I do not see a showstopper, but it requires a lot of experience in handling low-level Linux related issues, so skills to fix unexpected issues. Debian7 uses older init method, not like Buster what the minimum pre-installed/downloadable Raspberry OS is for RPi4, that might be an issues to workaround.I have run an RPi Issue 2 as a Data Server for just over 10 years, and consider now that I should upgrade the system to an RPi 4, at the same time updaring the three 4TB hard discs to SSDs.
The OS is Debian V7, Raspian Wheezy, probably installed in 2014 or so, but frequently updated and upgraded.
I am desperately trying to avoid installing an OS from scratch, as I would then have to rebuild all theadditional component software.
So, may I ask: Is it possible to run an OS installed on an SD card on an earlier RPi variant, on a later variant? That is, installed on an RPi v2 on an RPi 4. I have tried this but unfortunately the previously installed version does not seem to wish to boot on the newer RPi variant.
As mentioned above, I am hoping that I won't be forced to install and configure the complete server setup on the Issue 4 RPi.
Any advice will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
KASpencer
My approach could be: Take a full bit-exact backup image from the SD-card. Then use a new/other SD-card to run newly created RPiOS32 Trixie on the RPi4, reboot a few times so you know it works OK after also noting down MAC-address, IP-address. Then 'merge' the Wheezy and Trixie cards by copying new/needed OS files from Trixie to Wheezy :
- all kernel files for the 6.12.x kernel, so see in /boot/ and /usr/lib/modules/
- all files from boot partition, except config.txt and cmdline.txt
- then merge config.txt, cmdline.txt and fstab. That is not easy to automate, you need to understand what the lines and options mean.
I have done tweaks to those 3 files for many years, for PCs and SBCs (grub1, grub2, lilo, syslinux, extlinux, boot.scr, etc), so I can do it now faster than typing this forumpost. I also do not rely on GUI anymore, just a CLI serial console cable is enough. So depends what you think you can do and how you want to spent your time.
Although possible, I actually consider those steps as only a quick and dirty temporary solution. Main issue is that I definitely don't want a 32-bit ARMv6 OS running on a RPi4 in 'production'. So I would anyway make sure I rebuild a parallel solid 64-bit base. You can still run then the old Wheezy rootfs as container or virtual machine but also that requires you to know how to get those running. You might practice/experiment first to see what it can do.
So the only viable option is to make a list of all SW that runs now and also see what functionality you need. It might be that other SW does things much better for you. Then map that to new 64-bit Trixie based SW.
Special care is needed for SW that needs or uses specific HW. That can be a showstopper, so maybe post a list here what the 'additional components' you mention are about.
Statistics: Posted by redvli — Fri Nov 21, 2025 10:33 am