diff --git a/libraries/networking/src/FingerprintUtils.cpp b/libraries/networking/src/FingerprintUtils.cpp
index 216e0f28dd..83a4f19703 100644
--- a/libraries/networking/src/FingerprintUtils.cpp
+++ b/libraries/networking/src/FingerprintUtils.cpp
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@
 #include <SettingHandle.h>
 #include <SettingManager.h>
 #include <DependencyManager.h>
+#include <QFile>
+#include <QCryptographicHash>
+#include <QDirIterator>
 
 #ifdef Q_OS_WIN
 #include <Windows.h>
@@ -36,8 +39,80 @@ QUuid FingerprintUtils::_machineFingerprint { QUuid() };
 QString FingerprintUtils::getMachineFingerprintString() {
     QString uuidString;
 #ifdef Q_OS_LINUX
-    // sadly need to be root to get smbios guid from linux, so 
-    // for now lets do nothing.
+    // As per the documentation:
+    // https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/machine-id.5.html
+    //
+    // we use the machine id as a base, but add an application-specific key to it.
+    // If machine-id isn't available, we try hardware networking devices instead.
+
+    QCryptographicHash hash(QCryptographicHash::Keccak_256);
+
+    QFile machineIdFile("/etc/machine-id");
+    if (!machineIdFile.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly | QIODevice::Text)) {
+        // No machine ID, probably no systemd.
+        qCWarning(networking) << "Failed to open /etc/machine-id";
+
+        QDir netDevicesDir("/sys/class/net");
+        QFileInfoList netDevicesInfo = netDevicesDir.entryInfoList(QDir::Dirs | QDir::NoDotAndDotDot, QDir::Name);
+
+        if (netDevicesInfo.empty()) {
+            // Let getMachineFingerprint handle this contingency
+            qCWarning(networking) << "Failed to find any hardware networking devices";
+            return "";
+        }
+
+        for(auto& fileInfo : netDevicesInfo) {
+
+            if (fileInfo.isSymLink() && fileInfo.symLinkTarget().contains("virtual")) {
+                // symlink points to something like:
+                // ../../devices/virtual/net/lo
+                // these are not real devices and have random IDs, so we
+                // don't care about them.
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            QFile addressFile(fileInfo.filePath() + "/address");
+            if (addressFile.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly | QIODevice::Text)) {
+                qCDebug(networking) << "Adding contents of " << addressFile.fileName();
+                hash.addData(addressFile.readAll());
+            } else {
+                qCWarning(networking) << "Failed to read " << addressFile.fileName();
+            }
+        }
+    } else {
+        QByteArray data = machineIdFile.readAll();
+        hash.addData(data);
+    }
+
+    // Makes this hash unique to us
+    hash.addData("Vircadia");
+
+    // Stretching
+    for (int i=0; i < 65535; i++) {
+        hash.addData(hash.result());
+    }
+
+    QByteArray result = hash.result();
+    result.resize(128 / 8); // GUIDs are 128 bit numbers
+
+    // Set UUID version to 4, ensuring it's a valid UUID
+    result[6] = (result[6] & 0x0F) | 0x40;
+
+    // Of course, Qt couldn't be nice and just parse something like:
+    // 1b1b9d6d45c2473bac13dc3011ff58d6
+    //
+    // So we have to turn it into:
+    // {1b1b9d6d-45c2-473b-ac13-dc3011ff58d6}
+
+    uuidString = result.toHex();
+    uuidString.insert(20, '-');
+    uuidString.insert(16, '-');
+    uuidString.insert(12, '-');
+    uuidString.insert(8, '-');
+    uuidString.prepend("{");
+    uuidString.append("}");
+
+    qCDebug(networking) << "Linux machine fingerprint:" << uuidString;
 #endif //Q_OS_LINUX
 
 #ifdef Q_OS_MAC