Debian bookworm 12.4 installation wifi card not being detected

[Exeonz]

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.

Some other things that I've tried that didn't work.
Every available driver from the install list.
Older non-free debian version 11.8.0 because I thought it would have
drivers but it didn't work either.
Downloading all firmware from https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/firmware/ onto
USB formatted as FAT32 in root and firmware folder
Using command line during installation for extra options to load drivers
off USB. (this command doesn't seem to work on bookwork 12.4)
https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware



*Installation+Archive+USBStickpreseed/early_command="modprobe vfat ; sleep
2 ;mount /dev/disk/by-label/FIRMWARE /media ;cp -a /media/firmware /lib"*
Using rtl8812au-5.2.20 firmware drivers
Ripping out firmware drivers from ubuntu install that works fine with this
wifi card and putting it on same USB
*bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu10~22.04.1_amd64*

[Marco Moock]

Am Sat, 10 Feb 2024 05:55:17 -0600

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.

Please run
lspci -nnk
and post the result of the network card here.
That includes the ID and that makes it possible to identify it and find
the right driver/firmware.

Do you have a smart phone with a USB cable?
You can connect that and use tethering to get internet connection.

[Exeonz]

Results on ubuntu are

/03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03)
    Subsystem: Apple Inc. BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
[106b:0117]
    Kernel driver in use: wl
    Kernel modules: bcma, wl/


During debian install it's same result but without /kernel driver and
kernel modules/
I use an iOS device and I don't think tethering feature is supported there.

[Marco Moock]

Post by Exeonz
/03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03)
    Subsystem: Apple Inc. BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
[106b:0117]
    Kernel driver in use: wl
    Kernel modules: bcma, wl/
During debian install it's same result but without /kernel driver and
kernel modules/

Install the package broadcom-sta-dkms

Post by Exeonz
I use an iOS device and I don't think tethering feature is supported there.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/iphone/iph45447ca6/ios
It seems to be supported.

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

Post by Exeonz
Results on ubuntu are
/03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4360
802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03)
    Subsystem: Apple Inc. BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
[106b:0117]
    Kernel driver in use: wl
    Kernel modules: bcma, wl/
During debian install it's same result but without /kernel driver and kernel
modules/
I use an iOS device and I don't think tethering feature is supported there.

I just posted this to debian-boot in response to the earlier query there:

Try the image for a DVD at https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/debian-12.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso

That may give you more packages in order to be able to build the needed
kernel modules, at least.

Andy
(***@debian.org)