vfs495-fprint 0.1.5 (.deb)

vfs495-fprint 0.1.5 — one-package fingerprint login for the Validity VFS495 (138a:003f)

Install (Debian 13 / Ubuntu-derived, amd64):

sudo apt install ./vfs495-fprint_0.1.5_amd64.deb
fprintd-enroll          # wait ~2 s after each prompt, then swipe the same finger slowly, full length
sudo -k && sudo true    # swipe -> fingerprint login works (password still works as fallback)

What the package does at install time

• Downloads HP's Validity Linux driver (SoftPaq sp84530) straight from HP's server, verifies its checksum, extracts it, and applies the 5-byte gate patch. Nothing proprietary is redistributed here.
• Installs the capture service (vfs495-bridge), the fprintd socket drop-in, the udev rule, and its own PAM profile (3 tries, 30 s) via pam-auth-update.
• Pulls in fprintd, libpam-fprintd, gdb, python3-dbus, python3-gi, gir1.2-fprint-2.0, 7zip as dependencies.

Diagnostics built in

• sudo journalctl -u fprintd | grep score shows the matcher score of every swipe (≥ 40 = match).
• sudo vfs495-match --capture 3 takes three swipes and scores them against your enrolled finger and against each other.
• sudo vfs495-match --enroll /run/vfs495-fprint/test/swipe-*.pgm enrolls from exactly those swipes.
• The bridge is event-driven: idle until fprintd needs a finger, cancelled when it stops, and it rejects tiny scans.

Known limits

• Capture still drives HP's proprietary userspace binary under gdb as root (see README "Limitations").
• The sensor needs ~2 s to arm after a prompt; a swipe made instantly is missed, just swipe again.
• If every swipe comes back as a "tiny scan", the sensor is in its stuck state: shut the laptop down fully and power it on again. A warm reboot does not clear it. Password auth is always a fallback.
• Tested on an HP EliteBook running Debian 13 with fprintd 1.94.

sha256: 390600b67cb718a069ee002c8e0f79597859fc6e39afdbdeba627d9dc1397b03