Worked on a iPad mini 7 (but for a very short time )

[ZHIBO-HE]

First of all, thanks to the author for providing this great guide.
I have tested it on my iPad mini 7 and Raspberry Pi 5. It works, and in the iPad’s Settings, I can see that the Pi 5 provides an Ethernet connection.
However, I encountered a recurring connection issue:

1. I use Termius and Microsoft Remote Desktop on the iPad to connect to the Pi 5 (via username@pi.local).
2. The connection works for only a few minutes, then disconnects with the error message: “unknown node or service” (in the case of SSH).
3. The Raspberry Pi 5 does not power off and continues running tasks.
4. After waiting about 5–10 minutes, I can connect again, but only for 1–2 minutes before it disconnects again.
   For comparison, I also tested with my Mac Mini using several cables, and the connection remained stable with no disconnections.

[ZHIBO-HE]

I have checked the gadget service, and it showed the following failure:

$ systemctl status usbgadget
× usbgadget.service - My USB gadget
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/usbgadget.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2025-08-29 22:12:14 CST; 11s ago
Process: 2995 ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/usb-gadget.sh (code=exited, status=4)
Main PID: 2995 (code=exited, status=4)
CPU: 26ms

Aug 29 22:11:30 chihpi systemd[1]: Starting usbgadget.service - My USB gadget...
Aug 29 22:12:14 chihpi usb-gadget.sh[2996]: Error: Connection activation failed: IP configuration could not be reserved (no available address, timeout, etc.)
Aug 29 22:12:14 chihpi systemd[1]: usbgadget.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=4/NOPERMISSION
Aug 29 22:12:14 chihpi systemd[1]: usbgadget.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

The issue happens because NetworkManager is trying to bring up the ethernet-usb0 interface using DHCP, but there is no DHCP server on the USB link. As a result, the service fails with “IP configuration could not be reserved,” and the iPad does not get a stable IP address. This causes frequent disconnects and prevents .local (mDNS) resolution from working reliably.

The fix is to configure a static IP address for the USB gadget interface instead of relying on DHCP. Modify the script /usr/local/sbin/usb-gadget.sh like this:

#!/bin/bash
nmcli con modify ethernet-usb0 ipv4.method manual ipv4.addresses 192.168.7.1/24 ipv4.gateway ""
nmcli con up ethernet-usb0

After applying this change, my iPad mini 7 now maintains a strong and stable connection to the Raspberry Pi 5 over USB Ethernet. Both SSH and Remote Desktop sessions remain reliable.