usb tethering

A

aoxomoxoa

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Dec 29, 2025
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I have a new pve install. I would like to tether it to my Samsung S20+ phone for Internet access.

I connect the phone to a USB port on a Dell Optiplex 790 (I know, ancient, but it works very nicely).

lsusb shows this:

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04e8:6864 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9070 (network tethering, USB Debugging enabled)

which looks like it recognizes the phone without issues.

"ip a" shows the interface with state "down"

"ip link set <enx...> up"

followed by "ip a" shows state UNKNOWN

"dhclient <enx...>" doesn't complain, but pinging google.com gets a "destination net unreachable".

help me out, please.
 
W

Post in thread 'problem in passthroughing USB tethering to VM'

Thanks for your reply, I have bought a 5G CPE device, it has Ethernet ports.

Kingneutron said:
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:

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Click to expand...
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See my comments ^^ , you should be able to create a bridge at the PVE level and use it in an (to start, try Unprivileged) LXC to share the connection with Squid proxy on :3128 to other virt instances. You can set proxy vars in the PVE web gui and/or at the bash prompt to use squid.

root ~ # cat setproxy.sh
#!/bin/bash

ip=192.168.1.251:3128
#ip=172.16.10.1:800

# this is to fix ssl packet length errors with apt
#export https_proxy=https://$ip #:3128
export https_proxy=http://$ip #:3128

export http_proxy=http://$ip #:3128
export ftp_proxy=http://$ip #:3128
set |grep proxy=


For long-term, I suggest you get something like a Verizon Orbic hotspot or mobile / travel router. Proxmox expects a static Ethernet connection.
 
did you mean to post that in this thread, Kingneutron ?

All I want is to get the host connected. No VMs involved.
 
Of course I meant to. Proxmox is not designed to work with just a wireless connection.

Connect your tether to an LXC and share it out to the host, then everything on that instance can talk to the Internet thru the proxy.
 
this doesn't work ?

Method 1: USB Tethering (Recommended for Host)

  1. Enable Tethering: On your phone, turn on Mobile Hotspot and connect your Proxmox server via USB cable, then enable USB Tethering in your phone's settings.
  2. Check Interfaces: On the Proxmox host (via console/SSH), run ip a and find the USB interface (e.g., usb0).
  3. Bring Interface Up: Run ip link set usb0 up and then dhclient usb0 to get an IP address and internet.
  4. Connect & Manage: Now your Proxmox host has internet, allowing you to download updates and manage it via its static IP, but VMs need extra NAT setup.
 
I don't want to share the Internet connection with VMs.

All I want is to have the host itself connected.

My host appears to recognize the phone, but it won't (yet) change the status to "UP".

That is what I want to fix.
 
I gave you a method that should work. You seem fixated on an X/Y problem. TBH, it's annoying.

I'm on vacation, and not wasting any more time on this thread. You're apparently not willing to try following simple instructions to get you to a place that should accomplish what you want.
 
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