18.04: ThinkPad p50 Fingerprint Scanner not working even when recommended answer tried

Question

Installing fprint and fingerprint-gui do not enable the fingerprint scanner on a Lenovo ThinkPad p50 to work with Ubuntu. If there is another linux-based OS that supports this, I would gladly switch to that, but I haven't found any.

The output from lsusb is:

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 138a:0090 Validity Sensors, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04f2:b596 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Valadity Sensors, Inc. is my fingerprint sensor. How do I get it to work in Ubuntu?

https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+driver+138a%3A0090 reveals multiple other folks with the same issue; the first links are right here in Askubuntu — K7AAY, Feb 20 '20 at 16:25
i tried that, but the output was list_devices failed: No devices available — Zany_Zachary1, Feb 20 '20 at 16:27
Multiple answers were shown in the Google link. Was it https://askubuntu.com/questions/756706/install-fingerprint-driver-138a0090-on-ubuntu-16-04-thinkpad-t460s which you tried? — K7AAY, Feb 20 '20 at 17:27
yep, didn't work. when I tried to enroll fingers, output from my last comment happened — Zany_Zachary1, Feb 20 '20 at 17:30

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 21 '20 at 12:52

I had the same problem with my Lenovo P50 and Ubuntu 20.04 ... fixed it combining the following steps from here and here:

sudo apt remove libpam-fprintd
sudo add-apt-repository -u ppa:3v1n0/libfprint-vfs0090
sudo apt install libfprint-2-tod-vfs0090 
sudo apt install libpam-fprintd

Enroll your index finder using:

fprintd-enroll -f "right-index-finger" "$USER"

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 04 '20 at 17:58

0

Okay

So, I went through the steps on the GitHub page (which I didn't know were there in the first place) and It worked fine. I'm sorry for all your troubles.

answered Nov 04 '20 at 17:58

Zany_Zachary1

840

Which GitHub page? Please post the link. Thanks. – xkcd Dec 21 '20 at 12:33
1

Nevermind, found it here – xkcd Dec 21 '20 at 12:44
1

@xkcd thank you really – Motassem Kassab Jun 14 '21 at 11:14
1

@MotassemMK Brother, my answer is the other one, in case you want to upvote :p – xkcd Jun 25 '21 at 00:42

18.04: ThinkPad p50 Fingerprint Scanner not working even when recommended answer tried

2 Answers2

Okay