Install wireless without cable connection

[Alan Pope]

On 29 April 2011 15:39, G. <pegngaryubuntu at gmail.com> wrote:
> I currently have 10.10 installed.  I plan to dual boot with 11.04 (to
> test it on my system).  However, I do not have cable internet access,
> only wireless so I won't have internet access on my Dell mini 10
> (Broadcom 43xx).  Is there a way to install the broadcom adapter
> firmware without a cable connection?
>

One way you could do it is install 11.04 then boot back into 10.10 and
chroot the 11.04 install and apt-get the necessary bits, then boot
back to 11.04 to use it.

Something like this:-

Assumptions:-
1. 10.10 is installed on /dev/sda1
2. 11.04 is installed on /dev/sda2
(use commands like mount and sudo fdisk -l to see which partition is which)
3. Both installs are the same architecture (i.e. both x86 or both x86_64)

Boot into 10.10 after installing 11.04
Ensure 10.10 system is online
Drop to a shell

# Make directories
mkdir -p ~/target/proc
mkdir ~/target/dev
mkdir ~/target/sys

# Mount up 11.04 in target directory
sudo mount /dev/sda2 ~/target
sudo mount -o bind /proc ~/target/proc
sudo mount -o bind /dev ~/target/dev
sudo mount -o bind /sys ~/target/sys

# Copy in resolv.conf so dns resolution works in chroot
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf ~/target/etc

# Start the chroot
sudo chroot ~/target

# At this point you have a root prompt on your 11.04 system from
within your 10.10 system. Here you could now run commands to install
the necessary bits for broadcom.
# So if you know on your 10.10 system you had to install
firmware-b43-installer then just run at the root prompt:-

apt-get update
apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

# If that works then you can:-
# leave the chroot
exit

# unount
sudo umount ~/target/proc ~/target/dev ~/target/sys ~/target

# Then reboot into 11.04

Fingers crossed :D

Cheers,
Al.