Desktop services

On desktop, smart card reading and fingerprint capture run through small background services you install once per machine. This is what they are and which to install.

On desktop platforms (Windows, Linux, macOS), the SDK doesn’t drive USB hardware directly. Card reading and fingerprint capture run through small background services you install once per machine; the SDK discovers and talks to them locally. You install only the services for the hardware you use.

This applies to desktop apps (the C, C#, Swift, and Kotlin/Java desktop SDKs) and to the web SDK (which also needs the browser native host). On Android, hardware support ships as app/service packages instead — see the Android guide.

These services are a prerequisite for hardware. A card reader or fingerprint sensor will not be discovered until the matching service is installed and running — listSmartcardReaders() / listFingerprintReaders() simply return empty. Manual-entry verification needs no services.

Available services

Package	Hardware it serves	Platforms
mbkyc-pcsc-service	Any PC/SC smart card reader	Windows · Linux · macOS
mbkyc-ccid-service	CCID-over-USB readers (Linux fallback, see below)	Linux
mbkyc-morpho-service	IDEMIA (Morpho) MSO 1350 fingerprint	Windows · Linux · macOS
mbkyc-suprema-service	Suprema BioMini fingerprint	Linux · macOS (Windows: driver gap)
mbkyc-zhiang-service	NEXUS / Zhiang fingerprint	Linux (Windows: driver gap)
mbkyc-web-host	Browser extension native host (web SDK)	Windows · Linux · macOS
mbkyc-capi / libmbkyc-dev	C API library + headers (for C/C++ integrators)	Windows · Linux

Linux CCID fallback. macOS and Windows ship class-compliant CCID drivers that handle any CCID-conformant reader automatically. On Linux, pcscd/libccid only bind readers on their whitelist — install mbkyc-ccid-service alongside mbkyc-pcsc-service to cover the rest. The two coexist; each claims only readers it can, so a device never appears twice.

Windows driver gap — Zhiang & Suprema. The Zhiang ZA-K-240715 and Suprema BMS-2 (V408) fingerprint readers need a WinUSB driver that is not yet bundled in the MSI/Chocolatey packages. On a stock Windows machine these devices show Status=Error until the driver is installed manually. The PC/SC and Morpho services install cleanly with no custom driver. See Supported devices.

Which services do I install?

You need…	Install
Read Emirates ID from a card reader	mbkyc-pcsc-service (+ mbkyc-ccid-service on Linux for non-whitelisted readers)
Fingerprint with IDEMIA MSO 1350	mbkyc-morpho-service
Fingerprint with Suprema BioMini	mbkyc-suprema-service
Fingerprint with NEXUS / Zhiang	mbkyc-zhiang-service
Browser (web SDK)	mbkyc-web-host (+ the card/fingerprint services above)

Install by platform

macOS (.pkg)

Signed .pkg installers, plus launchctl service management.

Linux (apt / yum)

Debian/Ubuntu via apt, RHEL/Fedora via dnf, plus service management.

Windows (Chocolatey / MSI)

Chocolatey, the MSI installer, and Windows service management.