Important
This repository is not the official LibFPrint project.
This fork adds support for the Next Biometrics NB-2020-U Fingerprint Reader (USB ID 298d:2020), a device that is currently listed as unsupported by the upstream project.
The implementation is based on the discovery that the NB-2020-U is protocol-compatible with the already supported NB-1010-U and therefore works with the existing driver by adding support for its USB Product ID.
This work would not have been possible without the research and documentation published by Sebastian van de Meer:
https://www.kernel-error.de/2026/03/01/next-biometrics-nb-2020-u-fingerabdruckleser-linux/
Tested on:
- Fedora 44
- Dell Latitude 3470
- Next Biometrics NB-2020-U Fingerprint Reader (USB ID
298d:2020)
Original project:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libfprint/libfprint
All credit for the original LibFPrint project belongs to its contributors. This fork preserves the original license and copyright notices.
LibFPrint was originally developed as part of an academic project at the University Of Manchester.
It aimed to hide the differences between consumer fingerprint scanners and provide a single uniform API to application developers.
The ultimate goal of the FPrint project is to make fingerprint scanners widely and easily usable under common Linux environments.
Section 6 of the license states that for compiled works that use
this library, such works must include LibFPrint copyright notices
alongside the copyright notices for the other parts of the work.
LibFPrint includes code from NIST's NBIS software distribution.
We include Bozorth3 from the US Export Controlled distribution, which we have determined to be fine being shipped in an open source project.
- IRC -
#fprint@irc.oftc.net - Matrix -
#fprint:matrix.orgbridged to the IRC channel - MailingList - low traffic, not much used these days
