------ Original Message ------
On 28/06/01, 23:16:58, Michael Bender <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
regarding Re: [OCF] Schlum Reflex 20 driver hell:
> Marc,
> > The problem is � I can't get my Schlumberger Reflex 20 PCMCIA card reader
> > to work with Windows 95 or Windows 98. Upgrading OS is not an option (it
> > would not be an option for many of our users).
> >
> > The driver from SLB is supposed to work on Win9x, however I have tried on
> > 2 machines and I just cannot get it to work. Windows "smart card resource
> > manager" (yuck) won't "see" the reader.
> [...]
> > I tell you something, I'm going to recommend pure java solutions only
> > wherever I can.
> Why do you think that a pure Java solution would help you? In many
> cases for specialized hardware such as PCMCIA cards, you still need
> the underlying OS driver to be able to see the device and at least
> provide the appropriate access methods, no matter that the device
> interface is exported to a Java client or not.
I appreciate that. Almost nothing is pure java, but individual components
can be. Pure Java Card Terminals, typically ones that use Java Comm, use
little native code in terms of vendor-specific drivers. For example, the
latest Dallas Semiconductor drivers for iButtons are excellent, and pure
java.
Pure java card terminals use tried and tested Java Comm code (with some
native) and the JDK.
The problems I had are all related to the horrible MS Windows Smart Card
Base Components and Schlumberger's buggy driver (well, it's rebundled
from SCM so it's not strictly SLB's fault).
My problem, now solved, turned out to be:
1. I had not installed Microsoft's SMCLIB.EXE. This and SCBASE.EXE are
hard to find as Microsoft have stopped distributing them for some stupid
reason. They are needed for Win95/98 machines and expecting millions of
users to upgrade just because of smartcard drivers is not nice.
2. The SLB (OK, SMC) install says "You must install the .... Base
Components and ...SMCLIB..." and will not install if you haven't
installed SCBASE. However, if you install just SCBASE without SMCLIB, it
-does- let you install the driver. i.e. You think you have done
everything you need. Note that SMCLIB is not in Windows98 Cds whereas
SCBASE is.
3. Microsoft Windows 95/98 smart card components do not support
hot-swapping of card readers, even though the hardware (PCMCIA + USB)
does support hot-swapping. This is because of the poor architecture they
used with respect to device drivers and the smart card service manager
(SCARDSVR.EXE). However, it doesn't tell you this when you use the
software. You get some vague error message but nothing indicating that
new readers will not work properly unless you reboot with them in.
4. The SLB (SMC) driver for the Reflex 20 (and 72 I believe) is bugged.
It does not respond to requests for "T=0 or T=1" cards when asked to by
the MS SmartCard API. We have had this confirmed by SLB staff, and it can
even be seen to be a bug back in 1999 with the Reflex 72 reader. It still
isn't fixed. Because the IBM PCSC wrapper is hard-coded to request "T=0
or T=1", it can NEVER WORK with this driver and reader.
Gemplus' enhanced PCSC wrapper could solve this, by forcing it to request
only T=0 or only T=1 cards, but that will not work for me because I want
to accept almost any card inserted into the reader, whether it is T=0 or T=1.
> Even in Sun's ill-fated JavaStation, we still had some native code
> that the Java device drivers depended on to be able to access the
> underlying hardware.
Yes, I appreciate this � I work on embedded products :-)
> As a side note, one of the only "pure" Java devices available today
> is the aJile processor/JStamp board(see: http://www.systronix.com).
> Not really related to OCF or smartcards, but interesting nonetheless.
Yes � I think www.imsys.se also have the Cjip which can run Java
bytecodes directly, as well as other instruction sets.
Cheers
---
> Visit the OpenCard web site at http://www.opencard.org/ for more
> information on OpenCard---binaries, source code, documents.
> This list is being archived at http://www.opencard.org/archive/opencard/
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