Updating My Pi 500: The Field Notes I Always Forget

Today I pulled out my Pi 500 and realised again that I always forget the steps for updating the OS and the firmware.

So here are my field notes. Future me, you’re welcome.

First let’s check if a new OS version has been relased.

If a new OS has been released, I normally “trash” the current SD and start fresh, I would recommend backing up your data before doing any of the below steps.

Below is a summary on how to upgrade the OS – Link to complete process.

• Download the 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS image

• Flash the image to an SD card using the Raspberry Pi Imager.

• Insert the SD card into the Pi 500

• Boot up the Pi 500 and complete the initial setup

Let’s update the OS and its dependencies to make sure they are current before we do the firmware updates and reboot to apply any changes. The below commands are run from the Terminal.

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt full-upgrade
  sudo reboot

Now let’s update the firmware.

First we need to configure the bootloader, this controls how the Pi boots and what hardware features are supported.

  sudo raspi-config (Navigate to > Advanced Options > Bootloader Version)

Now let’s check if there is an update for the EEPROM. An update will normally enable new hardware support, bug fixes, and performance improvements.

  sudo rpi-eeprom-update

If there is an update, you can run the update using the -a switch.

  sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a

For the final update, let’s update the keyboard firmware, this update is only for the Pi 500 / Pi 500+, I found my keyboard more responsive after this update.

sudo rpi-keyboard-fw-update

The Pi 500 is now updated and ready yo go.

This post was written with ❤️ on a Pi 500