Raspberry Pi for N00bs – Firmware Update

Every now and then, it is a good idea to update the Firmware of your Raspberry Pi. There is a very nice tool out there to make that easy for you: https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update

It is quite easy to install the tool, first you have to install GIT:

sudo apt-get install git-core

On Raspbian, the best way to install the update tool is to use apt-get (if it´s not already installed):

sudo apt-get install rpi-update

If that does not work for you, or if you are using a different distribution, there is another way:

sudo wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update -O /usr/bin/rpi-update
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update

The only problem with this solution is that the tool itself will not get updated when you update your packages, but you can just download it again once in a while. The second command makes the tool executable on your Raspberry Pi.

Alright, let´s upgrade! Just use the following command and wait:

sudo rpi-update

Now it´s time to reboot, but first you can check the Firmware:

sudo vcgencmd version

Looks like the upgrade was successful, but the the Firmware still appears to be old. Reboot your Raspberry and check again:

sudo reboot

Looks like it worked 🙂 – One of the commenters pointed me to the changelog, may be interesting for you too: Raspberry Firmware Changelog