Looking for help with Linux and the Broadcom BCM5880

Hey y'all I have a Dell E6420 XFR that uses the Broadcom BCM5880 security device for the fingerprint reader and from what I can tell there is NO way I can use that fingerprint reader with Linux (Preferably Ubuntu) Is there any way to get it working?

Should just work because it's certified by Canonical Enterprise Services: https://certification.ubuntu.com/catalog/component/usb/405/0a5c%3A5802/

What you may need to have applications be able to use it is the "pkcs11" packages for your distro to have the security protocol coupling in place for this kind of authentication. There are multiple packages depending on what you want to do with that biometric authentication and how you want to incorporate it into various applications.

But the hardware sure is supported without limitations and without the need for a separate driver. Funny story: the USB gingerprint reader that was sold by Microsoft back in Vista, XP and W7 days, is actually not supported any more on Windows, it won't work, there are no drivers available... but it works just fine on linux, the drivers are in the kernel, and it's compatible with the biometric authentication protocols in open source.

I don't have personal experience with that fingerprint-reader. I reckon you've already searched quite a bit. but I found these two links. This guy, who says to install something that isn't in the repo's AFAIK, and this guy says this guy made it work, however the latter says "There is currently no support for the device", so I think the former guy read it too lightly.

I have had my fingerprint reader (not the broadcom) enabled, however I didn't like it much. It worked though, but in some situations it would remove the GUI prompt for the password, so in those instances you would just have to know that it wanted the fingerprint. There was no visual identification that it wanted admin rights as it also disabled the normal password GUI prompt, only when the fingerprint failed would it make the password available for typing.

Im having the same problem. I have a Dell Latitude E6230 running Ubuntu 16.04.4 with the Broadcom BCM5880 but both fingerprint-gui and frprint demo cant find the device. Is there any update on this since January last year?

Please make a new thread. Describe the issue the best you can. This thread is 2 years old which exceeds the 3 months grace period. As such this thread is now locked.