Installed is not the same as working. A fresh FreeRADIUS runs happily while knowing zero devices and zero people. This page separates the one-minute install from the few extra steps that make it a real login server.
Quick setup videos are right about the install — it is fast. But beginners then hit a wall: the service is running, yet no login works anywhere. Nothing is broken. A default FreeRADIUS authenticates nobody real, because nobody has told it which devices may ask and which people may log in. This page lists exactly what the one minute leaves undone, so you can finish the job instead of debugging a healthy server.
When the video title says one minute, it is talking about the install — and that part is honest. sudo apt install -y freeradius freeradius-utils, the service starts, it listens on UDP 1812 and 1813, and it will even answer a test login from its own built-in localhost entry. As a piece of software, it is fully working.
What it is not, yet, is a login system for your network. Out of the box it knows zero real devices and zero real people. If you stopped here and pointed your office access point at this server, every single login would fail — not because anything is broken, but because nothing has been told about your office yet.
/etc/freeradius/3.0/clients.conf with its IP and a shared secret. Unregistered devices are ignored completely.users file first, later your real directory.None of these four is long. Together they are the difference between "software installed" and "people can log in".
Use this finish line instead of the installer's success message:
radtest from the server returns Access-Accept for your test usersudo freeradius -X) shows the request arriving and being acceptedUntil all three are true, the setup is a promising start, not a finished job. Plan your time honestly: a minute to install, roughly fifteen unhurried minutes to a verified first real login.
The complete setup on a real Ubuntu server — install, first client, first user and the live test, all shown step by step in the video.
▶️ Watch Full VideoAlmost certainly not. A fresh install has no client entries for your switch or access point and no real users, so there is nothing it can say yes to. Add your device to clients.conf with a shared secret, add a test user, restart, and prove it locally with radtest before suspecting a fault.
For a quick lab test with simple password authentication, you can get surprisingly far without touching certificates. But real WPA2 or WPA3 Enterprise logins on phones and laptops use EAP methods that present a server certificate, and devices will warn or refuse if it is missing or self-signed without being trusted. For production WiFi, certificates are part of the job, not an optional extra.
The install is about a minute. Adding the first client and user, passing the radtest check and completing one real device login usually takes fifteen to thirty careful minutes. Connecting FreeRADIUS to an existing user directory or rolling out certificates to many devices is a bigger project measured in hours, not minutes.