Android - Is it possible to activate the "USB Tethering" Android setting from the command line?

Running the following command as root should enable USB tethering:

• service call connectivity 32 i32 1 on Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0)
• service call connectivity 33 i32 1 on Jelly Bean (4.1 to 4.3)
• service call connectivity 34 i32 1 on KitKat (4.4)
• service call connectivity 30 i32 1 on Lollipop (5.0)
• service call connectivity 31 i32 1 on Lollipop (5.1) according to an answer by Firelord
• service call connectivity 30 i32 1 on Marshmallow (6.0), untested
• service call connectivity 41 i32 1 on Samsung Marshmallow (6.0)
• service call connectivity 33 i32 1 on Nougat (7.0)
• service call connectivity 39 i32 1 on Samsung Nougat (7.0)

The first number you see in the commands is the setUsbTethering() method's number in IConnectivityManager.aidl (this depends on the Android version and doesn't exist on Gingerbread).

(Tip: to check this file for a particular Android version, select the appropriate branch.)

So what this command does is call setUsbTethering() and pass either 1 (enable USB tethering) or 0 (to disable it).

For more information, see this related question on Stack Overflow.

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If you're enabling USB tethering as part of a USB reverse tethering setup, setprop sys.usb.config rndis,adb should be more than enough to get the rndis0 interface set up.

There is a pretty bad method using adb shell input tap, Get the coordinates for enable tethering and substitute

adb shell input tap <x> <y>

Or navigate to enable radio using adb shell input keyevent. Just have a look at,

adb shell input 

Again this confines to a particular device.

Try the setprop command below:

setprop sys.usb.config rndis,adb