Debian Linux In Place OS Upgrade

#linux #debian #FOSS

I wanted to upgrade my Pi4 Debian OS from bullseye 11 to bookworm 12 without having to reimage and migrate any configurations or redownload apps

# First, ensure your system is up-to-date in it's current release.
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get full-upgrade

# If you haven't already, ensure all backups are up-to-date.  

# In a text editor, replace the codename of your release with that of the next release in APT's package sources
# For instance, the line
#    deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main
# should be replaced with
#    deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main
$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

# If you are migrating to Bookworm or later, then a new repo for non-free firmware is available.
# If you wish, you can add non-free and non-free-firmware, depending on your specific needs.
# For instance, the line
#    deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
# or
#    deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

# Clean and update package lists
$ sudo apt-get clean
$ sudo apt-get update

Mono repo was not signed

This was a slightly concerning error as I didn't really know what this mono repo did. I believe it was installed when I ssh remoted in with VS Code. I just moved that file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/MONOREPO to a temporary folder for now and then ran the update again and it worked

# Perform the major release upgrade, removing packages if required
# Interrupting this step after downloading has completed is an excellent way to stress-test your backups
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get full-upgrade

Lots of prompts

During the upgrade I was asked a lot of [Y] prompts every so often, so don't think this will be a set and walk away. Expect to be running the terminal and glancing at it over the course of an hour or 2 (depending on computer's speed)

# Remove packages that are not required anymore
# Be sure to review this list: you may want to keep some of them
$ sudo apt-get autoremove

# Reboot to make changes effective (optional, but recommended)
$ sudo shutdown -r now

You can fire off uname -a ; lsb_release -a to tell you the current OS version. For me, I use trusty neofetch

       _,met$$$$$gg.          pi4@rpi
    ,g$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P.       -------
  ,g$$P"     """Y$$.".        OS: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) aarch64
 ,$$P'              `$$$.     Host: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5
',$$P       ,ggs.     `$$b:   Kernel: 6.1.21-v8+
`d$$'     ,$P"'   .    $$$    Uptime: 2 mins
 $$P      d$'     ,    $$P    Packages: 1265 (dpkg)
 $$:      $$.   -    ,d$$'    Shell: bash 5.2.15
 $$;      Y$b._   _,d$P'      Terminal: /dev/pts/0
 Y$$.    `.`"Y$$$$P"'         CPU: BCM2835 (4) @ 1.800GHz
 `$$b      "-.__              Memory: 202MiB / 1849MiB
  `Y$$
   `Y$$.
     `$$b.
       `Y$$b.
          `"Y$b._
              `"""

Credits