Thinkpads Forum

I am trying to enable fingerprint login on Arch x64. I am using Slim (with autologin) and xscreensaver.

My system logs in automatically (SLIM, not GDM) and then immediately lock the screen with xscreensaver, so what I want is to be able to unlock the xscreensaver by swiping my finger over the reader.

Which implementation would be best?

Have you tried this?
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_en ... creensaver

No, because I first need to know which method is better. There are howtos for both.

So is ThinkFinger the better solution?

Lockheed wrote:So is ThinkFinger the better solution?

Of course! Why do you even have any doubts in this regard!? While i never bothered trying to configure the fingerprint reader, and actually have simply turned it off via the BIOS, there is absolutely no doubt about it. Or is there? Well, then try the other solution and better decide for yourself.
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[ Please note: Never ever trust anybody saying that anything is better without verifying by yourself. Any idiot can tell you what would like to hear, but why not find out yourself? It's easy! You got the documentation, and if you would have tried to configure this thing during the days while waiting for an answer, you would already had found out the answer to your question yourself. This is Linux land, and real men just do it and don't need their mama to tell them first what is right. As written above, i never bothered about the FP reader, and therefore have no real answer other than "Just do it and find out!". Good luck! ]

Yeah, except for the last 6 months I did not find time to try even one solution, let alone both. Therefore, when I start the always-painful linux configuration process I want to know I am doing it on the right piece of software.

I am not asking whether some people like vanilla or chocolate more but whether or not one of them has technical shortcomings or has been long discontinued and surpassed by the other.

Your question is indeed valid, of course, since i do believe thinkfinger is not quite up to date and fprint seems to me to be surpassed by a third possibility, Fingerprint GUI:

http://www.n-view.net/Appliance/fingerprint/

This is what I use myself, T43 and T61 running Ubuntu Natty, it actually really works and does not take hours or days to set up, on my machines it was fast and sweet. I still have to use password to unlock some keyring in Ubuntu, but for unlocking the screen and for sudo it works perfectly.

Tron aka elchund

Elchund wrote:Your question is indeed valid, of course, since i do believe thinkfinger is not quite up to date and fprint seems to me to be surpassed by a third possibility, Fingerprint GUI:

http://www.n-view.net/Appliance/fingerprint/

This is what I use myself, T43 and T61 running Ubuntu Natty, it actually really works and does not take hours or days to set up, on my machines it was fast and sweet. I still have to use password to unlock some keyring in Ubuntu, but for unlocking the screen and for sudo it works perfectly.

Tron aka elchund

I have it installed. The problem is, I am not using ubuntu but Arch and instead of gnome-screensaver I have xscreensaver. There is no how-to for this combination on the site and if I try to follow the one they have on the web site, I get stuck on
Edit the file /etc/pam.d/common-auth
I have pam installed, and I do have this folder, but such file doesn't exist.

Thats frustrating, reminds why I have an unfinished Arch install on an old hdd somewhere.

I have PM`ed you the contents of my /common-auth from my R60, but I do not know if you can use it to get any further, I am only starting to learn how it all works in Linux (slow middle-aged brain..)

Tron