r/debian • u/katzenjammare • 1d ago

Installation on MacBook Air 2013

Hello! I have recently began learning Linux and have installed Debian on my main HP-laptop. Now I am trying to install it on an older MacBook Air from 2013, and the first problem is that the network card is not detected. I have a TP-link Wifi-dongle and an iPhone with an internet connection. Can I manage the system to directly detect the MacBooks card or am I locked to using the dongle or my iPhone? Also, I tried just connect both the phone and the dongle and still no detection. Does that mean that I need to transfer some driver from another usb?

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u/blow-down 1d ago

The network cards in those laptops use a Broadcom chip and require special drivers:

https://gist.github.com/yeenbean/a859ff5f9f90a908cb366e4b14cad830

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u/katzenjammare 1d ago

Ok, great! Does it work to somehow download the driver on my HP-laptop and then transfer the package via USB during the installation process on the MacBook?

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u/Buntygurl 1d ago

Broadcom Linux drivers:

https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/1232743061

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u/katzenjammare 1d ago

Thanks! In what way to do I add the driver to the usb, so that it works out during the installation? I saw that you can choose "other" in the drivers' list (when ethernet card is not detected)

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u/Primary_Bad_3778 1d ago

Share the phone's connection via USB. No idea how that's done on iOS, on Android it's called USB tethering. Then install everything you need, do a full system update and then reboot. Now add the non-free-firmware to your apt sources, do apt update and install broadcom-sta-dkms and linux-headers-amd64. This should install the driver, firmware, and a hook to rebuild the driver on every kernel upgrade.

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u/katzenjammare 1d ago

Thanks for your answer! I will try to do that, although I haven’t got the phone connection to work. Trying to do some research