Using wicd on UCR's WPA network

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:46:59 -0800
debian, tech, ucr, wicd

UC Riverside's wireless network uses WPA-EAP for the encrypted network. [The unencrypted network does a https based browser capture.] Unfortunately, none of the default wicd encryption templates support the precise brand of WPA that the network does, so you have to make your own template. Luckily, wicd makes this fairly simple:

Create a new template, say, /etc/wicd/encryption/templates/eap-only, with appropriate contents.

 name = EAP
 author = Don Armstrong
 version = 1
 require identity *Identity passwd *Password

 -----
 ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
 network={
    ssid="$_ESSID"
    key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
    identity="$_IDENTITY"
    password="$_PASSWD"
 }

Then tell wicd about this new template by editing /etc/wicd/encryption/templates/active and adding eap-only to the existing list of templates, and restart wicd /etc/init.d/wicd restart. [I'm not sure if restarting wicd is necessary, but it shouldn't hurt.]

Finally, configure the network using the appropriate wicd interface as usual.