Looking for the latest RPi 3 "Buster" image

General Discussion
1

Hi! I’m looking for the latest image for RPi 3 based on Debian Buster, precisely ARMv8 64bits (but 32bits is still fine). In the downloads section, I can only see images based on Bullseye and not the previous one, neither on Index of /downloads/images

Thanks

2

If the Buster image is no more available, is it safe to install Bullseye, then change the APT sources to buster?

3

We don’t offer Buster image anymore by purpose. And no you can’t change apt package source to Buster as this would not have any effect.

Therefore you could install an older RPi OS and run our installation script to convert into DietPi.

But what is the reason for running Buster? Any specific need?

4

But what is the reason for running Buster? Any specific need?

Yes, I’m using my RPi mainly for Retropie, and as of today it still has lots of issues on Bullseye-based systems (example SDL2 not compiling fine, emulationstation issues and so on). There are workarounds but they are not 100% stable.
Retropie team still declares official compatibility with Buster, in fact I had no issues on my “old” Dietpi Buster… then I upgraded it :sweat_smile:

We don’t offer Buster image anymore by purpose. And no you can’t change apt package source to Buster as this would not have any effect.

Really? Shouldn’t it downgrade the system after an apt update+upgrade?

5

Honestly, I never tested this. Therefore, I was running a small quick test :smile:

My test system is a RPi3B+ ARMv7 Bullseye

root@DietPi3:~# echo $G_DISTRO_NAME
bullseye
root@DietPi3:~#

Checking for apt packages.

root@DietPi3:~# apt update
Get:1 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian bullseye InRelease [15.0 kB]
Get:2 https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian bullseye InRelease [23.7 kB]
Get:3 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian bullseye/main armhf Packages [13.2 MB]
Get:4 https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian bullseye/main armhf Packages [295 kB]
Fetched 13.6 MB in 10s (1378 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
10 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
root@DietPi3:~#

As you can see, there are 10 packages to be updated on Bullseye. That’s fine. Let’s switch apt source files du Buster and clear apt cache

root@DietPi3:~# sed -i 's/bullseye/buster/g' /etc/apt/sources.list{,.d/*.list}
root@DietPi3:~# /boot/dietpi/func/dietpi-set_software apt-cache clean

 DietPi-Set_software
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Mode: apt-cache (clean)

[  OK  ] DietPi-Set_software | rm -Rf /tmp/apt /var/cache/apt /var/lib/apt/lists /var/lib/apt/mirrors /var/lib/apt/periodic /var/lib/apt/cdroms.list
[  OK  ] DietPi-Set_software | mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives
[  OK  ] apt-cache clean | Completed
root@DietPi3:~#

Checking for updates again using the Buster source.

root@DietPi3:~# apt update
Get:1 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian buster InRelease [15.0 kB]
Get:2 https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster InRelease [32.6 kB]
Get:3 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian buster/non-free armhf Packages [104 kB]
Get:4 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian buster/main armhf Packages [13.0 MB]
Get:5 https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster/main armhf Packages [391 kB]
Get:6 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian buster/contrib armhf Packages [58.8 kB]
Fetched 13.6 MB in 14s (972 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
root@DietPi3:~#

There is nothing to be updated. I don’t think a destro downgrade is working this way. Better to use a plain RPI OS Buster image and run our PREP script manually.

6

Many thanks for taking your time for testing! Ok I will try with the PREP script

7

Also the dietpi-installer will in the meantime force an upgrade to Bullseye :thinking:. A pain that after more than one year of the Bullseye release it is not yet fully supported. We compile SDL2 for Amiberry on Bullseye and Bookworm without issues since Bullseye was released and Bookworm became testing :thinking:.

8

I hate to necro an old thread, but this is still an issue.

OMXPlayer, for example, stopped being supported after Buster
VLC + MMAL, stopped being supported after Bullseye

There seems to be a concerted effort to make it difficult to play hardware-accelerated video on the PI.

It would be nice to have a “stable” Buster image available for Dietpi, for a least the older PI’s.

9

We dropped Buster support recently. Means we will not provide a new Buster image.