ft9366-fingerprint

Open-source fingerprint driver for the FocalTech FT9366 reader (USB 2808:a658, behind a Realtek RTS5811 bridge), as found in several laptops. Works with fprintd, so you get fprintd-enroll, fprintd-verify, and fingerprint login/sudo. Packaged for NixOS.

Install (NixOS with flakes)

# flake.nix
inputs.ft9366.url = "github:ilyamiro/ft9366-fingerprint";

# in your nixosSystem modules:
ft9366.nixosModules.default

Install (NixOS without flakes)

# configuration.nix
imports = [ /path/to/ft9366-fingerprint/driver/nixos-ft9366.nix ];

Then:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch
fprintd-enroll      # press the same finger 12 times, a bit differently each time
fprintd-verify

Optional login / sudo: security.pam.services.sudo.fprintAuth = true; (keep your password as a fallback).

What to expect

The sensor is tiny (3x4 mm). On the author's fingers roughly half to two thirds of genuine touches match on the first try, and other fingers were rejected in every test. Press flat and firmly, cover the whole sensor, and retry on a miss. Thresholds were tuned on one person's fingers; please report how it works for you. See docs/HOW_IT_WORKS.md.

Try it without installing

cd driver && nix-build -E 'with import <nixpkgs> {}; callPackage ./libfprint-ft9366.nix {}' -o result
cd ../test && ./build_test.sh && ./run_driver_test.sh 8   # stop fprintd first

About this implementation

This is an independent implementation. It was written from observation of the reader's USB traffic and standard, published image-matching techniques. It contains no vendor source code, no vendor binaries, and no vendor tables or trained data. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by FocalTech or Realtek.

Licence

LGPL-2.1-or-later (same as libfprint).