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https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-update

An easier way to update the firmware of your Raspberry Pi
https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-update

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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An easier way to update the firmware of your Raspberry Pi

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README 

        
# rpi-update



A tool to get the latest bleeding-edge firmware and kernel for your Raspberry Pi.



# Notes



This is only intended for use with Raspberry Pi OS. If you are using a different

distribution then check with the maintainers if using rpi-update is safe.



If the distribution ships a custom kernel (e.g. BerryBoot), then it almost certainly is not

safe. Also differences in the usage of /boot and /opt/vc directories will

likely make it unsafe.



Even on Raspberry Pi OS you should only use this with a good reason.



This gets you the latest bleeding edge kernel/firmware.

There is always the possibility of regressions.



Bug fixes and improvements will eventually make their way into new Raspberry Pi OS

releases and apt-get when they are considered sufficiently well tested.



A good reason for using this would be if you like to help with the testing effort,

and are happy to risk breakages and submit bug reports. These testers are welcome.



Also if you are suffering from a bug in current firmware (perhaps as one of

the reporters of the bug on github or forum) and a fix has been pushed out for

testing, then using rpi-update is the right way to get the fix until it makes

its way into new Raspberry Pi OS images and apt-get.



Backing up before updating is always advisable.



## Installing



### Installing under Raspberry Pi OS

 

To install the tool, run the following command:



    sudo apt-get install rpi-update



### Installing under other OSes



To install the tool, run the following command:



    sudo curl -L --output /usr/bin/rpi-update https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raspberrypi/rpi-update/master/rpi-update && sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update



## Updating



Then, to update your firmware, just run the following command:



    sudo rpi-update



## Activating



After the firmware has been sucessfully updated, you'll need to reboot to load

the new firmware.



## Options



If you'd like to set a different GPU/ARM memory split, then define `gpu_mem` in

`/boot/firmware/config.txt`, or in older OSes `/boot/config.txt`.



To upgrade/downgrade to a specific firmware revision, specify its Git hash

(from the https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-firmware repository) as follows:



    sudo rpi-update fab7796df0cf29f9563b507a59ce5b17d93e0390



You can also specify a git branch in raspberrypi/rpi-firmware repo.



    sudo rpi-update next



## Using github artifacts from automated builds



You can also update the kernel to an automated github build from raspberrypi/linux.

These builds persist for 90 days, and won't be available after that time has elapsed.



    sudo rpi-update pulls/5335 # update to most recent build from pull request 5335

    sudo rpi-update ledoff     # update to a build PR'd from local branch named ledoff

    sudo rpi-update 14a52e4d   # update to a build with hash 14a52e4d

    sudo rpi-update rpi-6.2.y  # update to a latest build from branch rpi-6.2.y



If you only care about one build architecture you can specify the build architecture.

Options are: bcmrpi bcm2709 bcm2711 bcm2711_arm64 bcm2835 arm64 (last two are with upstream kernel config)



    sudo rpi-update rpi-6.2.y:bcm2711  # update only bcm2711 kernel to latest build from branch rpi-6.2.y



### Expert options



There are a number of options for experts you might like to use.  These are all

environment variables you must set if you wish to use them.



#### `UPDATE_SELF`



By default, `rpi-update` will attempt to update itself each time it is run.

You can disable this behavior by:



    sudo UPDATE_SELF=0 rpi-update



#### `SKIP_KERNEL`



    sudo SKIP_KERNEL=1 rpi-update



Will update everything **except** the `kernel.img` files and the kernel modules.

Use with caution, some firmware updates might depend on a kernel update.



#### `SKIP_BOOTLOADER`

Will update everything except the bootloader EEPROM.



To revert previous updates to the local set of EEPROM binaries run:-

```

sudo rm -rf /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader-2711

sudo rm -rf /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader-2712

sudo apt reinstall rpi-eeprom

```



#### `SKIP_BACKUP`



    sudo SKIP_BACKUP=1 rpi-update



Avoids making backup of /boot and /lib/modules on first run.



#### `SKIP_REPODELETE`



    sudo SKIP_REPODELETE=1 rpi-update



By default the downloaded files (/root/.rpi-firmware) are deleted at end of update.

Use this option to keep the files.



#### `SKIP_VCLIBS`



    sudo SKIP_VCLIBS=1 rpi-update



Will update everything **except** the VideoCore libraries.

Use this option to keep the existing VideoCore libraries if you do not want your

local versions overwritten.



#### `ROOT_PATH` and `BOOT_PATH`



    sudo ROOT_PATH=/media/root BOOT_PATH=/media/boot rpi-update



Allows you to perform an "offline" update, ie update firmware on an SD card you

are not currently booted from. Useful for installing firmware/kernel to a

non-RPI customised image. Be careful, you must specify both options or neither.

Specifying only one will not work.



#### `FW_SUBDIR`



    sudo FW_SUBDIR=safe rpi-update



Allows the firmware to be installed to a subdirectory of /boot. This feature is

intended to support the `os_prefix` setting that can be used in `config.txt`.

By default, FW_SUBDIR is initialised to the value of `os_prefix` in effect when

the device was booted, so as to overwrite the "running" firmware. To explicitly

install with no subdirectory (to install into /boot), use `FW_SUBDIR=/`.



#### `PRUNE_MODULES`



Allows you to delete unused module directories when doing an update. Set it equal to a non-zero value and it will remove all modules except the latest installed:



    sudo PRUNE_MODULES=1 rpi-update



will remove previously installed module files. Use this option to free disk space used by older module updates.



#### `JUST_CHECK`



To just get a list of commits contained in rpi-update since you last updated, run:



    sudo JUST_CHECK=1 rpi-update



This won't update your firmware



#### `GITHUB_API_TOKEN`



By default, `rpi-update` will not use a custom GitHub API token. If you run into rate limiting issues, you can supply an API token on the command line:



	sudo GITHUB_API_TOKEN= rpi-update



#### `RPI_REBOOT`



To reboot after successfully update, run:



    sudo RPI_REBOOT=1 rpi-update



You can use it to automate updates.



## Troubleshooting



There are two possible problems related to SSL certificates that may prevent

this tool from working.



-   The time may be set incorrectly on your Raspberry Pi, which you can fix

    by setting the time using NTP.



        sudo apt-get install ntpdate

        sudo ntpdate -u ntp.ubuntu.com



-   The other possible issue is that you might not have the `ca-certificates`

    package installed, and so GitHub's SSL certificate isn't trusted. If you are

    on Debian, you can resolve this by typing:



        sudo apt-get install ca-certificates



Pi-hole and similar DNS based may stop this tool from working.

Make sure github.com domains are not blocked. (e.g. codeload.github.com)