Inactive pcscd.service after long use

[amer-duhan]

Describe the bug
inactive (dead) pcscd.service

To Reproduce
Unfortunately I do not know how to reproduce. It happens very rarely.

Expected behavior
An active (running) pcscd.service

Versions:

• smart card reader driver name and version: libccid, version 1.6.2-1
• pcsc-lite version: 2.3.3
• the output of the command /usr/sbin/pcscd --version: pcsc-lite version 2.3.3
  Copyright (C) 1999-2002 by David Corcoran corcoran@musclecard.com.
  Copyright (C) 2001-2024 by Ludovic Rousseau ludovic.rousseau@free.fr.
  Copyright (C) 2003-2004 by Damien Sauveron sauveron@labri.fr.
  Report bugs to pcsclite-muscle@lists.infradead.org.
  Enabled features: USB serial filter_names libudev polkit systemd Linux aarch64 ipcdir=/run/pcscd usbdropdir=/usr/lib/pcsc/drivers serialconfdir=/etc/reader.conf.d
  MAX_READERNAME: 128, PCSCLITE_MAX_READERS_CONTEXTS: 16

Platform:

• Operating system or GNU/Linux distribution name and version: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie), version 13.2
• Smart card middleware name and version: None
• Smart card reader manufacturer name and reader model name: Advanced Card Systems, Ltd ACR1252 Dual Reader
• Smart card name: ACS ACR1252 Dual Reader [ACR1252 Dual Reader PICC]

Additional context
The inactivity happens very rarely, and if it happens, then only after a longer use (like 4,5 or 6 hours).
It is used on a raspberry pi 5, inside a disinfection machine, where only roughly every 10 minutes, it is being written to and read from the chip.

log.txt

[LudovicRousseau]

What is the problem with an inactive pcscd.service ?

What is the status of the pcscd.socket?

[amer-duhan]

pcscd.socket status:
Mär 03 15:10:03 dcx systemd[1]: Listening on pcscd.socket - PC/SC Smart Card Daemon Activation Socket.
Mär 03 15:10:16 dcx systemd[1]: Started pcscd.service - PC/SC Smart Card Daemon.
Mär 03 16:55:37 dcx pcscd[2047]: 00000000 ../src/winscard.c:615:SCardReconnect() Error resetting card.

Due to the inactive pcscd.service, we are having issues reading from and writing to the chip.
The service gets (rarely) inactive during a disinfection cycle.
The card in use is NXP MIFARE® Classic 4K EV1.

[LudovicRousseau]

These are the logs, not the output of systemctl status pcscd.socket.

The errors you get are NOT related to the status of pcscd.
I guess you get errors because of communication issues between the card and the reader. This is not so surprising for contactless cards.

[amer-duhan]

The command I used was journalctl -u pcscd.socket -u pcscd.service --since "24 hours ago",
since that is when pcscd.service got inactive.
Since in the meantime I have already restarted the machine, I only get this from systemctl status pcscd.socket.

● pcscd.socket - PC/SC Smart Card Daemon Activation Socket
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/pcscd.socket; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2026-03-04 10:42:11 CET; 3h 41min ago
 Invocation: a8f121cc330e4ef5b3e99ddce038c1dd
   Triggers: ● pcscd.service
     Listen: /run/pcscd/pcscd.comm (Stream)
     CGroup: /system.slice/pcscd.socket

Mär 04 10:42:11 dcx systemd[1]: Listening on pcscd.socket - PC/SC Smart Card Daemon Activation Socket.

So, the error is likely hardware related?
The position of the card during a disinfection cycle is also stable, and very close to the Reader (either touching it, or just a few milimeters away - we hear a beeping sound from the reader in any case, meaning it has detected the card).

[LudovicRousseau]

The error is "Error resetting card.". An error was reported by the driver, possibly because an error was reported by the reader.

You can increase the log level to get more information by editing the file /etc/default/pcscd and use something like:

PCSCD_ARGS=--info