franklin Yu

Member

Registered: 2022-11-14

Posts: 7

Re: [solved] How to use Yubikey as non-root user?

I did enable and started the socket; I can tell because otherwise "sudo ykman info" will show

WARNING: PC/SC not available. Smart card (CCID) protocols will not function.

Note that somehow "ykman" also needs to be running as root to see the smart card (whether pcscd is running or not).

GeneArch

Member

Registered: 2013-07-28

Posts: 95

Re: [solved] How to use Yubikey as non-root user?

Mine has worked for years without any trouble at all - I use it daily.

Both ykman info and gpg -- card-status work fine for me.

At one point I had opensc installed which seems to have caused some problems with booting if card was plugged in. I do not have this installed.

Only other thing I can think of that may/may not be helpful, is I am in wheel group?

Franklin Yu

Member

Registered: 2022-11-14

Posts: 7

Re: [solved] How to use Yubikey as non-root user?

I figured it out. I missed this section of the Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GnuPG# … ote_client

The issue was also discussed a year ago: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=284824