XPS 13 9300 - fingerprint reader - any driver updates?

Question

I have a fingerprint reader and it shows as a Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co.,Ltd. FingerPrint.

However, when I check at this site:

Hardware Probe

Linux Hardware Probe

I find the it fails on this machine with 20.04.

The investigation I have made is as follows:

makem@XPS-13-9300:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Release:    20.04
Codename:    focal
makem@XPS-13-9300:~$
makem@XPS-13-9300:~$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0bda:58fe Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Integrated_Webcam_HD
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 27c6:533c Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co.,Ltd. FingerPrint
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 8087:0026 Intel Corp. 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
makem@XPS-13-9300:~$

makem@XPS-13-9300:~$ sudo apt-get install fprintd libfprint-2-2 libfprint-2-tod1 libpam-fprintd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
fprintd is already the newest version (1.90.1-1ubuntu1).
libfprint-2-2 is already the newest version (1:1.90.1+tod1-0ubuntu4).
libfprint-2-2 set to manually installed.
libfprint-2-tod1 is already the newest version (1:1.90.1+tod1-0ubuntu4).
libfprint-2-tod1 set to manually installed.
libpam-fprintd is already the newest version (1.90.1-1ubuntu1).
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.
makem@XPS-13-9300:~$

Is there somewhere where new drivers can be found as they are released?

Solution

I'm adding another answer as it is sufficiently different from my previous and it may also help notifying the OP.

I got the fingerprint reader on my Dell XPS 13 9300 working in Ubuntu 20.04 with a driver package ostensibly from Dell. What I did was:

• install the latest Linux kernel 5.8 (most likely not necessary, but above 5.6.1 is advisable)
• download the .deb
• install it with sudo dpkg -i libfprint-2-tod1-goodix_0.0.4-0ubuntu1somerville1_amd64.deb
• reboot the system

This was the device installed in my XPS. Looks like it has the same ID as yours so you may be in luck.

 lsusb | grep -i goodix
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 27c6:533c Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co.,Ltd. FingerPrint

Use is limited to logging in and probably some third-party software. Haven't yet found out if it can be used to get elevated permissions (in the GUI; I don't expect it ever to happen in the terminal).

UPDATE: I'm not quite sure what I did (it may have something to do with the sudo pam-auth-update I ran to enable fingerprint authentication), but this morning my laptop started asking for my fingerprint in the terminal when performing sudo commands. It doesn't always work for unlocking the computer or logging in, though, but it's better than nothing!

Comments

[makem]

Thank you. I read that they may not bother with the reader as in linux you need to identify many times whilst using terminal for example. I suppose sudo command may recognise the fingerprint in which case it would be a boon. If not, then less so.

[Alex Timmer]

Thanks for this! I've been hoping to get the fingerprint working. Question tho; I read a lot of disparaging articles on updating beyond the 20.04LTS kernel 4.5, especially because of secure boot incompatibility. Can you confirm this isn't an issue on the 9300?

[bluppfisk]

I can confirm the fingerprint reader works (although it's not as reliable as under Windows) with Kernel 5.6 which is generally advised for this notebook. Kernel 5.6 works flawlessly. 5.8 was a bit more problematic

[bluppfisk]

it works with sudo yes, but in reality the fingerprint times out often and even if it works, it's nowhere near as accurate and fast as in Windows

[gkri]

Thanks! Your answer here helped another person who helped others in turn via the /r/Dell subreddit: reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/ixwgm0/…