Ubuntu
thinkfinger package

Extra line break occurs after typing password or canceling

Bug #236344 reported by Vince N on 2008-05-31

This bug affects 2 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	thinkfinger (Fedora)	Won't Fix	Low	redhat-bugs #356921
	thinkfinger (Ubuntu)	Confirmed	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

System: XPS M1330 running Ubuntu Hardy 8.04

vnewell@Shadowcat-XPS:~$ lsusb |grep Finger
Bus 007 Device 006: ID 0483:2016 SGS Thomson Microelectronics Fingerprint Reader

I followed the guide located here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ThinkFinger
Currently installed version: 0.3+r118-0ubuntu3

Issue: When I type my password or cancel instead of swiping my finger a line break occurs.

Example:

vnewell@Shadowcat-XPS:~$ su vnewell
Password or swipe finger:
vnewell@Shadowcat-XPS:~$

The above is a result of typing the command "su vnewell," and swiping my finger at the prompt. However, when I type my password and hit enter instead of swiping:

vnewell@Shadowcat-XPS:~$ su vnewell
Password or swipe finger:

vnewell@Shadowcat-XPS:~$
vnewell@Shadowcat-XPS:~$

Notice there is an extra line break that occurs after the authentication. Please see the attached demonstration video.

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #356921, David (david-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2007-10-29:

I'm a happy thinkfinger user however when I choose to authenticate using my
password; an annoying RETURN keypress is synthesized by thinkfinger. It's easy
to verify this; just log on to VT1 and you will see a newline just after having
entered your password.

This is a huge problem when you use PAM from a desktop application; the RETURN
keypress is intercepted by the toolkit and if a widget is focused (typically the
same button that caused the auth dialog to come up in the first place), it is
errornously clicked.

It's easy to very that thinkfinger is doing something fishy here

$ strings /lib/security/pam_thinkfinger.so |grep uinput
uinput_cr
uinput_close
uinput_open
/dev/input/uinput
/dev/misc/uinput
/dev/uinput
Initializing uinput failed: %s.
Could not send carriage return via uinput: %s.

(adding tmraz as Cc as he owns PAM)

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #356921, Julian (julian-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2007-10-29:

I can't do much about this myself, thus CCing upstream.

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #356921, Julian (julian-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2007-11-15:

Quoting Timo's response from the ML:
“The uinput hack should not trigger when a password is used. Having that said,
I have not seen the CR to be emitted when using a password. It's probably a
Fedora specific issue.”

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #356921, Bug (bug-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2008-05-14:

Changing version to '9' as part of upcoming Fedora 9 GA.
More information and reason for this action is here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

Revision history for this message

Vince N (libertyshadow) wrote on 2008-05-31:

demonstration.ogg Edit (5.1 MiB, application/ogg)

Revision history for this message

VS (storvann) wrote on 2008-06-27:

I can confirm this bug. I'm seeing the exact same behaviour on my Thinkpad using the same fingerprint reader.

Revision history for this message

glasscheetah (vroom22-deactivatedaccount) wrote on 2008-07-05:

I can also confirm this bug

VS (storvann) on 2008-10-17

Changed in thinkfinger:
status:	New → Confirmed

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #356921, Noel (noel-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2008-12-21:

#10

It is not Fedora specific. It has been found in Ubuntu as well.

Initially we had to work around a bug in HAL, and once Jon Oberheide worked around that problem we saw this other one with multiple <cr>. I found that r116 in Thinkfinger had introduced this extra <cr> defect, and could be reverted given the other fix.

I run with a locally fixed version of pam_thinkfinger.so containing both Jon's patch and reverting r116, and all works fine.

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #356921, Noel (noel-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2008-12-21:

#11

This problem is present in Fedora 10.

Revision history for this message

Noel J. Bergman (noeljb) wrote on 2008-12-21:

This bug has been discussed as part of Bug 256429. I found that it is caused by revision 116 in the thinkfinger code, and have fixed it locally.

See https://bugs.launchpad.net/hal/+bug/256429/comments/38 and later comments in Bug 256429.

It is also reported against Fedora (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=356921), and on the thinkfinger mailing list (https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=4730993D.1020307%40poczta.onet.pl&forum_name=thinkfinger-devel).

Hopefully, we can get Jon's HAL workaround (in his PPA code) + reverting r116 promoted into Intrepid and Jaunty. I have raised this in Bug 256429.

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #356921, David (david-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2008-12-21:

#12

*** Bug 435992 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message

Noel J. Bergman (noeljb) wrote on 2008-12-21:

Patch to pam_thinkfinger.c to undo the erroneous extra . Patched against the file in thinkfinger_0.3+r118.orig.tar.gz Edit (859 bytes, text/plain)

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater) on 2009-02-22

Changed in thinkfinger:
status:	Unknown → Confirmed

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #356921, Bug (bug-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2009-06-09:

#13

This message is a reminder that Fedora 9 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 9. It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time
this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora
'version' of '9'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version'
to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 9's end of life.

Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that
we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 9 is end of life. If you
would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it
against a later version of Fedora please change the 'version' of this
bug to the applicable version. If you are unable to change the version,
please add a comment here and someone will do it for you.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes
bugs or makes them obsolete.

The process we are following is described here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #356921, Bug (bug-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2009-07-14:

#14

Fedora 9 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2009-07-10. Fedora 9 is
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater) on 2009-07-15