rust-fp

A better fingerprint library than libfprint

Why

• libfprint does not support Chromebook fingerprint readers
• libfprint seems to not support fingerprint readers with their own built-in matching
• libfprint is written in C, not Rust
• libfprint is hard to use

Goals

• Support enrolling fingerprints through a GUI and CLI
• Support authenticating with fingerprints with PAM
• Be easy to develop new drivers, even if you just have 1 test device and it's the same device that you're using to code
• Support Chromebook fingerprint sensors
• Be modular and easy to use in non-Linux environments (such as RedoxOS)
• Be easy to set up a development environment to build and edit the code
• Provide high quality auto-complete in code editors
• Be as close to 100% Rust as possible with minimal non-Rust dependencies

Status

Drivers

Currently, rust-fp supports Chromebook fingerprint readers. Other people can add drivers for their own fp sensors.

Integration with desktop environments

Desktop Environment	Status	Comments
KDE Plasma	Working	Works by replacing libfprint PAM module with rust-fp PAM module
GNOME	Not working	Just replacing libfprint PAM module with rust-fp PAM module doesn't work. See #3
COSMIC	Planned	Since COSMIC is written in Rust 🦀, it shouldn't be too hard to add nice support for rust-fp unlock. Maybe even skip PAM entirely and directly add rust-fp integration to COSMIC. Once COSMIC is officially released and I switch to COSMIC, I'll work on this.

If you get this working with another DE, create a PR adding it to the table.

Installation

NixOS

In your flake.nix, add the following input:

rust-fp.url = "github:ChocolateLoverRaj/rust-fp";

Then destructure the input:

{ self, nixpkgs, rust-fp, ... }@inputs:

Then use the default module:

rust-fp.nixosModules.default

Example of using rust-fp on Jinlon

Manually, in normal mutable Linux distros

Get the code

git clone https://github.com/ChocolateLoverRaj/rust-fp

Install Rust 🦀

Install the build dependency package

With Nix

Even if you're not on NixOS, you can probably install Nix on any distro and just get everything you need with nix develop.

Without Nix

Or you can find the packages that your distribution provides and install them with your other package manager. You probably need pam, and maybe clang.

Build everything

Run

cargo b --release

That should build everything. If you are testing changes to the code, then just run cargo b to build in debug mode.

Install D-Bus config

sudo cp dbus-interface/org.rust_fp.RustFp.conf /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d

Install rust-fp-dbus-interface

sudo cp target/release/rust-fp-dbus-interface /usr/local/bin

Create the systemd service

Create a file /etc/systemd/system/rust-fp-dbus-interface.service:

[Unit]
Description=Gives normal user access to enrolling and matching fingerprints

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/rust-fp-dbus-interface
Type=exec

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

You can start it with

sudo systemctl enable --now rust-fp-dbus-interface

Configure KDE fingerprint PAM

Copy the PAM module to the location where PAM modules belong

sudo cp target/release/librust_fp_pam_module.so /lib64/security

Depending on the distro, the folder might be /lib or /lib64. On Fedora it's /lib64.

Create / modify the file /etc/pam.d/kde-fingerprint:

auth    sufficient    librust_fp_pam_module.so
account sufficient    librust_fp_pam_module.so

Install the CLI

sudo cp target/release/rust-fp /usr/local/bin

Usage

All you really need to do is enroll some fingerprints with the rust-fp CLI. Depending on your Chromebook, you will a maximum number of templates that can be loaded onto the fingerprint sensor at a time. It's probably 5. Just typing rust-fp will show the help page. Run rust-fp enroll to enroll your fingerprints. Then lock the screen and you should be able to unlock with either your password or an enrolled fingerprint.

Troubleshooting

• See the list of known issues.
• Try restart the systemd service
• Try clearing stored templates with rust-fp clear and then enrolling new ones.