How can I connect to AirPennNet with my Linux laptop?

Graphical Configuration

Network Manager

With KDE, Gnome, and Unity based distributions like openSUSE, Fedora, and Ubuntu you should be able to connect to AirPennNet using the built-in graphical network utilities. Typically these tools are wrappers around "NetworkManager". When you go to add 'AirPennNet', please utilize the following parameters:

AirPennNet Configuration

• Security: WPA2 Enterprise
• Authentication: TTLS (Tunneled TLS)
• Inner Authentication: PAP
• CA / Certificate: Use System CA Certs if available.
• Also download these two certificates from Penn's website:
  
  • AddTrust External CA Root
  • UTN-UserFirst-Hardware Intermediary
• Username / Password: your PennKey credentials

WiCD configuration

Some Linux distributions utilize another network utility known as WiCD. For this setup, you can save a Penn template in the wicd template directory. Location can vary from distribution to distribution, and on some machines can be found at: /etc/wicd/encryption/templates. So for example, here is /etc/wicd/encryption/templates/penn:

Name:PENN
Author: John Doe
Version: 1
Username: YOUR PENNNAME
Password: YOUR PASSWORD

ctrl_interface: /var/run/wpa_supplicant
network: {
ssid: "$_ESSID"
scan_ssid: $_SCAN
key_mgmt: WPA-EAP
eap: TTLS
phase2: "auth=PAP"
identity: YOUR PENNNAME
password: YOUR PASSWORD
ca_cert: "/etc/ssl/certs/UTN_USERFirst_Hardware_Root_CA.pem"}

Edit the file /etc/wicd/encryptions/templates/active and add a line containing the name of the file you created in /etc/wicd/encryption/templates, then reastart Wicd. Before connecting to AirPennNet, click on 'properties', then select 'use encryption' and choose 'PENN'.

If you are having problems connecting with either of the above graphical methods, first attempt to connect to AirPennNet-Guest to verify that your wireless hardware is in-fact working. If you continue to have issues, please the troubleshooting section below.

Troubleshooting

Known Issues

Below are some issues we've come across in our community. You may have to look at your Linux distribution's documentation for specific instructions on fixes.

• Jan 2014 - There are known issues with some Linux wireless drivers and 11n frame aggregation used on campus wireless equipment. Unfortunately, this seems to be a problem with the Linux drivers. We have disabling 11n frame aggregation within the SEAS buildings - if your machine works in SEAS but no where else on campus, there is a good chance you are afflicted by this issue. A work-around for certain Intel wireless chipsets using the 'iwlwifi' kernel driver involves disabling 11n support via the '11n_disable' parameter. We are also seeing issues with some Realtek drivers (RTL8188CE) that we haven't determined a good work-around yet.

Information needed for CETS support:

• Your version of Linux ('cat /etc/issue')
• A copy of your log files. You can provide us a filtered version if you are privacy conscious.
• The output from terminal of the following:
• ip addr
• ip route
• lspci -v
• lsmod
• uname -a
• iwconfig

Manual Configuration

These are generic instructions for configuring a Linux machine to work with AirPennNet. Please note these are general guidelines and you might need to alter them for the files in your specific distribution. If you have a graphical desktop environment installed, it is highly recommended to use the networking tools from the GUI! If you are having trouble with a desktop version of Ubuntu 12.04+ (most popular distro we come across) you should NOT be using these instructions.

1. You need an 802.1X supplicant.  Many versions of Linux come with wpa_supplicant.  Put the following text in wpa_supplicant.conf.  This file might be in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf or /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf or similar location:

   ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=2
ap_scan=1

network={
priority=1
ssid="AirPennNet"
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
eap=TTLS
phase2="auth=PAP"
identity="<YOUR_PENNNAME>"
ca_cert="/etc/ssl/certs/UTN_USERFirst_Hardware_Root_CA.pem"
}

2. Edit your network interfaces file to refer to wpa_supplicant.
   
   Example 1: Ubuntu
   The interfaces file would be /etc/network/interfaces.
   The following text goes under the wireless device section of this file:
   

   wpa-driver wext
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf


   
   Example 2: Gentoo
   The interfaces file might be /etc/conf.d/net
   The following text goes into this file:
   

   config_wlan0=("dhcp")
modules=("wpa_supplicant")
wpa_supplicant_wlan0="-Dwext"
wpa_timeout_wlan0=60

3. In one window, start the command wpa_cli.
4. Bring your wireless interface up.  Do this with ifup or ifconfig, however you typically start your interface
5. In the wpa_cli window, issue the password command:
   

   password 1 <your pennkey password>

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