Am 10. Februar 2024 12:48:03 MEZ schrieb Exeonz <exeonz1@gmail.com>:

Hey thanks for your time in advance. I'm trying to install debian bookworm >12.4 on MacbookAir7,2 that doesn't have an ethernet port and the installer >doesn't recognize it's wifi card and what drivers it needs for the card to >work. From searching the web I found that it uses Broadcom BCM 4360
wireless network adapter and requires broadcom-sda-dkms firmware drivers to >function. The installer doesn't detect the wifi card and none of the
drivers from the select list work and when I use 2nd bootable USB formatted >as FAT32 with broadcom-sda-dkms firmware drivers saved to root and firmware >folder it doesn't accept drivers and gives out error "ethernet card not >found" I've looked through entire debian wiki and other wikis and forums
like arch wiki and found no answers anywhere. I have successfully installed >ubuntu on this macbook air and it works just fine with the wifi card. Could >you please shed some light on how I can possibly install debian on this >macbook air.

Try to use a testing daily from <https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/amd64/iso-cd/>


Holger

--
Sent from /e/ OS on Fairphone3

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On Sat, Feb 10, 2024 at 07:29:22PM +0100, Pascal Hambourg wrote:

On 10/02/2024 at 12:48, Exeonz wrote:

I'm trying to install debian bookworm
12.4 on MacbookAir7,2 that doesn't have an ethernet port and the installer doesn't recognize it's wifi card and what drivers it needs for the card to work. From searching the web I found that it uses Broadcom BCM 4360 wireless network adapter and requires broadcom-sda-dkms firmware drivers to function. The installer doesn't detect the wifi card and none of the drivers from the select list work and when I use 2nd bootable USB formatted as FAT32 with broadcom-sda-dkms firmware drivers saved to root and firmware folder it doesn't accept drivers and gives out error "ethernet card not found"

broadcom-sta-dkms contains neither binary drivers (kernel module) nor firmware but only source files to build the kernel module (wl). Debian does not provide this driver as a binary module. Building a kernel module
requires kernel headers, gcc, make... neither of which are available in the Debian installer environment.

Could you please shed some light on how I can possibly install debian on this macbook air.

Get a supported USB network adapter (about any USB-ethernet adapter should be) or do an offline installation from a DVD, Blu-ray or 16G installation image. Once you have a running system, you can install broadcom-sta-dkms and other required packages and build the wl kernel module.

It may also be possible to tether via a cable to a mobile phone and do the
netinst install that way.

The offline DVD method will work well: install the build-essential package.

Unfortunately, this is one area where opinions differ between distributions and so Ubuntu may have built the appropriate modules for you.

Broadcom has been particularly difficult with Wifi chipsets in the past:
unfortunately, this is unlikely to change.

With my debian-user mailing list hat on: please post to one list primarily
and don't cross-post between lists unless invited to. Thanks :)

With every good wish, as ever,

Andy
(amacater@debian.org)

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On 10/02/2024 at 12:48, Exeonz wrote:

I'm trying to install debian bookworm
12.4 on MacbookAir7,2 that doesn't have an ethernet port and the installer doesn't recognize it's wifi card and what drivers it needs for the card to work. From searching the web I found that it uses Broadcom BCM 4360
wireless network adapter and requires broadcom-sda-dkms firmware drivers to function. The installer doesn't detect the wifi card and none of the
drivers from the select list work and when I use 2nd bootable USB formatted as FAT32 with broadcom-sda-dkms firmware drivers saved to root and firmware folder it doesn't accept drivers and gives out error "ethernet card not found"

broadcom-sta-dkms contains neither binary drivers (kernel module) nor
firmware but only source files to build the kernel module (wl). Debian
does not provide this driver as a binary module. Building a kernel
module requires kernel headers, gcc, make... neither of which are
available in the Debian installer environment.

Could you please shed some light on how I can possibly install debian on
this macbook air.

Get a supported USB network adapter (about any USB-ethernet adapter
should be) or do an offline installation from a DVD, Blu-ray or 16G installation image. Once you have a running system, you can install broadcom-sta-dkms and other required packages and build the wl kernel
module.

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On 10/02/2024 at 20:06, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:

It may also be possible to tether via a cable to a mobile phone and do the
netinst install that way.

Right, sorry for not mentioning it in my previous reply.

The OP mentioned in debian-user that they have an iOS (Apple) device.
The package ipheth-utils provides a tethering driver for the iPhone (and possibly other iOS devices). I do not know whether it is required, but
it is not available in the Debian installer environment. I did not find
it in Debian live package lists (https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/*.packages)
either.

With my debian-user mailing list hat on: please post to one list primarily and don't cross-post between lists unless invited to. Thanks :)

When in doubt, true cross-post to a couple of lists seems acceptable to
me (so that replies can be cross-posted too), but it looks like the OP
actually sent multiple independent posts.

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On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 11:20:43AM +0100, Pascal Hambourg wrote:

On 10/02/2024 at 20:06, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:

It may also be possible to tether via a cable to a mobile phone and do the
netinst install that way.

Right, sorry for not mentioning it in my previous reply.

The OP mentioned in debian-user that they have an iOS (Apple) device. The package ipheth-utils provides a tethering driver for the iPhone (and
possibly other iOS devices). I do not know whether it is required, but it is not available in the Debian installer environment. I did not find it in Debian live package lists (https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/*.packages)
either.

I wouldn't expect there to be much in debian-live for Apple, no.

I'd always recommend netinst but this is one of the times when it just
won't work, obviously. For common wifi cards with loadable firmware -
it may well work. Broadcom, no.

The DVD-1 image at https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/debian-12.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso has the installer on it, so that might well
be a candidate to try.

If you do install from DVD-1 and have no network at the time when you
install, you may need to fix up /etc/apt/sources.list afterwards :)

With my debian-user mailing list hat on: please post to one list primarily and don't cross-post between lists unless invited to. Thanks :)

When in doubt, true cross-post to a couple of lists seems acceptable to me (so that replies can be cross-posted too), but it looks like the OP actually sent multiple independent posts.

Yes, I was possibly a bit grumpy here: apologies

All the very best,

Andy
(amacater@debian.org)

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