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Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

davidwalsh.name

31–40 of 221 posts

Re: Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

#31
post #8

The article will not allow sudo changes on Big Sur - at least, not without changing permissions of the sudo file first: 1. sudo -Si 2. chmod 644 /etc/pam.d/sudo 3. vi /etc/pam.d/sudo 4. Add the 'Auth sufficient pam_tid.so' line 5. chmod 444 /etc/pam.d/sudo 6. ... 7. Profit! Very handy tip though, thanks!

Or when using vi, just use :wq!

shift Z Z is faster.

Re: Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

#32
Touch ID is awesome, but I semi-regularly use the APFS snapshot rollback feature and it erases my finger prints.

Does anyone know why this happens? I was very happy when I found out APFS is CoW but it kind of sucks that restoring an old snapshot apparently erases the secure enclave in my M1 chip.

Re: Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

#33
post #27
post #13

As the author says, “Since you expect to be be typing in a command line, moving your finger to touch the key is probably not very efficient.” I was excited to set this up when the first fingerprint sensor macs came out. Within a couple of days I’d switched it off. It is quite inconvenient and especially bad if you use an external keyboard.

It still strikes me as weird that Apple went with Touch ID vs Face ID on the Mac. Computer form factors in general, and particularly notebooks and AIOs, should be perfect for Face ID: the user is always at a good distance, in the right position, looking at it, and as you say will frequently have their hands otherwise occupied actually controlling the system. For that matter a Face ID+iPhone-quality camera thing for M…

I suspect the main reason is that the face-id camera module is too thick and they'd need to increase the thickness of the display casing. If there's on thing the Mac designers will never allow it's a thicker laptop.

Re: Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

#34
post #27
post #13

As the author says, “Since you expect to be be typing in a command line, moving your finger to touch the key is probably not very efficient.” I was excited to set this up when the first fingerprint sensor macs came out. Within a couple of days I’d switched it off. It is quite inconvenient and especially bad if you use an external keyboard.

It still strikes me as weird that Apple went with Touch ID vs Face ID on the Mac. Computer form factors in general, and particularly notebooks and AIOs, should be perfect for Face ID: the user is always at a good distance, in the right position, looking at it, and as you say will frequently have their hands otherwise occupied actually controlling the system. For that matter a Face ID+iPhone-quality camera thing for M…

I feel like it’s only a matter of time

Re: Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

#35
post #27
post #13

As the author says, “Since you expect to be be typing in a command line, moving your finger to touch the key is probably not very efficient.” I was excited to set this up when the first fingerprint sensor macs came out. Within a couple of days I’d switched it off. It is quite inconvenient and especially bad if you use an external keyboard.

It still strikes me as weird that Apple went with Touch ID vs Face ID on the Mac. Computer form factors in general, and particularly notebooks and AIOs, should be perfect for Face ID: the user is always at a good distance, in the right position, looking at it, and as you say will frequently have their hands otherwise occupied actually controlling the system. For that matter a Face ID+iPhone-quality camera thing for M…

Less likely to accidentally fool you into tapping the finger sensor vs fool you into showing your face to the camera

Re: Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

#36
post #8

The article will not allow sudo changes on Big Sur - at least, not without changing permissions of the sudo file first: 1. sudo -Si 2. chmod 644 /etc/pam.d/sudo 3. vi /etc/pam.d/sudo 4. Add the 'Auth sufficient pam_tid.so' line 5. chmod 444 /etc/pam.d/sudo 6. ... 7. Profit! Very handy tip though, thanks!

Or when using vi, just use :wq!

[deleted]

Re: Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

#37
post #32

Touch ID is awesome, but I semi-regularly use the APFS snapshot rollback feature and it erases my finger prints. Does anyone know why this happens? I was very happy when I found out APFS is CoW but it kind of sucks that restoring an old snapshot apparently erases the secure enclave in my M1 chip.

The system will notice changes and disable certain features. I noticed my Apple Pay stopped working after a restore and there are additional settings that can turn off Apple Pay. Such as allowing boot from an external drive.

Re: Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or when using vi, just use :wq!

shift Z Z is faster.

Debatable and depends on length of time shortcut has been in use. I can type :wq like a madman. My finger can slide straight from w to q, whereas with double-z, I have to pick my finger up and put it back down. So much movement! What next, you want me to run a marathon?

Re: Use Touch ID for Sudo on Mac

#40
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still strikes me as weird that Apple went with Touch ID vs Face ID on the Mac. Computer form factors in general, and particularly notebooks and AIOs, should be perfect for Face ID: the user is always at a good distance, in the right position, looking at it, and as you say will frequently have their hands otherwise occupied actually controlling the system. For that matter a Face ID+iPhone-quality camera thing for M…

I suspect the main reason is that the face-id camera module is too thick and they'd need to increase the thickness of the display casing. If there's on thing the Mac designers will never allow it's a thicker laptop.

Based on iFixit's iPhone 12 teardown and thus the most recent version of the module, I think they might be able to get it into the screen without much compromise. An important consideration here is that it's not just about the Face ID bit, it's about the better camera bit. While it was important even earlier, this past year has made videoconferencing and other remote work rocket up in priorities, and Macs suck pretty badly by modern standards in terms of camera quality. It's a big, by definition both very visible and very social feature (because everyone else in the conference can see how good/bad you look). I think that might be a motivation for Apple that Face ID by itself wouldn't have.

However that aside, thickness concerns don't apply a single bit to the iMac or to a standalone (Mac only) module (or even integration in Apple's ultra fancy display), so that objection doesn't cover the spectrum of Macs.

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