pcscd cannot load a usb device. Error with libccid.so: undefined symbol: libusb_handle_events_completed

[Yavor Nikolov]

I have a problem using my Smart Card with the latest ubuntu version (17.10). (It works fine with Ubuntu 14.04).

$ sudo service pcscd status

● pcscd.service - PC/SC Smart Card Daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/pcscd.service; indirect; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Fri 2018-01-26 23:19:46 EET; 4min 58s ago
  Process: 6503 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/pcscd --foreground --auto-exit (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 6503 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      CPU: 15ms

Jan 26 23:11:01 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started PC/SC Smart Card Daemon.
Jan 26 23:11:01 ubuntu pcscd[6503]: 00000000 dyn_unix.c:58:DYN_LoadLibrary() /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Contents/Linux/libccid.so: /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Contents/Linux/libccid.so: undefined symbol: libusb_handle_events_completed
Jan 26 23:11:01 ubuntu pcscd[6503]: 00000144 readerfactory.c:1081:RFInitializeReader() RFLoadReader failed: 0x80100014
Jan 26 23:11:01 ubuntu pcscd[6503]: 00000058 readerfactory.c:376:RFAddReader() ACS ACR 38U-CCID init failed.
Jan 26 23:11:01 ubuntu pcscd[6503]: 00000011 hotplug_libudev.c:523:HPAddDevice() Failed adding USB device: ACS ACR 38U-CCID
Jan 26 23:14:38 ubuntu pcscd[6503]: 99999999 dyn_unix.c:58:DYN_LoadLibrary() /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Contents/Linux/libccid.so: /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Contents/Linux/libccid.so: undefined symbol: libusb_handle_events_completed
Jan 26 23:14:38 ubuntu pcscd[6503]: 00000039 readerfactory.c:1081:RFInitializeReader() RFLoadReader failed: 0x80100014
Jan 26 23:14:38 ubuntu pcscd[6503]: 00000009 readerfactory.c:376:RFAddReader() ACS ACR 38U-CCID init failed.
Jan 26 23:14:38 ubuntu pcscd[6503]: 00000007 hotplug_libudev.c:523:HPAddDevice() Failed adding USB device: ACS ACR 38U-CCID

The problem is similar to something which someone else is facing: https://superuser.com/questions/1173940/debian-stretch-smartcard-reader-error-scardestablishcontext-service-not-availa

[Ludovic Rousseau (ludovic-rousseau-gmail)]

The CCID driver does not find the symbol "libusb_handle_events_completed". This symbol should be provided by the libusb library.

Have you rebuild libusb or libccid yourself?

[Yavor Nikolov (yavor-nikolov)]

No, I haven't rebuilt libusb or libccid myself. Maybe the dynamic loading mechanism doesn't find libusb. Or it doesn't look for it at all - as it complains about not being able to find the symbol in libccid.so specifically.

[Yavor Nikolov (yavor-nikolov)]

Wow, I managed to find the problem. Ludovic, you were actually pointing to the right thing to check:
$ ldd /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Contents/Linux/libccid.so
 linux-vdso.so.1 => (0x00007fff5e54f000)
 libusb-1.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libusb-1.0.so.0 (0x00007fbee743d000)
 libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007fbee721e000)
 libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007fbee6e3e000)
 librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007fbee6c36000)
 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fbee7867000)

For some reason I had a libusb installed to "/usr/local" which was taking precedence over the standard lubusb installation. I removed the local library and things work fine now.

Thank you!

[Ludovic Rousseau (ludovic-rousseau-gmail)]

You had libusb installed in "/usr/local" and at the same time "No, I haven't rebuilt libusb or libccid myself." :-)

Closing the bug as it was a misconfiguration on your side.