Hi friends! Has anyone here had success using Yubikeys on Linux? I’ve been going back and forth with support to no avail, trying to get my Yubikey 5C NFC to play nicely on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Any suggestions are appreciated.

I have the following Yubikey-related packages on my system:

libyubikey-udev 1.20.0-3 [Ubuntu/jammy universe]
├── is installed
└── udev rules for unprivileged access to YubiKeys

libyubikey0 1.13-6 [Ubuntu/jammy universe]
├── is installed
└── Yubikey OTP handling library runtime

python3-yubikey-manager 4.0.7-1 [Ubuntu/jammy universe]
├── is installed
└── Python 3 library for configuring a YubiKey — transitional package

yubikey-manager 4.0.7-1 [Ubuntu/jammy universe]
├── is installed
└── Python library and command line tool for configuring a YubiKey

yubikey-manager-qt 1.2.4-1 [Ubuntu/jammy universe]
├── is installed
└── Graphical application for configuring a YubiKey

yubikey-personalization-gui 3.1.24-1build1 [Ubuntu/jammy universe]
├── is installed
└── Graphical personalization tool for YubiKey tokens

libfido2-1 1.10.0-1 [Ubuntu/jammy main]
├── is installed
└── library for generating and verifying FIDO 2.0 objects

python3-fido2 0.9.1-1 [Ubuntu/jammy universe]
├── is installed
└── Python library for implementing FIDO 2.0

pcscd 1.9.5-3ubuntu1 [Ubuntu/jammy universe]
├── is installed
└── Middleware to access a smart card using PC/SC (daemon side)

UPDATE: After working my way down the entire software stack, I contacted the vendor of my USB-C port and requested a replacement. It did the trick…

  • jaxxed
    42•10 months ago

    yubikey works on every linux distro I have tried, and even on freebsd. Some people say it “works out of the box” but that part is not true on every distro. Every distro will recognize the device when it is plugged in, but not every distro will all 2FA actions out of the box, and almost no distro comes with the management tools.

    On linux (and BSD) you can install a CCID tool to get the 2FA, which installs software that needs to be running (you can use the yubikey as a keyboard approach if you really need it) On Linux you can install a manager tool like ykman is easy, if you want to manage the tooling on your card On Linux you can setup PAM (authentication) so that yubikey can be used for logins, sudo auth etc On Linux you can use yubikey to do advanced things like manage the encryption keys for encrypted disks

    As always, off to the Arch docs: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/YubiKey

    • IrdialOPEnglish
      3•10 months ago

      I appreciate the detailed response. I looked at the Arch wiki page and ensured that I have all packages listed. Still, the output of ykman info is “Error: No YubiKey detected!” :P

      • jaxxed
        1•10 months ago

        What was your mesg/jpurnalctl output when you plugged in the key?

        • IrdialOPEnglish
          1•10 months ago

          I do not get any messages. I’m starting to think there is an issue with my motherboard’s USB-C port. If I can get my hands on a USB-C to USB-A adapter, I can test this theory…