Tethering the mobile phone connection is an indispensable tool for those who are traveling a lot and need to get stuff done on a to the internet connected device. Sailfish OS allows users to create a WLAN-Hotspot to share the phone’s mobile connection. While this works very well and often is the only option, it’s not that energy efficient. Running an active hotspot consumes noticeable more battery and doesn’t make much sense if you only connect one device at a time – especially if you use a laptop computer you can connect with a USB cable to your Jolla.
Not released but on development roadmap
USB-tethering isn’t officially released yet by Jolla, but concerned package can be installed already now (I’ve been using it without flaws since months). According to Philippe De Swert on together.jolla.com a reason it hasn’t been released is:
…This is about using the phones data connection from the pc. There is a solution but due to UI issues related to roaming it has not been released.
In fact I could observe that even with turned off mobile networking and WLAN (via Settings UI), USB tethering was still possible. So if you have limited internet data or are abroad, I would be careful and un-plug the phone from your computer as soon as you don’t need tethering anymore.
According to a published Sailfish OS roadmap (from 16.01.15), Jolla has been working on implementing USB tethering to the Sailfish user interface (not included yet in early-access upgrade 1.1.2 Yliaavanlampi).
Need USB-tethering now?
Those who can’t wait, can manually install it using developer mode and the command line interface (terminal).
As always and since this is unreleased stuff – do it at your own risk! (Source)
- Go to Settings / System / Developer mode → enable Developer mode + Remote connection and set/generate a password (don’t forget to press Save)
- Open “Terminal” application and type devel-su to get root privileges – confirm with your password
- Enter pkcon install usb-moded-connection-sharing-android-config and install packages
- Turn off developer mode if not needed anymore or at least disable Remote connection
- Reboot your Jolla to activate USB-tethering
Now simply connect your phone to a computer via USB and you get the familiar popup with a new option called « Internet sharing ». Click on that and within seconds your computer should be connected to the internet.
On Ubuntu/GNOME you get a notification once the connection is established, while OSX won’t tell you anything – but an active connection is showed under Settings / Network. It shouldn’t be much different on Windows. If you want to remove the package, use pkcon remove usb-moded-connection-sharing-android-config and reboot your Jolla.
Active internet connection on OSX
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