NFC Reader/writer ACS ACR122U-A9 on Debian works… partially
Hello, I'm not sure if it's the best mailing list for asking this, But
the problem is encountered using Debian Buster with debian packages for
Debian repos, so maybe someone else had the same issues and found a
workaround or can give any pointers on how to troubleshoot it
I have ACS ACR122U-A9 NFC USB reader/writer ({vendor,product}IDs:
072f:2200), that works on Debian… partially. using libacsccid1 driver
from debian repo (not the one on ACS Website, as it doesn't have a
proper cryptographic or even a hash to check the download, so I don't
trust it. And prefer the one on Debian's main repos. The debian one is
by the way maintained by an ACS employee. It's probably the same driver,
except the one on the website is a in archive for multiple distros)
I've reed some docs about drivers and kernel modules to make it work:
I'm sure I didn't miss anything obvious (installing the correct driver,
making sure it's using the correct kernel module)
So with pcsc_scan (basic reader) or cardpeek, it works (exept for EMV
analyze, which makes Cardpeek freezes instead before showing up any
data). But it doesn't work at all with other tools
- libnfc, from Debian buster repo
- nfcpy, python3 module, installed with pip3, which also nistall all the
python3 dependencies (I know my reader isn't ideal for this, due to
hardware limitations, but it should still work and is listed as
supported on the official nfcy's documentation [1], for reading/writer
NFC tags, limitations are mostly for P2P mode)
libnfc and nfcpy are two different implementations with different
functionalities and goals, and libncf is not a dependency of nfcpy. Yet
they seem to have a very similar, if not the same, bug specific to the
ACR122 reader.
In both cases, the nfc reader is identified as being ACR122 and the
driver is loaded. But then the reader refuses to respond to the computer
- libnfc returns "Unable to open device" error.
- nfcpy returns a similar error "[Errno 110] Connection timed out".
Both fail to communicate with the ACR122U after the exact same step :
Set PICC Operating Parameters
Here's the full debug log for both
- libnfc debug log
$ LIBNFC_LOG_LEVEL=3 nfc-list
debug libnfc.config Unable to open directory: /etc/nfc/devices.d
debug libnfc.general log_level is set to 3
debug libnfc.general allow_autoscan is set to true
debug libnfc.general allow_intrusive_scan is set to false
debug libnfc.general 0 device(s) defined by user
nfc-list uses libnfc 1.7.1
debug libnfc.driver.acr122_usb device found: Bus 001 Device 028
Name ACS ACR122
debug libnfc.general 1 device(s) found using acr122_usb driver
debug libnfc.general 0 device(s) found using pn53x_usb driver
debug libnfc.driver.acr122_usb 3 element(s) have been decoded from
"acr122_usb:001:028"
debug libnfc.driver.acr122_usb TX: 62 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00
debug libnfc.driver.acr122_usb RX: 80 02 00 00 00 00 00 02 81 00
3b 00
debug libnfc.driver.acr122_usb ACR122 PICC Operating Parameters
debug libnfc.driver.acr122_usb TX: 6f 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
ff 00 51 00 00
debug libnfc.general Unable to open "acr122_usb:001:028".
nfc-list: ERROR: Unable to open NFC device: acr122_usb:001:028
- nfcpy debug log
$ python3 -m nfc -vvv
This is the 1.0.3 version of nfcpy run in Python 3.7.3
on Linux-4.19.0-16-amd64-x86_64-with-debian-10.9
I'm now searching your system for contactless devices
DEBUG:nfc.clf.transport:using libusb-1.0.22
DEBUG:nfc.clf.transport:path matches '^(usb|)$'
INFO:nfc.clf:searching for reader on path usb:001:028
DEBUG:nfc.clf.transport:using libusb-1.0.22
DEBUG:nfc.clf.transport:path matches '^usb(:[0-9]{1,3})(:[0-9]{1,3})?$'
DEBUG:nfc.clf.device:loading acr122 driver for usb:072f:2200
Level 9:nfc.clf.transport:>>> 6f050000000000000000ff00480000
Level 9:nfc.clf.transport:<<< 800a000000000002fe0041435231323255323138
DEBUG:nfc.clf.acr122:initialize ACR122U218
DEBUG:nfc.clf.acr122:CCID ICC-POWER-ON
Level 9:nfc.clf.transport:>>> 62000000000000000000
Level 9:nfc.clf.transport:<<< 800200000000000281003b00
DEBUG:nfc.clf.acr122:Set PICC Operating Parameters
Level 9:nfc.clf.transport:>>> 6f050000000000000000ff00517f00
DEBUG:nfc.clf.device:[Errno 110] Connection timed out
I'm not trying serial devices because you haven't told me
-- add the option '--search-tty' to have me looking
-- but beware that this may break other serial devs
Sorry, but I couldn't find any contactless device
I don't speak APDU, So I don't understand the half of the debug output…
Just plain, human-readable, english. Any newbie friendly
documentation/ressources to understand/debug APDU-related stuff is
welcome.
And the workarounds I found on the web resolves different issues that
mine. and/or require to compile newer libnfc (and 0 solution for ncfpy,
which is my priority)
Since I don't have unlimited time to debug things, I won't do just to
see "if I'm lucky enough". Unless I collect enough info to understand
what's wrong, so I can determine if the latest stable version on libnfc
actually supports my hardware revision of the ACR122U. I have found some
bug reports with similar problems but most lack info about hardware
revisions.
Because yes, to make things more fun, there is several hardware
revisions all sold under the same name (ACR122U, that seems behave
differently, with some working with libncf and/or nfcpy, other don't,
according to the info I found on bug respond, blog posts and other
online publications. And according to the ACR122 API doc (PDFs from ACS
website) seems versioned as well, not sure if API actually changes with
each hardware revision.
Of course, at least with most resellers, you can't know which hardware
revision you'll get, meaning I can't buy an older revision to test if it
works and/or and compare debug output and/or anything else that makes
sense.
And the hardware revision isn't even written on the reader's sticker on
the back (maybe it can be deduced form de serial number, but ACS website
doesn't mention such thing… The only way the find out which hardware
revision is the plug it to a computer (shows up nfcpy debug log). Which
makes "the retraction right" under french legislation inapplicable (=
giving a product back to a reseller and asking for exchange or
reimbursement if the product hasn't been used, is still in it's
original, sealed package, and has been bought at most 14 days ago).
Meaning I can't replace it with an older revision that might work
better.
All (known) revisions of ACR122U-A9 uses an NXP np532 NFC chip (which is
not directly accessible by the computer on the ACR122U (thus the NFC P2P
mode limitations) as it has an additional controller for USB-CCID
interface for PC/SC, which is why I bought the ACR122U-A9 in the first
place, to read "smart" cards). In order to make it work, it is
necessarily to blacklist np533_usb module, which I did, otherwise, the
reader doesn't work at all because the np533 module is loaded by
default. And by the default, installing libnfc creates the file
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-libnfc.conf with two other modules blacklisted
by default.
cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-libnfc.conf
blacklist nfc
blacklist pn533
blacklist pn533_usb
Module name pn533 is self-explanatory. But nfc module name isn't… I'm
not sure if it's related to my bug. I spent to much time on this issue
and I'm still stuck. It's driving nuts. So before spending even more
time trying with the nfc module loaded (and possibly making things
worse, or at best losing more time, I don't think blacklisting the nfc
module is the prolem), I'd like to have some tips on how to find out
what to try next.
1. https://nfcpy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/overview.html
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