I'm trying to connect to the internet on my Debian 12 laptop using my phone connection through an USB-C cable.
When the cable is connected and the connection sharing is activated on the phone, the Ethernet symbol shows up on the top bar of the desktop (Gnome 43.6). However, I cannot connect to any website from the laptop, although it's accessible from my phone.
I tried to shut down and boot again with the cable unplugged, and now the Ethernet symbol shows up directly when booting. I still cannot connect when plugging the cable in again. I also can't connect through my phone's Wifi hotspot with the cable unplugged.
Both Ethernet and Wifi have been regularly working between these two devices until now. I suspect Debian is stuck on some kind of old connection it cannot get rid of. What should I do?
nmcli dandip link show(copy & paste them into your original question, if possible) for starters. If thenmcli dshows any interface in aconnectedstate with the phone unplugged, please also run/sbin/ethtool -i <device name>, replacing<device name>with the actual name of the device in theDEVICEcolumn ofnmcli d.nmcli), I could resolve my problem. The command showed me two lines related to my VPN (kill switch and leak protection), which gave me the idea. I then simply started my VPN client, through which I could connect to the internet. When I shut down the VPN, the two related lines disappeared fromnmcli dresult and the problem was gone. I think the cause is that my VPN doesn't support unexpected shutdowns due to low battery.nmcli doutput. That way this question would better help others with a similar problem.You might want to mention the name of your VPN client, but feel free to redact out any personally identifiable information. Sincenmcli doutput is just text, it is easily copy/pasteable, and also works for people who need technological assistance with various sight issues.