Dependencies unsatisfied for offline Broadcom installation

Question

I just installed Ubuntu 17.1 on my Dell Precision M6500 (so the laptop is vintage 2009-2010), alongside Windows 7. When in Windows, wifi works fine (and the LED is ON, just above keyboard). When in Ubuntu, no wifi, wifi light is off, and if I go to Ubuntu Settings, the wifi page indicates that there is no wifi adapter. If I then try the lspci command, I get this for the Broadcom devices:

dell-M6500:~$ lspci -nnk |grep -iA3 broadcom
09:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5761e Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:1680] (rev 10)
    Subsystem: Dell NetXtreme BCM5761e Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [1028:02ef]
    Kernel driver in use: tg3
    Kernel modules: tg3
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:432b] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1510 Wireless-N WLAN Mini-Card [1028:000d]
    Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
    Kernel modules: ssb

If I then follow the instructions at How to install Broadcom wireless drivers offline?, I get this:

dell-M6500:~$ ls
bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb  Music
Desktop                                                    Pictures
dkms_2.3-3ubuntu3_all.deb                                  Public
Documents                                                  Templates
Downloads                                                  Videos
examples.desktop
dell-M6500:~$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb
[sudo] password for ...: 
Selecting previously unselected package bcmwl-kernel-source.
(Reading database ... 126010 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking bcmwl-kernel-source (6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu3) ...
Selecting previously unselected package dkms.
Preparing to unpack dkms_2.3-3ubuntu3_all.deb ...
Unpacking dkms (2.3-3ubuntu3) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of bcmwl-kernel-source:
 bcmwl-kernel-source depends on linux-libc-dev; however:
  Package linux-libc-dev is not installed.
 bcmwl-kernel-source depends on libc6-dev; however:
  Package libc6-dev is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package bcmwl-kernel-source (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of dkms:
 dkms depends on gcc; however:
  Package gcc is not installed.
 dkms depends on make | build-essential | dpkg-dev; however:
  Package make is not installed.
  Package build-essential is not installed.
  Package dpkg-dev is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package dkms (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.6.1-2) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 bcmwl-kernel-source
 dkms

This laptop does not support UEFI boot so there is no Secure Boot option to turn off (I also looked in BIOS and could not find anything related to secure boot). BIOS is latest (A10).

Any ideas of how to make wifi work?

Possible additional methods of offline package management How can I install software or packages without Internet (offline)? — J. Starnes, Dec 16 '17 at 17:08
@mikewhatever: How is that going to help with an offline installation? — David Foerster, Dec 18 '17 at 20:11

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 18 '17 at 20:14

Installation of the Broadcom driver failed because several of the package dependencies are not installed and, in at least one case, the dependencies of the dependency!

You have two options. First is the one minute option. Beg or borrow an ethernet connection from a friend or relative. Bribe them with a six-pack of their favorite beverage if needed. Then open a terminal and do:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -f bcmwl-kernel-source

Done!

The second alternative, often the one week option, is to go here: https://packages.ubuntu.com/ Select artful, the code name for Ubuntu 17.10. Find the missing packages, in your case, linux-libc-dev, make, build-essential and dpkg-dev. Be certain to also download the dependencies of the dependencies. For instance, as you see by the red dot, make depends on libc6.

You can check to see if it is already installed with:

sudo dpkg -s libc6

On my system, it is already installed, so I see:

Package: libc6
Status: install ok installed

Be sure to download either the 32- or 64-bit version as needed. Find out with the terminal command:

arch

If it returns x86_64, then you need the 64-bit versions of these packages, also known as amd64.

Transfer all these on a USB key or similar and install them all as you did previously:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

If there are still more missing dependencies, go back and try again.

I am not quite sure how you got Ubuntu installed without the usual packages linux-libc-dev, make, build-essential and dpkg-dev, but this process should correct the install.

I used first approach. Took a few commands to actually solve this. Strange because I did the stock install from DVD (created from stock Ubuntu 17.1 ISO). Maybe I'll find that other stuff missing too. I've created a separate answer just for the record. — Oliver, Dec 16 '17 at 21:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 16 '17 at 21:39

Ultimately the 2 commands posted by chili555 were necessary, but in my case were not sufficient. Here is what I had to do:

First update did this:

dell-M6500:~$ sudo apt update
[sudo] password for some_user: 
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful InRelease [237 kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-updates InRelease [78.6 kB]
...
Get:56 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-backports/universe amd64 Packages [2,656 B]
Get:57 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-backports/universe Translation-en [1,096 B]
Get:58 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-backports/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [4,680 B]
Get:59 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-backports/universe DEP-11 64x64 Icons [2,716 B]
Fetched 37.0 MB in 13s (2,746 kB/s)                                            
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
142 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

When I tried to run the install on bcmwl driver, I got some locked file error. I eventually did the update again, and surprisingly this updated more stuff:

dell-M6500:~$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful InRelease
Hit:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-updates InRelease                                 
Hit:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-backports InRelease                               
Get:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-security InRelease [78.6 kB]
Fetched 78.6 kB in 0s (109 kB/s)                               
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
142 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

The driver installation did this:

dell-M6500:~$ sudo apt install bcmwl-kernel-source
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
bcmwl-kernel-source is already the newest version (6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu3).
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 bcmwl-kernel-source : Depends: linux-libc-dev but it is not going to be installed
                       Depends: libc6-dev but it is not going to be installed
 dkms : Depends: gcc but it is not going to be installed
        Depends: make or
                 build-essential but it is not going to be installed or
                 dpkg-dev but it is not going to be installed
        Recommends: fakeroot
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

So I ran the fix-broken. Interestingly, there is output about wl, which I presume is for the wireless:

dell-M6500:~$ sudo apt --fix-broken install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  gcc gcc-7 libasan4 libatomic1 libc-dev-bin libc6-dev libcilkrts5 libgcc-7-dev libitm1 liblsan0
  libmpx2 libquadmath0 libtsan0 libubsan0 linux-libc-dev make manpages-dev
Suggested packages:
  gcc-multilib autoconf automake libtool flex bison gcc-doc gcc-7-multilib gcc-7-doc gcc-7-locales
  libgcc1-dbg libgomp1-dbg libitm1-dbg libatomic1-dbg libasan4-dbg liblsan0-dbg libtsan0-dbg
  libubsan0-dbg libcilkrts5-dbg libmpx2-dbg libquadmath0-dbg glibc-doc make-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gcc gcc-7 libasan4 libatomic1 libc-dev-bin libc6-dev libcilkrts5 libgcc-7-dev libitm1 liblsan0
  libmpx2 libquadmath0 libtsan0 libubsan0 linux-libc-dev make manpages-dev
0 upgraded, 17 newly installed, 0 to remove and 142 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/16.8 MB of archives.
After this operation, 72.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]  
Selecting previously unselected package libitm1:amd64.
(Reading database ... 126151 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../00-libitm1_7.2.0-8ubuntu3_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libitm1:amd64 (7.2.0-8ubuntu3) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libatomic1:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../01-libatomic1_7.2.0-8ubuntu3_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libatomic1:amd64 (7.2.0-8ubuntu3) ...
...
Building for architecture x86_64
Building initial module for 4.13.0-16-generic
Done.

wl:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/updates/dkms/

depmod...

DKMS: install completed.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.26-0ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.125ubuntu12) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic

Finally I retried the wireless driver installation:

dell-M6500:~$ sudo apt install bcmwl-kernel-source
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
bcmwl-kernel-source is already the newest version (6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu3).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 142 not upgraded.

Then I noticed that the wifi LED above my keyboard was lit. It is likely that the LED came on after step 4, but it is possible that it came on after step 1, 2 or even 5.

I edited chilli555’s answer to amend the the second command with the -f option. It became necessary because you had the half-installed packages left that you tried to install earlier. — David Foerster, Dec 18 '17 at 20:16

Dependencies unsatisfied for offline Broadcom installation

2 Answers2

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