I’m running Fedora Workstation 37 on a Lenovo Yoga 370 and I’ve been hoping to be able to use the fingerprint reader. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work, and I don’t see it as an option under settings although BIOS shows that it is enabled.
I’m wondering if there is a universal library or drivers or dependencies that one could install and get the fingerprint working.
Has anyone encountered this before? Did they resolve it? How? Moreover, I will appreciate if anyone could give a solution or an idea that will lead to resolving this issue, please.
Nobody has reported on that model at https://linux-hardware.org. If you identify the fingerprint hardware you can search the Find Parts section to see what experiences other linux users have had with the same fingerprint reader.
Most of the hardware works out-of-the-box, the exception are Bluetooth, fingerprint reader, accelerometer and ambient light sensor. Installpython-validityAUR (or python-validity-gitAUR). Start/enablepython3-validity.service after installing package.
Some distros provide fingerprint-gui. The github repository has a list of supported devices, but has not been updated in several years. Some software insists on password authentication, which can be done by providing the fingerprint reader with passwords, but this is poor practice from a security standpoint, so many experienced linux users avoid using fingerprint readers.
There are now FIDO2 keys with fingerprint readers which might provide a more secure option.
Indeed, I have tried the python validity method as found on github and enabling the service occurs with an error. I have also tried a solution that was added to a guide for Fedora 37, recommended for Framework laptops, which creates a frpintd.service file.
On the safety of a fingerprint reader: I would have thought that it would be preferred as a biometric authentication method and therefore safe to have/use.
Thank you for recommending the Linux-hardware website. I’m creating a probe.