Hi All. I looked for documentation for Validity's sensor VFS451 last months. I would like publish informations that I collect.
Validity Inc. provide documentation only for its partners - http://www.validityinc.com/support.aspx . In theirs partners is HP among other companies. HP really has documentation for Validiy's hardware, they provide its own bios with fingerprint authorization... HP's partners on Linux market are Novell and RedHat. So, I was send emails to all - HP Linux support, Prague office of Suse and RedHat office at Brno (Czech Republic). Suse / Novell: No response. Some messages on internet say that Prague office of Suse was canceled, so email was probably last. RedHat: Theirs partnership with HP is about servers. They haven't access to documentation for hardware on HP's Notebooks. HP: Almost one month nothing. And then I get message from Lester Wade. Follow our comunication (Lester agreed with publishing on fprint mailing list) > Thank you for contacting HP. > > You have reached the HP team focused on addressing questions and > feedback from our customers regarding Linux on HP products. > > I'm sorry for the delay in responding to your message. > > Sometimes we partition component manufacturers to release their hardware > specifications so we or the community can write a driver for that > component. However, unfortunately in this case we are not able to > provide you with the hardware specifications for the Validity reader, if > at all available from Validity, these would be under strict NDA. With > this comes issues despite the obvious NDA agreement; such as whether we > could Open Source the driver etc. > > I forwarded your kind offer of help to the engineering teams and they > will keep you in mind should they require assistance. > > Kind Regards, > > Lester Wade > Program Manager next message: > Hi Luk, > > I'd like to follow up with you in regards to my previous email, dated 22nd > October. > > I have information from our engineering teams and Validity Sensors Inc, > in the form of the following statement: > > > There are no open source drivers available for any of the Validity > > sensors, and the hardware interfaces are proprietary to Validity Sensors, > > Inc. HP is working directly with Validity who will provide a working > > solution with Novell SLED 11 for x86 by the end of the year. > > This solution will provide an API integration with fprint using > > a proprietary daemon from Validity. This solution may or may not work > > with your Linux distribution, but it will be available for you to try. > > I hope this information is useful. > > Kind Regards, > > Lester Wade > Program Manager my reply: > Hi Lester > > I'm not happy that this daemon will be proprietary. But it is still good > message. Proprietary solustion is better than current state... > > Thank you for this message. Can I resend it to public fprint mailing list? > Many users are waiting for each information about driver for this > hardware... > > Lukas and last: > Please feel free to forward my communication to the fprint mailing list. > > Indeed, at this stage a proprietary solution is better than nothing. > Novell, HP and Validity will work to ensure this solution is integrated > into a future SLED11 update. > > Personally I would also prefer to see an Open Source solution to this, > however this is outside of our control. Has the fprint project had any > engagement with Validity Sensors Inc.? It may be worth taking a request > to them on behalf of the Open Source community. > > Kind Regards, > Lester Wade > Program Manager > So... It is better than nothing. I would be happier for published documentation... But, I look forward what HP will publish and hope that it will be useful users... Best Regards, Lukas _______________________________________________ fprint mailing list fprint@reactivated.net http://lists.reactivated.net/mailman/listinfo/fprint
