Pi Desktop : how to upgrade to new raspbian (buster)

Hi Patrick. I'm going to summaries your inquiry post to confirm if I have the details correctly.

Can you confirm this is correct?

• You have the Desktop computer kit provided in your description with the Pi Desktop Debian Package v1.1.0 installed.
• The hardware and software is currently operational. No issues
• You are looking for the path ( i.e. procedure) to upgrade the installation to the latest operating system referenced as Buster.

I am not familiar with the hardware configuration you have or the software available from the repository.  I do have experience with Pi's and operating system installations. Can you answer a few questions to assist any later visitors who may have the knowledge to help.

Are you looking to upgrade what you have or is a fresh install your goal?

How much experience to you have with the Pi and the operating system?

Do you have access to additional hardware resources (i.e. SD card)?

Do you have a current backup of your configuration and can restore the system if an upgrade goes south?

Are you willing to explore other Desktop installations or are you set on the Desktop you are currently using?

The hardware you have is nothing special. It is possible to load any number of operating systems other than the one you currently have. I feel you would be able to complete a fresh install of an operating system that has support infrastructure (i.e. upgrade paths) like Raspbian and not be trying to rely on Git Hub repositories for your upgrade path. In order to following this solution I recommend you have an alternate SD card to work with. You might need to do some additional configuration to get the SSD to work but that is minor.

pcardona  After looking at the following article, I just decided to flash my SD card with a new image of Buster.  The link below does walk you through the process.

https://pimylifeup.com/upgrade-raspbian-stretch-to-raspbian-buster/

I also had an issue booting an RPi3.  I thought it was dead.  A clean install of the latest Raspbian Buster (not NOOBS) miraculously healed it.

Hi Sean,

I try to answer your questions :

The version installed of the package pidesktop-base is : 1.0.0 (not 1.1.0)

The hardware and the software are operational.

I confirm that my goal is to know about the procedure to upgrade this installation to Buster without the bad experience of the boot failing.

I can backup all my data to an external HD drive and deal with a fresh and clean install. So I could restore the whole things as I did before.

My Pi hardware experience is fresh (one year) and I am wondering how to open the element14 box without breaking it, because the top case seems made with glassy plastic.

My knowledge with GNU/Linux OSes is more accurate and it began in the middle of the 90's.

I have another SD card (16 Gb).

And to answer your last question : yes, I am willing to go back to another Desktop I used in the past years : WindowMaker with GNUstep core environment.

Well, You thing that :

> (I) might need to do some additional configuration to get the SSD to work but that is minor.

Well, if I understand your suggestion :

I must not upgrade the raspbian OS as I did before (which failed in my previous attempt : boot failing) but I should try this :

1) Backup all my data.

2) Getting a Buster Install image on a fresh SD card : Noob ?

3) Changing the booting SD card on the Pi card with the new one (Buster)

4) Booting and making a new fresh install on the SSD

5) Getting and installing pidesktop-base package to deal with the hardware clean shutdown.

Is that the right way ?

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the link and you experience aknowledgement.

I go to see it now.

Hi again Mike,

When you say a clean install, it is not like the procedure within the link, but from a SD card, is'nt it ?

Did you experiment the particular case of the pidesktop upgrade with the pidesktop-base package ?

What is pidesktop operating system?

Is it a customized Raspbian?

What is the support infrastructure behind the venture? (i.e. operating system upgrade)

Hi Sean,

- The kernel : uname -a says :

Linux raspberrypi 4.19.66-v7+ #1253 SMP Thu Aug 15 11:49:46 BST 2019 armv7l GNU/Linux

- My OS :

/etc/issue says :

Raspbian GNU/Linux 9

/etc/debian_version says :

9.11

pcardona  I do not own a Pi Desktop kit so I have not been able to perform this.  I do own 7 or 8 Raspberry Pi's.  The Raspberry Pi Foundation has a Buster image for the Pi Desktop.

https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/rpd_x86_latest

For the other images I have used, I just download the .iso file and flash it to the SD card.  The Raspberry Pi Foundation has an imager program.  I also like Etcher.  I just see this as the simplest way.

If your Pi does not seem to boot, try pressing the Space bar, wait a moment, press I (as in Install) and press Enter.  If you have a NOOBS image, this will start the NOOBs install.  Once it installs, I always do the Update and Upgrade even though NOOBS will also do it.

colporteur  I have been really tempted to buy one of these things.  As I read it, the Raspberry Pi Desktop would be an image with the interface to the real time clock circuit and safe shutdown circuit already added.  I do not believe that there is much more customization of the Raspbian from there, but I could be wrong.

Hi Mike,

I was able to upgrade the OS according to your link. So I have this installation now :

- Kernel : Linux raspberrypi 4.19.97-v7+ #1294 SMP Thu Jan 30 13:15:58 GMT 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux

- OS : Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (/etc/issue) / 10.4 (/etc/debian_version) : i.e. Buster, YES !

And The system is booting well now, so maybe I was missing a step the previous time I tried this upgrade. Thank You again the the good link.

But there is as specific issue :

This issue is concerning the ad hoc debian package pidesktop-base : the installation failed with this error message :

Préparation du dépaquetage de pidesktop-base-1.1.0.deb ...

Dépaquetage de pidesktop-base (1.0.0) sur (1.0.0) ...

Paramétrage de pidesktop-base (1.0.0) ...

Failed to enable unit: Unit file embest-shutdown.service does not exist.

Failed to enable unit: Unit file embest.service does not exist

If I understand well, this package needed a deprecated service 'embest' : I will see on the concerned github repository to see if this issue is reported.

Well, I will tell You about this issue soon.