81

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
  • 207,228
Yosved Villar
  • 912

6 Answers6

76

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
  • 22,082
Kostanos
  • 1,514
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
  • 69
2

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
  • 133
1

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
  • 1,333
0

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

I installed the update in the "Software" app.

dimisjim
  • 332
0

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
  • 261