Unbelievable : Android (Froyo) on the Samsung Galaxy Tab doesn't "tether" ?...
 

These days I've been playing with a Samsung Galaxy Tab I have "on loan". This is my first contact with Android (Froyo 2.2).

There have been many good and bad surprises, but one in particular leaves me speechless...

The tablet works fine on Wifi at home, but of course I don't have a second SIM card (data plan) to test it on 3G. So I thought, no sweat, I'll just tether it to my N900 and give it a go...

Well, I've searched high and low on various Android forums (some good, some bad :-), and unbelievably, it just appears to be... simply *not possible*, not through USB, and not through Bluetooth !

WTF ? I must have been using Maemo for too long :-)

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I'm not sure I understand, are you using mobile hotspot on the n900 for the tab to connect to it? That should work fine. If you are trying to use the n900 as a 3g modem, that is not going to work.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I had no problem to use Bluetooth tethering between an Archos 70 (almost identical to a Samsung Galaxy Tab) and my N900. However, Ad-hoc WiFi is such a major PITA that I gave up completely.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I don't count Wifi (ad hoc or otherwise) as tethering, strictly speaking -- although I know everyone uses the word as they please nowadays, which accounts for much of the confusion in those forums topics :-)

As Ayle said, I was referring to the classic notion of USB or Bluetooth DUN, ie using the phone as a modem indeed. Like I did with past and present phones, my various Maemo tablets, my Windows & Linux notebooks, etc.

And yes, I now understand it is deemed "not possible" with Android. I just can't believe it, is all :-)

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I think only Symbian and Maemo can do that.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

windows mobile also had that function. Since android is pretty open when it comes to expansion possibilities when it comes to what you can connect to it, I suppose that eventually someone will come up with something to do that.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I can use USB "tethering" on my Galaxy S ... which is a Galaxy Tab sans the extra pixels/size.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I recently got an Android wifi only Xoom working tethered to my N900. My first ideas (Wifi, DUN) didn't pan out, but I was able to get PAN to, err, pan out.

I used a modified version of the tarball on this page:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=58570&page=13

Modified to use different IPs and interfaces due to my slightly more complex desires.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Here... let me help you...

For the Xoom tablet owners amongst you--Bluetooth tether is already baked into Honeycomb:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/03/01...riginal-droid/
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/02/28...-to-a-droid-x/

For the Samsung Galaxy Tab... well, I don't like this solution but it supposedly works. I wouldn't do it, personally. You've been forewarned:
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/sam...ab-solved.html
...or, for the easier method:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=754961
...aaaaand video of it working:
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/sam...ml#post1001480
(The one thing I would do differently than this video shows--is that I would have renamed or copied the OLD WPA supplicant before pasting the new one in... I wouldn't trust just overwriting anything without keeping the original, just in case.) Here's a better write-up with the video--just in case I didn't give you enough already:
http://www.droid-life.com/2010/11/17...ng-galaxy-tab/

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Thanks Dan, but of course I had seen all those links & "solutions" in the course of my research. I mentioned earlier in the thread that Wifi (ad hoc or not) was not the tethering method I was after. As you say, not something I'd try myself :-)

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

as in-maemo already mentioned a couple of posts above, the n900 can be configured to support bluetooth pan tethering which android supports out of the box. as soon as you enable the n900's bluetooth pan ability (see Bluetooth Profiles--you basically need to enable the "network" plugin and restart the bluetooth daemon) and pair/repair that Galaxy tab to it, you should see a tethering option for the paired n900.

Clicking on the tethering option will connect the devices, but until you configure the bluetooth network properly, you won't actually get data passed through properly--that's where the scripts come in.

edit: stupid grammer mistakes

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I used the integrated Archos Bluetooth/USB tether, but you can try this one instead, it is supposed to work:
http://www.chinadigitalcomm.com/andr...ork-t1325.html

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Interesting... care to share how you do it ? (DUN, PAN etc.)

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Ah yes, PAN... knew of it but never actually tried it, as it obviously takes some doing, whereas DUN "just worked"...until now.

Well, this could be the excuse I needed to finally try, so thanks for the pointer !

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Thanks for answering my question before I even asked it ! You guys are amazing :-)
I'd just read the entire thread where you discuss the scripts, and was thinking "Okay, I get the N900 side, but how is that going to work on the Tab ?"...
Well, now I know :-)

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

What, so there actually may be a DUN option after all ?

So much for the "impossible" part then, what a relief :-)

I'm beginning to regret starting this in off Topic as a rant... now it's turned into an interesting and useful thread, and I can't even thanks all of you properly !...

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Indeed! Thanks for posting your rant. :) And even greater thanks to everyone that provided these latest posts with solutions--great stuff! Thanks all-around from this side!

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

OK, tried that and reporting... a total lack of success :-)

The app does install and the GUI runs just fine, but nothing works. Thanks to the screen captures I can more or less guess why :

1) the first step (get BD address) uses hcitool. Unfortunately hcitool is not present on the Galaxy Tab version of Froyo :-)

2) Of course I know my N900's BT address, so on to step #2 (get channel). This one uses sdptool, which *is* present, but the GUI still doesn't detect anything. If I run the command line in a root shell, all it says is "couldn't connect ... no route to host". The BT icons never turn blue or even flicker on tablet or phone.

3) Of course, the above commands, run on the N900, work just fine, flip both BT icons and give me a channel #

4) Even with all parameters correct (address, channel, APN etc.) the BT DUN app doesn't even seem to try to connect, and ends up with something about a "ppp error".

Sounds like all that talk about "Android fragmentation" is justified after all :-)

And now I'm really going to have to dig into that PAN stuff, no more excuse for being lazy...

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Bwahahaahhaa! Further evidence of how lame 'droid is. Symbian has provided DUN for about a decade now.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Just a thought, you have 'paired' them right?

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I guess that was a "SHOULD" as per the RFC terminology ? :-)

After the fishiness with the Q5 DUN stuff, I thought I'd try this manual proof of concept before going to the trouble of flashing Power-kernel, installing iptables and the scripts, etc.

I edited /etc/bluetooth/main.conf to enable the network plugin, restarted the daemon, and deleted the GTab entry in the paired hosts list. On the Tab I unpaired the N900 then paired it again.

Where, exactly, should the "tethering option" appear ? I can't see it anywhere, not in Settings/Network/Bluetooth anyway...

Yet another Android feature that works everywhere except on a Galaxy Tab ? I guess this one's heading back where it came from... :-)

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

You'd refer to here for more information on establishing Bluetooh PAN and tether with N900. Down the thread there are people reporting to have succeeded in getting PAN works with android tablet. Hope this helps.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Believe me 9K, I've read and appreciated that thread you started. If I'm not mistaken, the one contributor with an Android tablet is jschan, and he has a XOOM with a much more recent version of Android than the Galaxy Tab's Froyo (Gingerbread at least, maybe even Honeycomb).

According to his post I was replying to, the mere fact of enabling Bluetooth PAN on the N900 (even without routing etc.) and pairing it to the tablet should cause a new tethering option to appear in Android.

Unless I'm not looking in the right place, it doesn't seem to appear on the Galaxy Tab (just as the Q5 DUN doesn't work either).

If so, I don't see the point of going through your entire HOWTO, as I'd end up with a perfectly functional PAN server on the N900 side, but nothing to use it with on the tablet :-)

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

So... people can't get bluetooth tether to work? No probs here with my Xoom to Atrix.

Weird how that works for me, and others... but not for you. A lot of the stuff in this thread isn't clear.

Don't want wifi-tether - which works great btw - or you claim that USB tether doesn't work - but... it does work.

As does bluetooth tether. Mind you, I'm root on all of my devices, but even with the N900, I had to install rootsh. smh

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

What works for you, in-maemo and jschan on a Motorola Xoom doesn't work for me on another device with a different Android version. Is that so hard to understand ?

I have yet to see, here or elsewhere, someone saying (and explaining how) they succeeded in tethering their Samsung Galaxy Tab, running good old Froyo 2.2, to a phone, using USB or BT, DUN or PAN.

Xoom, yes, Archos, yes, something or other called a Q5, also. But not the SGT. I'm just surprised that Samsung managed to shackle a Linux-based system to that level, when Maemo-based tablets have been doing this out of the box ever since the 770 and its "prototype" OS2005...

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Xoom's using 1) Honeycomb and 2) a pure Google experience. The problem with the Galaxy Tab is that it's got a Samsung-ruined bluetooth stack. (They replaced BlueZ that pure Google devices get, with their own stack--laaaaaaame). My Droid never had that problem... ditto for the Xoom.

Basically, Android devices would be GREAT if not for these crippling attempts by some manufacturers (Samsung... what the hell??).

Ultimately, it's unbelievable that Samsung removed tethering (like they removed BT HID). I hate that.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I am afraid I could not help you with making your android poping up things on which you could click to male everything to work.

However, if you are willingly to go for the solutions other than popup and click, you would like to look for bnep.ko and pand for froyo. The instructions to build bluetooth PAN are somewhere near to where you found the above binaries. Goood luck.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

next time i have a chance to stop somewhere with a galaxy tab, i can try pairing and see if it works.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Sorry for the lull folks, was on the road and mostly offline for a few days, just catchin' up...

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Thanks for the confirmation Dan. I now have a feeling that gerbick's beef (although he didn't word it as such) might be that he found my topic title too broad, and thus error-inducing : Android *does* tether, if the device vendor doesn't cripple it... But as it was my very first experience with the system, I didn't know any better. Perhaps I should change that.

There is an interesting lesson in this however : Android devices, even using the same version release, are not all created equal. Hackers and freedom-lovers should choose their vendor carefully :-)


There

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

egg-zaktly ! :-)

Ooooh, a riddle, I love riddles ! :-)
Of course I'm willing, first thing I did on that Tab was to install a sorry excuse for an xterm... and learn to use adb. I'll follow up on your clues and see where that takes me, thanks !

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Thanks in advance, but I'm afraid it's almost certain to not work... :-)

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

I suppose if you wanted to you could edit the title or, failing that, the original post and add some clarity.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

There was no beef, promise. And I appreciate you stating it in a way where it was entirely open-ended as to my intent; however as it stands you're 100% correct.

Android does indeed tether; however I was quite unaware about the Samsung stack being crippled. I had used a different ROM for my Captivate, the AT&T variant of the Galaxy S and can't say that I ran into this issue. My time with the Galaxy Tab in the office was limited, so I hadn't run into your situation there either.

I now have a Xoom, an Atrix and no probs other than a friggin' encrypted bootloader.

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Yeah, the tethering option didn't come up. I didn't play with it very long though. Definitely works with Honeycomb--I tried a couple of android 3.0 tablets.

Re: Unbelievable : Android (Froyo) on the Samsung Galaxy Tab doesn't "tether" ?...
 

There, fixed it :-)
Thanks to all...

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

9K, your riddle is a really elusive one :-)

Googling for "bnep.ko pand froyo" brings up only two pages of links, quite a few of them pointing to this very thread :-)

Others are about the same question I'm after, but are mostly pleas (duplicated on several boards) for someone to compile the above binaries, with no answers.

The rest seem irrelevant. I don't see any available bnep.ko and pand for Froyo, or building instructions.

Am I missing something, or looking in the wrong places ?...

Re: Unbelievable : Android (Froyo) on the Samsung Galaxy Tab doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Lessen your search by looking for "adb bnep.ko" - I've used adb push bnep.ko before to avoid some limitation when I was changing kernels before. Same for a few other drivers - mostly wi-fi with the Xoom.

Good luck with your search. Not sure if he's talking full recompile or just a simple adb push to replace your bluetooth stack.

Re: Unbelievable : Android (Froyo) on the Samsung Galaxy Tab doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Thanks for the hint, it does get more hits, but also a lot of duplicates, and not much more...

Well, if it's the latter, I certainly don't see how. The only really relevant post, replicated on a dozen different sites, is by this "Disconnect" or "Disconn3ct" character :
http://www.gotontheinter.net/content...kernel-modules
But the files aren't available any more, and they're probably outdated anyway as the post is from 2008.

And if it's the former, I'm certainly not going to all that trouble, even if I had the know-how :-)

Re: Unbelievable : Android doesn't "tether" ?...
 

Hi there. I didn't mean to give you riddle that would eventually waste your time. I only gave you the direction as that method requires you to spend considerable amount of time to research, especially on the rooting and kernel part. If you're not going for this direction, probably you don't need it. That was what I thought when giving you instructions so brief. ;)

Besides, there is in fact a pretty good paid-app PDANet that could make your Android a decent tethering hub without rooting it. You'd like to get a trial version to test. Hope this helps.