On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 10:47:55PM -0800, R. Toby  Richards wrote:
> Every time that I search for solutions to my wifi drivers, the solution is
> to apt-get install a bunch of drivers. Why does nobody realize that apt'ing
> anything is a non-solution: How can I apt-get install <network drivers> if
> I don't have network drivers? There are DOZENS of responses to questions
> about network drivers that say to apt-get install various packages without
> any thought to the fact that nobody can apt without first having network
> drivers. It's seriously starting to **** me off. I've got computers with
> Broadcom wifi. How the heck am I going to fix that by using networking to
> download the gosh darn drivers to fix the networking that I don't have? Of
> the dozens of "solutions" that I've read about this, NOBODY ever thinks
> about how to fix the network driver without having a network driver.
> 

A couple of things: Which machine is this? Which model of Broadcom card
is this?

lspci might tell you. Do you have any other means of connecting this machine?

You may have hit a Catch 22 not of our making. There are a wide variety of 
Broadcom chipsets. Broadcom have been approached about this in the past, I 
think. As someone with a Broadcom card, you have the right to download the
drivers: nobody else has the right to distribute them to you.

The Broadcom B43 driver is, effectively, a firmware cutter - chopping the 
needed binary bits out of the Windows drivers.

https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/firmware-b43-installer

This then links with firmware-linux-free to provide the bits you need.
Be thankful that you're not running Fedora - despite being more liberal
on many firmware policies, they don't supply utilities to do this.

We do think about doing things with no network driver for wifi. My standard
suggestion is to use the non-free unofficial network installer iso - but 
it can't include the Broadcom drivers, as you've seen.

If you can use a wired network, that solves the install problem and allows
you to download the installer package. If you have a wired network available
but no connector on your laptop, you can use a USB-Ethernet connector if you
have one.

If you can pair a phone via Bluetooth, you might be able to download
the needed .debs that way.

Missing firmware is an issue that now hits not just for WiFi but also now
often for graphics drivers and even audio firmware. There has been talk about
framing a new GR [General resolution] on firmware in the installer, since 
this is rendering Debian uninstallable on certain classes of hardware. In 
this particular instance, that wouldn't help you.

The glib, self-satisfied answer is "Friends don't let friends use Broadcom - 
check the device drivers needed before you buy" and many of us have avoided
the issue by doing that - but you've hit the (known) corner case, I think.

With every good wish, as ever,

Andy Cater
> 
> The catch-22's are endless. In my case, I need Broadcom drivers. I can't
> get b43 over the network. I can't use sneakernet for b43 debs because dpkg
> doesn't work (let alone finding all the dependencies and dependencies of
> dependencies and so forth).
> 
> Now what?
> 
> -- 
> 
> *R. Toby Richards*

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