Here is a guide on how to install appropriate drivers and tools for the integrated smart-card reader on a Thinkpad laptop - in Ubuntu (14.04 LTS and possibly newer distros too). Think this should also work for external/internal card readers on other systems running Linux/Ubuntu.
In a terminal window, enter;
sudo apt-get install pcscd
and
sudo apt-get install pcsc-tools
That's it. Now the pcsc_scan command will give you info on the card reader and any inserted card. The pcscd comand will start the deamon. Now software using the card reader should work.
Cheers....
