Finger print auth

[ubrew]

Since upgrading from Mint 19.1 Cinnamon to Mint 21.1 Cinnamon, the authentication process using either fingerprint or password has changed, and it's less than satisfactory. Now, Mint prompts me to swipe my finger on the reader without providing the simultaneous option to enter the password via the keyboard. As a result, I must wait approximately ten seconds for the fingerprint recognition timeout to occur.
I primarily use my laptop on a dock, keeping it closed most of the time. Consequently, every time a password prompt appears, I have to open the laptop or wait for the 10-second timeout. In Mint 19, it was possible to enter the password or swipe the finger on the reader concurrently, which was a much smarter approach.

Thanks

[ubrew]

It appears that LightDM is not handling authentication properly. I've read that there are no issues with GDM. Any thoughts on a different LightDM setup?

Is it possible to install GDM instead of LightDM on my Mint 21.1 Cinnamon without any problems?

Thanks

[Hoser Rob]

Please provide links, I don't really believe that GDM will reliabkly do that whereas LDM won't. Frankly the amount of rubbish information on the web is just staggering. And I wouldn't install gdm, you're more likely to create new problems than solve this.

FP authentication in Linux is a bucket of worms. Solutions are hard to find and don't keep working very well. The issue is that the mfrs of those FP reading units just don't support Linux very well since they refuse to open source their code.

I'll put it this way. Some laptops come with preinstalled Linux, and some of them have FP readers. And the FP readers don't even work in those.

My main laptop has an FP reader and just MX Linux. My solution was to go into the BIOS menu and just disable the FP reader.

I'm also quite aware that some Linux users refuse to hear this.

[ubrew]

Thank you for getting back to me.
In the end, it's not a big deal

My laptop is a Thinkpad T440S, and fprint worked fine on Mint 19.1. However, on version 21.1, the device still works very well, but LightDM manages it differently. Therefore, the solution is to avoid using fprint and stick with the password option.

I thought it could be a simple thing to fix via LightDM settings, I must say that, considering that fprint works well on my laptop at least, it's a pity that LightDM doesn't manage it as smoothly on version 21.1. Nonetheless, I hope this information helps to address the issue.