ThinkPad X220: Installation of Fingerprint Reader on Xubuntu Linux

2014-02-25 Hardware

Natively Xubuntu (as well as any other version of *ubuntu) does not support fingerprint reader. To enable this feature and use it as an alternative way of authentication, you have to install additional package. One of them is called Fingerprint GUI and it supports several fingerprint reader devices.

First of all open terminal and check if yours is supported. Type:

lsusb

In my case below result appeared:

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 04b3:310c IBM Corp. Wheel Mouse
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f2:b217 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Lenovo Integrated Camera (0.3MP)
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 147e:2016 Upek Biometric Touchchip/Touchstrip Fingerprint Sensor
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Upek Biometric Touchchip/Touchstrip Fingerprint Sensor is the key and value for it:

147e:2016

Now take a look of this table:

ID’s of supported fingerprint readers

045e:00bb	08ff:1686	08ff:2686	147e:1002
045e:00bc	08ff:1687	08ff:2687	147e:1003
045e:00bd	08ff:1688	08ff:2688	147e:2015
045e:00ca	08ff:1689	08ff:2689	147e:2016
0483:2015	08ff:168a	08ff:268a	147e:2016
0483:2015	08ff:168b	08ff:268b	147e:2020
0483:2016	08ff:168c	08ff:268c	147e:2020
0483:2016	08ff:168d	08ff:268d	147e:3000
05ba:0007	08ff:168e	08ff:268e	147e:3001
05ba:0008	08ff:168f	08ff:268f	147e:3001
05ba:000a	08ff:2500	08ff:2691	147e:5002
061a:0110	08ff:2550	08ff:2810	147e:5003
08ff:1600	08ff:2580	08ff:5501	1c7a:0603
08ff:1660	08ff:2660	08ff:5731
08ff:1680	08ff:2680	138a:0001
08ff:1681	08ff:2681	138a:0005
08ff:1682	08ff:2682	138a:0008
08ff:1683	08ff:2683	147e:1000
08ff:1684	08ff:2684	147e:1000
08ff:1685	08ff:2685	147e:1001

Installation of Fingerprint GUI

Using terminal add new PPA:

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

and update repositories:

sudo apt-get update

Now install packages:

sudo apt-get install libbsapi policykit-1-fingerprint-gui fingerprint-gui

Last thing to do is to log out and log in back to your computer.

Acquiring and saving you fingerprints

: Logged in? Great! Now open Settings Manager.

Find newly installed Fingerprint GUI. Click on it to open.

Browse each tab to be familiar with the software and scan your fingerprints. After you save them, you can test if fingerprint reader works correctly.

Press CTRL + ALT + DEL (on Xubuntu) to lock your screen. You should be able to both provide password as usual or (and that’s the new feature) unlock screen using your finger.

As you can see on th screen below. Also when dealing with sudo command, you can use fingerprint instead of typing password.

Uninstall

If you watched carefully the process of installation, you have probably noticed that package:

policykit-1-gnome

has been removed. Before you will uninstall Fingerprint UI, you need to install back this package.

Interminal type:

sudo apt-get install policykit-1-gnome

and finally:

sudo apt-get remove fingerprint-gui

Fingerprint GUI does not work correctly?

Here are useful commands:

sudo pam-auth-update

and:

sudo pam-auth-update --force

Keep an eye on:

/var/log/auth.log

Eveything has been tested on Xubuntu. It should work as well on Ubuntu. Problems may be using Fingerprint GUI with KDE (Kubuntu).