At Sat, 14 Feb 2026 02:37:50 +0000 [email protected] wrote: > > My Pi is 0 2W[1] and I want to convert "RaspberryPi OS" 64-bit to > Debian. > > I alrrady tried: > > Live Migrating from Raspberry Pi OS bullseye to Debian bookworm > https://www.complete.org/live-migrating-from-raspberry-pi-os-bullseye-to-debian-bookworm/ > > but my Pi got stucked in boot so I had to restore the backup to SD card > using dd command. > I already asked about it on RPIi Forum but no useful answer: > > https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?p#61184&hilit=complete.org&sidÓ8151fb0d5709c32075d448218f8497#p2361184 > > This RPI OS: > - already using debian's APT as source (it's RPIOS' default) > - is version Debian 13 > so I believe it should be easy to migrate into pure Debian 13 without > formatting.
You really don't want to do that. All of the Pi-like SBCs, including the Raspberry Pis themselves need "special" board-specific kernel builds and many (esp. the Raspberry Pis) have non-"standard" boot processes (The RPi's need a VFAT partition to boot from). This means the kernels and the boot infrastructure and firmware needs to be pulled from the board-specific Raspberry Pi repos. This means it still needs to be a RPi OS (Rasbian) system and not a "pure" Debian 13. A "pure" Debian 13 aarch64 install is not going to boot and run on a Raspberry Pi. The necessary boot infrastructure will be missing. RPi OS (Rasbian) IS Debian and just about all user-mode packages are pulled from the Debian repository. Only the kernel (Raspberry Pi specific) and some other Raspberry Pi specific applications and [system] utilities (eg rasp-config and the like and the RPi boot infrastructure, including firmware, like the kernel overlays) are pulled from Raspberry Pi repos. These little SBCs need certain drivers compiled into the kernel (not as modules) and need their own bits of early start up code (because of the boot logic in the cold start boot ROM logic). Yes, it is possible to upgrade major versions by diddling with the /etc/apt/sources.list file and doing apt update / apt full-upgrade. But it will still be RPi OS (Rasbian), just a new major release. > > I believe the guide (above complete.org)'s "Moving /boot to > /boot/firmware" is outdated for Debian 13, that's probably because the > boot went wrong. > > Are there anyone tried switching RPIOS to Debian? > > [1] > https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/RaspberryPi/Raspberry%20Pi%20Zero%202%20W > > > -- Robert Heller -- Cell: 413-658-7953 GV: 978-633-5364 Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services [email protected] -- Webhosting Services
