wicd unable to connect to EAP-FAST wireless network

[Adrian Quek]

I am able to connect to my company's wireless which uses WPA2 EAP-FAST with the wpa_supplicant.
From the command line, it works fine and the applet does show the connection after a while.
However when trying to connect with the wicd Manager, it is never able to do so.
Checking the logs, it seems that the once it runs the wpa_supplicant, it checks for the connection with wpa_cli almost immediately. When using the wpa_supplicant from command line, it usually takes at least a few seconds to connect. Is there someway to delay the checks by wpa_cli to give the wpa_supplicant enough time to connect?

I am using the 1.5.1 version of wicd on ubuntu 8.0.4 with a custom built wpa_supplicant (and openssl) to support EAP-FAST.

[Dan O'Reilly (oreilldf)]

The wpa_cli check keeps trying for 15 seconds (I think, can't remember exactly), so that's probably not the issue. What encryption settings did you choose in wicd? I don't think we include an EAP-FAST template. But if you can connect through the command line you should be able to edit the wpa_supplicant.conf file you use into a template wicd can use to connect.

[Adrian Quek (adrianquek)]

Yes, there's a template for EAP-FAST template provided named eap.
But as I check from the wicd.log with debug enabled, I get the following. As you can see, wicd runs the wpa_supplicant and then wpa_cli immediately after. And when it doesn't get the result, it drops the connection.

2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: Attempting to authenticate...
2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c "/var/lib/wicd/configuratio
ns/001aa177eae0" -D wext
2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: Putting interface up...
2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: ifconfig wlan0 up
2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: iwconfig wlan0 mode managed
2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: iwconfig wlan0 essid "blahblah" channel 7 ap 00:11:22:33:
44:55
2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS None
2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: exiting connection thread

[Dan O'Reilly (oreilldf)]

Right, wicd is set to assume the connection attempt failed if wpa_cli
fails. Is the program installed? Wicd should be detecting if it
isn't and not trying to validate authentication at all. If it is
installed, can you try kicking off the wpa_supplicant attempt manually
using "sudo wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c
"/var/lib/wicd/configurations/001aa177eae0" -D wext", then run
"wpa_cli -i wlan0 status" in another terminal, and post the output
here?

Also, as a temporary workaround the problem you can open
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/wicd/wnettools.py, find the
ValidateAuthentication method, and change the section which says:

    if not result:
        return False

to:

    if not result:
        return True

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 9:22 PM, Adrian Quek <email address hidden> wrote:
> Yes, there's a template for EAP-FAST template provided named eap.
> But as I check from the wicd.log with debug enabled, I get the following. As you can see, wicd runs the wpa_supplicant and then wpa_cli immediately after. And when it doesn't get the result, it drops the connection.
>
>
> 2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: Attempting to authenticate...
> 2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c "/var/lib/wicd/configuratio
> ns/001aa177eae0" -D wext
> 2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: Putting interface up...
> 2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: ifconfig wlan0 up
> 2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: iwconfig wlan0 mode managed
> 2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: iwconfig wlan0 essid "blahblah" channel 7 ap 00:11:22:33:
> 44:55
> 2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: WPA_CLI RESULT IS None
> 2008/08/28 09:16:04 :: exiting connection thread
>
> --
> wicd unable to connect to EAP-FAST wireless network
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/261804
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Wicd-
> devel, which is the registrant for wicd.
>

[Adrian Quek (adrianquek)]

I think I have found the cause of my problems. This is the /var/lib/wicde/configurations/001aa177eae0 config file that wicd generates.

ap_scan=1

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
network={
        ssid="myssid"
        scan_ssid=0
        proto=RSN WPA
        pairwise=CCMP TKIP
        group=CCMP TKIP
        key-mgmt=WPA-EAP
        eap=FAST
        identity=myuser
        password=mypasswd
        phase1="fast_provisioning=1"
        pac-file="/etc/wpa.pac"
}

If I try to run this config file, I get these errors. Comparing with my working config file, the problems are the key-mgmt and pac-file instead of key_mgmt and pac_file as well as the username and password are not in quotes.

Line 10: unknown network field 'key-mgmt'.
Line 12: failed to parse identity 'myuser'.
Line 12: failed to parse identity 'myuser'.
Line 13: failed to parse password.
Line 13: failed to parse password 'mypass'.
Line 15: unknown network field 'pac-file'.
Line 16: WPA-PSK accepted for key management, but no PSK configured.
Line 16: failed to parse network block.
Failed to read or parse configuration '/var/lib/wicd/configurations/001aa177eae0'.

After I changed the parameters in the templates provided, the connection works well.

[Dan O'Reilly (oreilldf)]

Great, glad you got it working. I committed a fix for the templates as well.

[Andrew Psaltis (nacl)]

As was pointed out on http://bugs.gentoo.org/311955, the typo problem was never fixed. Fixed in r554.