Fingerprint reader in Ubuntu 17.04 on Dell XPS 15 2017

Question

Is it possible to enable the fingerprint reader in Ubuntu 17.04 on a Dell XPS 15 9560 (2017)? How do I do that? I tested Fingerprint GUI, but it says "No Devices Found".

Edit:

➜  ~ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f3:24a0 Elan Microelectronics Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 138a:0091 Validity Sensors, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0cf3:e300 Atheros Communications, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0c45:6713 Microdia 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

➜  ~ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 5910 (rev 05)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Skylake PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 05)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 591b (rev 04)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Skylake Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 05)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H Thermal subsystem (rev 31)
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 31)
00:15.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H Serial IO I2C Controller #1 (rev 31)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H CSME HECI #1 (rev 31)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 31)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #2 (rev f1)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
00:1d.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #13 (rev f1)
00:1d.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #15 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPC Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PMC (rev 31)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device a171 (rev 31)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SMBus (rev 31)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS525A PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
04:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM961/PM961

Solution

Typing this on an XPS 9560, no support yet for the fingerprint reader under Linux.

Here's a project on Github for trying to reverse engineer the windows driver: https://github.com/hmaarrfk/Validity91

Comments

[Admin]

Can you give me the output from lsusb and lspci so that I can know which fingerprint reader is being used.

[Admin]

Added results of lsusb and lspci above. Note that I have upgraded to Ubuntu 17.04 now.

[Admin]

Apparently this is a driver problem. This bug has been reported here: bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=99462

[Admin]

There isn't any solution yet. You can keep an eye on that page to see if there is any patch that fixes your problem. This has been a recurring problem for fingerprint readers from Validity Sensors. I found bug reports all the way back from ubuntu 10.04.

[dawez]

How it comes that the fingerprint reader is so much proprietary secret sauce? What is so special about that the companies do no release the full opensource version themselves?