The developers of Raspberry Pi regularly release new firmware versions to address certain issues or introduce new features to the Raspberry Pi. Knowing your device’s firmware version can help you determine if it is time to upgrade, or can be helpful when troubleshooting an issue in order to see if it is isolated to a certain firmware version. In this tutorial, you will learn how to check the firmware version on a Raspberry Pi, as well as how to update the firmware, bootloader, and operating system.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to check firmware version on Raspberry Pi
- How to update firmware on Raspberry Pi
- How to update the bootloader
- How to update the Raspberry Pi OS
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Raspberry Pi |
| Software | N/A |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
Check Firmware Version and Update Firmware
Check out the commands below to see how to check the firmware version on your Raspberry Pi, update the firmware version, update the bootloader, and completely update the Raspberry Pi OS. Keeping your system completely up to date is an important part of administration in order to ensure that your device receives all the latest security patches, fixes, and new features.
- To check the firmware version on your Raspberry Pi, execute the following command:
$ vcgencmd version
Firmware version of the Raspberry Pi You will notice a very long alphanumeric string. This is the firmware version, and you will find that it corresponds to various documentation found on the Raspberry Pi GitHub.
- To update your Raspberry Pi to the latest firmware, execute:
$ sudo rpi-update
Updating the firmware for Raspberry Pi
- To check if the bootloader needs an update, you can execute:
$ sudo rpi-eeprom-update
Checking the bootloader for update - If the output shows that you need to update your bootloader, you can do so by executing:
$ sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a
- To see release notes for the bootloader updates, check this file:
$ cat /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/release-notes.md
- To completely update your Raspberry Pi operating system, you can execute:
$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt full-upgrade
Closing Thoughts
In this tutorial, we saw how to check the firmware version on a Raspberry Pi system. We also learned how to check the bootloader version, and apply bootloader or firmware updates to the device. Keeping your Raspberry Pi completely up to date is always important for security, new features, and the latest patches.
