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Fix Issue: Use Thinkpad T470 Fingerprint on Ubuntu 16.04

Updated: Jan 20, 2022

Thinkpad is an awesome line of laptops for Windows users. Despite the fact that Lenovo already joined Linux Vendor Firmware Service, many drivers for many Thinkpad laptops are lack of Linux support. This post is a painful guide to use fingerprint on Thinkpad T470 for Ubuntu 16.04 users (Gnome3).

Note: Before go through this post, check this link https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices as Lenovo may upload drivers in the future. Also use lsusb to check your Sensor ID, only 138a:0097 and 138a:0090 are supported now.

 

TL;DR:

  1. Install official driver from Lenovo on a Windows 10 64-bit Virtual Machine

  2. Use Windows 10 Hello Fingerprint to store fingerprint data in Sensor Memory

  3. Check out prototype from https://github.com/nmikhailov/Validity90 to make sure Ubuntu can now detect Fingerprint Sensor.

  4. If ok, install pam_fprintd.so (tested on GNOME 3) as:

    1. 138a:0090: https://github.com/3v1n0/libfprint

    2. 138a:0097: https://github.com/hrenod/libfprint

  5. Register fingerprint again with fprint-enroll using the same one as Step 2.

  6. Add pam_fprintd.so into PAM configuration files (/etc/pam.d/): login, su, sudo,...

 

Install Lenovo official driver on Windows 10 64-bit Virtual machine

This guide using Virtual Box to create VM. Before creating VM, you have to check some requirements:

  • To share your fingerprint device with VM, you have to ensure VirtualBox extensions (required to support USB 2.0 & 3.0) installed.

Go to File > Preferences > Extensions to check if it was installed, if not check your Virtual Box version (Help > About Virtualbox), then download & install suitable extension version via: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads.


Also, add your user to group vboxusers:

$ sudo usermod -aG vboxusers your_username

Then now you can create VM with PAE & USB 3.0 enabled.

After setup VM, download & install Lenovo driver via:

Use Device Management to make sure driver installed.



Use Windows 10 Hello Fingerprint to store fingerprint data in Sensor Memory

Open Start Menu, search for Sign-in Options, then click Windows Hello Fingerprint


Check out with nmikkhailov's prototype

Install requirement:


$ sudo apt-get install make gcc libgcrypt-dev libglib2.0-dev libnss3-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libssl-dev libpng-dev libgnutls28-dev policykit-1-gnome

$ git clone https://github.com/nmikhailov/Validity90
$ cd Validity90
$ make
$ make permissions

Then, run prototype:


$ ./prototype

If everything is ok, you will receive something like this:


Prototype version 15
Found device 138a:0097
...
IN: 2c941bf6930a75272f37688007b294d5d1f1caf5ec817653bdcb0d7757b3cb28
OUT: 9feb78c882501f8f934a511fdd043b40208e936e28878d3bd5e435f8766e72f9
1 - Scan fingerprint
2 - Test leds
0 - Exit

Choose 1 and scan your registered fingerprint. If match, it will result like this:


Fingerprint MATCHES DB Finger id: 2!

If you get permission denied error, do


$ sudo chmod a+rwx /dev/bus/usb/your_device_path
$ sudo chmod a+r /sys/class/dmi/id/product_serial

Create pam_fprintd.so


For 138a:0090


$ sudo add-apt-repository -u ppa:3v1n0/libfprint-vfs0090
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install libpam-fprintd libfprint0

For 138a:0097


$ git clone https://github.com/hrenod/libfprint
$ cd libfprint 
$ ./autogen.sh
$ make
$ sudo make install

Register fingerprint again with fprind using fprint-enroll



$ fprintd-enroll your_username

Example:


username@ubuntu:~$ fprintd-enroll congtt
Using device /net/reactivated/Fprint/Device/0
Enrolling right-index-finger finger.
Enroll result: enroll-completed

Remember using same finger as previous step

Verify by fprintd-verify, example:


username@ubuntu:~$ fprintd-verify 
Using device /net/reactivated/Fprint/Device/0
Listing enrolled fingers:
- #0: right-index-finger
Verify result: verify-match (done)

Edit PAM configuration files:

Note: backup original version before you make any changes.


/etc/pam.d/sudo, /etc/pam.d/su & /etc/pam.d/login: add the following line at top of each files


auth sufficient pam_fprintd.so

/etc/pam.d/common-auth:


auth [success=2 default=ignore] pam_fprintd.so max_tries=3 timeout=30 # debug
auth [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so nullok_secure try_first_pass
auth requisite pam_deny.so
auth required pam_permit.so

Remember to enable Fingerprint Login in Account Setting.


Next time you start your laptop, you will have the screen like my first image.

Known problem

  • Fingerprint still can not bypass gnome-keyring:

Issues at: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-keyring/issues/1. Gnome-keyring is a “collection of components in GNOME that store secrets, passwords, keys, certificates and make them available to applications”. After successful login or su, you still have to enter gnome-keyring password to unlock some applications. Workaround is setting gnome-keyring as blank.

  • Sometime Gnome fails to display after successful authentication:

You will stuck at a blank screen after input your fingerprint. Don’t worry, just open another console using Alt+F1, Alt+F2,… (one of them). Then, login, install ubuntu-gnome-desktop (apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop) again to install missing dependencies. Next time, you may login normally.

Source

Many thanks for our MVPs:

  • https://github.com/nmikhailov/Validity90/

  • https://github.com/3v1n0/libfprint

  • https://github.com/hrenod/libfprint


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