Pretty much what I said in the title. My AMD FW13 arrived yesterday, and I’m loving it so far. Firstly I installed Windows, set that up (somewhat) including getting Windows Hello working with the fingerprint scanner. Then, I plugged in my USB with Ubuntu on it, followed the instructions, partitioning my drive (about 70% to 30% in favour of Windows). Tried setting up the fingerprint scanner, ran into the known error. Followed the troubleshooting, understanding that the problem was that I had already set up the windows fingerprint scanner*. Everything now works smoothly in Ubuntu and I can log in with my finger.
I went back to Windows, and I couldn’t log in with my finger as expected - although I now can’t seem to be able to set it back up, as I had thought. Does this mean the scanner can only work on one of my two OSs at a time? This is a shame - its not a huge deal but its a little frustrating.
This is my first time ever using Linux and I really wanted to give it a shot alongside Windows, but I fear I may have jumped in too fast in installing it right away, I maybe should have played around with the USB version a little beforehand. I may try this with Fedora 39 to test the waters over there also.
Bonus question -
If, for whatever reason, I wanted to uninstall Ubuntu and swap it out for Fedora or simply go back to my entire drive being just for Windows, how would this be done? Are there guides for this? The Ubuntu installer was very clear about the scary drive-writing stuff but I’m concerned about doing the reverse without any assistence if I end up having to.
Many thanks in advance, really loving the FW community and the Linux support seems great - very grateful already.
*Edit: I have now realised that I followed two different troubleshooting guides when setting up the Ubuntu fingerprint scanner. On the knowledgebase page, , I first did the second step involving the fprint-clear-storage appimage, thinking this was the problem as I had installed Windows already. I then scrolled down and saw that there was a special guide for the AMD version, and then followed the ‘Updating Fingerprint Reader Firmware on Linux guide’ as well. Could it be that I only needed to do the second step updating the firmware, and that the first, unnecessary step messed up the dual use of the fingerprint over the two OSs? If so, is there any way to reverse this?
Dual-booting and using the fingerprint reader is going to be a mixed bag. Few considerations.
We need to get your fingerprint reader up to snuff. This means we need to make sure the firmware is up to current.
This is going to be the very first thing we need to do in order to have it working on Linux at all. But, you may find it will be able to be used for Linux or Windows - I have not tested both. Firmware should be updated regardless, though.
As a general rule, follow a guide we provide to its entirety. Not going to break anything, but, you will be left wondering why something didn’t work if only portions are followed. This is especially true of the Ubuntu 22.04 guide.
It sounds like you may very well be new to Linux. If this is the case, keeping the fingerprint reader for Windows may be the less anxiety inducing approach.
As it sounds like you’re a Windows first user, honestly, I’d do my firmware updates there. Use the fingerprint reader for Windows. If you choose to dual-boot Ubuntu, you will not be flashing firmware at all as you did it already on Windows.
Now allow me to touch on your post above to get us on the same page
To reiterate what I mentioned previously, keep the fingerprint reader for Windows. I suspect it won’t play nicely handling login between the OS’. Nothing scary, just not working as expected.
As you may have guessed at this stage, this is why I recommend sticking to one OS or the other for using the fingerprint reader.
Might try this from Windows: Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Windows Hello Fingerprint > Advanced Options > Clear Fingerprint Data. Reboot, then try again setting it up in Windows only.
You’re not going to brick anything, however, using Linux means taking what you know about Windows and completely setting it aside. Think learning from scratch. Helps to be in this mindset.
There will absolutely be some stuff you will run into that is like, hey, it’s not doing XYZ as I expected. This is a healthy mindset and expected. This provides you the opportunity to learn if you so desired.
If you have the RAM, you might install an Ubuntu virtual machine (VM) in Windows which would mean running Ubuntu in Windows. Won’t touch your partitions and is generally safer from a lost data point of view vs dual-booting as a newcomer.
This is where using a VM or virtual machine will be a better option. If you’re not familiar with partitions, how Linux handles boot records and how Microsoft has a fun habit of hosing those Linux boot records on occasion, VM is where I’d want to be. VirtualBox is one such option, installing it on Windows. You will want ample RAM, however. 16 is good, setting aside 8 for the VM.
Asssuming you opt to follow the above advice, reset the reader in Windows, this will be a moot point. However just for the sake of completion:
The knowledge base page called Ubuntu Fingerprint Troubleshooting is the general starting point. A user would start here. 11th and 12th gen Framework laptops would stop at the end here, as it will have them running.
13th and AMD, will have the user to the end of the article. At the " 13th Gen Intel Core or AMD Ryzen 7040 Series" section at the bottom. Starting off at the beginning of this guide is fine, ideally, we will be at a state where the corrected firmware will be preinstalled in the near future. Therefore this guide is the starting point no matter how you go.
The latter guide, is strictly the firmeware update guide. Following it will either work or it won’t. Nothing will break.
Hopefully this helps, be it a lot to read.
Shorter version. Follow the Windows advice above on the fingerprint reader reset and using a VM for Ubuntu, until you are more comfortable with it.
Firstly, thank you ever so much for your thoughtful and speedy response. I’m constantly blown away by the support the Framework team has to offer and I couldn’t be more pleased to have joined this community.
In regard to your thorough advice, I have a few queries! At the time of making the initial post, the fingerprint scanner was working upon booting Linux but not on Windows, despite the settings app recognising that I had set up a finger as a valid sign in option. This remains the same after clearing the fingerprint data as you suggested. If you think that only one will work at a time, I’m quite happy with it being Ubuntu as I seem to be using it more currently and intend to use it the most of the two.
In regard to your advice concerning a VM, in retrospect that may have been a better option, yet I am already at this stage having made the partition and have been successfully booting both operating systems, and, that along with my keenness to become more familiar with Linux is telling me I should just stick with this as is. Unless, however, your concerns about Microsoft wiping the Linux boot records should sway me more in the VM direction? How much of a worry should this be to me, and are there any work arounds? as I said, I’m quite keen to continue dual-booting as it seems to be going smoothly so far, aside from the fingerprint issues.
In regard to my firmware, I believe I am up to date as I have successfully used the fingerprint scanner in both Ubuntu and Windows, just not simultaneously. I imagine, as you suggest, they are simply not going to cooperate, which is fine by me.
Many thanks again, your help is much appreciated. The fact that I’ve had a reply at all is enough to put me at ease and fill me with confidence!
@Matt_Hartley I’m curious why the fingerprint reader wouldn’t handle a dual-boot scenario? Unless I’m missing a lot (possible), that seems kinda weird. I understand in a VM scenario it wouldn’t handle logging into the VM without a lot of mucking about, but dual-boot or just re-installing from one OS to another…why wouldn’t that work? Assuming fully working in Linux just fine that is.
Or is there some kind of hardware TPM-type module that doesn’t like different OS installs?
