Beginners • Re: Upgrade to specific version

I have a Pi2B currently running Buster. Is there a way to upgrade it to Bullseye rather than to Bookworm?
I do want to go to Bookworm but would prefer to take it in two steps if possible.
Thanks
Mick

How do I get it?
With a major upgrade, we recommend downloading a new image, reinstalling any applications, and moving your data across from your current image. Debian major version upgrades contain a lot of changes, and it is very easy for some small tweak made somewhere in the system to be incompatible with some change you have made, and you can end up with a broken system and a Raspberry Pi that won’t boot. The easiest way to create a new SD card is with the Raspberry Pi Imager tool available here, or you can download the new image from here and use a tool like Etcher to flash it to a new SD card.

If you really want to try upgrading an existing image, there are some instructions on the forums here – but we don’t support or recommend this, so be warned: you are on your own if anything breaks!

How to get it
We have always said that for a major version upgrade, you should re-image your SD card and start again with a clean image. In the past, we have suggested procedures for updating an existing image to the new version, but always with the caveat that we do not recommend it, and you do this at your own risk.

This time, because the changes to the underlying architecture are so significant, we are not suggesting any procedure for upgrading a Bullseye image to Bookworm; any attempt to do this will almost certainly end up with a non-booting desktop and data loss. The only way to get Bookworm is either to create an SD card using Raspberry Pi Imager, or to download and flash a Bookworm image from here with your tool of choice.

Statistics: Posted by B.Goode — Mon Aug 18, 2025 3:08 pm