Compatible Magnetic Swipe Card Reader?

ESC201 · 02-16-2009, 05:17 PM

Hi guys, I'm looking for a magnetic swipe card reader that I can use in Fedora. I've been on Google for a while now but I'm not sure if any of the card readers I find will work with Linux. If anyone knows of a USB card reader (and software to read/write to it) that will definitely work with Linux, and cares to share, that would be awesome. Thanks!

AuroraCA · 02-16-2009, 07:36 PM

Depending upon the type of magnetic card swipe reader you have or purchase they have different interfaces and/or emulations. For Linux use you want to use a USB interface reader which emulates a keyboard. Swiping the card in the reader will be just as if you entered it on the keyboard and input into your application as such.

Magtek makes several models that do this.

There are lots that work with Linux. Do a Google search with the key words:

Linux magnetic card readers

ESC201 · 02-22-2009, 04:11 PM

Okay, thank you very much.

lazlow · 02-22-2009, 06:49 PM

You might want to look at stripe snoop:

http://stripesnoop.sourceforge.net/

There is a rpm in the epel repo at least for C5.2, so it is likely it is available in the F10 section of epel.