The problem

It seems like the Linux kernel takes exclusive ownership over the YubiKey, making it difficult for our programs to talk with it.

When looking in /var/log/syslog or /var/log/messages, you might see a message like the following:

  Jun 29 13:17:22 lapdog vmunix: [  738.648591] usb 3-3: usbfs: process 10782 (mini) did not claim interface 0 before use

Real Solution

Install libusb-1.0 and re-build ykpersonalize, and make sure it is using the "libusb-1.0" backend rather than the "libusb" backend.

This backend has been added recently, but appears to solve the problem in a clean way.

Note: The "libusb-1.0" library is different from the traditional "libusb" library. Install it on Debian/Ubuntu systems like this:

sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev

Workaround 1

There's a workaround, though, to set a quirks mode for the key, as follows:

  rmmod usbhid && modprobe usbhid quirks=0x1050:0x0010:0x04

In that mode, though, the YubiKey will not work as a keyboard and therefore not generate any string at all, so to have it work as usual again, you'll have to take usbhid out of quirks more:

  rmmod usbhid && modprobe usbhid

The above quirk only works on kernels up to 2.6.26. We have yet to find out exactly what changed on newer versions and how to get around it again.

Workaround 2

User t.bubeck contributed the following, arguable better solution:

1. Get the USB device numbers with the following command:

# dmesg | grep Yubi
[314508.442312] input: Yubico Yubico Yubikey Touch as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1/4-1:1.0/input/input119
[314508.448287] generic-usb 0003:1050:0010.006F: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Yubico Yubico Yubikey Touch] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-1/input0 

Then unbind your YubiKey by using your numbers instead of the example given here:

# echo 4-1:1.0 > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbhid/unbind 

David Dindorp has contributed a small script that unbinds YubiKeys as they are plugged in, for use during personalization. See:

http://code.google.com/p/yubikey-personalization/source/browse/trunk/contrib/programming.sh

Start the script as root (e.g., using "sudo programming.sh") and let it run, it will print status information as it unbinds newly connected YubiKeys.