gnome-screensaver doesn't use fingerprint reader after suspend or hibernate

[Leif Walsh]

Binary package hint: libpam-thinkfinger

After resuming from suspend or hibernate, gnome-screensaver does not recognize the fingerprint scanner as a means of unlocking the screen.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Set up thinkfinger and pam configuration to enable gnome-screensaver to use the fingerprint scanner to unlock the screen.
2. Suspend or hibernate, then resume.

What happens:
1. gnome-screensaver prompts for a password, with the text "Password:", and does not accept fingerprint scans.

What should happen:
1. gnome-screensaver prompts for a password or fingerprint scan, with the text "Password or swipe finger:", and unlocks with either one.

[mannheim (kronheim)]

I can confirm this behavior on a Dell XPS M1330 with Ubuntu 8.04 preinstalled. The thinkfinger stuff is preinstalled, but suffers from this bug.

[rettichschnidi (rettichschnidi)]

Same thing here with my Thinkpad T61.
Workaround: After resuming, press once "Cancel" and move the mouse again. Fingerprint sensor will work now.

[Marius Gedminas (mgedmin)]

Actuually, this bug seems to have disappeared in Intrepid.

[Noel J. Bergman (noeljb)]

Actually, this worked for me with Hardy, and is broken again with both Intrepid and Jaunty. I believe that it is related to, or a duplicate of, Bug 138957. That bug needs to be re-opened. The fix that works for me is described at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/138957/comments/18. But see Bug 256429.

[Obvious.Sarcasm (obvious-sarcasm)]

This happened to me in Intrepid.
A workaround that seems to fix it, is to change owners of your .bir.
I found this solution is also discussed in Bug 138957 where you mentioned.

[Stefan Seidel (seidler2547)]

This did happen to me on Intrepid, thinkpad X41 tablet. The issue was that the fingerprint reader would "crash", thus not being recognized by the USB subsystem anymore (error -71). The solution was to activate autosuspend for it:
echo "auto" > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-2/power/level
Then the device would virtually "disconnect" from the USB bus and reconnect upon usage, which does not only reduce energy consumption, but in this case helped that it would be recognized again.

[Carthik Sharma (carthik)]

Confirmed on Ubuntu Hardy. There are a couple of other problems that are being discussed here. Please let us keep the discussion to the original bug reported - which is, that only after suspend+resume, one cannot unlock using the fingerprint scanner.

If the screen is locked when the laptop is running, the unlock prompt is correct and will accept either the password or the fingerprint scan.