This guide will show you how to enable fingerprint scanning on Archlinux using fprintd. Firstly run Appimage to clear the current fingerprint device and make sure we don’t get errors later.

After this install the fprintd package

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pacman -Syu fprintd

Then go ahead and enroll your fingerprint

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fprintd-enroll

This will allow you to enroll the right index finger, to do other fingers do.

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fprintd-enroll -f left-thumb/left-middle-finger

And just replace the finger with the finger you want to enroll.

Now if you want to make sudo use it you want to edit /etc/pam.d/sudo to include the below snippet at the top

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auth        sufficient      pam_fprintd.so

Now for swaylock we want to use a diffrent combo because we still want to allow password entry, as the above will only allow password entry after 3 failed attempts at finger auth. Please add the below snippet to the top.

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auth sufficient pam_unix.so try_first_pass likeauth 
nullok
auth sufficient pam_fprintd.so

To use fingerprint authentication with SDDM add the below snippet, you can also find the explanation on the Arch Wiki.

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auth [success=1 new_authtok_reqd=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so try_first_pass likeauth 
nullok
auth sufficient pam_fprintd.so