Monday, February 4, 2013

Easy steps to enable Finger Print Reader on Linux Mint / Ubuntu


Here I am using Linux Mint 14 ( Mint is very similar OS to Ubuntu) on Lenovo ThinkPad machine.

Step 1 - is your Finger print reader detected by system...?

First check whether your figer print reader is recognized or not by the system. for this open terminal and run command.

$ lsusb
  
It shows information about USB buses in the system and the devices connected to them. Then look for your finger print reader device. (My finger print reader device, Upek is listed in device list.)

.. 
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 147e:2020 Upek 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f2:b2eb Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
..

Step 2 -Installing fPrint

Use following commands to install fPrint.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fingerprint/fprint
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install libpam-fprintd  

if Installation is success, the needed lines in common-auth should now be present. for that type following command in terminal

$ grep fprint /etc/pam.d/common-auth

you should observe similar output like this,

auth [success=2 default=ignore] pam_fprintd.so 

Final (Fun) Step - configure fPrint

Now run

$ fprintd-enroll

swipe your right index finger until process is completed.

Using device /net/reactivated/Fprint/Device/0
Enrolling right index finger.
Enroll result: enroll-stage-passed
Enroll result: enroll-stage-passed
Enroll result: enroll-stage-passed
Enroll result: enroll-stage-passed
Enroll result: enroll-stage-passed
Enroll result: enroll-stage-passed
Enroll result: enroll-completed

Now you should be able to authenticate (Login, Terminal,  Lock screen, and everywhere ) by swiping your right index finger.

see how it works on terminal authentication.


( Note: If finger print fails, then system automatically prompt you to enter password. )

Have fun...

Alternatives for fPrint:

I found another GUI client called Fingerprint GUI.( http://www.n-view.net/Appliance/fingerprint/ ) it has some advance features, compare to fPrint.


Reference: 

  1. http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_enable_integrated_fingerprint_reader_with_fprint

26 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Works perfectly with Ubuntu 12.04 as well with ThinkPad T530!! Thanks... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks! It works so good, but sometimes I don't know if something is asking for my fingerprint... I'd Like to test fingerprint GUI. Should I uninstall this one?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sorry for the late reply. I didn't try GUI. Hope you have tried it now. fprint is good enough for me. :)

      Delete
  5. Do I need to download something first.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, but fPrint will download when you install it. Please refer step 2.

      Delete
  6. Wow! It's really valuable information during the time using fingerprint devices .

    ReplyDelete
  7. I get this message (on Mint 14):Cannot access PPA (https://launchpad.net/api/1.0/~fingerprint/+archive/fprint) to get PPA informationl...
    However, apt-get update works fine, so I don't think it's a proxy issue. Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It turns out these packages were available via Synaptic.

      Delete
    2. I also faced similar situation when I was trying to add a PPA behind a proxy. but in direction connection it works fine.

      Delete
  8. Awesome, thanks! I use LinuxMint on a Thinkpad T400, and with LinuxMint 14 it works great. Before that, I tried it with LinuxMint 13, and there it worked everywhere except for the initial GUI login with MDM - it accepted the fingerprint, but showed the login screen again. Great that this is now fixed in 14!

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  10. Good info, thanks.
    Cant get "$ grep fprint /etc/pam.d/common-auth" to display (fprint not in file). I DO have fprind-enroll and fprint-list commands to work.
    just not asking for finger scan for auth.
    lsusb = Bus 001 Device 002: ID 138a:0090 Validity Sensors, Inc. and as "enroll" makes the scanner work, that seems to be OK...
    I tried "fingerprint-gui" and it had me load sudo add-apt-repository ppa:3v1n0/libfprint-vfd0090 (It faulted on -u as per web, that I removed, as above). maybe mistype by someone for -y ??
    I will do more research (ask son).
    steve

    ReplyDelete
  11. I did go into:
    steve@steve-ThinkPad-T460p $ sudo pam-auth-update and with the space key, turned on the finger print reader. not sure sudo was needed... previous command was sudo.
    this worked and reader works. Needed to push "on" button to "wake-up"...

    maybe I will try fingerprint-gui again now that I know it CAN work.
    steve

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Steve. Same situation — same solution

      Delete
  12. BTW:
    steve@steve-ThinkPad-T460p:~$ grep fprint /etc/pam.d/common-auth
    gives:
    auth [success=2 default=ignore] pam_fprintd.so max_tries=1 timeout=10 # debug

    steve

    ReplyDelete
  13. grep command does not give any output..but I have a fingerprint reader. I'm using it on windows. but can't use it on linux. when I command fprint enroll it shows no devices available...why?

    ReplyDelete

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