Android USB tethering - Tiny/Micro Core

[Santos]

Hi!

Accessing to the internet with your android phone is pretty straight forward.
No drivers needed or root* on Android device. Almost plug and play.

You just need:

- a good USB cable (from phone to computer)
- a working connection on the phone

Connect the phone and computer through the cable, activate Wifi/Cellular data on the phone and go to: Settings > Connections (or equivalent) > Tethering & portable Hotspot > USB tethering

On your tiny core machine:

Code: [Select]

dmesg | less

And scroll all the way down to check the new connection, you should see something like this:

Code: [Select]

usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_ether
rndis_host 1-4:1.0 usb0: register 'rndis_host' at usb-0000:00:1d.7-4, RNDIS devi
ce,
usbcore: registered new interface driver rndis_host

Check the ID, in this case is: usb0

Then, to activate usb0 as a connection:

Code: [Select]

sudo udhcpc -i usb0

Common issues:
- Connection is dropped, this is very likely your phone's shutting down tethering. Just wake it up and issue command, from tinycore, to "reactivate" connection.
- Phone is not allowing tethering to be activated, it just charges. Try another USB cable.
- ssh not working, idk. Basically phone is an extra router, depending on the Android version there are some workarounds, too much info. to be a put on a simple guide (like subnets and stuff).
- No connection after checking cable and ID on dmesg. This happens most of the time due service provider restrictions on mobile's network/cellular data. Check guides on internet on how to root phone and fix this.

I had checked with all kind of Android phones, from cheap $10 flip phones based on Android up to the latest and greatest LG, Samsung, Huawei phones. All of them provide "basic" internet connection, you can access to the internet but services like ssh are tricky to get it working, by this I mean is a hit and miss, to be precise shh works, you can access to remote computers but from another computer to the one you have the phone attached to, you can't (like a said, phone's an extra router in your local network).

Assuming there is no Ethernet port/cable, obscure driver for wifi card or just for fun.

[vinceASPECT]

hello,

That could be real useful, so thanks.

which version of tcl are you on?

[vinceASPECT]

hello,

this OP actually works.....it works even on very old Laptops (20 years) and very old versions of TCL
(version 5.0.2)

thanks for this information.

This method above enables people to use very old  TCL  machines for internet work....by connecting a new android phone over USB-cable  plugged into the old TCL Laptop.
  (the android phone is connected to WI FI internet....& you then select "usb tethering" on the android device)

....... this stuff above is good because TCL may not have had any appropriate  wi fi drivers for your old USB wi fi dongle on an old TCL Laptop. ( you could not get the web with the  old USB wi fi dongle). So instead, you can now use a new android device over a USB cable. (for tethered internet to the TCL Laptop)



thanks
V

[Santos]

Hi

I'm glad this mini tutorial is helping you out.

This is the usual way I access to the internet with a 15 years old laptop (has this working since I knew about TCL, from release 7), TCL does have drivers for it but when I'm in a hurry and don't want to overload my laptop with drivers and the wifi.tcz extension, I just connect my phone and can enjoy an even faster connection, since the wifi card can reach 54 Mbps over Wifi, but with new Android phones you can get more than that, from the faster USB 2.0 connection (480 Mbps, in theory).