URNDIS(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 URNDIS 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about urndis — the USB Remote NDIS Ethernet device driver, from the Kernel Interfaces Manual. yes it's a mouthful. yes it's iconic. let's go 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

urndis — USB Remote NDIS Ethernet device 🌸

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so like, you wanna compile this driver straight into your kernel? okay queen, drop these lines into your kernel configuration file:

device ehci
device uhci
device ohci
device xhci
device usb
device miibus
device uether
device urndis

orrrrr, if you'd rather load it as a module at boot time (so much easier, no cap), just put this line in loader.conf(5):

if_urndis_load="YES"

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so what does the urndis driver actually do? it gives you Ethernet access over Remote NDIS (RNDIS), which means your lil mobile devices — phones, tablets, the whole crew — can hand you network access. it's giving... USB tethering 💅 and honestly in most cases you have to explicitly enable it on the device itself, so don't come crying to me when it doesn't just work out of the box. check your phone settings, bestie.

urndis should work with literally any USB RNDIS device — the ones you commonly find on Android devices, iykyk. but lowkey important: it does not support different media types or options. that's just not its vibe. for more info on configuring this device, go read ifconfig(8) 🎀

✨ HARDWARE ✨

the urndis driver supports the "tethering" functionality of many Android devices. that's the whole list. that's the vibe. 🔥

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go read them, they're all slaying in their own way 🌈

✨ HISTORY ✨

the urndis device driver first appeared in OpenBSD 4.7 🦋 and the first FreeBSD release to include it was FreeBSD 9.3. glow up across operating systems fr fr ✨

✨ AUTHORS ✨

the urndis driver was written by these absolute legends:

  • Jonathan Armani <armani@openbsd.org>
  • Michael Knudsen <mk@openbsd.org>
  • Fabien Romano <fabien@openbsd.org>

and it was ported to FreeBSD by Hans Petter Selasky <hps@FreeBSD.org> 👑

not me getting emotional over a network driver. anyway. it's giving main character energy and we love that for it 💜

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this version came from the Debian manual, dated November 24, 2015 — so if you're reading this in the future, just know she's a vintage icon 💖 mwah, go tether something 🎀💅

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