IPHETH(4)              FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual              IPHETH(4)

NAME
     ipheth - USB Apple iPhone/iPad tethered Ethernet driver

SYNOPSIS
     To load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in
     loader.conf(5):

           if_ipheth_load="YES"

     Alternatively, to compile this driver into the kernel, place the
     following lines in your kernel configuration file:

           device uhci
           device ohci
           device usb
           device miibus
           device uether
           device ipheth

DESCRIPTION
     The ipheth driver provides support for network access through Apple
     iPhone and iPad devices, often referred to as USB tethering.

     ipheth should work with any Apple iPhone or iPad device.  In most cases
     this must be explicitly enabled on the device first.

     For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).  The
     device does not support different media types or options.

HARDWARE
     The following devices are supported by the ipheth driver:

     •   Apple iPhone tethering (all models)
     •   Apple iPad tethering (all models)

EXAMPLES
     Example 1: Manual Configuration

       The following example shows how to manually configure network access on
       a device that is not automatically recognized.

       First, load the driver and find out the unit and the address of the USB
       Apple device:

         # kldload ipheth
         # usbconfig | grep Apple
         ugen0.2: <Apple Inc. iPhone> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON (500mA)

       In this example, the unit and the address of the device is 0.2
       ("ugen0.2"), and its configuration index is 0 ("cfg=0").

       Secondly, check what other configurations are available for the device:

         # usbconfig -d 0.2 dump_all_config_desc | grep -E '(^ Conf|iConf)'
          Configuration index 0
             iConfiguration = 0x0005  <PTP>
          Configuration index 1
             iConfiguration = 0x0006  <iPod USB Interface>
          Configuration index 2
             iConfiguration = 0x0007  <PTP + Apple Mobile Device>
          Configuration index 3
             iConfiguration = 0x0008  <PTP + Apple Mobile Device + Apple USB Ethernet>

       In this example, there are 4 different configurations available.  The
       configuration with index 3 seems to be related to Ethernet.  It is time
       to configure the device:

         # usbconfig -d 0.2 set_config 3
         # usbconfig | grep 'Apple.*cfg=3'
         ugen0.2: <Apple Inc. iPhone> at usbus0, cfg=3 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON (500mA)

       At this point the Apple device should ask whether the FreeBSD machine
       can be trusted ("Mobile Data" has to be on).

       A new ue USB Ethernet interface should become available:

         # dmesg | grep 'ue[0-9]'
         ue0: <USB Ethernet> on ipheth0
         ue0: bpf attached
         ue0: Ethernet address: 4e:7c:5f:2c:5f:7a

       At this point it might be necessary to run usbmuxd(1) (available in
       ports(7) at comms/usbmuxd):

         # usbmuxd --enable-exit --foreground --user root --verbose

       Now it is time to configure the network interface:

         # sysrc ifconfig_ue0="SYNCDHCP"
         ifconfig_ue0:  -> SYNCDHCP
         # service netif restart ue0

       That is it.  The machine should now be connected to the network via USB
       tethering.

SEE ALSO
     arp(4), cdce(4), cdceem(4), intro(4), netintro(4), urndis(4), usb(4),
     ifconfig(8), usbconfig(8)

HISTORY
     The ipheth device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.2.

AUTHORS
     The ipheth driver was written by Hans Petter Selasky
     <hselasky@FreeBSD.org>.

BUGS
     Some devices are not recognized automatically and may need to be manually
     configured to use an alternative configuration with the usbconfig(8)
     utility.  See EXAMPLES for workarounds.

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6        January 29, 2022        FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6