Tethering an Android phone to Ubuntu without jailbreaking or installing applications

There are many guides out there on the web for tethering an Android phone to your Ubuntu laptop, so that you can use the phone's mobile data network connection when you're out of range of wi-fi. They're all complicated, and they all involve installing some random bit of software: they ask you to download the Android SDK and install Proxoid or install OpenVPN and AziLink or use adb forward to forward a port for a proxy server or put shell scripts on your phone (!) or some similar horrible thing. Here is how to do it. This approach works without jailbreaking your Android phone. It works without installing any software from the Android Market. It Just Works.
  1. Plug your phone (mine is a HTC Hero, aka the T-Mobile G2 Touch) into your laptop with USB.
  2. On the phone, drag down the notifications bar at the top of the screen. Choose "USB connected Select to copy files to/from your computer". In the "USB connected" dialog, say "Don't mount".
  3. On the phone, from the home screen, tick Menu > Settings > Wireless controls > Mobile network sharing. (If you don't have a "Mobile network sharing" option, then your phone doesn't support this easy way of doing it. Sorry. Try one of the above linked approaches; I liked the Proxoid approach, myself.)
  4. Network Manager will now connect.
That's it. That's all you need. Never have an offline laptop again. Who needs "mobile broadband", eh? I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic), and a T-Mobile G2 Touch with the HTC Sense UI (which comes with it in the UK). If you're not, your mileage may vary. Thanks very much to @phowardcom for this startling revelation! update: it looks suspiciously like this connection sharing feature is specific to the HTC Hero. Updated to correct "mobile network sharing", thanks Stoffe

Comments

  1. Marius Gedminas says:
    Ah, but can you do that without wires, i.e. over Bluetooth?
  2. Luis says:
    Not working here in the US with a G1. Sure there isn't some magic to be done once you're at that settings page?
  3. Derek Buranen says:
    For the record, the G2 is an HTC Magic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Magic The Hero is way cooler with its 3.5 mm jack, but alas not yet available in the US.
  4. Derek Buranen says:
    Oh, I lied, you're right. I'm jealous Mr. UK!
  5. Stuart Langridge: Tethering an Android phone to Ubuntu without jailbreaking or installing applications | Full-Linux.com says:
    [...] an Android phone to Ubuntu without jailbreaking or installing applications is now available in this link…: News [...]
  6. Vadim P. says:
    "On the phone, from the home screen, tick Menu > Settings > Wireless controls > Mobile network settings." So you open that settings part and then... ?
  7. Stoffe says:
    The instructions are actually even simpler: 1. Plug in cable 2. Menu > Settings > Wireless controls > Mobile Network Sharing Note that the menu to be picked is Mobile Network *Sharing*, not Settings. An no need to choose not to mount or anything, either. Seems to just work.
  8. Anonymous Coward says:
    This is indeed specific to the Hero; I got my Hero recently and my friend with G1 does not have this option (and therefore has to resort to the hacks you describe).
  9. sil says:
    Stoffe: thanks, and main article corrected.
  10. ferry says:
    I have a Samsung Galaxy. I'm on Fedora and for me it works as well, Network Manager sees the phone and can connect.
  11. Philip says:
    Does this work on Ubuntu 9.04. Does this work with the Vodafone HTC Magic (UK) or the Orange HTC Hero (UK)? Just about to ditch my windows mobile phone, which I now have sharing a 3G over bluetooth.
  12. sil says:
    Philip: I don't know about 9.04; I'm running a 9.10 pre-release (I'm a developer). I'm pretty sure it does, though. It does not work on the Magic, but it does work on the Hero.
  13. DaveGK says:
    What about syncing Thunderbird address book and calendar with HTC Hero? Just about to place an order for one of those at eXpansys in UK. I'm running Jaunty 9.04 64-bit.
  14. sil says:
    DaveGK: easiest way would be to sync TB with Google and then sync Android with Google as well; that's what I do.
  15. DaveGK says:
    @sil Thanks, I've never used my gmail account for anything, other than "email to give to someone I don't care to hear from again" kind of thing. I only check it once a month, if that :) Does having an Android OS means I have to start using it "properly"? I'd really prefer not to - I'm rather happy with the present setup - I have four private and three business POP/IMAP accounts in TB. I can deal with calendar manually, but the address book I'd really love to sync with Hero. I'll have a look it up at Google to see how I can sync TB with it - I have no idea at the moment... Surely non-Windows PDA must be better at syncing with ubuntu/linix? Hopefully :)
  16. insomniux says:
    @DaveGK, I use the Hero-Gmail-TB trias for syncing my address book and calender. Works perfect! Initially had the same hesitations, but advantage is: you have an external backup of your addresses. BTW I was also highly surprised that a linux based OS-smartphone could not directly sync with Ubuntu. Don't understand, but some things in life seem to stay an unresolved mistery... :-)
  17. DaveGK says:
    @insomniux, I did have a look at different options - ZIndus etc, but there are plenty of reports, or rather complaints, regarding eventual corruption of data on both TB and Gmail. Naturally, I'm a bit worried about that. What do you use and how reliable this process is? Also had a look at gmail contact options - seems very basic. Where all the additional info I have in TB will go? I'd really appreciate your advice as to how to best set it all up.
  18. Squirrelly says:
    I try this on a Sprint HTC Hero in the US, and it does network connect it to my computer, but then my phone drops its data connection to the network until I disable this. Sprint doesn't support data tethering with their current data plans, so I'm figuring this is being blocked in that way then.