Install Fingerprint Reader on Linux Mint 22 for ThinkPad x270

Yeah I love Datacenter Topics in general, but I also have other Technology Projects such as my “ThiccPad” x270 which I recently bought. Everybody knows, ThinkPads and Linux OS’s are the best combination for performance, productivity, battery etc. so I have installed Linux Mint on it, especially because of the massive customization options.

In this Post I will describe how to install the Fingerprint Reader Device 138a:0097 of a ThinkPad on Linux Mint 22. First of all lets find out which Fingerprint Device is installed by using the following Command:

lsusb

As I already described above in my Case the Device ID is 138a:0097 but these steps also work for 06cb:009a, 138a:0090 and 138a:009d. Next uninstall the pre-installed libfprint driver:

sudo apt remove fprintd

Then, add the software Developers PPA that contains the new driver packages:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/open-fprintd

Now refresh the package cache after adding PPA and finally, install the driver packages:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install open-fprintd fprintd-clients python3-validity

After successfully installing the new driver, verfiy that the service is running:

systemctl status python3-validity.service

If the service is not running try these commands:

systemctl enable python3-validity.service
systemctl start python3-validity.service

Now its time to configure the finger print reader, while putting your finger on the reader a couple times, you should get the output “Enroll result: enroll-completed“, after couple times:

fprintd-enroll

This is it, now you are able to use the Fingerprint Reader on your ThinkPad. By the way, this tutorial can be used for almost all ThinkPads. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions please leave a comment below. 🙂