Install Broadcom drivers on a offline Debian

Certainly off-topic but interesting as hell when you are in this specific kind of trouble.

The Scene

During a fresh install of a Debian Testing on a Lenovo S20-30:

  • used this Debian CD image with nonfree firmwares, genuinely thinking it would do the job.

  • Clean install but no Wifi…

Pretty hard to go on and finish the setup.

$ lspci
[...]
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM43142 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)

The Solution

You will need:

  • another computer with Internet connectivity

  • a USB key

Use pkgs.org to track and download (in this case for Debian Sid):

  • dctrl-tools

  • dkms

  • broadcom-sta-common

  • broadcom-sta-dkms

Put these packages on the USB key, transfer to your offline computer and install them by running (as root):

dpkg -i dctrl-tools_2.24-3+b1_amd64.deb
dpkg -i dkms_2.8.4-4_all.deb
dpkg -i broadcom-sta-common_6.30.223.271-17_all.deb
dpkg -i broadcom-sta-dkms_6.30.223.271-17_all.deb
modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb brcmsmac bcma
modprobe wl

Warning

These are the package names corresponding to my architecture and current version at the redaction date. You need to adapt to your space-time and this might become outdated.

Enjoy.