Fingerprint Authentication with Ubuntu 24.04 on my HP Envy Notebook

Johannes Kinzig
Linux
My HP Envy Notebook keyboard with integrated fingerprint reader

Recently, I wanted to enable fingerprint authentication on my HP Envy notebook running Ubuntu 24.04. LTS. It was quite an exhaustive process, as I spent a good amount of time digging through documentation and forums. This post is intended as a detailed record for myself (and anyone else who might be struggling with the same issue).

The Challenge

I have the following fingerprint sensor in my HP envy notebook: 0c4c Elan Microelectronics Corp. ELAN: ARM-M4 – revealed using sudo lsusb

lsusb shows the integrated fingerprint scanner device type

Many HP Envy notebooks (and notebooks from other manufacturers) use this ELAN fingerprint sensor which is not supported by the stock libfprint version shipped with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (at least at the time of writing).

The solution is to build and install a modified libfprint fork that contains support for this sensor.

Resources – Where I Found the Answers

Before diving into the technical steps, here are the resources that proved invaluable:

A big thanks goes to https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/depau for adding support to libfprint for the 0c4c sensor and to https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/bugaevm who described how to build it from source under Fedora.

Installation & Configuration Steps

Let’s walk through the process step-by-step:

1. Install Dependencies

sudo apt-get install meson glib-2.0 libgusb-dev libgirepository1.0-dev libcairo-dev libpixman-1-dev cmake libnss3-dev libgudev-1.0-dev gtk-doc-tools gdb valgrind git openssl libssl-dev

This installs all the necessary build tools and libraries. Check any errors during this step – they might indicate missing dependencies on your system.

2. Clone the libfprint Repository

git clone https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/depau/libfprint.git
cd libfprint

3. Switch to the Elan Branch

git switch elanmoc2
git fetch && git pull

This ensures you’re using the correct branch for your sensor.

4. Compile and Install libfprint

meson setup builddir && cd builddir
meson compile
meson test
sudo meson install

This compiles the libfprint library and installs it to your system.

5. Update ldconfig

sudo echo '/usr/local/lib/' >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf
sudo ldconfig

This step is crucial to ensure that the linker can find the newly installed libfprint libraries.

6. Restart fprintd Service

sudo systemctl restart fprintd.service

Restarting the service forces it to use the new libfprint installation.

7. Finger Enrollment

fprintd-enroll $USER

This initiates the fingerprint enrollment process. Follow the prompts to scan your finger(s). You can also use GNOME settings (if available) to manage fingerprint enrollment: Open Settings → Users → Fingerprint Login and enroll one or more fingers.

Fingerprint scanner now successfully recognized by the system

8. Configure PAM Authentication

sudo pam-auth-update
Enable fingerprint as authentication method in PAM

This is the final step to enable fingerprint authentication on your system for your user account. In the PAM configuration, select fingerprint as one of the authentication methods.

PAM stands for Pluggable Authentication Modules. In this case, we’re using it to allow our Ubuntu system to recognize and use the fingerprint sensor for authentication. PAM is a flexible framework that lets you configure how users are authenticated – essentially, it tells your system to accept fingerprint logins alongside traditional passwords. E.g. try typing sudo in your terminal before and after enabling fingerprint in PAM. After enabling it, you don’t need to type your password, you can use your fingerprint instead.

Now `sudo` first asks for your fingerprint instead of password

Troubleshooting & Considerations

  • Sensor Detection: If sudo lsusb doesn’t show your sensor, double-check that the sensor is enabled in your BIOS/UEFI settings.
  • Finger Enrollment: In case your fingerprint sensor is detected but finger enrollment fails, try erasing the fingerprint storage in your BIOS/UEFI.

Final Notes

Setting up fingerprint authentication on my HP Envy notebook with libfprint requires a bit of effort, but it’s definitely achievable. Caution: This approach overrides Ubuntu’s default libfprint, so future system updates may break fingerprint support. If something stops working after an update, rebuilding libfprint is a good first step.