Using fw_update

Some devices may need code to work properly; this code is called firmware.

While device drivers are run on the CPU and managed by the OS, device firmware are run on the device itself; after loading the firmware, the OS has no control over it. OpenBSD ships with several firmware for some devices (such as run(4), fxp(4) or bnx(4)) in /etc/firmware. However, due to legal restrictions, OpenBSD does not include all available firmware in the installation image.

After installing OpenBSD, fw_update(1) can be run to install additional firmware.

Important firmwares

Device	Description	Firmware
CPU	CPU microcode updates, to patch security and reliability issues	`intel`, `amd`
VMM	Required for VMM to work	vmm
USB video	webcams and other cameras	uvideo(4)
GPU	graphics for GPUs	inteldrm(4), amdgpu(4), `radeongpu`
Wifi	Wireless networking	iwn(4), iwx(4), qwx(4), etc

Usage

With no arguments, fw_update simply will check and find all firmware your device may need:

$ doas fw_update

To delete firmware, you may use -d:

$ doas fw_update -d uvideo

To delete all firmware:

$ doas fw_update -da