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
rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list.bak

I tried this 2 days ago with a Raspberry Pi with desktop environment, and the apt full-upgrade failed to install one of the packages. I don't recall which one exactly, I think it was either libmousepad0 or lxpanel, essentially one of the raspberrypi-ui-mods packages, which crashed with a undefined import symbol during the dpkg install. I was unable to resolve this and had to essentially uninstall these. While it boots fine and I can access it over SSH and package wise apt/dpkg is happy now, the GUI is busted and won't start:

[+0.00s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Starting
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Creating greeter session
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Failed to find session configuration lightdm-greeter
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Failed to create greeter session
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Failed to start seat: seat0

I encountered a package error at about 40% during the update to Trixie. Following the official Debian instructions, I first tried a minimal update (sudo apt upgrade --without-new-pkgs). A full upgrade is supposed to be better afterward. Does that make sense?

Link to official Debian update instructions https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/release-notes/upgrading.de.html#upgrading-packages

Edit : After the minimal update, I started a full upgrade. However, the lxpanel package keeps causing an error. When overwriting ...lxpanel/plugins/batt.so , Sub process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1). FYI, bookworm was a clean installation.

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.

Thanks again @jauderho perfect upgrade guide. My RPI5 with k3s is now running Raspberry OS Trixie. The entire process took about 15-20 minutes

@FlavaSava01 had the same issue ChatGPT to the rescue!

This is a file conflict plus a missing tool:

lxpanel 0.11.1-1 wants to install …/lxpanel/plugins/batt.so

You still have lxplug-batt (older Raspberry Pi plugin package) that already owns that file

Also /usr/bin/gdbus is missing (it lives in libglib2.0-bin)

Let’s unblock cleanly. Run these exactly, in order (note the minimal env + GIO_MODULE_DIR so gvfs doesn’t crash GLib while we fix things):

1) Get out of the gvfs/glib crash path

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
BASE_ENV='env -i PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin GIO_MODULE_DIR=/doesnotexist DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive'

2) Remove the conflicting legacy plugin

sudo $BASE_ENV dpkg -r --force-depends lxplug-batt

3) Install gdbus (GLib tools)

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get -y -t trixie install libglib2.0-bin

4) Let apt repair the partially-unpacked state and allow overwrites

sudo $BASE_ENV apt --fix-broken install -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite"

5) Ensure lxpanel finishes installing from the same suite

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get -y -t trixie install lxpanel

6) Now continue the big upgrade

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confnew" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" full-upgrade -y

7) Clean up

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get autoremove --purge -y
sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get clean

If step 4 still complains about the same file

Force the overwrite in one shot, then continue:

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get install -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" lxpanel
sudo $BASE_ENV apt --fix-broken install -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite"

@FlavaSava01 had the same issue ChatGPT to the rescue!

This is a file conflict plus a missing tool:

lxpanel 0.11.1-1 wants to install …/lxpanel/plugins/batt.so

You still have lxplug-batt (older Raspberry Pi plugin package) that already owns that file

Also /usr/bin/gdbus is missing (it lives in libglib2.0-bin)

Let’s unblock cleanly. Run these exactly, in order (note the minimal env + GIO_MODULE_DIR so gvfs doesn’t crash GLib while we fix things):

1) Get out of the gvfs/glib crash path

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive BASE_ENV='env -i PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin GIO_MODULE_DIR=/doesnotexist DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive'

2) Remove the conflicting legacy plugin

sudo $BASE_ENV dpkg -r --force-depends lxplug-batt

3) Install gdbus (GLib tools)

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get -y -t trixie install libglib2.0-bin

4) Let apt repair the partially-unpacked state and allow overwrites

sudo $BASE_ENV apt --fix-broken install -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite"

5) Ensure lxpanel finishes installing from the same suite

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get -y -t trixie install lxpanel

6) Now continue the big upgrade

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confnew" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" full-upgrade -y

7) Clean up

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get autoremove --purge -y sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get clean

If step 4 still complains about the same file

Force the overwrite in one shot, then continue:

sudo $BASE_ENV apt-get install -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" lxpanel sudo $BASE_ENV apt --fix-broken install -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite"

@haani86 thx, the dpkg command helps. Trixie ist now running in my Pi 4 with KDE on Wayland. Thumps Up!

Here are the instructions from the beta forum (https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=389477):

sudo sed -i 's/bookworm/trixie/g' /etc/apt/sources.list 
sudo find /etc/apt/sources.list.d -type f -exec sed -i 's/bookworm/trixie/g' {} \;  
sudo apt update   
sudo apt purge -y raspberrypi-ui-mods   
sudo apt autoremove -y   
sudo apt full-upgrade -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confnew" --purge --auto-remove   
sudo apt install -y rpd-wayland-all rpd-x-all. 

This should be good for 32-bit and 64-bit. Please keep in mind it's not recommended to do an in-place upgrade and that there isn't an official RPI-Trixie image yet for testing.

@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?