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Comment by djfergus | Hacker News Reader

I installed this and spent a reasonable amount of time trying to get it to work. It didn't.

* GTK interface is buggy on hyprland (could only click buttons when app was on its own screen and not set to fullscreen)

* docs are vibe slop and incorrect:

~ tether pair

[2026-08-30 11:33:26.084] [ERR] Unknown action. Run tether --help for options

~ tether --pair

[2026-08-30 11:33:29.949] [ERR] Pairing requires a TCP+TLS connection. Use --host to specify a target.

* installation requires sudo escalation to configure bluetooth settings with a vague warning but no real explanation of what the risks are.

* couldn't get it to reliably connect - the feedback from linux and ios apps were vague and didn't help with what was broken or what was required to fix it.

Promising project, I'd love a solution like this but not worth my time for now.

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Heh, I wrote all of the docs, hence the typos :)

* This is troubling as I've tested it extensively in Hyprland on different machines.

* You are right that the root installation requirements need more clarification. I was so focused on making it as easy as possible for the user that I buried important details.

* The failures to connect are an endless battle given the crazy inconsistencies in bt controllers. ~/.local/state/tether/tetherd.log should have the details I need to debug it, if you are inclined to open an issue.

I tried setting this up on Fedora 44 and couldn't get it to connect on WiFi or Bluetooth even after installing the iOS app and running the recommended terminal commands for BT setup. The devices can sometimes see each other, and at points one or the other will say they're connected, but it never fully establishes a working 2-way connection and none of the features ever become available. The whole process definitely feels buggy and broken (not sure how much of that is on Tether and how much is on the ecosystem).

I ran into similar issues on a mostly stock Ubuntu 24.

When I start the gtk app, it has a scan devices button but it never finds my phone even though I've paired via bluetooth and its on same LAN.

The iOS app just has a spinning icon that goes forever even though it sees my computer name in the 'discovered devices' list.

I tried pairing from CLI and GTK app and no go on Wifi or Bluetooth.

I gave it another go with the hint above about the tetherd log:

  tail -f ~/.local/state/tether/tetherd.log

I killed that persistent process (sudo killall), rm /run/user/1000/tether/tetherd.* (to clear the lock file), restarted tetherd after pairing to phone via Linux bluetooth settings.

I was then able to see and pair over wifi and bluetooth. Everything is enabled except Notifications (even though both address book sync + notifications are enabled in iOS bluetooth settings).

Clipboard sync working now as well as send/receive files.

The tether app still has occasional issues re-connecting to tether though when I move in and out of the app.

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