How to use the FSFE smartcard for logging on to your system.

I used the PAM module named poldi, which is part of GPG. On Ubuntu based systems, you can install the package libpam-poldi.

You then need to replace the 'auth' lines in any files in /etc/pam.d/ for which you'd like to authenticate against the smartcard (i.e. /etc/pam.d/kdm for the KDM login manager) with 'auth required pam_poldi.so quiet' (without the quotes).

Then, if it doesn't already exist, create the file /etc/poldi/poldi.conf, and add the line:

wait-timeout 3

To make poldi time-out after 3 seconds if no card is present.
You can test that this is working using:

$ poldi-ctrl --test

...with no card in the reader, and it should tell you so after the timeout.

Of course, these are just scribbles. The Poldi documentation is good.

Comments

hahahahaha Pete

I was just searching for how the hell I get this thing to timeout. I installed it a couple of months ago but could never work it out... Thought i would throw 10 minutes at it today and came accross your page on the 4th page of results on google.

Of all the people....

Edd

by Edd Robinson - 18 Jun 2008 - 15:57

Excellent, thanks for the tip

by Steph Foster - 26 Aug 2008 - 19:57

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
To help prevent spam, please answer the following question.
  _   _   _____       _   ____    ____    ____  
 | \ | | | ____|     | | / ___|  | __ )  |  _ \ 
 |  \| | |  _|    _  | | \___ \  |  _ \  | | | |
 | |\  | | |___  | |_| |  ___) | | |_) | | |_| |
 |_| \_| |_____|  \___/  |____/  |____/  |____/
Enter the code depicted in ASCII art style.
Clent Hills ViewBritish AisleElderly PeopleThe Front RoomMarla and the raised bedA Dad With A FagMonument Valley, ArizonaA tree in winterClent Hills