I have a fresh install of Ubuntu Server 16.04 which is having issues with the Ethernet NIC. I think I've got it almost figured out, but I need to recompile the kernel, which is a problem because I don't have any of the common C compilers preinstalled. Since I don't have a network connection, I can't use apt to install a compiler. Using the same old USB trick, I moved the source of gcc-5.4.0 (the version used to compile the current kernel) over to the server, but ./configure fails with configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH. Is there any way for me to get around this, or should I just move on to trying to cross-compile the new kernel?
I am not able to mark this as answered or closed, but steeldriver was able to point me to this thread:
How can I install software or packages without Internet (offline)? without-internet-offline
To install the packages, I booted up a QEMU VM with identical specs to my server on another machine, piped the output of
apt-rdepends gccto a simple grep filter, and used apt-get download to get all of the deb files. They could then be transferred to the server via scp and the Old USB Trick.