With Linux and wireless you always need firmware. Wireless IS Ethernet. Should I use wireless or Ethernet actually makes no sense. But you need a connection to the Internet to install the firmware, so your wireless will work.
The issue is not whether Linux wants to be plug and play. The firmware packages are proprietary. licensed software blobs with restrictions on their use. Not every user wants to use software with legal restrictions on it.
So, if you install it yourself, the distro developers can be pretty sure you don't mind using it. It's kind of a technicality with open-source. There is a way to just download the package you want with apt-get, copy it to a USB drive, and then put the file on the machine in question.
Code:
$ apt-get download package
But finding the name of the package might be tough if you've never run "apt-get update", which will only work with an Internet connection. But if you give me your wireless chipset manufacturer and model, I'll look for what file you need and tell you the name of the package.
Let's just say you need Realtek firmware.
Code:
$ apt-get download firmware-realtek
Put that on some media and take it to the machine that needs it.
On that machine
Code:
$ dpkg -i firmware-realtek_rest_of_package_name
Or this links to the actual package file, so you can retrieve it using any browser:
http://cosmos.cites.illinois.edu/pub...k_0.43_all.deb
I'm just in a good mood right now. Take advantage of it. I'll probably never do this much work for someone else ever again!
