Fingerprint login settings not visible in ubuntu 20.04

Question

I am trying to enable fingerprint login in my laptop (Dell Inspiron 7577), running Ubuntu 20.04

I have enabled the setting using sudo pam-auth-update

Also, I installed hw-probe and found the fingerprint reader is being detected, as shown here

"usb:27c6-5301" : {
  "Bus" : "USB",
  "Class" : "02-02-01",
  "Device" : "Fingerprint Reader",
  "Driver" : "cdc_acm",
  "SDevice" : "Goodix Fingerprint Device",
  "SVendor" : "HTMicroelectronics",
  "Serial" : "9F73FE10C4F88873C9E942B6B6FB242C",
  "Status" : "detected",
  "Type" : "fingerprint reader",
  "Vendor" : "Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co.,Ltd."
},

I still don't see any option in Settings > Users > Login & Authentication to enable fingerprint login.

Please help me out with this.

Solution

To begin with, you could try goodix_fp_dump to perform some testing.

Note: Support for your device appears to be in a grey zone. Sources:

1. https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-General/No-driver-for-fingerprint-scanner-Goodix-GF3208-on-Linux/td-p/6242579
2. https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libfprint/libfprint/-/issues/43#note_382609
3. https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libfprint/libfprint/-/issues/161

---

Then, you could try with Fingerprint GUI

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fingerprint/fingerprint-gui
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv EFD5FA852F20733F
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libbsapi policykit-1-fingerprint-gui fingerprint-gui

Note: Fingerprint-gui replaces some packages. Removing it does not restore original packages, which has to be done manually. It is not a serious issue. If anything else fails, it may be worth trying.

---

Related:

1. https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/enable-fingerprint-scanner-support-on-linux/
2. https://www.codegrepper.com/code-examples/shell/fingerprint+login+disabled+ubuntu+20.04
3. fingerprint-gui in 18.04
4. Using Fingerprint reader in 16.04

Comments

[linuxbuild]

Useful info on your problem: dell.com/community/Linux-General/…

[kannzzmm2]

askubuntu.com/questions/1250709/…

[sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio]

@kannzzmm2 - Note that the OP already did what you suggest in the linked answer, and his status is "Status" : "detected".

[sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio]

Did yo uhave a chance to test some of what was suggested?

[kchak]

No, I couldn't test any of this. My computer broke down soon after this, and I forgot all about this.

[Admin]

Careful with this one. The fingerprint-gui repo does not have any Focal releases and compiling from source does not work for versions 19.10 and newer. Downgrading to 18.04 might be an option, albeit a suboptimal one 🤐