I am just dipping my toes into Linux. I have dual booted Ubuntu on my main machine. Right now I don’t have access at all to a wired connection. I have a TP link archer T2U usb Wi-Fi adapter that I have used and works (on my windows half). However, I can’t use the Wi-Fi adapter because I am missing the drivers on Linux and can’t even install the packages to install the drivers because I am not connected to the internet. My motherboard does not support Wi-Fi so I have to have the adapter and feel stuck without just buying a new adapter that would work innately with Linux.
It’s been a while since I have had to do it, but it is possible to download all the deb/rpm packages to the USB drive under windows. It’ll be a manual process to identify which will be required.
You might be better off finding CD images for the package repository and installing packages from there.