UPGT(4) | Device Drivers Manual | UPGT(4)

# NAME

`upgt` — Conexant/Intersil PrismGT SoftMAC USB IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network device

# SYNOPSIS

`upgt* at uhub? port ?`

# DESCRIPTION

The `upgt` driver supports the USB 2.0 Conexant/Intersil PrismGT series wireless adapters based on the GW3887 chipset.

These are the modes the `upgt` driver can operate in:

BSS mode
  Also known as infrastructure mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through which all traffic passes. This mode is the default.
monitor mode
  In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without associating with an access point. This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to, or to scan for access points.

The `upgt` driver can be configured to use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA1 and WPA2). WPA2 is currently the most secure encryption standard for wireless networks supported by OpenBSD. It is strongly recommended that neither WEP nor WPA1 are used as the sole mechanism to secure wireless communication, due to serious weaknesses. WPA1 is disabled by default and may be enabled using the option "`wpaprotos` wpa1,wpa2". For standard WPA networks which use pre-shared keys (PSK), keys are configured using the "`wpakey`" option. WPA-Enterprise networks require use of the wpa_supplicant package. The `upgt` driver relies on the software 802.11 stack for both encryption and decryption of data frames.

The `upgt` driver can be configured at runtime with ifconfig(8) or on boot with hostname.if(5).

# FILES

The driver needs a firmware file which is loaded when an interface is brought up:

/etc/firmware/upgt-gw3887

A prepackaged version of the firmware can be installed using fw_update(8).

# HARDWARE

The following adapters should work:

Belkin F5D7050 (version 1000)
Cohiba Proto Board
D-Link DWL-G120 Cohiba
D-Link DWL-G122 rev A2
FSC Connect2Air E-5400 USB D1700
Gigaset USB Adapter 54
Inventel UR045G
IOGear GWU513
Linksys WUSB54AG
Linksys WUSB54G ver 2
Medion MD40900
Philips CPWUA054
SMC EZ ConnectG SMC2862W-G
Sagem XG703A
Spinnaker DUT
Spinnaker Proto Board
Thomson SpeedTouch 121g

# EXAMPLES

The following example scans for available networks:

`# ifconfig upgt0 scan`

The following hostname.if(5) example configures upgt0 to join network “mynwid”, using WPA key “mywpakey”, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:

    join mynwid wpakey mywpakey
    inet autoconf

# SEE ALSO

arp(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), usb(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)

# HISTORY

The `upgt` driver first appeared in OpenBSD 4.3.

# AUTHORS

The `upgt` driver was written by Marcus Glocker <mglocker@openbsd.org>.

# CAVEATS

The `upgt` driver just supports the USB 2.0 devices (GW3887 chipset) but not the USB 1.0 devices containing the NET2280, ISL3880, and ISL3886 chipsets. Some further efforts would be necessary to add USB 1.0 support to the driver.

March 27, 2025 | Debian