Arch Linux

seekawan

Member

Registered: 2026-05-25

Posts: 12

Can't connect with IWD and WPA2 Enterprise

Hi there,
Got an issue some of you might be familiar to, connecting Network Manager with IWD to a eduroam-like education network.
As it is an already discussed subject, i'll do my best to explain the specificity of this particular issue and the material I found related to it.
In particular https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=276106 which is very similar.

Config is the following:
Network Manager with IWD as backend, config below. For services IWD is disabled - NM is enabled - wpa_supplicant is disabled and dead, only there as a NM dependency.

[device]
wifi.backend=iwd

# Configuration file for NetworkManager.
# See "man 5 NetworkManager.conf" for details.

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

As for the network config it is using wlan0, WPA & WPA2 Enterprise with TTLS and inner PAP with my credentials.

It used to be PEAP, but the institution does not provide certificates. I similarly have issues connecting even with android.

I used this config in var/lib/iwd, it is the only ".8021x" file. I have to say that previous networks I used were in ".psk" and never experienced issues whatsoever.

[Security]
EAP-Method=TTLS
EAP-Identity=anonymous@tld
EAP-TTLS-Phase2-Method=Tunneled-PAP
EAP-TTLS-Phase2-Identity=username@tld
EAP-TTLS-Phase2-Password=password

[Settings]
AutoConnect=true

Now journalctl -r -u NetworkManager yields :

[1788786152.0904] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTING
[1788786152.0905] device (wlan0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
[1788786152.0911] device (wlan0): new IWD device state is connecting
[1788786152.4671] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) Network.Connect failed: GDBus.Error:net.connman.iwd.Failed: Operation failed
[1788786152.4675] device (wlan0): state change: config -> failed (reason 'no-secrets', managed-type: 'full')
[1788786152.4678] manager: NetworkManager state is now DISCONNECTED
[1788786152.4680] device (wlan0): Activation: failed for connection 'thisNetwork'
[1788786152.4680] device (wlan0): new IWD device state is disconnected
[1788786152.4683] device (wlan0): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
[1788786153.8600] device (wlan0): new IWD device state is connecting
[1788786153.8608] device (wlan0): Activation: starting connection 'thisNetwork' (ad3f4d3a-dc29-424a-84c7-9c92bd06c584)
[1788786153.8609] device (wlan0): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
[1788786153.8610] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTING
[1788786153.8611] device (wlan0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
[1788786155.8667] device (wlan0): new IWD device state is connecting
[1788786155.8668] device (wlan0): IWD is connecting to the wrong AP, replacing activation
[1788786155.8669] device (wlan0): state change: config -> disconnected (reason 'supplicant-disconnect', managed-type: 'full')
[1788786155.8675] manager: NetworkManager state is now DISCONNECTED
[1788786155.8682] device (wlan0): Activation: starting connection 'aOneThatWorks' 

and then it connects successfully to this other network using WPA2 personal

So as you see I have the "no secrets" error, previously with PEAP it was the "supplicant failed" error.
I tried best practices from https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Iwd#WPA_Enterprise and https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … n_with_iwd but to no avail.

Please ask me more details if needed

Last edited by seekawan (Yesterday 17:17:03)