Using a SmartCard of CAC with Ubuntu
update 6/2/2024: this was imported from a blog I kept on the University of Cincinnati home page service that they offered to students. Its’ been removed now, how rude, but lucky for me the web archive captured a single snapshot.
Since joining the reserves I’ve unwillingly become an expert at using a CAC on the big three operating systems. Mac OS X 10.8 ML, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 12.04. One of the best resources for using the CAC on Ubuntu is this article which is a part of the community knowledge base. Using a CAC at home seems to be a pain in the ass no matter which OS you are using. But surprisingly, I have found Mac OS X to be the easiest to setup and most compatible using CACKey, Windows 7 works “ok” with the built in Windows Security Software, and Ubuntu works just fine using the previously linked article.
I was also able to use EID Authenticate with Win 7 to log on to my laptop using a CAC which was pretty neat. I have not found any comparable software for Mac and the workaround listed above for gnome I have not tried yet.
One really weird thing that was happening at home (I am suspecting some sort of weird router issue) is that many websites like NKO would not load at all on Windows no matter what browser I was using, but at the same time worked just fine on Mac and Ubuntu. I found that a shoddy workaround was to login to my schools VPN, but even that was not fool-proof.
As far as browsers, Chrome works best on Win 7, Safari works great on Mac, and Firefox works well on Ubuntu. However I the same cannot be said in any other order based on my experience. If you are having any issues getting your CAC to work at home let me know in the comments and maybe we can work it out!
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- Everything wrong with developer tools in a single paragraph
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- Urge to Edit Old Posts
- Setting up ANTLR4 on Windows
- Reinstalling Windows at 1am
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- 21st Century C++ from Communications of the ACM
- Submarines DevCon 2025 Keynote Speech from JoshHaines.com
- How I Use AI: Meet My Promptly Hired Model Intern from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
- DeepSeek from Maggie Appleton
- Digital Reality Digital Shock from Christopher Butler
- 10 habits to help becoming a Debian Maintainer from Optimized by Otto
- Tiny corners from Manuel Moreale RSS Feed
- Build It Yourself from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
“Stop calling it work” – Cedric Raguenaud
Cedric Raguenaud argues that.. “When we label our photographic pursuits as “work,” we unconsciously impose constraints and expectations that belong in the professional world. Suddenly, we feel pressured to maintain visibility, chase originality, and demon…
via Colin Devroe February 10, 2025The Art of Making Websites
Hidde de Vries gave a great talked titled “Creativity cannot be computed” (you can checkout the slides or watch the video). In his slides he has lots of bullet points that attempt to define what art is, and then in the talk he spends time covering each one…
via Jim Nielsen’s Blog February 10, 2025Corporate “DEI” is an imperfect vehicle for deeply meaningful ideals
I have not thought or said much about DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) over the years. Not because I don’t care about the espoused ideals — I suppose I do, rather a lot — but because corporate DEI efforts have always struck me as ineffective and blan…
via charity.wtf February 10, 2025Generated by openring