The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B may be an older board, but it remains a reliable and popular choice for home labs, IoT projects, and lightweight servers.
Raspberry Pi OS is the default and most optimized choice for these boards. However, some users prefer a pure Debian system without any Raspberry Pi–specific tools.
Regardless of which operating system you prefer, it’s important to keep it up to date. Regular updates ensure better stability, security, and access to the latest software packages.
In this guide, we will show how to upgrade an existing Debian 12 (Bookworm) installation on a Raspberry Pi 3B to Debian 13 (Trixie). This is the latest stable release as of October 2025.
1. Raspberry Pi OS vs. Debian Images
1.1 The Raspberry Pi OS
The Raspberry Pi OS is officially maintained by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and built directly from Debian. The latest release, dated October 1, 2025, is already based on Debian 13 (Trixie).
It includes many Raspberry Pi–specific optimizations, configuration utilities, and firmware updates. These images are tested regularly and designed to work out of the box on all supported Raspberry Pi models.
1.2 Debian Community Images
However, if you prefer a clean Debian environment, you can use the images provided at raspi.debian.net. These are community-maintained builds created specifically for Raspberry Pi hardware.vThey include the standard Debian system, plus a few extras like the necessary bootloader, firmware, and kernel drivers.
Keep in mind that these images are experimental and may not be as thoroughly tested or polished as the official Raspberry Pi OS.
2. Upgrading from Debian 12 (Bookworm) to Debian 13 (Trixie)
At the time of writing, the Debian 13 Trixie image for Raspberry Pi 3B has not yet been officially released. However, you can easily upgrade your existing Debian 12 installation to Trixie using the standard package management tools.
Assuming Debian 12 is already installed, run the following commands:
Replaces all occurrences of the word “bookworm” with “trixie” in the APT sources list
$ sudo sed -i 's/bookworm/trixie/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
Refreshes the package index so your system knows about the latest packages available from the newly set Debian 13 repositories
$ sudo apt update
Performs a full system upgrade, installing new packages and removing or replacing obsolete ones to complete the upgrade to Debian 13 (Trixie)
$ sudo apt dist-upgrade
The upgrade process may take a while, depending on your SD card speed and internet connection. Once it completes successfully, reboot your Raspberry Pi.
3. Verifying the Upgrade
After reboot, check that your Raspberry Pi and kernel are detected correctly. Figure 1 shows the output of the command:
debian@rpi3:~$ cat /proc/device-tree/model && echo
Figure 1 - Checking Raspberry Platform
Check the running kernel version (Figure 2). The running kernel version is 6.1.153-1.
debian@rpi3:~$ uname -a
Figure 2 - Kernel Version of Debian 13
And finally, confirm that the operating system is now Debian 13 Trixie (Figure 3):
debian@rpi3:~$ cat /etc/os-release
Figure 3 - Debian 13 Trixie Running on Raspberry 3B
Your Raspberry Pi 3B is now running Debian 13 Trixie with a modern kernel and the latest packages.
Conclusion
Even though the Raspberry Pi 3B is an older device, it continues to handle modern Linux distributions well. Upgrading from Debian 12 to Debian 13 ensures better package support, improved performance, and long-term security updates.
Whether you choose the official Raspberry Pi OS or a pure Debian build from raspi.debian.net, keeping your system updated is the key to a stable and secure Raspberry Pi environment.