Joining a Raspberry Pi running Raspberry OS "Buster" (Debian 10) to the RPI_wpa2 wireless service

Overview

This document describes the quirks of joining a Raspberry Pi running Raspberry OS "Buster" (Debian 10) to the RPI_wpa2 wireless service.   When trying to connect to 802.1x WiFi with WPA enterprise on Raspberry Pi,  the WiFi access point is greyed out.  It is because Raspberry Pi is using the simple network service on the GUI.  But Raspberry Pi OS supports 802.1x enterprise WiFi. The simplest way to setup the connection to 802.1x enterprise WiFi on Raspberry Pi is to use standard Linux network manager to replace the simple network service.

Procedure

Installation:

1. Open the terminal window on Raspberry Pi, and run below commands to get the standard Linux network manager installed.

   sudo apt install network-manager network-manager-gnome
   sudo systemctl disable --now dhcpcd
   sudo systemctl enable --now network-manager
   sudo reboot

   Explanation:

   1st line is to install the Linux network manager

   2nd line is to disable the DHCP, because DHCP will not work with the network manager.  Don't worry, this does not disable the local machine's ability to ACQUIRE a DHCP address.

   3rd line is to enable the network manager service

   Last line is to reboot the device.

2. After rebooting the device, you will be able to see a new network icon in the menubar, click on the icon, and you will see all the network interfaces and wireless services available.  Select RPI_WPA2.
3. Fill in the information as you normally do:

   WiFi security: WPA & WPA2 Enterprise
   Authentication: Protected EAP (PEAP)
   Anonymous identity: <RCS ID or TAGS ID>
   Domain: rpi.edu
   CA certificate: (None)
   CA certificate password: <blank>
   No CA Certificate is required: place a checkmark in this box
   PEAP version: Automatic
   Inner Authentication: MSCHAP2
   Username: <RCS ID or TAGS ID>
   Password: <RCS or TAGS password>

Troubleshooting:

To see the current status of all the network interfaces:

ip a

To see wireless information: 

iwconfig

References/Links

This file was created by David Bebb, Senior Network Administrator, EMPAC, on 1/6/23.  Please contact bebbd@rpi.edu with any questions or corrections.