Get Validity VFS 495 FingerPrint Reader working on Ubuntu 16.04

This tutorial is based on Pasquale Fiorillo’s and Denys (frasinich)’s posts.

I’ve modified the libfprint-validity patch file to add support for the VFS 495 (138a:003f) device and put all the required packages into a single archive.

Download vfs495.tar containing all the required files.

Install proprietary Validity driver

tar xf vfs495.tar
cd vfs495
sudo apt-get install alien
sudo alien Validity-Sensor-Setup-4.5-118.00.x86_64.rpm
sudo dpkg -i validity-sensor-setup_4.5-119_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install libssl1.0.0
sudo ln /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libssl.so /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8
sudo apt-get install libcrypto++-dev
sudo ln /usr/lib/libcryptopp.so.9 /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8

Compile and install libfprint
mkdir libfprint
cd libfprint
rpm2cpio ../libfprint-0.0.6-18.20.1.src.rpm | cpio -i --make-directories
tar xf libfprint-0.0.6.tar.bz2
cp ../libfprint-validity.patch ./libfprint-validity.patch
cd libfprint-0.0.6/
patch -p1 < ../libfprint-validity.patch
sudo apt-get install libusb-dev libcrypto++-dev libssl-dev libglib2.0-dev libmagickcore-dev checkinstall
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo checkinstall -install=no make install
sudo dpkg -i libfprint_0.0.6-1_amd64.deb

Compile and install fprint_demo
cd ../..
sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev
tar xf fprint_demo-0.4.tar.bz2
cd fprint_demo-0.4
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo checkinstall -install=no make install
sudo dpkg -i fprint-demo_0.4-1_amd64.deb

Enroll a finger
sudo /etc/init.d/vcsFPServiceDaemon start
sudo fprint_demo


Enroll your right index finger.
If you prefer console, use this command:
sudo pam_fprint_enroll

Compile and install pam_fprint
cd ..
tar xf pam_fprint-0.2.tar.bz2
cd pam_fprint-0.2/
sudo apt-get install libpam-dev
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo checkinstall -install=no make install
sudo dpkg -i pam-fprint_0.2-1_amd64.deb

Enable fingerprint authentication
sudo nano /etc/pam.d/common-auth

Change the first auth line to auth sufficient.
Add a new auth line with the following content:
# fingerprint authentication trough fprintd
auth    sufficient                      pam_fprint.so

Save and exit.

Overwrite init script
cd ..
sudo cp vcsFPServiceDaemon /etc/init.d/

Configure service to run at startup
sudo update-rc.d vcsFPServiceDaemon defaults

Test fingerprint authentication

Restart your computer
At the greeting screen press enter
Scan your right index finger
You should see a Scan right index finger on Validity Sensors message appear
Press enter

If you’ve screwed something up in common-auth you won’t be able to log in. In that case, follow these steps:
Reboot into recovery mode
mount -o rw,remount /
sudo nano /etc/pam.d/common-auth

Make corrections to the file, save and reboot.
Links to the used packages/sources:

libfprint-0.0.6-18.20.1.src.rpm
Validity-Sensor-Setup-4.5-118.00.x86_64.rpm (HP support page)
fprint_demo-0.4.tar.bz2
pam_fprint-0.2.tar.bz2