Upgrade Pi-Star Buster to Bullseye!
                            In Place!

Yes, you read that right! You CAN upgrade a working (or new build) image of Pi-Star from its current Debian Buster implementation to a Debian Bullseye implementation in place. But... there's always a butt ... there's no quarantee the upgrade will work in all cases, just because.

            -- For experienced Pi-Star/Linux users only! --

Because an in-place upgrade such as this is involved/complicated, this undertaking should not be taken lightly. You need to have a good working knowledge of Linux and the Linux CLI as well as some understanding of how Pi-Star works.

The intended audience here are those who want to get a leg up on the next Debian platform for Pi-Star and are willing to spend the time testing the resulting upgrade, looking for problems and possible solutions, and otherwise contribute feedback and suggestions to make this kind of upgrade a success for everyone.

(You can, of course, simply wait until an official release of Pi-Star/Bullseye is announced, or you can join the crowd at the forefront of the coming changes.)

Presented herein is a BASH script that automates (organizes) the steps involved. It assumes you are working with the lastest Pi-Star version (4.1.6-20220512).

This upgrade was worked out on a Rpi 4B system with a USB drive and direct ethernet connection. Upgrading using a micro-SD should be possible but has not been tested. Wireless over WiFi may be problematic as the process may disconnect as components are replaced/restarted so has not be fully tested.

As always, make a backup - or use a clone - of your system before attempting this upgrade.

Here are the basic steps taken to upgrade from Buster to Bullseye, adapted from the steps given here, but with additions to handle Pi-Star specifically:

< https://ostechnix.com/upgrade-to-debian-11-bullseye-from-debian-10-buster/>

Outline: (Modify boot for generic devices)

Bring the current Buster system up-to-date: sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade

Modify the APT source files to point to Bullseye

(Hold back select packages that won't upgrade properly)

Start the transition to Bulleye: sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade --without-new-pkgs

Complete the upgrade: sudo apt full-upgrade

Remove obsolete/unneeded programs: sudo apt autoremove

Install new PHP/FPM 7.4 Modify NGINX config for new PHP

Set up to use current Python (3.9)

Fix non-compliant Pi-Star Python programs

(Upgrade held packages)

Installation:

Start by downloading and placing the BASH script file in the /home/pi-star directory:

  rpi-rw
  wget 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kn2tod/pistar-bullseye-upgrade/main/Bullseye-Upgrade.sh'

and then execute it:

  sudo bash Bullseye-Upgrade.sh [x]

[x] may be any character; omit the argument if you want to see ALL of the messages issued by the APT process.

The installation will take about 25-30 minutes; note that you will be required to respond to various prompts during that time.

At the end, your system should be up and running on Bullseye; check out the dashboard and make sure everything looks ok; reboot to confirm a clean start and check again.

Post-Installation:

The Raspbian system will update as usual with fixes being propogated for Bullseye; updates to Pi-Star (either from a manual update request or via the nightly processing) will break some things with python programs that will require manual intervention:

       (tbc)