For less than $10, I bought a USB bluetooth dongle for my laptop. Ubuntu recognized it right away as a bluetooth radio and started using it. For a test, I paired my laptop with my Android phone, which was also easy and flawless. What I didn't expect was that immediately after the pairing, a dialog popped up on the laptop telling me about a new network that had been detected. The system automatically uses the Android Internet connection (cell data) without any effort on my part. Sweet! Bottom line. If you want painless tetherhing, buy (or turn on) a bluetooth radio in your laptop and pair it with your phone. It's super easy!