Tethering problem

[wtb32141]

I recently reinstalled Kubuntu 15.10 with a new home directory that is dedicated to 15.10. I want to tether my smartphone to my desktop PC and have the phone's internet signal pass thru the phone to the PC so that I can surf the net on my PC. I want to connect the phone to the PC with a USB cable. I have tried several times, and none has succeeded. When I was running Kubuntu 14.04, I got USB tethering to work daily for a month. My phone, an LG G Stylo, has 2 settings that are relevant to tethering. One is "Mobile Data", which toggles (ON/OFF) the internet signal to the phone. The other one is "Tethering" (also an ON/OFF switch). I execute the following 3 steps in the order listed:

1. I turn on Mobile Data and get the internet signal on the phone.
2. I connect the USB cable from the PC to the phone.
3. I turn On the phone's tethering switch.

Result: The phone's internet signal does not get to the PC.

Someone suggested I use Bluetooth. Why use Bluetooth when USB tethering will work? I know it will work because it did when I was running 14.04, and I was perfectly satisfied with it. I used it to download the ISO for Kubuntu 15.10. The download took 22 minutes, and it worked great.

Does anyone have some suggestions for me to get USB tethering to work on Kubuntu 15.10?

[sithlord48]

try turning tethering on before you connect the phone to your pc

[wtb32141]

Thanks for your suggestion, but it won't work. Reason: The phone imposes a specific sequence. Upon selecting the phone's tethering option, a new screen is presented with 2 possibilities: (1) USB cable and (2) mobile hotspot. The first of those 2 options is greyed out (and hence non-selectable) unless the USB cable is connected. Once the USB cable is connected, the greying disappears, and "USB cable tethering" becomes selectable.

[wtb32141]

Problem 1: The site https://wiki.debian.org says, "Using DebianWheezy with Gnome and the NetworkManager and Android 4.1.2 the process [of tethering a phone to a PC] was very simple:

1. connect the mobile phone to your computer
2. activate USB tethering ...
3. the NetworkManager identified the mobile phone as network connection and you are ready to go."

Those words effectively say that all one must do is connect the phone to the PC, turn on the phone's mobile data so it gets the internet signal, and then turn on the phone's tethering option. At that point, you can launch your browser and begin surfing the net [since Network Manager has done the rest].

Well, that procedure does NOT work with my system, which is running Kubuntu 15.10, and I would like to know (1) why it doesn't work and (2) how to fix the problem.

Problem 2: A related problem is:

If Network Manager is not going to do its thing for me, I thought, "Well do it yourself." So I tried manually to create a USB interface. If I succeeded, then I could get the interface UP, and maybe that would solve Problem 1. So I added the following items to the /etc/network/interfaces file:

iface usb0 inet static
address 192.168.0.1
netmask 255.255.255.0

Judging by ifconfig, that addition to the file did NOT create a usb0 interface. I know next to nil about networks, and I know zero about Network Manager. Has anyone any thoughts about my problem 1 and/or problem 2?

[claydoh]

problem 2 is that network manager does not use /etc/network/interfaces so that likely won't help.

I recently was out of the US and had a crash course in tethering as my phone though quite happy using a Vodafone sim for data would not let me tether in any fashion without having a verizon sim card in it, so i had to use an app called easythether on the phone which requires pc software (linux version available!!) to get around this as some carriers restrict tethering if you don't have the correct plan or pay extra.

Now for regular usb tethering , what I have to do is open up network manager's connection editor and go add >> Mobile Broadband and follow the wizard that comes up. Once i did that it works just fine except that it takes a minute or 2 to connect as my particular phone first identifies itself as a cd rom (to install windows drivers/software) for a bit before switching to normal USB, and it still takes a few moments to get going, which is similar to how long it takes a usb mobile data dongle to get up and running. You can configure the connection to connect automatically when it is detected. Not sure why it does not auto configure, assuming that it used to in older versions of *buntu.

[wtb32141]

I did as you suggested (Add Mobile Broadband), but I cannot get it to connect. The connection that was added persists from 1 day to the next without reentering the info, but when I select the mobile broadband connection, the Connect and Disconnect items in the menu are grayed out and therefore unselectable. All I entered was the provider and the access point name. I set password and PIN to Not Required. I did nothing with PPP or IPv4. Is anything else required?

When I was running Kubuntu 14.04, I installed WICD. With it, I set 2 items: (1) Create ad hoc network and (2) Enable internet sharing. That's pretty simple, and it worked perfectly. Unfortunately, WICD is not in 15.10's software center, but it is available in Debian's repository. What would happen if I added Debian's repository to Kubuntu 15.10's list of repositories? I'm inclined to say it would not work, but I'm really not sure. I have no experience at all of going outside of a given distribution's repositories to get needed software. I also need a program called Simple Scan. Kubuntu 15.10's repositories do not have it, but Debian's (the current release) do.

[claydoh]

I'll check what my settings are for it when I get home after work tonight. I can't remember the exact things I edited or had to specify but it was not much info at all.

As to adding debian repos, that is not a safe thing to do. There are enough differences that it will wreak havoc on your computer. Individual packages may work but no guarantees.

wicd should be available still just maybe not the kde front end if they have not made a plasma 5 version of it. The gtk version could work but I have no idea.

Are you sure that simple scan is not available in 15.10?
http://packages.ubuntu.com/wily/simple-scan

Kubuntu provides Skanlite which is similar to that tool.

sent from my LG V10 using Tapatalk

[claydoh]

I note that it takes some time, a few moments to a minute or more for it to show up (i did not time it or anything)
I have AT&T so my settings were pretty simple. Note that I did NOT have to specify an APN or other name as I did not change from "default" in the last pane. Perhaps your provider has specific settings for it?

[wtb32141]

I just now saw your last post. Thank you for the info. I also have some news: I reinstalled Kubuntu 14.04. I have tried tethering 8 times yesterday and today. The first 7 attempts behaved similarly: It would connect; a web page would display; but the phone's internet connection would be dropped after a minute or less. BUT the last time it has stayed connected for 20 minutes, and I'm typing this message with it still connected. I tried this ploy this last time: I closed all applications running on my PC except the browser (Firefox). This success may or may not continue, but at least I'm hopeful. I have been without internet access on my PC at home for about 2 weeks--a bummer.

Re WICD: It was available in Kubuntu 14.04's software center about 2 months ago, but it's not there now. Ditto for Simple-Scan.

Re SkanLite: It will not scan a document into a PDF file, but Simple-Scan will. That's why I want Simple-Scan.

[wtb32141]

Using the reinstalled Kubuntu 14.04 I stayed connected and surfed the internet several hours yesterday afternoon. No problems at all arose. This morning I again have connected and it's working as well as it did yesterday. Again I am running no application other than Firefox. It's clear to me that one or more of the other applications that I was running while trying to conect and stay connected was causing the phone's internet signal to be dropped within a minute of it connecting to the internet. I will experiment with those other applications to see if I can pinpoint the culprit.

I'm going to stay with 14.04 for now. Kubuntu 15.10 was causing screen flickering, and the menus within Writer sometimes misbehaved. That problem with Writer might be due to the fact that the documents were created with an earlier version of Writer. Thanks again for your help.

[GreyGeek]

You are using your phone's 4G to connect your laptop to the Internet because? (No local ISP?)
How do you avoid consuming your data and getting nicked for overages?
I currently use about 300MB of cellular data a month because most of the time this iPhone6 is connected via my wifi.
Mt wife uses 20MB/mo. Judging from the iPhone use of my two grandsons if I used tethering my useage would be somewhere between 6GB/mo (9 yo grandson) and 20GB/mo (21 yo grandson).

[wtb32141]

I have tethered my phone to a desktop PC. My phone service comes from MetroPCS, which is a subsidiary of T-Mobile. MetroPCS has 4 plans ranging in cost from $30 a month to $60 a month. The $60 a month plan gives unlimited 4G LTE high-speed internet service. No state sales taxes are added to those monthly fees. I was paying $81 a month (including sales taxes) for a landline from CenturyLink. If I buy MetroPCS's most expensive monthly plan ($60 a month), I'm still saving $21 a month. I think that's a pretty good deal.

If you buy a cheaper plan from MetroPCS and you exceed your monthly allotment of high-speed data, then the service continues but at a slower speed (which is too slow). The slower-speed usage does not increase your monthly bill. I'm on the $40 a month plan (3 GB a month of high-speed data) now, and I will see how it goes. If I use it all before the month ends, then I'll go up to the $50 a month plan and see how that goes. But the most I will have to pay is $60 a month.

[sithlord48]

I just tried to teather my phone, i did the following

* plug in the phone to usb
* turn on the option in the phone to enable teather via usb.
* Network manager connected to a new network called "Wired Network 2"

Laptop: Linux 4.4.5 ,Plasma 5.6 , NetworkManager 1.0.12, KF 5.20.0 ,Qt 5.6
Phone: Nexus 4 running pacrom (Based on Android 5.1.2 Lolipop)

[wtb32141]

Thanks for your info. I reinstalled Kubuntu 14.04. I am tethered to my phone now as I type this note. But the first few times I tried to tether, it would connect, but after a minute or less the phone would lose the internet signal (every time). Finally, I decided to close all running applications on my PC except the Firefox browser, and I got instant success. It stayed connected for several hours until I shut down the computer. Since then tethering has worked well every time I have tried it, and I'm running 2 other applications now. Why I had problems initially is beyond me. I just don't know. But after 2 weeks of having no internet access on my PC, it's awfully nice to be able to surf the net again on my PC. I'm going to stick with 14.04 for now. I appreciate your input.