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Raspberry Pi OS upgrade to Trixie

Even if a new installation would actually be appropriate, one or the other might prefer to do a system upgrade? I got you covered!

Important note in advance: The Raspberry Pi Foundation officially recommends reinstalling Trixie via the Raspberry Pi Imager. An in-place upgrade like this can lead to issues that you need to fix yourself. This guide is the way for experienced users who take the risk and don't want to reposition their Pi. Therefore, be sure to secure all important data beforehand!

I have a blog for the weekend. Introducing the new release in the Wews, If you want to read again and go into the details, this article is recommended. Otherwise, go for the upgrade:

Your upgrade guide: From Bookworm to Trixie

Follow the steps below in your terminal.

Step 0: Make a backup (Important!)

Before you start the upgrade, you should make a backup. Here are two best practices:

Option A: Easy backup of important data (fast)

Backup your most important configurations and data to an external medium or USB stick:

# Mount USB stick (if not mounted yet)
# Usually under /media/pi/[NAME] or /mnt

# Save important directories sudo tar -czf /media/pi/USBSTICK/backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \ /home/pi \ /etc \ /var/www \ /opt

Note: Fits the path /media/pi/USBSTICK/ At your actual mount point.

Option B: Full SD card image (recommended but time consuming)

For a complete system backup, it is best to create an image of the entire SD card. This is what you do from another computer:

On Linux/macOS:

  1. Shut down Raspberry Pi and insert SD card into your computer
  2. Identify SD card device:
# Linux lsblk # Search for your SD card, e.g. /dev/sdb or /dev/mmcblk0

# macOS discussutil list # Search for your SD card, e.g. /dev/disk2
  1. Create image:
# Linux (example: SD card is /dev/sdb) sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=~/raspberry-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).img bs=4M status=progress # macOS (example: SD card is /dev/disk2) sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk2 of=~/raspberry-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).img bs=4m

On Windows:

Use a tool like Win32 Disk Imager or Raspberry Pi imager (read function):

Restoration: If something goes wrong, you can simply replay the image back to the SD card (with dd or Win32 Disk Imager).

Step 1: System check & preparation

First, you should check which version you are currently using and make sure that your Bookworm system is fully up to date before you change the sources.

  1. Check system information:
uname -a && lsb_release -a
  1. Update package lists:
sudo apt update
  1. Fully update the current system:
sudo apt full-upgrade

Confirms the installation and waits for the process to complete.

Step 2: Switch sources to trixie

Now you have to instruct the system to get the packages no longer from the Bookworm sources, but from the new Trixie sources.

  1. Edit main source list: Opens the file /etc/apt/sources.list with the text editor nano:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Replaces the word in each line bookworm through trixia. Saves and closes the file with [Ctrl + X], then Y (Yes) and [Enter].

  1. Edit Raspberry Pi-specific source list: Opens the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list

Replaces the word in every line. bookworm through trixia. Saves and closes the file ([Ctrl + X], Y, [Enter]).

Step 3: The big version jump

Now you are ready for the actual upgrade process, which updates all Bookworm packages to their Trixie versions and adds new packages.

  1. Load new Trixie package lists:
sudo apt update
  1. Complete the upgrade: This command is long, but important. It updates your system, deletes obsolete packages (--purge --auto-remove) and solves configuration problems by favoring new default settings (--force-confnew).

Be sure to take the command exactly:

sudo apt full-upgrade -y -o Dpkg::Options::="-force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="-force-confnew" --purge --auto-remove rpd-wayland-all+ rpd-x-all+

Note: Depending on the Pi model and internet speed, the process can take a long time (15 to 30 minutes or more). Let the terminal work in peace and do not interrupt the process.

Step 4: Complete and restart

After the upgrade process is finished and you see the command prompt again, all you have to do is make sure that all the data has been written to the SD card and restart it.

  1. Synchronize data to storage media:
sync
  1. Restart the system:
sudo reboot

After rebooting, your Raspberry Pi OS should boot in the new Debian Trixie-based version!

Step 5: Verify upgrade

After restarting, you should check if the upgrade was successful:

lsb_release -a

The output should now display ‘Debian GNU/Linux trixie/sid’ or similar.

That's it, too. Welcome to the new Pi era!

Plan B: PI Trixie reinstallation (optionally also headless)

By the way, if anything goes wrong, you can also go the official way and do a clean new installation. Today I'll leave you a guide with an IT support accent. The instructions nicely describe the preparation how to get the complete installation done headless, if that is of interest to you, take a look:

Conclusion & TL:DR

I mentioned it in the Wews: As usual with major Debian release jumps, The developers strongly recommend a new installation. from Raspberry Pi OS Trixie.

A direct in-place upgrade from Bookworm to Trixie is not officially supported and can lead to unexpected problems. In case of problems, it is best to use the Raspberry Pi imager, to burn you a fresh Trixie image on your SD card.

Attention for special users: If you have special hardware such as KI-HAT or the TV-HAT If you use Trixie, you should stay with Bookworm for the time being, as the packages for Trixie may still be in the works.

The new Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian Trixie is a big step forward in terms of performance and usability. The fresh look and central control centre make working with the Pi even more intuitive. Try it, it's worth it!

Stephan
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