HOWTO: Upgrade Raspberry Pi OS from Bookworm to Trixie

gistfile1.txt

### WARNING: READ CAREFULLY BEFORE ATTEMPTING ###
#
# Officially, this is not recommended. YMMV
# https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/bookworm-the-new-version-of-raspberry-pi-os/
#
# This mostly works if you are on 64bit. You are on your own if you are on 32bit or mixed 64/32bit
#
# Credit to anfractuosity and fgimenezm for figuring out additional details for kernels
#

# Make sure everything is up-to-date
sudo apt-get -y update && sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get -y dist-upgrade

# Point to bookworm repos instead
sudo sed -i -e 's/bookworm/trixie/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo sed -i -e 's/bookworm/trixie/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list

# Contents of /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
# Uncomment deb-src lines below then 'apt-get update' to enable 'apt-get source'
#deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie-updates main contrib non-free

# Contents of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list
deb http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ trixie main
# Uncomment line below then 'apt-get update' to enable 'apt-get source'
#deb-src http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ trixie main

# Do actual update. See also https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=389477
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confnew" --purge --auto-remove rpd-wayland-all+ rpd-x-all+
sudo apt -y clean && sudo apt -y autoremove

# Reboot
sudo reboot

# Modernize sources
sudo apt modernize-sources

# Make sure the following is in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.sources. The Signed-by: may be missing
Types: deb
URIs: http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/
Suites: trixie
Components: main
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/raspberrypi-archive-keyring.gpg

# Remove the raspi.list.bak after confirming that everything works
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list.bak

@UnicornRidingUnicorn Thanks. I've updated with the instructions from the forum post.

After 3 failed attempts with other guides that are based on Debian Desktop, with your tutorial it worked straight away. Pi5 with Trixie and so far everything runs smoothly. Even video playback is smoother in 1080p60 than it was in Bookworm. Thanks for that great guide :)

I went from Buster to Bullseye and then, with the help of your guides, all the way from Bullseye to Bookworm to Trixie, with no issue! Thank you very much!

Make sure to read through known issues: https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/release-notes/issues.en.html

had the "signature year" prolbme
apt install --reinstall raspberrypi-archive-keyring

solved it.
FYI for future me if I have the same problem.

Did you upgrade the kernel? That would be a starting point. What does „no boot“ mean, any details? Otherwise, roll back by restoring your backup.

I still have 6.12.34+rpt-rpi-2712 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.12.34-1+rpt1 (2025-06-26) this kernel how did you update?

Cam i suggest you to replace init-ramfstools with tiny-initramfs?
I'm the author of piccolinux

@Maverynthia I fixed the signature issue with the following

sudo curl -fsSL https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/microsoft.gpg
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/keyrings/microsoft.gpg
sudo apt-get update

I just followed your guide on a fresh install with RP4 and everything works fine.
Thanks

Thank you for this guide, it worked for me.
A couple of notes on gistfile1.txt:

• The last line rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list.bak should have sudo.
• For me on a Raspberry Pi 1, I needed to add Architectures: armhf to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.sources & /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspbian.sources else apt complained.

Awesome!
I had an issue with apt and lib nettle during the install: No http request anymore.

/usr/lib/apt/methods/http: error while loading shared libraries: libnettle.so.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory E: Method http has died unexpectedly! E: Sub-process http returned an error code (127) E: Method /usr/lib/apt/methods/http did not start correctly

Fixed by rsync from another computer:
http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/n/nettle/libnettle8t64_3.10.1-1_arm64.deb

And then sudo dpkg -i libnettle8t64_3.10.1-1_arm64.deb

I upgraded and now running "uname -a" gives me:
Linux raspi5 6.12.47+rpt-rpi-2712 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.12.47-1+rpt1 (2025-09-16) aarch64 GNU/Linux

How come it's showing Debian instead of Trixie now?

Now with the official announcement (https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/trixie-the-new-version-of-raspberry-pi-os/) out and the linked upgrade topic (https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=392376) I am wondering, which guide has the better (confirmed working, more robust) approach:

• A) This unofficial guide here https://gist.github.com/jauderho/5f73f16cac28669e56608be14c41006c
• B) This official guide https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=392376

Did not fully compare them yet but just wondering related to the differences what's the reason for them.

I jumped on it and used this gist for upgrading from bookworm to trixie. I am running a Pi5 8GB headless (no UI) and am mostly using lots of docker containers.

All went smoothly and so far everything I looked at works just fine (including docker).

Thanks!

Maybe nice to know this is not working with docker and docker-compose. The upgrade will fail.

docker-compose is now part of the docker CLI (accessible as docker compose no dash, no additional package needed). Uninstall docker-compose before the upgrade. You no longer need it. If your upgrade fails you can force uninstall with sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq docker-compose and continue the upgrade process.

Now with the official announcement (https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/trixie-the-new-version-of-raspberry-pi-os/) out and the linked upgrade topic (https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=392376) I am wondering, which guide has the better (confirmed working, more robust) approach:

* A) This unofficial guide here https://gist.github.com/jauderho/5f73f16cac28669e56608be14c41006c

* B) This official guide https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=392376

Did not fully compare them yet but just wondering related to the differences what's the reason for them.

For me the official guide did not work and I ended up with a missing Desktop Environment. However, following this gist instead worked perfectly!

Anyone try this on lite? Would that just be excluding rpd-wayland-all+ rpd-x-all+

Yup, I did it on headless lite and just skipped the Wayland & X stuff - it worked well.

my RPI 4, broke the book, a lot of modules stop working included the internet, so I had to flash using RPI image, and then lost (I have a backup) all the currenct settings