Validity fingerprint readers are present in a lot of business laptops. Dell Vostro series (3350, 3500) uses the Validity fingerprint readers. Until recently, 138a:0008 Validity Sensors, Inc. VFS300 Fingerprint Reader was not recognized by Ubuntu. A few improvements to the ongoing driver development has now made it possible to enable fingerprint reading for laptops using the VFS300 hardware.
Please note:
i. Before you install this, please remove the fingerprint-gui ppa
sudo ppa-purge ppa:fingerprint/fingerprint-gui
ii. This has only been tested on amd64 system. We are awaiting packages for 32bit systems
iii. The program is still under development, so expect a few crashes and error reports
To install the driver for the fingerprint reader, follow the instructions below:
1. Add this PPA to your sources:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fingerprint/fprint
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fingerprint/fprint
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
2. Download the libfprint package and Install the software packages:
sudo apt-get install libfprint0 fprint-demo libpam-fprintd gksu-polkit
sudo dpkg -i libfprint0_0.4.0+git20120202-0ppa1~precise2_amd64.deb
3. Log out and then log back in
3. Log out and then log back in
4. Open “Users and Accounts” and then click fingerprint to register your fingerprint
See the screenshots below on how to register your fingerprint.
See the screenshots below on how to register your fingerprint.
Thanks to Ochir for the instructions and package
Is there an update for 32bit systems?
I'm running Vostro 3350 with a fingertip reader ID 138a:0011.
Thanks for any tip.
Hi! Thanks for this. Should the installation procedure be same for kubuntu as well?
KDE SC users: The above instructions for GNOME users apply to you as well, just replace “policykit-1-gnome” by “polkit-kde-1” throughout the text.
Hi, great walkthrough. I use Backtrack5 R3 and have installed all of the base Ubuntu packages but I do not see a "Users and Accounts" option. Is there another user manager package I can use to enable biometric authentication?
install gnome-system-tools from synaptic or via commandline
It stucks at "Opening device…" when I try running fprint-demo. Did anyone get the same error?
I have only one try and there is also time limited. Is is possible to swipe finger more than one and extend the time limit?
thanks it's works perfect in ubuntu 12.04 64bits dell vostro 3750 😀
Hi there, I've gladly come across this page and did everyting as described – I have 12.04 64 bit here on a dell vostro 1220, don't know, what kind of sensor though…everything installs fine, I can register fingerprint too and it says ok, you should be able to login with finger…
PROBLEM: I can't login…tried 50 times reregistering fingers and login out an in – it does not let me log in – it always says:"swipe again" ending up in manual password login in…
Any Ideas??? :-/
Hi there, I've gladly come across this page and did everyting as described – I have 12.04 64 bit here on a dell vostro 1220, don't know, what kind of sensor though…everything installs fine, I can register fingerprint too and it says ok, you should be able to login with finger…
PROBLEM: I can't login…tried 50 times reregistering fingers and login out an in – it does not let me log in – it always says:"swipe again" ending up in manual password login in…
Any Ideas??? :-/