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The upcoming KDE Plasma 5.24 desktop environment will introduce support for fingerprint readers
to allow users to authenticate in to their Plasma sessions faster, easier, and more secure.
Renowned KDE developer Nate Graham shared today the big news that a fingerprint authentication
feature, which is in development for quite a while now, has finally been merged and will
be ready for deployment as part of the upcoming KDE Plasma 5.24 desktop environment series,
due for release next year.
Fingerprint authentication support has been implemented in the Users panel in System Settings.
There, users who have a fingerprint reader, either built-in in their laptop or as an external
device, will be able to enroll, as well as to de-enroll fingerprints.
Once the fingerprint authentication feature is set up, you will be able not only to login
using your finger, but to also authenticate in apps that require a password or administrative
privileges. Here it is in action!
“So far we let you enroll and de-enroll fingers, and any of those fingers can be used
to to unlock the screen, provide authentication when an app asks for your password, and also
authenticate sudo on the command line! It’s really cool stuff,” said Nate Graham.
The KDE Plasma 5.24 desktop environment is slated for release on February 8, 2022.
Besides support for fingerprint readers, it promises numerous other new features and improvements,
including the ability to enable, disable, and remove Flatpak repos in Plasma Discover,
more Plasma Wayland enhancements, a slightly revamped lock screen, support for light and
dark themes across all apps, keyboard navigation for the Network and Clipboard applets, and
much more.
Until then, KDE Plasma 5.23 is here and it’s ready to conquer your Linux desktop. The second
point release, KDE Plasma 5.23.2, will be available next week with preliminary support
for the proprietary NVIDIA driver’s GBM backend, a feature that promises to dramatically
improve the Plasma desktop experience for NVIDIA GPU users.
:: More ::
KDE Plasma is a really dynamic desktop environment, and the new features added are useful and
simply enjoyable. Therefore, it is strange that so far there has been no support for
fingerprint readers, which have been present in laptops for a very long time. However,
with KDE Plasma 5.24 this will change.
KDE Plasma is a graphical environment for Linux systems. As standard, the interface
resembles Windows 10, but the enormous modification possibilities allow not only to recreate other
known designs, but also to create your own. I used KDE Plasma myself for quite a long
time, and although I'm now GNOME-boy , I only used Plasma for a long time. It is worth adding
that it is KDE Plasma that will be available on SteamOS on Steam Deck .
KDE Plasma will handle the fingerprint reader. Its use will be wider than logging into the
account Fingerprint readers are an element that has
long been found in, for example, laptops. GNOME has been supporting them for a long
time, which allows us to log into the system faster and securely, as well as verify our
user. Oddly, KDE Plasma will only get this option now, but better late than never.
KDE Plasma 5.24 will finally allow you to comfortably use the fingerprint reader. The
appropriate option can be found in the user profile settings. The fingerprint reader will
help us not only log in to our account faster, but also speed up entering the password when
a program asks us for it. Ba! The fingerprint reader will also work in the terminal when
we enter the command sudo.
KDE Plasma 5.24 is expected to be released on February 8, 2022. Users of KDE neon and
Manjaro Linux KDE Edition will probably benefit from this version immediately. In the case
of Kubuntu, you will have to wait for the next system release.
:: More ::
Anyone who owns a fingerprint sensor in a notebook or as a separate device will soon
be able to use it with Plasma 5.24 to easily, quickly and securely log into a plasma session.
Has been in the works for a long time The function has been in the works for a long
time and , as Nate Graham currently reports in his blog , the code has just been made
available for Plasma 5.24. The fprint project is used in the background . Other components
involved are the SDDM session manager, the Polkit KDE agent and the Kscreenlocker.
KCM module The software for registering the fingers is
integrated into the system settings as a KConfig Module (kcm). Any number of fingers can be
registered there, but their naming needs to be improved. So far, only generic identifiers
such as the right middle finger or left index finger have been specified, which makes it
difficult for multiple users to use it.
Once the registration is done, the user can not only dial into a plasma session using
the fingerprint sensor, but also activate apps that require a password. In addition,
the input of the password can be replaced by the fingerprint in the console for actions
that use sudo for authentication.
And something else Further innovations for Plasma 5.24 can be
found in Nate's blog. These include improved options for enabling, disabling, or removing
Flatpak repos in Plasma Discover. Furthermore, the obligatory progress in the integration
of Wayland as well as the initial provision of the backend for Generic Buffer Management
(GDM) in the Nvidia driver should be mentioned. According to Nate, this is accompanied by
many improvements in the use of plasma with the proprietary Nvidia driver. The release
of Plasma 5.24 is scheduled for February 8, 2022.
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