STICKY - How to upgrade a Buster image to Bullseye

[spl23]

First off - we really do not recommend doing this, and we don't support it!

The only recommended way to upgrade to bullseye is to download and flash a clean bullseye image, and transfer your data and applications across. But if you really want to try to upgrade an existing buster image to bullseye, this is a method we have found to work on a clean install of the last released buster image. This does of course not guarantee it will work on your image, which will have all sorts of subtle differences from the clean image as a result of changes made while you used it - but it works for us.

First - and I cannot stress this enough - use dd or the SD Card Copier application to MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR CARD. There is a non-zero chance that this upgrade will trash your system and leave you with an unbootable card. So don't say we didn't warn you! (Did I mention that we do not recommend doing this...?)

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list, and replace every occurrence of the word "buster" with "bullseye".

Do the same for any .list files in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

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sudo apt update

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sudo apt install libgcc-8-dev gcc-8-base

This will take a while to run. Answer "yes" to any questions during the install.

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sudo apt full-upgrade

Again, this will take a while, and again, answer "yes" to any questions during the install.

When it completes, edit /boot/config.txt.
Comment out any lines which contain "dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d" by putting a # sign at the start of the line.
At the bottom of the file, in the [all] section, add the line "dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d" - note that is "kms", not "fkms".

Now reboot and cross your fingers...

If your system comes back up, it should now be running bullseye. You will probably need to reset any custom display resolution you had before.

As above - we do not support this process; it may work for you, or it may not. If you get it to work, or if you have problems, feel free to use this thread to share your experiences to help each other. Good luck!

[DougieLawson]

It's probably best for folks to continue to use RonR's tried and tested script from viewtopic.php?t=317888
That's known to work and does all of the /etc/apt stuff for you.

[spl23]

Unless that script also makes the config changes to switch over to KMS, you will end up with tearing when dragging windows about and other visual nasties. If you do use that script, make sure you also make the changes to /boot/config.txt described in my first post above.

[DougieLawson]

Unless that script also makes the config changes to switch over to KMS, you will end up with tearing when dragging windows about and other visual nasties. If you do use that script, make sure you also make the changes to /boot/config.txt described in my first post above.

Isn't that just for RPi4Bs only (and therefore completely irrelevant to my, mostly headless, RPi3Bs, 3As, 2B, Zeros and 1Bs).

[spl23]

Unless that script also makes the config changes to switch over to KMS, you will end up with tearing when dragging windows about and other visual nasties. If you do use that script, make sure you also make the changes to /boot/config.txt described in my first post above.

Isn't that just for RPi4Bs only (and therefore completely irrelevant to my, mostly headless, RPi3Bs, 3As, 2B, Zeros and 1Bs).

No, in this release the KMS driver is the default for all models of the Pi.

[jamesh]

Unless that script also makes the config changes to switch over to KMS, you will end up with tearing when dragging windows about and other visual nasties. If you do use that script, make sure you also make the changes to /boot/config.txt described in my first post above.

Isn't that just for RPi4Bs only (and therefore completely irrelevant to my, mostly headless, RPi3Bs, 3As, 2B, Zeros and 1Bs).

Yes, but you are not the only person reading this thread!!

[LTolledo]

hmmm.... as the "official" RPiOS32 Bullseye has been officially announced....

been contemplating on going this path, or the recommended path....

or should I wait until the dust settles.....?

[jbudd]

I tried it on a Zero 2 with RPiOS Lite and just Node-Red installed.
It took a long time, longer than burning a fresh image and reinstalling Node-Red and my flows.
It required a fair bit of interation so couldn't be run unattended.
And finally, it either didn't boot or didn't connect to wifi.

[HawaiianPi]

been contemplating on going this path, or the recommended path....
or should I wait until the dust settles.....?

If you decide to go with the recommended path, the 64-bit images are also available.
downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_arm64/images/raspios_arm64-2021-11-08/
downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_lite_arm64/images/raspios_lite_arm64-2021-11-08/

[nikal]

Hi!

I'm running the 64bit version on a rpi 4/8G. The apt update gives me an error regarding the debian-security updates/bullseye repo which has no release file and therefore it's by default disabled. Should I override this error somehow or it's OK to leave it as it is ?

Thanks in advace for your reply

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

Unless that script also makes the config changes to switch over to KMS, you will end up with tearing when dragging windows about and other visual nasties. If you do use that script, make sure you also make the changes to /boot/config.txt described in my first post above.

Isn't that just for RPi4Bs only (and therefore completely irrelevant to my, mostly headless, RPi3Bs, 3As, 2B, Zeros and 1Bs).

No, in this release the KMS driver is the default for all models of the Pi.

Off-topic: KMS runs also nicely with 5.15 kernel on a Zero 2 W.

Nice to see the official release! Will start with a fresh image though (instead of attempting to update)

[GranducatodiToscana]

i've installed my buster on an external ssd. how i can upgrade it to bullseye without lost the settings and the files?
i've got a rpi400.

thank u

[ralphrmartin]

Just followed the above instructions for a basic headless server running Plex and mpd, and all went well. Thanks!

[ralphrmartin]

Hmm tried upgrading another server running pihole, dns, and a unifi network controller, and couldn't log into it afterwards or access pihole. At that point I had to revert to a backup as it was a live system.

[fik]

Hi!

I'm running the 64bit version on a rpi 4/8G. The apt update gives me an error regarding the debian-security updates/bullseye repo which has no release file and therefore it's by default disabled. Should I override this error somehow or it's OK to leave it as it is ?

Thanks in advace for your reply

I've stumbled upon this one as well.

The original line in /etc/apt/sources.list

Code: Select all

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main contrib non-free

should be changed to

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deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free

[redvli]

Hmm tried upgrading another server running pihole, dns, and a unifi network controller, and couldn't log into it afterwards or access pihole. At that point I had to revert to a backup as it was a live system.

On my quite modified RPi4 system, the upgrade went as smooth as a former upgrade of some Debian buster to Debian bullseye system, except that connman got installed and activated while dhcpcd was and is still my main network config tool. As I have bridged eth0 and wlan0 into a br0 (WiFi AP functionality), network access got broken and the upgrade stopped. Luckily I had serial console access, so i could fix/restart the upgrade process.

[Eirikr70]

If you decide to go with the recommended path, the 64-bit images are also available.

What are the pros and cons of choosing 32 or 64 bits (explained to someone who doesn't speak 0s and 1s - and even hardly english) ?

[redvli]

What are the pros and cons of choosing 32 or 64 bits (explained to someone who doesn't speak 0s and 1s - and even hardly english) ?

This topic is about upgrading, there are plenty of discussions about 32-bit vs. 64-bit, for example viewtopic.php?t=275372
Another short answer is: If you ask this question, so don't know it, then do not choose a beta OS variant, but take the 32-bit variant.

[linuxusr80]

Please note if you have pihole installed, connman will enable itself on port 53. Disabling connman service resolves. in addition if you have a static ip address, eth0 is renamed and eth0 is disabled. you need to update in you dhcpcs.conf file.

[MikeCoder]

Hmmm... I tried upgrading. My Pi got to the splash screen, but then the screen went blank, the green light went solid for ~10 seconds, then it went off and only the red light was on and didn't boot. It only booted properly when I used fkms in config.txt.

[redvli]

Hmmm... I tried upgrading. My Pi got to the splash screen, but then the screen went blank, the green light went solid for ~10 seconds, then it went off and only the red light was on and didn't boot. It only booted properly when I used fkms in config.txt.

Somehow the boot- or startupprocess stalls and you need to connect a serial cable maybe or make sure you have working/reliable ssh access. The graphics stuff can have many surprises. You can add the following lines to the config.txt:

enable_uart=1
uart_2ndstage=1

The latter one is needed for example when you have problems very early in the bootprocess, it also matters if it is a Pi4 or Pi3-

Also a general tip is to examine the fresh Bullseye image, after you have booted with it once. It is just comparing a successful start with a failing one and hopefully you figure out what the problem is.

[chrisy]

Upgrade went well on 64-bit, however I did manually need to change the window manager to "mutter".

The only minor issue I've seen so far is that the "Notifications" panel does not appear, and I can't see it in the list to add it.
Does anybody know the name of the package so I can install it manually?

[Milliways]

I had used RonR's script to upgrade for testing on a fresh Buster.

I just did an fresh installation of the release image.

The Fresh install & reinstall apps took considerably less time and effort.

There were a few other differences I noted. WiringPi is missing from fresh install (as expected).

There are still a few lose ends.

dtparam=act_led_trigger=heartbeat didn't work.

ssh keys changed (not sure if the differences significant).

[nikal]

Hi!

I'm running the 64bit version on a rpi 4/8G. The apt update gives me an error regarding the debian-security updates/bullseye repo which has no release file and therefore it's by default disabled. Should I override this error somehow or it's OK to leave it as it is ?

Thanks in advace for your reply

I've stumbled upon this one as well.

The original line in /etc/apt/sources.list

Code: Select all

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main contrib non-free

should be changed to

Code: Select all

deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free

Thanks for your reply. In the mean time I deleted the installation (I used it mostly for testing) and I will reinstall the nightly build based on bullseye.

Truth is that I used it to compile Vulkan GPU driver but after switching to bullseye and despite I faced no issues with the compilation, driver didn't load no matter what.

[ElDavo]

In case you have no (wired only) network after the update, check if you have this file:

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/etc/systemd/system/dhcpcd.service.d/wait.conf

The content of the file in my case was:

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[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd -q -w

Delete this file to make dhcpcd run again.