Installing and using Yubikey Neo Manager on Ubuntu 14.04

November 14, 2014 9:58 PM

I only run Ubuntu @Home. So I need to have my Yubikey Neo work @Home. Follow my thought process here...

I go to your website and find https://www.yubico.com/faq/enable-u2f-linux/. I download it an extract it. There are absolutely no instructions about how to install this! There is a setup.py file however it doesn't run. Hey have you heard of this great invention called the shebang line? Google it. It'll flip you out!

Sticking "python" in front of that script I get this wonderful error message:

Earth:python setup.py
no previously-included directories found matching 'doc/.build'

Installed /tmp/yubikey-neo-manager-0.2.5/nose-1.3.4-py2.7.egg
usage: setup.py [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...]
   or: setup.py --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]
   or: setup.py --help-commands
   or: setup.py cmd --help

error: no commands supplied

Gee, what am I to make of that? Should I explore the depths of this setup.py or... Wait, there's a README... Let's look:

=== Installation
The recommended way to install this software including dependencies is by using
the provided precompiled binaries for your platform. For Windows and OS X,
there are installers available for download
https://developers.yubico.com/yubikey-neo-manager/Releases/[here].

Wondering why a README file for a Linux installation would be talking about Windows and MAC at all!...

For Ubuntu we have a custom PPA with a package for it
https://launchpad.net/~yubico/+archive/ubuntu/stable[here].

OK, wait a sec! Didn't I just download what I needed to install this? What's this "and now go download this from here..." crap? Further on in this README file is talk about Windows installation and Mac OS/X crap but nothing else about Linux.

OK so what's this https://lanchpad.net/~yubico/+archive/ubuntu/stable thing? A ppa. Alright. So I set that up. Now what do I do?!? Dead end. Instructions lead to a dead end.

OK so back to that setup.py. I learn I can do python setup.py install. After doing so, what? What am I supposed to do?!?

Needless to say your Linux installation leave a hellofva lot to be desired!