View source for How to use an Android tablet as a Raspberry Pi console terminal and internet router

Use a tethered [[Android tablet]] as [[console]] and [[internet router]] for your [[Raspberry Pi]].

==What you need==
*Any Raspberry Pi &mdash; it even works with a Raspberry Pi model 1A having '''no''' ethernet port...
*A [[micro-USB power supply]]
*A [[micro-USB data cable]]
*An Android tablet (or on a smartphone if you insist)
*The [[ConnectBot]] App (available from [[Google Play]])

==Advantages==
Very universal solution:
*The Raspberry Pi uses very low power (no or inactive ethernet port)
*Your Android tablet can be powered via the Raspberry Pi USB port
*You have a virtual keyboard, mouse, and video display (KVM) for your Raspberry Pi
*Only 1 single Raspberry Pi USB port is required to deliver ethernet, and [[KVM access]]
*Both devices can easily share an internet connection
*The Raspberry Pi can have Wi-Fi or mobile network access through tablet tethering
*You do not need any special hardware; except for a few standard micro-USB cables
*It also works e.g. in a car using a 12V outlet
*Only standard software needed
*[[Autoconfiguration]] ([[plug and play]])

==How to==
===Install ConnectBot===
Install ConnectBot on your tablet which is an [[Android terminal emulator]] available from Google Play.
It allows to SSH into the Raspberry Pi.

===Configure the Raspberry Pi===
You can perform those changes when connected via any method to your Raspberry Pi.

Add the following lines into your network configuration:
 [[vi]] /etc/network/interfaces

 allow-hotplug usb0
 iface usb0 inet dhcp

When you would have already connected all devices, and you do not want to reboot, just restart the network:
 /etc/init.d/networking restart

===Connect your devices===
Connect your Android Tablet to a Raspberry Pi USB port via a micro-USB cable.
Power your Raspberry Pi with a standard USB power supply.
You can use any DC USB power supply.

===Enable Android USB tethering===
Enable USB tethering on your Android tablet.
 Settings &rarr; Connections &rarr; Tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot &rarr; USB tethering

Now the Raspberry automatically gets an IP address via its USB0 port.
The Android tablet behaves like a NAT router.
This should work both when your tablet is connected to Wi-Fi
or to a mobile 3G/4G network.

===Initiate an SSH login to the Raspberry Pi===
*Start the ConnectBot App on Android
*Login to the Raspberry Pi via SSH
The only problem is that you have to know the IP address of the Raspberry Pi;
it seems to be (always?) 192.168.42.159...

==Network setup==
 [[ifconfig]]

 eth0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr b8:27:eb:b5:d4:ba
          inet addr:192.168.31.36  Bcast:192.168.31.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:10538 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:7235 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1039975 (1015.6 KiB)  TX bytes:929333 (907.5 KiB)

 lo       Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:4010 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4010 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:168456 (164.5 KiB)  TX bytes:168456 (164.5 KiB)

 usb0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:07:00:01:62:31
          inet addr:'''192.168.42.159'''  Bcast:192.168.42.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:19830 errors:0 dropped:1 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:10412 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:21499431 (20.5 MiB)  TX bytes:2806515 (2.6 MiB)

 [[route]] -n

 Kernel IP routing table
 Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
 0.0.0.0         '''192.168.42.129'''  0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 usb0
 192.168.31.0    0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
 192.168.42.0    0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 usb0

==Tips==
You could as well connect an UTP network cable as well;
then you have a dual-homed network connection
with the advantage that you can:
*issue simple (configuration) commands from your tablet
*use a laptop to perform more complicated command via the other SSH connection

==Other ideas==
*This could work as well with other USB devices having no built-in network connection...
*[[Display a Raspbian desktop on Android using VNC]]
*You could run [[X Window System]] applications from your Raspberry Pi

==Known problems==
===Tethering not started===
 ssh pi@192.168.42.159

 ssh: exited: Error connecting: No route to host
*Did your [[Raspberry Pi]] [[reboot]]?
*Power failure?
*Start [[USB tethering]] on [[Android tablet]]/[[smartphone]]

===Not enough power===
Make sure that you have a decent [[power supply]];
the [[Android tablet]] will suck current from the Raspberry Pi [[USB port]].

==External links==
*[https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=90728 Accessing Internet from Pi using USB Tethering of Android]