After struggling for several months, I have finally managed to get the fingerprint sensor on my Dell Latitude 5300 laptop working with Ubuntu. The steps were quite straightforward. I'm not sure why I never attempted them before.

Let's get to the real stuff. First, you need to add the official Dell apt repositories to your system.

# add these lines to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dell.list 
deb http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/ focal-dell public
deb http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/ focal-oem public
deb http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/ focal-somerville public
deb http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/ focal-somerville-melisa public

Next, update the system keyring with Dell repository GPG keys to ensure that apt does not raise concerns about package signing.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys F9FDA6BED73CDC22

Now, update the package metadata and install the fingerprint drivers. lsusb showed that mine was 0a5c:5843 Broadcom Corp. 58200, but I installed the goodix driver just to be on the safe side.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y fprintd libfprint-2-tod1-broadcom libfprint-2-tod1-goodix libfprint-2-tod1

Once completed, you need to verify if the device is detected by fprintd. Run fprintd-list with your username, and you should see something similar to the following.

sudo fprintd-list minhaz
...
found 1 devices
Device at /net/reactivated/Fprint/Device/0
Using device /net/reactivated/Fprint/Device/0

If not, double-check that the driver is installed correctly. If a device is detected, it's time to provide some sample fingerprints to the system.

sudo fprintd-enroll minhaz

You will need to press the sensor several times. Once completed, the system will confirm that your username is enrolled with the fingerprint.

Finally, you need to allow PAM to use the fingerprint sensor as an authentication mechanism. Run the following command, enable Fingerprint authentication, and you should be all set.

sudo pam-auth-update

From this point forward, simply place your finger on the sensor after executing sudo -i. This should also work for login and lock screens.

Let me know how this works for you.