mostlyobvious

Android Tethering on macOS

2 min read

Android tethering only works w/ RNDIS (not CDC standards due to Windows XP…) macOS does not support this. Hence, no USB tethering on a Mac…

Here’s how to do it: https://github.com/jwise/HoRNDIS/issues/146

This works as of: 2023-04-21 on macOS Ventura 13.2.1

HOWTO

via akemin-dayo

Switching to “Reduced Security” mode

If you’ve already placed your Mac in “Reduced Security” mode before, simply skip this section.

  1. Shut down your Apple Silicon Mac.
  2. Press and hold down the power button until the text under the Apple logo says “Loading startup options…”, then let go.
  3. Select “Options”.
  4. You are now in recoveryOS — enter your password if it asks.
  5. Go to Utilities → Startup Security Utility.
  6. Select “Reduced Security” and enable Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers”.
  7. Shut down your Apple Silicon Mac.

Disabling SIP (System Integrity Protection)

IMPORTANT: Disabling SIP in any capacity, even partially, will also disable Apple Pay, as well as any iOS-on-macOS apps you may have downloaded from the App Store. This is a strange (and annoying) decision that Apple has decided to make specifically on Apple Silicon, as Apple Pay actually works fine even when SIP is disabled on x86_64 (Intel) Macs.

  1. Follow steps 2〜4 from above.
  2. Go to Utilities → Terminal.
  3. Type in the following to fully disable SIP: csrutil disable
    Note: It is possible to only partially disable the part of SIP that enforces kext signature verification (csrutil enable --without kext), but according to Apple, this is apparently an “unsupported configuration”. Use it if you wish (as many do already), but please make sure to read and fully understand the warning that csrutilgives if you try.
  4. Reboot your Apple Silicon Mac.

Compiling HoRNDIS for Apple Silicon (arm64e)

  1. Download and install Xcode.
  2. Run the following in a Terminal session. When it asks for your password, it is normal for no characters to show when when you type!
git clone --recursive https://github.com/jwise/HoRNDIS.git
cd Development/HoRNDIS/
xcodebuild -sdk macosx -configuration Release
sudo cp -rv build/Release/HoRNDIS.kext /Library/Extensions/
  1. Go to System Preferences → Security & Privacy and approve the HoRNDIS kernel extension.
  2. Reboot, connect an Android device in USB tethering mode, and enjoy using HoRNDIS again!