FTEXX00-Ubuntu

Important

ubuntu_spi has been taken down following a DMCA notice. The takedown was issued because ftfpteams did not disclose the source code for the libfprint package.

installspi.sh and installlib.sh are bash scripts to install the SPI module and the proprietary libfprint driver for FTE3600, FTE4800, FTE6600 and FTE6900 fingerprint readers on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (officially supported) and other Debian-based distros.

Debian bookworm and below are not supported. See troubleshooting for Debian trixie specific fixes.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Installation
• Troubleshooting
• Updating and Uninstalling
• Questions
• Copying

Introduction

installspi.sh

installspi.sh installs the SPI module as DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) to preserve the module across kernel upgrades. The following changes are made to install the module properly:

• The script determines your kernel version. If it's 6.12 or higher, it renames the header from asm/unaligned.h to linux/unaligned.h in focal_spi.c to compile the driver without fatal exception error.
• The script updates Makefile by modifying KERNEL_VERSION := and KERNELDIR := by changing : to ? to allow being rebuilt after kernel upgrades.

installlib.sh

installlib.sh unpacks, modifies, repacks, and installs the latest libfprint package. These modifications are made because the official package has several issues:

• The official package attempts to overwrite fprintd.service in /usr/lib/systemd/system directory. A package overwriting another packages' file(s) are discouraged since it'll cause several problems.
  • To fix this, the script deletes the conflicting file and adds override.conf which includes the changes from fprintd.service to /debdir/etc/systemd/system/fprintd.service.d directory. This is the recommended way to add override configurations by systemd.
• The official package contains wrong md5sums. If the md5sums inside a Debian package is wrong, the package manager might detect a checksum mismatch and refuse to install the package.
  • To fix this, the scripts updates md5sums to ensure integrity checks pass.

alt/focal_spi.c (optional)

alt/focal_spi.c is an alternative code for the SPI module, sent by @ctfdavis due to some devices give init sensor error! when the official code is used. See troubleshooting if you see init sensor error! after the installation.

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/vobademi/FTEXX00-Ubuntu.git

2. Copy libfprint-2-2_1.94.4+tod1-0ubuntu1~22.04.2_spi_20250112_amd64.deb into the repository's root directory. (?)
   The directory tree should look like this:

./FTEXX00-Ubuntu
├── alt
│   └── focal_spi.c
├── COPYING
├── focal_spi.c
├── installlib.sh
├── installspi.sh
├── libfprint-2-2_1.94.4+tod1-0ubuntu1~22.04.2_spi_20250112_amd64.deb
├── Makefile
└── README.md

3. Make the scripts executable:

chmod +x installlib.sh installspi.sh

4. Install the SPI Module:

./installspi.sh

5. Configure for UEFI Secure Boot (Skip to step 6 if Secure Boot disabled):

Tip

This step is for initial installation only. If you're updating, you can skip this section.

If you have Secure Boot enabled on your PC, you might see this line after running installspi.sh:

modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'focal_spi': Key was rejected by service

This means that you need to enroll a signing key to make the module trusted by Secure Boot. You will see the prompt Configuring Secure Boot for the first time:

i. Select Ok. Enter a password for Secure Boot.

Tip

If you didn't see the prompt Configuring Secure Boot, you can enter:

sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der

and choose a password.

ii. Reboot. Upon system reboot, you will be greeted with Shin UEFI key management. Press any key to perform MOK management.

iii. Choose Enroll MOK, Continue, Yes and enter the password you've chosen earlier. Finally, Reboot.

6. Install libfprint:

./installlib.sh

7. When you see the prompt PAM configuration, make sure Fingerprint authentication is ticked, and select Ok. You can press Tab key to go below.

8. GNOME and GDM have native support for fprint, so you don't need additional configuration on Ubuntu. Go to Settings > System > Users > Fingerprint Login and enroll your fingerprint.
   If you are using a distro that uses SDDM such as Kubuntu, visit SDDM#Using_a_fingerprint_reader.

Troubleshooting

I get init sensor error! after installation

This was reported on some machines.

Tip

focal_spi.c can be unified but I need feedback. You can try this and let me know if it works.

1. Uninstall the SPI module (See updating and uninstalling).

2. Copy focal_spi.c from ./alt to the root directory (overwrite the original one).

3. Re-run installspi.sh.

Debian trixie specific fixes

1. Enrolling MOK key for UEFI Secure Boot

Using sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der will not work because Debian doesn't store MOK keys in /var/lib/shim-signed/mok.

1. Manually generate MOK key:

sudo dkms generate_mok

2. Enroll it:

sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub

3. Choose a password.

4. Reboot. Upon system reboot, you will be greeted with Shin UEFI key management. Press any key to perform MOK management.

5. Choose Enroll MOK, Continue, Yes and enter the password you've chosen earlier. Finally, Reboot.

2. Fixing package conflicts

fprintd (1.94.5-2) in trixie packages conflicts due to it expects libfprint-2-2 (>= 1:1.94.9). The compatible fprintd packages can be installed from launchpad.

fprintd 1.94.3-1: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/723052793/fprintd_1.94.3-1_amd64.deb
fprintd-doc 1.94.3-1: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/723052789/fprintd-doc_1.94.3-1_all.deb
libpam-fprintd 1.94.3-1: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/723052795/libpam-fprintd_1.94.3-1_amd64.deb

1. Install the packages:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite fprintd_1.94.3-1_amd64.deb fprintd-doc_1.94.3-1_all.deb libpam-fprintd_1.94.3-1_amd64.deb

2. Hold the packages to prevent them from being overwritten by apt:

sudo apt-mark hold fprintd fprintd-doc libpam-fprintd

Updating and Uninstalling

To update, uninstall and reinstall. If only one of them received an update, you don't have to uninstall the one that didn't receive an update.

Uninstall the SPI module

1. Gain root privileges:

sudo su

2. Stop fprintd service:

systemctl stop fprintd.service

3. Unload the module:

modprobe -r focal_spi

4. Remove from DKMS:

version_spi=$(dkms status | grep focaltech-spi-dkms \
| sed -E 's/^[^/]+\/([^,]+).*/\1/' | tr -cd '0-9.') \
&& sudo dkms remove -m focaltech-spi-dkms -v "$version_spi" --all

5. Remove source directory:

rm -rf /usr/src/focaltech-spi-dkms-*

6. Start fprintd service (for updating):

systemctl start fprintd.service

Uninstall libfprint

1. Uninstall libfprint:

sudo apt remove libfprint-2-2

2. Remove the hold to allow updates from official upstream (for uninstalling only):

sudo apt-mark unhold libfprint-2-2

Questions

Why didn't you fork ubuntu_spi repository, publish the scripts alongside, or modify the files and serve them to us?

Since ftfpteams did not add a license to their repository, their libfprint package appears to be proprietary. Distributing or modifying their software without permission could potentially violate copyright law.
ftfpteams did not disclose the source code for the libfprint package, which is a violation of the LGPL copyright.

Copying

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