271
I dont know why they're making fingerprint a big deal. It's actually a bad thing.
It's cool if you're 10 and just watched a sci-fi movie sure but ultimately should be phased out of android/Linux.
I like unlocking things with my fingerprint. But I go by the assumption that the technical fingerprints of my fingerprint are stored securely and aren't even accessible by the OS.
"Arguably a bad thing" rather. It's better than face unlock for what it's worth.
That's cool, I guess, though I'll never use it for obvious reasons.
Sorry about the meat slicer accident :(
Damn mandolin locked me out of my phone.
With the lockdown on Android apps I was thinking of switching to a linux phone, what happened?
You should not use biometric identification because it's much easier to force you to unlock the phone than with a pin or password.
I'm not, and not what I asked.
I think there were two levels of misunderstanding, by bad.
In my understanding jlow (OC) is talking about not using biometric identification, and you misinterpreted it as not using Linux on Fairphone. I then misinterpreted your comment to mean "why should I not use biometric identification when I switch to Mobile Linux" and responded to that.
Understanable, have a nice day.
To be more specific
What you know is legally protected. What you are is not.
x.com ?
no, thanks.
Looks like he beat me to the punch, but this proves it is possible atleast. Coming soon to a fp6-img near you!
My version is also mostly ready. So expect a post about it soon.
At least he did something usefull this time, tho still posted it on xitter
Unrelated, but have you programmed the Moments button to do anything in your fp6 image?
No, it currently does nothing. No idea if its even in the DTS.
You guys are seriously amazing! Thank you for sticking through the pain!
I suppose i can't claim true 100% hardware support without having it work and it doesn't seem much trouble so i think i'll add it as an edev and the user can decide what to do with it.
Nice! It might be a good idea to set it by default to turn on Do Not Disturb mode, to keep the functionality similar to the original OS.
I looked into this and it's already in, its in /dev/input/event2 emitting SW_MUTE_DEVICE events.
nitter instances down for legal reasons, archive.org also refuses to archive this site.. I guess I'm not gonna read it then
Here you go my brother in Linux: https://archive.ph/7kev3
Edit: archive only archives pages, not videos.
you can be forced to biometrically unlock your phone by police
Now that i am thinking about it, There should be nothing stopping you from mapping a specific finger to either wipe data or load into a decoy. I'll look into this.
EDIT: Confirmed, the reader gives the ID of which print was matched, so a userspace implementation for per finger macros should be possible, this goes beyond unlocking or duress too, in theory any script could be called from a specific finger?
Sounds like a cool feature!
Oooh that's cool! Thumb for normal unlock, index finger for launch camera, middle finger for duress would be neat.
give them the middle finger!!
Good thinking on the camera launch, and middle finger for duress is just... :chefskiss:
Yah, but you better be damn sure it's bulletproof recognition, especially for the wipe variant, although, being Linux a good backup strategy is a viable option, maybe gate it behind a successful restore. Seems like it could be easy to just use the wrong finger too, perhaps your subconscious hates you today. Still, options are always good.
Well that's not really under my control as i don't make the sensor, but it does expose an accuracy value, so the user can set their own threshold.
Well that’s not really under my control
Not implying it was, just pointing out the foot shooting scenario.
Thanks again for the great work.
I have touched the fingerprint reader on accident with the incorrect finger when picking the device up or something because it's on the side with the power button, but I have never had an issue where I've meant to unlock my device with the correct finger and used the wrong finger instead.
I have used the wrong finger on purpose in order to press the power button in order to bring up my lock screen without actually unlocking the phone to see the time or whatever, though so perhaps a 3 strikes your out rule would be best where if you hit the fingerprint reader with the wrong finger 3 times in a row it would then wipe
Let's say my pointer finger is the registered finger for the reader. If I want to unlock my phone, I'll just touch the fingerprint reader with my pointer finger and the phone is unlocked. If I wanted to say interact with a running media file, or check the time, I would deliberately press the power button with my middle finger, that way it registers it as a press to bring up the lock screen, but does not unlock the phone. And then, when I want into the phone next time, I would touch the fingerprint reader with my pointer finger to unlock it. If I am picking my phone up off of a table, for example, and my ring finger just happens to touch the fingerprint reader, it's obviously not going to recognize, and then once I get the phone in my hand properly, I would use my pointer finger to unlock it.
This is why I think perhaps a three-time rule might work, where if you deliberately touch the fingerprint reader three times within a short period of time with the incorrect finger, it would initiate a wipe.
I'm thinking maybe like within 10 seconds.
Could probably also make it a sequence of several fingers to reduce risk even further.
On GrapheneOS, I use a feature that blocks fingerprint for unlocking the phone, but still allows it for accessing apps. No idea how hard it'd be to implement that here, but it makes this work useful even to security/privacy conscious folks
noice
Makes me wonder why no mainstream Android fork has bothered implementing a duress fingerprint feature. Maybe this is an opportunity for Linux phones.
Graphene has a duress PIN, but I'd like to see a feature where using the wrong fingerprint both locks the phone and opens into a fake, nondescript home screen to deceive the authorities.
The only other protection for anyone using biometrics at the moment is to reboot the device, which will always default to PIN unlock, but not so easy to do when caught by the authorities unawares.
GrapheneOS does have a duress fingerprint feature, but I believe the only result is to wipe the phone. A dummy profile option would be great. I could see this becoming an option in the future with the US authorities going after a couple people recently for wiping their phones with a duress pin/fingerprint.
Not if you don't register your fingerprint into the device in the first place
Well then there's not much point to a fingerprint sensor is there xd
True, but if you're concerned about law enforcement forcing you to unlock your phone, PINs/passwords are still safer than fingerprint readers or cameras
yeah i never use biometrics
What is "linux mobile"?
Do they mean Ubuntu Touch? Postmarket OS?
I guess it's going to be writing a linux driver for the sensor or adapting an existing one so that it picks up this particular device ID, and then some udev & pam rules to make it play nicely with the rest of the system. So it's vaguely distro-agnostic.
Well most of the work is on the kernel so it applies to all distros.
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
271 points (98.6% liked)
Linux Phones
3760 readers
406 users here now
The Discussion on Linux-based Phones.
Benefits:
- Hardware freedom.
- Perfect operating-system competition.
- Full utilization of specs.
- Phone lifespan raises to 10+ years.
- Less e-waste.
Linux Mobile Distros:
- Sailfish🇫🇮
- FuriOS🇺🇸
- Ubuntu Touch🇩🇪
- Postmarket OS🇨🇭
- Mobian
- Pure OS🇺🇸
- Plasma Mobile🇩🇪
- LuneOS
- openSUSE Mobile🇩🇪
- Nemomobile
- Droidian
- Mobile NixOS
- ExpidusOS
- Maemo Leste
- Manjaro Arm
- Tizen
- WebOS
Linux Mobile Hardware:
- Jolla Phone🇫🇮
- Shift Phone🇩🇪
- FLX1🇺🇸
- Fairphone 5🇳🇱
- Volla Phone🇩🇪
- Librem 5🇺🇸
⚙️Contribute
🧼Go Clean From the Duopoly:
💻Related Communities:
📰News:
💬Messager:
⌚️Watch:
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS