Get USB tethering from Android device to work on Debian 8

I'm trying to get USB tethering to work between a Nexus 5 phone (running CM11) and my desktop running Debian 8. I connected the phone to the computer via USB and got these messages:

[14972.580738] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[14972.709236] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=18d1, idProduct=4ee3
[14972.709239] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[14972.709240] usb 3-2: Product: Nexus 5
[14972.709242] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: LGE
[14972.709243] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 04a0ba5813aff0d4

After enabling USB tethering on the phone, I additionally get:

[14972.710663] rndis_host 3-2:1.0 usb0: register 'rndis_host' at usb-0000:00:14.0-2, RNDIS device, 02:04:67:3f:31:35

The device is also listed by lsusb, albeit as a Nexus 4:

Bus 003 Device 006: ID 18d1:4ee3 Google Inc. Nexus 4 (tether)

(Is that a problem?)

I do not, however, get a usb0 network interface or anything else that could be it. ifconfig lists only the previously present interfaces, which are eth0, lo, as well as two tun devices provided by OpenVPN.

I searched for possible reasons this doesn't work, but they revolve around a too-old kernel (from the 2.6 days). My kernel is 3.16.0, which I would assume supports USB tethering. I also remember that I got USB tethering to work with a Sony Ericsson phone by just connecting it, and that was years ago.

As far as I can tell, all the relevant kernel modules are loaded:

rndis_host             12698  0 
cdc_ether              12564  1 rndis_host
usbnet                 30844  2 rndis_host,cdc_ether
usbcore               195340  8 xpad,rndis_host,ehci_hcd,ehci_pci,usbhid,usbnet,xhci_hcd,cdc_ether
usb_common             12440  1 usbcore

What do I have to do to get the usb0 network interface?

Update: I tried this on another computer running Debian 8, and it worked. As far as I can tell, the difference is that two other modules are loaded: rndis_wlan and mii. However, though loading these modules manually via modprobe seems to work without errors, usb0 is still missing.

After some googling I found that I should get information about network interfaces using ip link. The output is:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 30:85:a9:f6:24:cd brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
31: tun1: <POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 100
    link/none 
32: tun0: <POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 100
    link/none 
37: usb0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 0e:21:59:43:d3:ca brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

So it appears that usb0 does exist after all. I then tried ifup usb0, but it says

Ignoring unknown interface usb0=usb0.

I did the whole thing also with a Nexus 7 (1st gen), with the same results.

Ok, it appears I have figured it out. These commands made it work:

ip link set usb0 up
dhclient usb0

Strangely enough, ifup usb0 still tells me that this interface is unknown, and: before running dhclient, not even a ping 8.8.8.8 works.

I'd still be interested to know how I can automate this, or why this does happen automatically on another Debian 8 install.

Add this to /etc/network/interfaces config file:

auto usb0
allow-hotplug usb0
iface usb0 inet dhcp

and after reboot

sudo ifconfig usb0 up

if you system is ubuntu after 16.04 you might need to change the name of the interface:

auto enusb01
allow-hotplug enusb01
iface enusb01 inet dhcp

and after reboot

sudo ifconfig enusb01 up

If none works try to see list with ifconfig -a | grep Link and and then try to mount the relevant one up or do the steps above an then mount that up.