You might test the newer kernel. I know if you have no network it is difficult to upgrade. In case of such emergencies it would be important to have a network dongle to use on usb.
That happens when the kernel not recognizes the hardware.
You could use the live ISO and see if you could give us a inxi -Fzxx as pre formatted text </> So we can see what the system recognizes.
Send us the lines of lspci that list the network card?
And please the output of uname -a
I know that on android you can use “USB tethering” to use your phones wifi, and the laptop sees it like an ethernet connection. You need a usb cable with data transfer, connect your phone to the PC, in Android connection settings change to “USB tethering”
Not recognizing the wifi adapter is not the same as not recognizing ethernet
For example when using the “everything” ISO and not installing a desktop environment, you will not have the right firmware packages for wifi but can still use usb tethering to get set up.
I did not ask the same thing. Inxi is not preinstalled so not usable without internet.
Please give us the information I asked you for. Sometimes this happens when you have a network adapter which you have to make some changes to work correctly. This kind of Adapters can make you troubles while updating to a newer kernel.