How to Upgrade from Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm to Trixie
byEmmet
PublishedOct 23, 2025
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In this guide, we will be walking you through the process of upgrading from Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm to Trixie.
As with upgrading any version of Raspberry Pi OS to a newer release, there is a big chance that things will break during the upgrade process. There is no guarantee that things will work without issue, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation only officially supports fresh installations
There are a few improvements introduced in Raspberry Pi OS Trixie, but not nearly as many as when Bookworm was released. For those using the desktop version of the OS, you will be greeted with an updated theme, as well as a new control center application.
If you are running a terminal/lite variant of Raspberry Pi OS, you will not encounter a significant number of changes when upgrading to Trixie. The main thing you might notice is the newer versions of packages that are available
For those who decide to make the move to the newer version of Pi OS, ensure you have some time to ensure everything goes smoothly. The process itself shouldn’t take very long if you have a decent internet connection.
Before upgrading your Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm installation to Trixie, we highly recommend creating a backup. This will ensure that you have something to fall back on if things do go wrong.
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Equipment
Below, you can find a list of equipment we used when upgrading our Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm installation to Trixie.
Recommended
Optional
This tutorial was tested on a Raspberry Pi 5 that was running Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm (64-bit).
Upgrading Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm to Trixie
Over the next few steps, we will guide you through the relatively simple process of upgrading your existing Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm installation to Trixie.
It is essential that you do not skip any of the steps in this guide. Skipping steps increases the risk of breaking your operating system.
Additionally, all of the steps in this guide will be completed within the terminal. If you are not comfortable using the terminal, you will probably be better off starting off with a fresh installation of Trixie.
Preparing your Pi for the Upgrade
1. Before you actually begin the upgrade process, now is the last chance for you to make a backup of your existing installation. We highly recommend making a backup, especially if you have any important files or data that you don’t want to lose.
2. The first thing we will need to do is ensure that your current installation of Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm is completely up to date. This will help reduce the chances of things not going well during the upgrade to Trixie process.
You can force the upgrade of all packages by using the command below within the terminal. You don’t want any held-back packages from breaking the upgrad