FW_UPDATE(8) - System Manager’s Manual #

FW_UPDATE(8) - System Manager’s Manual

NAME #

fw_update - install non-free firmware packages

SYNOPSIS #

fw_update [-adFnv] [-p path] [driver | file …]

DESCRIPTION #

The fw_update utility installs, updates, or deletes firmware packages for driver from the Internet. If no driver is specified, the fw_update utility tries to determine which firmware is needed on the system.

Since firmware with an acceptable license is already present in OpenBSD, fw_update exists purely to deal with firmware that may not be freely distributed with OpenBSD.

The options are as follows:

-a

Install or update firmware for all drivers. It is an error to specify this option with any driver arguments. This is enabled by default unless drivers, files or -d are specified.

-d

Delete firmware for driver. If used without parameters, delete all firmware that is not required by a driver. If used in conjunction with -a, delete firmware for all drivers.

-F

Download firmware only. By default downloads to the current directory. Specifying a URL with -p downloads from that URL, specifying a path downloads to that directory.

-n

Dry run. Do not actually install or update any firmware packages; just report the steps that would be taken.

-p path

Use the firmware found at package repository path, being either a local directory or a URL, instead of the default location.

-v

Turn on verbose output. This flag can be specified multiple times for increased verbosity.

Firmware is downloaded from release-specific directories at http://firmware.openbsd.org/firmware/. The files are in the format required by pkg_add(1), but direct use of pkg_add is discouraged.

ENVIRONMENT #

DESTDIR

The root of the system to install into.

FILES #

${DESTDIR}/usr/share/misc/firmware_patterns

A list of patterns used to detect needed firmware from the dmesg(8).

${DESTDIR}/etc/signify/openbsd-XX-fw.pub

Used with signify(1) to verify downloaded firmware files.

AUTHORS #

The fw_update program was designed by Alexander Hall <alexander@beard.se>; it was then replaced with a perl version by Marc Espie <espie@openbsd.org>. It was rewritten to be able to be run from the installer by Andrew Hewus Fresh <afresh1@openbsd.org>.

OpenBSD 7.5 - March 9, 2022