Troubleshooting

If something goes wrong with the Smart Card Shell, then this document might provide you with the answers you are looking for.

Installation and Startup

The Smart Card Shell does not start

If you start the Smart Card Shell from the "Start" menue and it does not come up with a window, then you should try to start the program manually:

Open a command line
Change to the Smart Card Shell installation directory (e.g. cd "c:\Program Files\CardContact\Smart Card Shell 3")
Enter the following command:

scsh3gui.cmd

This command runs the Smart Card Shell without the wrapper. The output on the console should indicate where the problem might be.

Configuration

Changing the card reader is not stored in persistant storage

When the card reader is changed, then the new configuration value is written to the .settings.js configuration script. This script is executed during startup. Please make sure, that the script is stored in your working directory or the installation directory.

Locating files

The Shell does not find my files

If the shell seems to be unable to locate your files, then check the following:

Absolute path names should always work
Relative path names are resolved relative to the location of the currently running script, the working directory and the installation directory (See Locating Files).
When calling a function that was previously defined in a script, then the current directory is either the directory of the calling script or, if entered on the command line, the working directory

My card does not seem to work

There may be situations, where the Smart Card Shell does not work with your specific card. In this case we recommend to enable tracing and try again to analyse the Command- and Response-APDUs exchanged between the Shell and your card.

Tracing of APDUs can be enable by editing the opencard.properties file with a text editor and by uncommenting the line that reads

#OpenCard.trace = opencard.core.service.CardChannel:8

OpenCard.trace = opencard.core.service.CardChannel:8

After you restart the shell, you will see trace messages in the form:

--- thread    Thread[Thread-5,6,main]
--- source    opencard.core.service.CardChannel@e14ebc, is open, not jammed


[DEBUG    ] opencard.core.service.CardChannel.sendCommandAPDU
--- message   opencard.core.terminal.CommandAPDU@169df00
0000:  00 A4 04 00 07 A0 00 00 02 47 10 01 00           .........G...

--- thread    Thread[Thread-5,6,main]
--- source    opencard.core.service.CardChannel@e14ebc, is open, not jammed


[DEBUG    ] opencard.core.service.CardChannel.response:
--- message   opencard.core.terminal.ResponseAPDU@1af8502
0000:  6F 11 84 07 A0 00 00 02 47 10 01 A5 06 50 04 4D  o.......G....P.M
0010:  52 54 44 90 00                                   RTD..