Fingerprint Reader is detected, but not usable for unlocking

Support
1

  • I would like to use my fingerprint reader, and I am able to enrol it in the gnome setting, however when it comes to actually using it, I get the failed to match fingerprint error.

  • I don’t know whether the problem could be that I am permanently asked to swipe over the reader, when in windows I used to just press the reader, but not swipe over it. I am able to enrol it in both ways (pressing and swiping) but cannot use it to unlock anything in either way.

  • My fingerprint reader is detected if I run lsusb:
    Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f3:0c1a Elan Microelectronics Corp. ELAN:Fingerprint
    and seems to be supported according to the libfprint list of supported devices

  • Here is my System Information:

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.21-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
    root=UUID=e980b863-ca1f-4e22-bb6b-665a19ddff2d rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor resume=UUID=3a5c48ea-fa12-4147-b57e-4dbdb9d07104
    udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: GNOME 41.3 tk: GTK 3.24.31 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM 41.3
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Timi product: TM1701 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Timi model: TM1701 v: MP serial: <superuser required> UEFI: INSYDE
    v: XMAKB5R0P0502 date: 10/13/2017
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 23.1 Wh (55.9%) condition: 41.3/60.0 Wh (68.8%)
    volts: 7.6 min: 7.6 model: SUNWODA R15B01W type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
    status: Discharging
Memory:
  RAM: total: 7.65 GiB used: 4.75 GiB (62.1%)
  RAM Report:
    permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-8550U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Coffee Lake
    family: 6 model-id: 0x8E (142) stepping: 0xA (10) microcode: 0xEA
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB
    L3: 8 MiB desc: 1x8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 701 high: 707 min/max: 400/4000 scaling:
    driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 700 2: 700 3: 707 4: 700
    5: 700 6: 700 7: 702 8: 700 bogomips: 32012
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon
    art avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush clflushopt cmov constant_tsc cpuid
    cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est
    f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht hwp hwp_act_window
    hwp_epp hwp_notify ibpb ibrs ida intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm
    lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe mpx msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae
    pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti
    pts rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2
    sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust
    tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt
    xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf
    mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: spec_store_bypass
    mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional,
    IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Xiaomi driver: i915 v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5917 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP108M [GeForce MX150] vendor: Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro
    driver: nvidia v: 510.47.03 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:1d12 class-ID: 0302
  Device-3: Chicony XiaoMi USB 2.0 Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-6:3 chip-ID: 04f2:b59a class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.21.1.3 compositor: gnome-shell driver:
    loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: nouveau alternate: fbdev,nv,vesa
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.9")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142
    size: 344x194mm (13.5x7.6") diag: 395mm (15.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.3.5
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Xiaomi
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_skl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:9d71 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.21-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.20 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.45 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24fd class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  IF-ID-1: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> scope: global broadcast: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: vpn0 state: up speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A
  IP v4: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: global broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> virtual: stable-privacy scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-5:2 chip-ID: 8087:0a2b class-ID: e001
  Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 4 state: up address: <filter>
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 704.24 GiB used: 304.19 GiB (43.2%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: SanDisk model: Extreme Pro 500GB
    size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 101200RL temp: 44.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 maj-min: 259:4 vendor: Samsung
    model: MZVLW256HEHP-00000 size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: CXB7401Q temp: 25.9 C scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 456.66 GiB size: 448.5 GiB (98.21%)
    used: 303.55 GiB (67.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
    label: N/A uuid: e980b863-ca1f-4e22-bb6b-665a19ddff2d
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 316 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 label: N/A
    uuid: 592C-3652
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.8 GiB used: 658.5 MiB (7.3%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 label: N/A
    uuid: 3a5c48ea-fa12-4147-b57e-4dbdb9d07104
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/nvme1n1p1 maj-min: 259:5 size: 499 MiB fs: ntfs label: N/A
    uuid: A68E15988E15625B
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1p2 maj-min: 259:6 size: 100 MiB fs: vfat label: N/A
    uuid: A27D-5F71
  ID-3: /dev/nvme1n1p3 maj-min: 259:7 size: 16 MiB fs: <superuser required>
    label: N/A uuid: N/A
  ID-4: /dev/nvme1n1p4 maj-min: 259:8 size: 237.87 GiB fs: ntfs label: N/A
    uuid: 40AE7F22AE7F0FA0
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-5:2 info: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: Bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 8087:0a2b class-ID: e001
  Device-2: 1-6:3 info: Chicony XiaoMi USB 2.0 Webcam type: Video
    driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA
    chip-ID: 04f2:b59a class-ID: 0e02
  Device-3: 1-7:4 info: Realtek RTS5129 Card Reader Controller
    type: <vendor specific> driver: rtsx_usb,rtsx_usb_ms,rtsx_usb_sdmmc
    interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 0bda:0129
    class-ID: ff00 serial: <filter>
  Device-4: 1-8:5 info: Elan Micro ELAN:Fingerprint type: <vendor specific>
    driver: N/A interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 04f3:0c1a class-ID: 0000
  Device-5: 1-9:6 info: Areson Corp 2.4G Receiver type: Keyboard,Mouse
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
    power: 100mA chip-ID: 25a7:fa23 class-ID: 0301
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 6 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0 C pch: 34.5 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 318 Uptime: 4h 52m wakeups: 11 Init: systemd v: 250
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 clang: 13.0.1 Packages: 2272
  pacman: 2194 lib: 515 flatpak: 59 snap: 19 Shell: fish v: 3.3.1 default: Zsh
  v: 5.8 running-in: gjs inxi: 3.3.12

Any ideas on what to do?

2

Unfortunately, libfprint’s interpretation of “supported” doesn’t mean “tested to be working correctly for both enrolling and verification”, but simply “we can detect it”. ELAN makes a long list of fingerprint devices, and only a handful of them actually works with libfprint, yours might not be in the list. I also have 2 others in the supported list that can only enroll, but verification totally fails. Debugged, the enrolled image is far from what looks like a proper fingerprint image.

You might want to file an issue to ensure they’re aware of your device problem:

1 Like
3

Hi @Gandalfos , also worth going through this page :
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fprint
So you would be using the command line, more than the Gnome UI. which will be a bit more precise.
for any issues, it is good practice to post the outputs of :

journalctl -r -u fprintd.service
systemctl status fprintd

Good luck.

4

For me, enrolling one finger multiple times (like 10 times) reduced the problem but never solved it. It still fails 50% of times.