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How to upgrade from Stretch to Buster without flashing an image

How to upgrade from Stretch to Buster without flashing an image

If you want to update your system from Stretch to Buster without flashing an image this guide is right for you i.e. if you are using a RevPi Flat, Connect, Core or Compact device.

The procedure described here may cause your device to stop booting. Use with caution.

Preparation

Please make a backup of your data.

Please read the article completely and clarify open questions before you start.

Instruction

  • Update your current system

sudo apt update sudo apt dist-upgrade -y

  • Edit the following file and change all “stretch” to “buster”

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

  • Once you have replaced all occurrences of “stretch” within the file you can save it by pressing CTRL + X then Y followed by ENTER.

  • Edit the following file and change all “stretch” to “buster”

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list

  • Once you have replaced all occurrences of “stretch” within the file you can save it by pressing CTRL + X then Y followed by ENTER.

  • Run this command to remove unnecessary packages and speed up the upgrade process

sudo apt-get remove apt-listchanges

  • Now we can start the upgrade with the following command

sudo apt update sudo apt dist-upgrade

  • If this question pops up you can confidently answer with no

  • There may be further questions due to changes in the configuration files. Here you can best confirm the preselection and press "Enter".

  • Exceptions confirm the rule. If this question comes up you can answer it with "Yes".

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  • At the end we can remove unneeded packages with this command

sudo apt autoremove -y

  • Last but not least we clear out the package cache. It automatically removes any package files that are no longer available for download and thus are largely useless.

sudo apt autoclean

  • Now it is time to reboot into our new fresh Buster system.

sudo reboot

Update PiCtory

Please follow the steps in this article:

PiCtory fix after upgrade from Stretch to Busterarchived

Verification

This way you can check that you have successfully updated to Buster:

pi@RevPi33114:~ $ grep -i buster /etc/os-release PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)" VERSION="10 (buster)" VERSION_CODENAME=buster

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