How to Connect to eduroam and UniWireless at Unimelb on Linux (IWD / Network Manager)

27/07/2025

When I first started at Unimelb, I had a bit of difficulty trying to connect to the WiFi since they use an enterprise network. In fact I spent the first few days of uni working off my hotspot because I was still trying to figure out how to connect to the WiFi.

Although they do provide some guidance for configuring the network on desktop environments like Gnome or KDE, for window managers like Hyprland, I3 or AwesomeWM, that configuration for those platforms will have to be done manually.

Luckily if you're a first year you don't have to spend time trying to get your WiFi working during your Today's Science Tomorrow's World lecture (if you even go to them) since I've got a working configuration file for IWD and NetworkManager.

IWD

I use IWD for my laptop so I had to create a config file. Use sudo su to become root and created this file

[IPv4]
DNS=8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

[IPv6]
Enabled=true

[Security]
EAP-Method=PEAP
EAP-Identity=anonymous@student.unimelb.edu.au
EAP-PEAP-Phase2-Method=MSCHAPV2
EAP-PEAP-Phase2-Identity=YOUR UNIMELB EMAIL
EAP-PEAP-Phase2-Password=YOUR UNIMELB PASSWORD

[Settings]
Autoconnect=true

Use this configuration for UniWireless:

[IPv4]
DNS=8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

[IPv6]
Enabled=true

[Security]
EAP-Method=PEAP
EAP-Identity=anonymous@student.unimelb.edu.au
EAP-PEAP-Phase2-Method=MSCHAPV2
EAP-PEAP-Phase2-Identity=YOUR UNIMELB USERNAME
EAP-PEAP-Phase2-Password=YOUR UNIMELB PASSWORD

systemctl restart iwd

Now try connecting to the network:

iwctl station wlan0 connect eduroam
iwctl station wlan0 connect UniWireless

Network Manager (nmcli)

Run the following commands as root or with sudo:

nmcli con add type wifi ifname wlan0 con-name eduroam ssid eduroam
nmcli con edit id eduroam

Once there set the following properties in nmcli:

set ipv4.method auto
set 802-1x.eap peap
set 802-1x.phase2-auth mschapv2
set 802-1x.identity YOUR UNIMELB EMAIL
set 802-1x.anonymous-identity anonymous@student.unimelb.edu.au
set 802-1x.password YOUR UNIMELB PASSWORD
set wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-eap
save
activate

To connect in the future:

nmcli device wifi connect eduroam

For UniWireless:

nmcli con add type wifi ifname wlan0 con-name UniWireless ssid UniWireless
nmcli con edit id UniWireless

set ipv4.method auto
set 802-1x.eap peap
set 802-1x.phase2-auth mschapv2
set 802-1x.identity YOUR UNIMELB USERNAME
set 802-1x.anonymous-identity anonymous@student.unimelb.edu.au
set 802-1x.password YOUR UNIMELB PASSWORD
set wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-eap
save
activate

nmcli device wifi connect UniWireless