How to set up fingerprint authentication on openSuse Tumbleweed and KDE Plasma

3 min read. | 8645 words.

Diego Carrasco G.

2023-01-19 09:00

Context
Check if your fingerprint reader device is supported
Install requirements
Register your fingerprints In KDE
Configure your system (window-manager and KDE lock Screen) to use and allow fingerprint for authentication
- Window Manager
- KDE Lock screen
References

Context

I have an old Toshiba Notebook which has a Fingerprint device and I wanted to use it to authenticate myself in KDE on openSuse. Similar steps should work on GNOME and other Distros. At the end of the article you can find a reference for KDE running on debian-based distros.

Check if your fingerprint reader device is supported

Run lsusb and check for any device with fingerprint.

(ds) daco@toshiba:~> lsusb  
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 8086:0189 Intel Corp. Centrino Advanced-N 6230 Bluetooth adapter  
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub  
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub  
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub  
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub  
Bus 001 Device 020: ID 0930:1314 Toshiba Corp. F5521gw  
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:58f5 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 2SF001  
Bus 001 Device 018: ID 08ff:168b AuthenTec, Inc. Fingerprint Sensor
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub  
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

If you find any, copy the ID (in my case is 08ff:168b) and check if it is supported in https://fprint.freedesktop.org/supported-devices.html

if you find it, then follow the next steps 😃

Install requirements

fprintd and fprintd-pam

Use YaST Software or the following command

sudo zypper install fprintd fprintd-pam

Register your fingerprints In KDE

Configure your system (window-manager and KDE lock Screen) to use and allow fingerprint for authentication

Window Manager

kdesu kate /etc/pam.d/sddm

add the following after #%PAM-1.0

auth    [success=1 new_authtok_reqd=1 default=ignore]   pam_unix.so try_first_pass likeauth nullok
auth    sufficient      pam_fprintd.so

KDE Lock screen

# this will edit or create a file
kdesu kate /etc/pam.d/kde

and add the following

auth            sufficient      pam_unix.so try_first_pass likeauth nullok
auth            sufficient      pam_fprintd.so

and restart sddm

sudo service sddm restart

now you should be able to use your fingerprint to login. Check it out by locking KDE (or press win + l). There should be a message to use fingerprint or password to unlock/ login.

follow: https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Using_fingerprint_authentication