problem in passthroughing USB tethering to VM

why-be-banned

Member
Apr 4, 2023
44
4
8
Proxmox VE 8.0.4
Linux 6.2.16-6-pve #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.2.16-7 (2023-08-01T11:23Z)

What I did:

1.Enabled USB tethering in my phone.
Screenshot_20230829-212916_Settings.png

2.passthroughed USB tethering to VM
屏幕截图 2023-08-29 214505.png
another way to pass through:
屏幕截图 2023-08-29 214308.png

The problem is:
In the windows VM, the "Remote NDIS internet sharing device" appeared for 0.1 second, then disappeared, then appeared again, then disappeared again..... again and again.

屏幕截图 2023-08-29 215441.jpg

I have tested it with another phone and have the same problem.
I have tested on another PVE machine and have the same problem.
I have tested it on a windows physical machine and there is no such problem.
 
Last edited:
I'm just curious, but what is the use-case for this? Why can't your VM use your regular Internet/LAN connection and you are trying to use a whole separate network with tethering instead?
 
I'm going to try tethering my phone at the host level on a spare server, will post back.

It works.

If you have a laptop you should still be able to hook it up to a local wired-ethernet LAN and share the internet between multiple devices in your own room, but I would recommend setting up a squid + pihole server so your ISP only sees requests coming from 1 device.

https://www.datahoards.com/installing-pi-hole-inside-a-proxmox-lxc-container/

And I would recommend to make sure you have at least 25-50GB/month phone data plan, and do not plan on watching streaming videos.

Details:

. Tethered android phone to my laptop running PVE - network interface showed up as "enx"+macaddress
. Set that interface to autostart and gave it a comment, with nothing else in the fields

. Created Bridge "vmbr4", set to autostart, put "Bridge ports" as the enx* adapter with a comment, and nothing else in the fields

. Created a Debian 12 Container with defaults (512 RAM/512 swap, 1 core)

Under Network eth0, I pointed it to vmbr4, no VLAN, no firewall
IPV4: DHCP
IPV6: SLAAC
DNS: 9.9.9.9, 1.1.1.1

Container booted up and got a DHCP 192.168.35.x IP address (not using my home / router network)

Was able to ping google, apt-get update, apt-get install packages with no issues.

Now I have not tested this solely with the phone tether and no other connection, as PVE is not really designed to work without a static address.
But the initial results are promising, and other VMs / containers should also be able to use vmbr4.

Others may be able to chime in on how to share things with NAT, setup pfsense / opnsense / ipfire, etc but it works as proof-of-concept without having to passthru a USB port to VM.

Epilogue: No idea what country / area you're in or what monthly budget you have, but in the US: Verizon Wireless offers a little white-cube wireless Internet router with 2x 1Gbit Ethernet ports and unlimited Internet (no data caps.)
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your reply, I have bought a 5G CPE device, it has Ethernet ports.

It works.

If you have a laptop you should still be able to hook it up to a local wired-ethernet LAN and share the internet between multiple devices in your own room, but I would recommend setting up a squid + pihole server so your ISP only sees requests coming from 1 device.

https://www.datahoards.com/installing-pi-hole-inside-a-proxmox-lxc-container/

And I would recommend to make sure you have at least 25-50GB/month phone data plan, and do not plan on watching streaming videos.

Details:

. Tethered android phone to my laptop running PVE - network interface showed up as "enx"+macaddress
. Set that interface to autostart and gave it a comment, with nothing else in the fields

. Created Bridge "vmbr4", set to autostart, put "Bridge ports" as the enx* adapter with a comment, and nothing else in the fields

. Created a Debian 12 Container with defaults (512 RAM/512 swap, 1 core)

Under Network eth0, I pointed it to vmbr4, no VLAN, no firewall
IPV4: DHCP
IPV6: SLAAC
DNS: 9.9.9.9, 1.1.1.1

Container booted up and got a DHCP 192.168.35.x IP address (not using my home / router network)

Was able to ping google, apt-get update, apt-get install packages with no issues.

Now I have not tested this solely with the phone tether and no other connection, as PVE is not really designed to work without a static address.
But the initial results are promising, and other VMs / containers should also be able to use vmbr4.

Others may be able to chime in on how to share things with NAT, setup pfsense / opnsense / ipfire, etc but it works as proof-of-concept without having to passthru a USB port to VM.

Epilogue: No idea what country / area you're in or what monthly budget you have, but in the US: Verizon Wireless offers a little white-cube wireless Internet router with 2x 1Gbit Ethernet ports and unlimited Internet (no data caps.)
 

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