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I want to start this off by mentioning that I am very new to using Linux, so I'm having a pretty hard time figuring this one out on my own.

Version: Ubuntu Desktop 18.04

I went out and bought a wireless card for this PC so that I can connect to my home internet, however the card will not just "Plug-and-Play." I did some searching online and came across some drivers as well as instructions for installing them via USB, but I seem to have run into an issue. The instructions state that I need to use commands such as "make", Running the make command in the terminal returns the following:

Command 'make' not found, but it can be installed with:
.
sudo apt install make
sudo apt install make-guile

and running sudo apt install make returns:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package make is not available, but is referred to by another package.
this may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source
E: Package 'make' has no installation candidate

I can imagine I'd get this error for all other commands I try to run.

If it helps at all, I'm trying to follow instructions found here to install these drivers. I then did some searching online trying to find a way to get the 'make' command, but pretty much everything says that I will have to connect the machine in question to the internet. I'm looking for a way to either get the make command (and other commands that I will need for installing drivers) onto this PC, or a way to install drivers without using these commands.

Anything I put onto the machine will be coming from a Windows laptop to the Ubuntu machine via a flash drive. Again, I want to say, it is not possible for me to use an Ethernet connection at this time. Thanks in advance for any help you all provide :)

Nathan Carrell
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    Did you run sudo apt update first? – muru Oct 03 '18 at 03:48
  • make and build-essential are in the main repository. Please see: https://askubuntu.com/a/1026589/231142 and make sure that the Ubuntu Software repositories are enabled so you can install them. – Terrance Oct 03 '18 at 03:57
  • Thanks for the reply. I tried that, it returned several failures (all say W: Failed to fetch http://*) I'd guess this has something to do with not having an internet connection. Kind of a Catch-22 huh? Do I absolutely need an internet connection to get make? – Nathan Carrell Oct 03 '18 at 03:57
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    Yes you do need an internet connection to get make as it is probably not downloaded by default to your system. – Terrance Oct 03 '18 at 03:59
  • ahh. So I can't download these to my USB flash drive and transfer them over to the machine in question then? Just making sure that I fully understand what's being said. – Nathan Carrell Oct 03 '18 at 04:05
  • Look into something like https://askubuntu.com/questions/974/how-can-i-install-software-or-packages-without-internet-offline – Terrance Oct 03 '18 at 04:07
  • If you have access to another Ubuntu system on the internet at the same version you can always download them on that system, copy it over to your USB then install on the local system. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/27469489/2012250 because that will help get all the dependencies needed for each package. – Terrance Oct 03 '18 at 04:17
  • Unfortunately I don't own another Ubuntu system with internet access, but I will look in to the second link you posted and try to go from there. If I do find a way to get an ethernet connection, do I just need to put sudo apt install build-essential and sudo apt install make in the terminal? – Nathan Carrell Oct 03 '18 at 04:23
  • Yes, with the ethernet connection that is what you would type in. You can actually combine them into one line like sudo apt install build-essential make and you can keep adding on as need be for whatever is needed. On the windows system you could also look into installing VirtualBox and putting a copy of Ubuntu in there so you can download into that then copy to the USB from there. Just trying to think of things that could help you! – Terrance Oct 03 '18 at 04:27
  • When I said "I don't own another Ubuntu system" I totally forgot about VirtualBox! Thanks so much for reminding me. :) May be what I need to get this all done. Thanks again for the help. – Nathan Carrell Oct 03 '18 at 04:31
  • @NathanCarrell btw, build-essential depends on make, so you only need sudo apt-get install build-essential. Use apt-get instead apt - apt tries to be friendly and deletes the downloaded deb files after installation. – muru Oct 03 '18 at 04:52
  • Thanks so much! I was able to get this working. Writing this on my new Ubuntu workstation now :) – Nathan Carrell Oct 03 '18 at 05:29

2 Answers2

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You can install the tools needed to build that driver by using:

sudo apt install build-essential

This will install make and a C++ compiler.

Kristopher Ives
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  • Thank you for the reply. This returns essentially the same thing as running sudo apt install make. I'd assume this is because I am not connected to the internet? – Nathan Carrell Oct 03 '18 at 03:53
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There are a few options from using an offline repository/package manager to burning a set of DVD/USB images with the packages you need. Regardless of the approach, either you will need access to an Internet connected machine or find someone who can do this for you to actually get the packages you need and any dependencies (there will be quite a few for the development tools.) See How can I install software or packages without Internet (offline)? for more information on how to do this.

blihp
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