yes you heard right, I recently find out that one can use an Android feature called “USB tethering” to get internet through an Android device. which is really cool since now you don’t have to worry about your wifi card not working in linux since you can just use your old Android device as wifi access point and have internet. not only it’s supported in Linux but it’s also supported in BSD world too. this can enable people in trying out distros like Guix, Parabola etc which doesn’t provide non-free firmware.
just wanted to share this amazing feature I didn’t know :)
Not seeing how this isn’t simply the forever-available stock ‘hotspot’ ?
Computer/laptops WiFi card is dead. Can’t connect to an android hotspot if your WiFi isn’t working.
Thus, usb tethering. It’s a wire, doesn’t need a WiFi card. And the android device can then share ITS WiFi/Data connection through the USB cable
Same settings category as hotspot, available since Android Froyo, 2.2, which was released in 2010.
Yeh, but (to me) a hotspot is WiFi with internet access from a mobile device. Whereas tethering is sharing internet access from a mobile device via a cable (USB).
Kinda like how WiFi doesn’t mean internet access, despite so many people conflating the meanings.