Not sure about iPhones, but I’ve used an android phone a couple times to both USB tether with data and to act as a WiFi receiver to download drivers in a pinch.
Use a second computer or a friend’s one to download the updates, get a USB ethernet adapter (a 100mbps one is like $5), put the system drive in a computer with lan, tether with another device via USB (phone, pi zero, etc) or use a different version/distro. I’m sure there are a bunch of other solutions.
What do I do if my laptop doesn’t have an ethernet port?
Not sure about iPhones, but I’ve used an android phone a couple times to both USB tether with data and to act as a WiFi receiver to download drivers in a pinch.
Use a second computer or a friend’s one to download the updates, get a USB ethernet adapter (a 100mbps one is like $5), put the system drive in a computer with lan, tether with another device via USB (phone, pi zero, etc) or use a different version/distro. I’m sure there are a bunch of other solutions.