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    "pcscd PC/SC Smart Card Daemon" ?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • A
      albgen
      last edited by albgen

      Hello!

      Current setup is pfsense 2.5.2 as a virtual appliance. I'm connected via RDP on a server on the LAN side. Basically i noted some freezing rdp issues. Than i started to ping and i saw timeout so the issue is with pfsense. As you can see i'm running out of memory. Since a reboot can easily fix this, my question is can i troubleshoot it? Any idea what is happening? the /usr/local/sbin/pcscd is eating almost 60% of ram and the swap is gone...
      why it is even running the pcscd process?

      b1c1d49e-a250-4d60-aead-8696c2bcffd0-image.png

      edit: ok i see it is a known problem but why they have not fixed it yet :)

      GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        It's fixed in 2.6 and 21.09. Before then you can apply patch to 2.5.2 if you are affected:
        https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/11933#note-7

        Steve

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • GertjanG
          Gertjan @albgen
          last edited by Gertjan

          @albgen said in "pcscd PC/SC Smart Card Daemon" ?:

          but why they have not fixed it yet :)

          Because a newer version isn't released yet.
          The code is merged.
          Merged to into what becomes later on a future version of pfSense.

          But why wait ?

          You saw the code jimp posted (above).

          Stop the pcscd process manually first.
          Install the patches pfSense package.
          Create a patch.
          Copy paste the code jimp showed (see above)
          Give it a description - like the URL of the forum thread.
          Now : Ok - Test - and Apply.
          Done.

          Example :

          When you created the patch, you wind up having this :

          dccd3973-1390-4579-bc13-32d8950de07f-image.png

          Now,
          Test,
          Apply.
          Solved.

          No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
          Edit : and where are the logs ??

          A fireodoF 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • A
            albgen @Gertjan
            last edited by

            @gertjan @stephenw10 thanks guys

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • fireodoF
              fireodo @Gertjan
              last edited by

              @gertjan said in "pcscd PC/SC Smart Card Daemon" ?:

              Create a patch.

              Done

              Copy paste the code jimp showed (see above)

              Done

              Give it a description - like the URL of the forum thread.

              Done

              Now : Ok - Test - and Apply.

              APPLY is missing ... Hmmmm

              ๐Ÿ˜Ÿ

              Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
              SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
              pfsense 2.8.0 CE
              Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

              S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S
                SteveITS Galactic Empire @fireodo
                last edited by

                @fireodo said in "pcscd PC/SC Smart Card Daemon" ?:

                APPLY is missing

                Did you Fetch (download) it? (docs) Or, if it doesn't show Apply it might not have been entered correctly, and the package is smart enough to not let you break things. The very first one I did I accidentally pasted in he wrong URL and ran into that.

                If nothing else you can just stop the service (Status/Services page) until 21.09 is out. Presumably your router won't restart that often...

                Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
                Upvote ๐Ÿ‘ helpful posts!

                fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • fireodoF
                  fireodo @SteveITS
                  last edited by

                  @steveits said in "pcscd PC/SC Smart Card Daemon" ?:

                  Presumably your router won't restart that often...

                  Indeed. I will wait ... ๐Ÿ™‚

                  Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                  SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                  pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                  Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Indeed if it doesn't show 'apply' that means it cannot be applied.

                    What are version are you trying to patch?

                    You are using this commit ID in the patch? afcc0e9c97c1993ae6b95f886665fcb4375d26c7

                    Steve

                    fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • fireodoF
                      fireodo @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10 said in "pcscd PC/SC Smart Card Daemon" ?:

                      What are version are you trying to patch?

                      2.5.2

                      You are using this commit ID in the patch? afcc0e9c97c1993ae6b95f886665fcb4375d26c7

                      Yes.

                      Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                      SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                      pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                      Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Hmm, that should work, I just retested it to be sure. The only reason it wouldn't is if you already have some other changes to the files it's trying to patch.

                        Steve

                        fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • fireodoF
                          fireodo @stephenw10
                          last edited by fireodo

                          @stephenw10 said in "pcscd PC/SC Smart Card Daemon" ?:

                          The only reason it wouldn't is if you already have some other changes to the files it's trying to patch.

                          You're probably right - its not so important for me ...

                          Edit1: Found the culprit (its me) - I changed the rc.bootup manually with the modifications that came with the patch some time before ... ๐Ÿค“ ๐Ÿ‘‹

                          Edit2: I revert the changes I made and now the Patch applies correctly.

                          Sorry!

                          Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                          SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                          pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                          Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • O
                            ozone @jimp
                            last edited by

                            @jimp Just noting that saving the page with the newly present box unchecked was enough to stop the service. It did not require a reboot.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • D
                              dereitz
                              last edited by

                              I was investigating why my pfsense box was using over 6GB of "laundry memory" and additionally was using swap space and finally ran across this thread. Sure enough, pcscd was running on my box and was the culprit. Thanks to this thread, I was able to disable the service and immediately my memory usage went back to normal!

                              Another great catch by the community.. Thank you all!
                              -David

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • SjMS
                                SjM
                                last edited by SjM

                                This is interesting.

                                2.5.2-RELEASE (amd64)
                                built on Fri Jul 02 15:33:00 EDT 2021
                                FreeBSD 12.2-STABLE

                                pfBlockerNG was starting cron jobs which didn't complete to the extent that it was consuming 100% of CPU time. Couldn't figure out what was going awry. I came across this discussion and saw the process pcscd was running on my system. After I killed pcscd the system is behaving as it should on about 4-7% CPU utilization!

                                Weird.

                                Next thing is how do I apply the patch to stop pcscd loading at startup? I don't seem to have the option to apply a patch under the system menu of pfSense.

                                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • M
                                  mcury @SjM
                                  last edited by

                                  @sjm Install this package:

                                  a1578b45-5ec6-4504-b074-51378a178fd9-image.png

                                  Then apply the patch afcc0e9c97c1993ae6b95f886665fcb4375d26c7

                                  dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                  SjMS D 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                  • SjMS
                                    SjM @mcury
                                    last edited by

                                    @mcury laughing just discovered the very thing. ๐Ÿ‘

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • SjMS
                                      SjM @mcury
                                      last edited by

                                      @mcury how many path levels do I need to strip? 1??

                                      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • M
                                        mcury @SjM
                                        last edited by

                                        @sjm I left everything default settings..

                                        41c792cd-0076-44d1-ac94-f64ed2b5ecac-image.png

                                        dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                                        SjMS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                        • SjMS
                                          SjM @mcury
                                          last edited by

                                          @mcury pfSense is again purring along like it should.

                                          Many thanks!

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • B
                                            bluepill
                                            last edited by

                                            Thanks for this thread - like others it has helped me a lot.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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