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I have a Lenovo ThinkPad with a fingerprint reader:

Thinkpad fingerprint

How to make Ubuntu recognise it and use it for login?

I already tried:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fingerprint/fingerprint-gui
sudo apt-get update

... but this GUI did not recognizes my device. Does anyone knows any other option?

muru
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Yosved Villar
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  • Do you know the fingerprint device's model/manufacturer/id? It may appear in `lspci -v` or `lsusb -v`. – Wilf Aug 15 '14 at 19:25
  • According to the [Arch Linux wiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fingerprint-gui), you might need to reboot or add yourself to the `plugdev` and `scanner` groups (you should alread be in the `plugdev` group). – muru Aug 15 '14 at 20:50
  • how I add my user on the 'plugdev'??? – Yosved Villar Apr 15 '15 at 22:34
  • Read `man useradd` and do something like `sudo useradd --groups=plugdev,scanner $USER`. Then logout - groups are only applied at login time. Well, not exactly, but logout/login is the easiest way. – waltinator Aug 04 '15 at 06:49
  • Can you see the fingerprint reader in the output of `sudo lspci -v` or `sudo lsusb -v`? If so, please edit your question to share the information. – waltinator Aug 04 '15 at 06:52
  • My new L380 fingerprint sensor is not recognized. any driver? With `lsusb` All my Lenovo devices begin with `17ef:` – Meloman Aug 31 '18 at 12:35

6 Answers6

74

I tried both Fingerprint Gui and FPrint in my Thinkpad W550S. Fingerprint Gui (Dead link, project is gone???) had a nice interface, but was pretty unstable on the login page and sudo and constantly crashed.

FPrint seems more simple, but works very well:

Installation

  • For Ubuntu 20.04 or greater:

    sudo apt install libpam-fprintd

  • For Ubuntu 16.04 or greater:

    sudo apt install libpam-fprintd fprint-demo

  • For Ubuntu 15.04 or less

    sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:fingerprint/fprint
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libfprint0 fprint-demo libpam-fprintd gksu-polkit

Configuration

After that, you can test it by running fprint_demo and save the fingerprint with fprintd-enroll. This will automatically make your login screen require a finger swipe instead of a password.

In some cases you also may need to run:

sudo pam-auth-update

... to activate fingerprint reader for elevated privileges, for example with sudo.

NotTheDr01ds
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Kostanos
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  • gksu-polkit does not exist in 2015.10 but seems to be installable: http://askubuntu.com/questions/653459/cant-install-gksu-says-it-cant-find-it – Nicolas Raoul Jan 05 '16 at 09:07
  • Actually no need to install gksu-polkit it seems. – Nicolas Raoul Jan 05 '16 at 09:15
  • the question was for 14.04. I didn't tested it in latest versions. But thank you anyway. – Kostanos Jan 05 '16 at 15:02
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    For 16.04, `apt-get install libpam-fprintd` was sufficient to get `fprintd-enroll` and functioning login page. – Samuli Pahaoja Sep 20 '16 at 10:35
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    after setting this how to get back to entering the password – Kasun Siyambalapitiya Nov 07 '16 at 09:23
  • @Kostanos How to uninstall `Fprint` I installed it using `sudo apt install libpam-fprintd` – Kasun Siyambalapitiya Nov 16 '16 at 17:04
  • on firing `fprintd-enroll`, it asks `Enrolling right-index-finger finger`. On scrolling my finger on the fingerprint-scanner, the terminal shows `Enroll result: enroll-completed`. But when I try using my fingerprint, it always shows 'Failed to match fingerprint'. What am I doing wrong ? – node_analyser Jun 15 '17 at 09:56
  • @v1h5 occasionally my sensor also gives me no match. but after few retries it works almost all the time. I guess it is also may depends on quality of the sensor and cleanest of it, also the fingers should not be wet. – Kostanos Jun 15 '17 at 14:09
  • @KasunSiyambalapitiya it exactly what I expressed on this topic. Apart of `libpam-fprintd` you may need some other dependent libraries. Check above for the full instruction. – Kostanos Jun 15 '17 at 14:11
  • Worked as a charm w/ ThinkPad L450 & Ubuntu 18.04 – Cristian Todea Jul 02 '18 at 08:54
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    For 18.04 at least, it seems the answer is missing an important part -- the fingerprint registration needs to be run also as root and needs username of the normal user (to get access via the fingerprint) as parameter: `sudo fingerd-enroll $USERNAME`. – Premek Brada Oct 25 '18 at 18:39
  • OK, so this does get the fingerprint thingy working but.. it's pretty useless on Ubuntu if you still have to enter a password for the key chain after paswordless fingerprint login :( – user17254 Jan 08 '19 at 23:18
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    I am getting no devices available. in ThinkPad l480 – Akhil Surapuram Jul 05 '19 at 10:14
  • unfortunately some models. including mine - ideapad 720s, has different brand fingerprint reader, which is not supported by ubuntu yet :( – Kostanos Jul 05 '19 at 14:12
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    fprint_demo says no devices found in status – Akhil Surapuram Jul 08 '19 at 01:51
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    no device found – Dibish Nov 01 '19 at 11:17
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    No device found, too. – le hien May 28 '20 at 04:52
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    http://zecheru.com/thinkpad-fingerprint-ubuntu-14-04/?v=7516fd43adaa is a dead link – Marcello Romani Dec 27 '21 at 09:28
  • NB! On KUbuntu (Ubuntu with KDE) this approach prevented logging in after running `fprintd-enroll` even with password! Login screen staid "frozen" until reboot. Fingerprint worked on command line, but not on login-screen! Rescue solution: 1) In login screen switch from GUI to terminal single-user mode (using Ctrl + Alt + F3) 2) log in with your user (there in terminal fingerprint actually worked) - after login you still can use only terminal, but not GUI! 3) edit `/etc/pam.d/common-auth` by removing line containing `pam_fprintd.so` 4) log out - now logging in with password works again – atsu85 Oct 23 '22 at 15:29
  • FYI: Related to KUbuntu login issue i mentioned above, i also reported bug: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libfprint/libfprint/-/issues/515 – atsu85 Oct 23 '22 at 15:56
6

Fprint worked perfectly on a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon under Ubuntu 14.04. I strictly followed the instructions :

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:fingerprint/fprint
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libfprint0 fprint-demo libpam-fprintd

and finally saved my fingerprint with fprintd-enroll. I can now login and validate my sudo access with a finger swipe !!

Albin Freycenon
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On my Thinkpad X220, I had to enable the fingerprint reader in BIOS (tap F1 repeatedly after starting the computer).

After that, fprint_demo works in the sense that it runs, but it fails to read any fingerprint data ("Bad scan. Please remove your finger before trying again.").

Erik Aas
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It works on Thinkpad x270 and perhaps others **70 models with python-validity the installation is described on the project repository.
Note this is an experimental package.

Emmanuel
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0

I have a T590 and fingerprint is now working in Ubuntu 20.10!

I installed the update in the "Software" app.

dimisjim
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Just want to say that this is working on my Thinkpad T14 Gen 2 (a used laptop I got off eBay). These are the instructions I did to make it work

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fingerprint/fprint
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get install libfprint0 fprint-demo libpam-fprintd

fprintd-enroll

I believe the demo and libpam failed, but I was still able to do fprintd-entroll and log into my computer with my fingerprint. Very cool!

drewkiimon
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