Installing a certificate in Linux/Firefox using a smart card reader

You will need the following installed and started:

  • libccid
  • opensc
  • pcsc-tools – can do without this but it has nice troubleshooting tools in case you get stuck
  • pcscd – this is a daemon, make sure your distro enables it after installation. It must be running in order for the libccid to be able to communicate with the smart card
  • the module provided by your certificate issuing authority. This will need to be loaded in Firefox, this it the final step which ultimately gived you what you want – your certificate useable in Firefox.

Install the first four packages via your package manager. I dunno if it can be installed from source.. probably.. I haven’t tried it and the whole thing looked tricky enough already without fiddling with configure scripts and AC_MISSING errors.

Copy the last module (usually a lib….so file) somewhere inside your home dir. Start Firefox, in the menu go to : Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Certificates->Security Devices
Click on Load and find the module and load it. Once loaded you should see a new device in the list of devices and you whould be able to Login to it (it will ask you for your Master password).

Oh and some of the latest Firefox versions dont work for some reason. You need 34 or 32.

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