With the ThinkFinger driver, openSUSE supports the fingerprint reader by UPEK/SGS Thomson Microelectronics included with some IBM and Lenovo ThinkPads. The same fingerprint reader can also be found in other laptops and either as a stand-alone device or built into some USB keyboards. For more details, refer to http://thinkfinger.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/*checkout*/thinkfinger/README.in. After registering their fingerprint, users can log in to the system either by swiping a finger on the fingerprint reader or by typing in a password.
If the hardware check detects the fingerprint reader integrated with your
laptop (or connected to your system), the packages
libthinkfinger
and
pam_thinkfinger
are
automatically installed. Use the command line tool
tf-tool to register or verify a fingerprint for
various users. root
permission
is required for this. The PAM module pam_thinkfinger
supports user authentication by fingerprint for the following
applications and actions (although you might not be prompted to swipe
your finger in all cases):
Logging in to GDM or a login shell
Unlocking your screen on the GNOME desktop
Starting YaST and the YaST modules in the GNOME control center
Starting an application with
root
permission:
sudo or gnomesu
Changing to a different user identity with su or
su -
username
Fingerprints can either be registered with YaST or from the command line. This section contains instructions on registering fingerprints from the command line. Currently, only one fingerprint per user can be registered.
For more detailed information about configuring and using fingerprint authentication, see http://en.opensuse.org/Using_Fingerprint_Authentication.
Open a shell and log in as
root
.
Run tf-tool --help
to view the
available options.
To register a fingerprint for a certain user, enter
tf-tool--add-user
login
tf-tool prompts the user to swipe a finger until
three readable fingerprints have been gathered. The user's fingerprint
data is then stored to
/etc/pam_thinkfinger/
.
login
.bir
If you want to use fingerprint authentication for starting YaST or
the YaST modules in the GNOME control center, register a fingerprint
for root
, too.
To verify an existing fingerprint for a certain user, enter
tf-tool--verify-user
login
Let the user swipe a finger. tf-tool compares the fingerprint to the print stored for this user and provides a message if the fingerprints match.
As soon as the user's fingerprint has been successfully registered, the user can choose to authenticate with either fingerprint or password.
To remove a user's fingerprint, delete the appropriate fingerprint file
for this user:
/etc/pam_thinkfinger/
.
login
.bir
With tf-tool --acquire
you can do a
test run with tf-tool. The fingerprint is stored as
/tmp/test.bir
and can be verified with
tf-tool --verify
.
Find the project home page at http://thinkfinger.sourceforge.net/
For more technical details, refer to
/usr/share/doc/packages/libthinkfinger/README
in
your installed system.
There are also man pages available for pam_thinkfinger and tf-tool.