[RESPONDED] Pop_OS! - Script to enable fingerprint

@ololobus 's solution worked out of the box, thanks friend! (Pop OS 21.10)

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I ran the script but the fingerprint reader wasn’t enabled in the settings. Then when I rebooted, I didn’t get a login prompt at all. It was just a grey screen with the date at the top and the standard settings at the top right.

I booted up into Ubuntu on another partition but I’m not sure how to fix the Pop!_OS partition from here.

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@Duane_Johnson thanks for sharing that! After running and uninstalling from my ubuntu partition I was able to login to Pop!_OS again. :+1:t2:

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Is anyone having issues using the fingerprint when waking from sleep? When I try it errors with timeout and can’t use it.

@Jacob_Griffin you absolute legend, I’ve spent the last half an hour trying to get the other techniques to work. TYSM.

Just worth noting that if it isn’t letting you use fingerprint to authenticate in a terminal after using sudo, use

sudo pam-auth-update

and select “fingerprint” with the arrow keys, and press space to enable it. you can then press enter to exit.

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Trying this again, I’m now getting this error message:
“Failed to enroll new fingerprint”

Edit: this python script fixed it for me:

@Jacob_Griffin Is it now safe to remove the “fprintd” and “libfprint” directories? I installed them in my home directory and would ideally like to keep directories in there to a minimum.

Ran the python script and then was able to register the fingerprint. Thanks guys!

I just installed Pop!_OS 21.10 and got fingerprint working:

sudo apt install pam-fprintd
sudo pam-auth-update

then put the checkmark at the fringerprint option and registered my prints through the user settings.
No script needed (anymore, apparently :man_shrugging:t2:).

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@Duane_Johnson do you or anyone else have an idea of how to fix the issue of not having users listed & not being able to login from the original code if your drive is encrypted? I’m having a rough time trying to follow your fix because the Luks encryption. I still have not been able to mount my drive while in recovery mode and my user folder is denying me access.
I’m on Pop OS 21.10.

In my searching to fix this problem, I’ve encountered many others who’ve suggested trying things like this:

cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p3 crypt_data
mount /dev/mapper/crypt_data /mnt

I tried the first line and i get stuck because it spits the error line:

cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p3 crypt_data
Device /dev/nvme0n1p3 does not exist or access denied.

I can’t find anything to suggest how to fix this issue, and/or I’m too deep in stuff that I don’t understand (probably both). The closest I found was a forum question which was slightly related: partitioning - cryptsetup luksFormat error: access denied or device doesnt exist - Ask Ubuntu. I’m providing this mostly to show my work.

I’ve also tried just accessing my user folder through the Files app because graphical interfaces are my crutch and I was able to locate my user folder already mounted at: /media/recovery/[root folder]/home/[user] but to my dismay, it gave me this error when I tried to open it.


So I have no idea what to do or even if that error is related to the fact that my drive is not mounted through the cryptsetup luksOpen command. Only thing that seemed relevant on the web was this article which did not fix my problem: Fix GVfs Admin “Unix process subject does not have uid set” in Ubuntu 21.10, 21.04 | UbuntuHandbook

Please help? I have a backup of my entire home folder, but it would be really nice if I didn’t have to reinstall Pop OS for the 4th time since that’s a lot more work to re-setup my pc.

Edit: also, yes I tried the most recent suggestions by @ololobus and @rumlyne , neither worked for me for whatever reason. The fingerprint option never showed in the PAM settings.

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I’m sorry, I don’t have encryption here so I haven’t had to deal with this. What you’re doing is what I would have reached for first as well (cryptsetup luksOpen ...).

Thank you @RandomUser I managed to figure it out with your help! Among other things, I had forgotten to use the sudo elevation when using cryptsetup.

So here’s what worked for me in case anyone else finds themselves needing it (for encrypted drives):

lsblk
sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p3 cryptdata
sudo lvscan
sudo vgchange -ay
sudo mount /dev/mapper/data-root /mnt
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot/efi
for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done
sudo cp -n /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/
sudo chroot /mnt

cd /home/[user]/fprintd
ninja -C builddir uninstall

cd /home/[user]/libfprint
ninja -C builddir uninstall

pam-auth-update # <-- then uncheck "fingerprintd"
exit
reboot

You’ll want to note where the fprintd and libfprint folders are, mine were not located in a tmp folder, but just in my user folder. Thanks again y’all!

Edit: I figured out what went wrong for me in @rumlyne’s code and fixed it (they put pam instead of libpam for the first line):

sudo apt install libpam-fprintd
sudo pam-auth-update

This worked for me and hopefully for anyone else on Pop_OS! 21.10.

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This is the correct way to do with the 12th gen laptops and PopOS 22.04 LTS.

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This worked perfectly. Thank you kind sir.

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I get this error after executing

sudo apt install libpam-fprintd
sudo pam-auth-update

What Framework model?

I have three DIY units which all have Pop!_OS running (latest updates) with no issues for the fingerprint sensor. I just got the AMD model working before Christmas 2023 once there were some kernel updates made to the the distro.

The frame models are the DIY Intel 11th gen (i7-1185G7), DIY 12th Gen (i7-1280P), and DIY AMD (Ryzen™ 7 7840U]).

All these models work with the fingerprint sensor.

Given that the fingerprint sensor has not changed much, I would not imagine this being a hard item to get solved (for you).

I have the framework 13 with the amd 5

when I checked my AMD 7 Framework, I have it working with these main packages (and its dependencies):

  • fprintd
  • libpam-fprintd

Did you check to make sure you have everything needed for the fingerprint sensor? libpam-fprintd does not handle the communication to the hardware

What do you mean with “everything needed for the fingerprint sensor”?

This post is over 2 years old and there is no other detail as to what you attempted or what you have installed or not installed.

I took the approach that you only had libpam-fprintd installed (and not the other packages).

There is a post on Ubuntu Fingprint Troubleshooting. As POP!_OS is based on ubuntu, hopefully this could help you out.

With the latest distribution of Pop!_OS and my own AMD laptop unit, I never had this much struggle now had to go to these lengths to get it working.

fprintd has commands within the package to enroll, delete, list, and verify:

  • fprintd-delete
  • fprintd-enroll
  • fprintd-list
  • fprintd-verify

each of the commands have a man page to help you further.

Hope this helps you

NOTE: The above weblink has a 2nd article linked talking about Fingerprint Reader Firmware updates for the 13th Gen and AMD Ryzen 7040 series laptops. This seems to be related to what model of laptop you are using as the 11th/12th Gen Intel models have a different fingerprint sensor than the 13th Gen/AMD Ryzen models.