Hi, I installed ubuntu server on a mac mini late 2012, and I have now (as expected) a problem with the firmware for the Broadcom network adapter / wifi card.

I could install those firmware quite easily with the package firmware-b43-installer but I obviously cannot use apt to download and install this package.

Then I thought to manually download the package from another computer and install it manually in Ubuntu. I saved the .deb into a USB stick and tried to install it, but this package depends on other packages that are not installed on the machine.

Then I thought “ok, I’ll do the same for the dependencies and I will install the manually before install the firmware-b43-installer”.

The problem is, of course, that also those packages depends on something else.

I don’t think is a good idea to go down into the dependency hole and look manually for all the depndendencies of the dependencies… there is a more efficient way to do this? There is a way to download a package with its recursive dependencies?

Or somebody installed already Ubuntu (or a debian based distro) on a mac mini with Broadcom chip that can put me on the right direction?

Thanks a lot.

  • planish@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    7 months ago

    One approach here is the Ubuntu CD/DVD images. You can (could?) use the disk as a package source for apt to install from.

  • JovialSodium@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    7 months ago

    A quick search tells me that mac mini’s have ethernet. Are you able temporarily connect that way to fetch the wifi drivers?

    • hyperlink2236@feddit.itOP
      0·
      7 months ago

      Unfortunately also the ethernet connection wasn’t detected. I solved using my phone in USB tethering

  • Tschuuuls@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    If you have an android phone, plug it into the macmini via usb, connect to wifi and enable usb tethering.

  • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    Or somebody installed already Ubuntu (or a debian based distro) on a mac mini with Broadcom chip that can put me on the right direction?

    Sure, current Debian 12 should include drivers for that chip. Pick some large install media and it should be there. Since the packages are sorted by popularity and that firmware is popular the first DVD or BL should include it.

    For Debian 12 onwards, all the packaged non-free firmware binaries that Debian can distribute have been moved to a new component in the Debian archive, called non-free-firmware. (…) Debian’s installation and live images now include all of those firmware packages. The system should automatically detect, load and install the firmware available for your devices, where possible.

    • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
      0·
      7 months ago

      This is incorrect, that firmware is not included in the installer (for legal reasons, probably). firmware-b43-installer is just a script. It downloads some driver from a website and extracts the firmware blobs from that driver using another utility called b43-fwcutter. The package description for that reads:

      Description: utility for extracting Broadcom 43xx firmware

      This package provides a tool for extracting BCM43xx wireless chip firmware from Broadcom’s proprietary driver files.

      It is used by the firmware-b43(legacy)-installer packages as part of the automated process of downloading and installing firmware.

  • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
    0·
    7 months ago

    Copying this package over USB will not work anyway, even if you get all the dependencies, since firmware-b43-installer is just a script that downloads the firmware (probably because it is illegal for Debian/Ubuntu to redistribute this firmware because of the license).

    You need internet. You’ll need to use a different network device for this, or use a phone as the other person said.

    Or you can copy the firmware files over by hand, from a different Ubuntu/Linux computer. They should be under /usr/lib/firmware/b43.