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I have a Dell Vostro 3550 laptop.

Fingerprint Reader: Validity Sensors, Inc. VFS5011 Fingerprint Reader (USB-id: 138a:0011) I have searched, but I couldn't get this driver for Linux.

I have fingerprint GUI and fprint-demo software, both of which say no device found.

Is there any way I can install the driver and make use of the fingerprint reader?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I had the same issue and this worked for me:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fingerprint/fingerprint-gui
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libbsapi policykit-1-fingerprint-gui fingerprint-gui

This works for many fingerprint readers including 138a:0011 and 138a:0018 as well.

from “Fingerprint readers integration” team on launchpad

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  • 1
    Works great in a ThinkPad E470, which has the same 138a:0011 fingerprint reader. Thanks!
    – isalgueiro
    Mar 12, 2017 at 16:47
  • can it also be done in synaptic package manager ?
    – sassy.geek
    Aug 24, 2018 at 2:42
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You can make it work with the help of the FPrint Project. The FPrint project is not very active, and not many new drivers are being developed at the moment. Fortunately for us (I have a Vostro 3550 too), work has started on Validity VFS5011 and there is an EXPERIMENTAL driver available.

  1. This is an article on how to install the required software from PPA:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/03/how-to-get-your-fingerprint-reader-working-in-ubuntu

  1. And this is the bug report where you will find info about how to install the required "EXPERIMENTAL" driver for this particular finger print reader (Validity VFS5011 ID 138a:0011):

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libfprint/+bug/790183

Hope it helps 8-)

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  • hi while installing the experimental driver after opening fprint_vfs5011-master unzipped folder I couldnt configure ./configure since it says there is no such file or folder. I'm stuck here what shall I do.
    – sushil
    Oct 31, 2013 at 8:02
  • @sushil 1. you need to run ./autogen.sh first, and then ./configure 2. After that you would have to sudo apt-get install libxv-dev 3. and then go into libfprint/Makefile.am and change the line fprint_list_udev_rules_LDADD = $(builddir)/libfprint.la to fprint_list_udev_rules_LDADD = $(builddir)/libfprint.la $(GLIB_LIBS) like this patch. I got the solution from this github page It compiles for me, but then I can't figure out where to go from there.. Fingerprint-gui still cant
    – Debanjan Basu
    Jun 8, 2014 at 15:04

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