Updating: bootc

Every command runs on the PS5, in a terminal (Desktop Mode → Konsole) or over SSH (password ps5).

On v2.6.2 or older: once, first

On v2.6.2 or older, or on an install from one of their disk images, run this once. It prints ready to update; without it every update and switch fails with Failed to start ostree-finalize-staged.service. On newer installs it does no harm.

sudo rm -f /etc/systemd/system/greenboot-set-rollback-trigger.service
printf '[Unit]\nDescription=No greenboot rollbacks on the PS5\n\n[Service]\nType=oneshot\nExecStart=/usr/bin/true\nRemainAfterExit=yes\n' | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/greenboot-set-rollback-trigger.service >/dev/null
sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl start ostree-finalize-staged.service && echo "ready to update"

Stable or Beta

Channel	Follows
Stable	The release marked Latest, plus Bazzite's weekly updates
Beta	The newest pre-release, plus Bazzite's weekly updates

To change channel, switch. The switch downloads the channel's newest build, which takes over at the next start with the loader; no update is needed afterwards.

sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/vivalavent/ps5-bazzite-bootc:beta

sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/vivalavent/ps5-bazzite-bootc:stable

Steam's Settings → System → OS Update Channel does the same switch. Between releases, both channels are rebuilt with Bazzite's base updates: an update then installs the same release with a newer build number. Stable is built from the release marked Latest itself, so a change reaches it only with the next stable release.

A specific release: switch to its version tag, for example :v2.7.3 instead of :beta. The console then stays on that release, without weekly updates, until you switch to :stable or :beta again.

Update

Already on the channel you want:

sudo bootc upgrade

The update takes over at the next start with the loader; on a PS5 Pro, start with the loader once more for its GPU firmware.

• No update available means your channel has nothing newer, not that something is broken. On Stable that is the release marked Latest; pre-releases are only on Beta.
• Steam's update button doesn't update the PS5. Bazzite's updater behind it needs a security module the PS5 kernel doesn't run. Up to v2.6.3 Steam shows Update Error; from v2.7 it finds nothing. Steam may also show SteamOS patch notes: those are Valve's notes for its channel, not this image's.
• Your channel decides the kernel: Stable gets the kernel of the release marked Latest, Beta the newest pre-release's. uname -r shows 7.3.1-viva across several releases; the release itself is on the deck= line, see Which version runs.
• The loader isn't part of the update. The .elf on your USB stick or in your payload manager stays as it is; replace it only when the release notes say so.
• mount: (hint) your fstab has been modified before the update starts is harmless.
• The first start after an update can still use the old VRAM size; power off and start with the loader once more, see VRAM.

Packages you installed yourself

On bootc, dnf install changes don't survive an update. Prefer Flatpak (Bazaar), Homebrew or Distrobox, as on any Bazzite. A system package layered with sudo rpm-ostree install <package> stays through updates, but bootc upgrade and bootc switch refuse a system with layered packages. Update with sudo rpm-ostree upgrade instead, and change channel with rpm-ostree rebase, which keeps them:

sudo rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/vivalavent/ps5-bazzite-bootc:beta

rpm-ostree status lists the layered packages.

Which version runs

grep -E '^(deck|version)=' /usr/share/ps5-bazzite-bootc/VERSION

deck= is the release (for example v2.6.3), version= the image build (20261106.25: the build date and a number). ps5-report's Install line shows the channel and the build, fastfetch the release. uname -r shows only the kernel (7.3.1-viva), which is the same in several releases.

Rolling back

The previous version stays on the drive after every update. To go back to it:

1. Run sudo bootc rollback.
2. Power off (not restart), then start with the loader as usual. With warm reboots on, a restart would skip the loader. Any loader starts the version you rolled back to, because it is already in place on the boot partition; use bazzite-bootc-loader from your release anyway, so the manual rollback below works with the same loader.
3. Check which version runs, see Which version runs.

Running sudo bootc rollback again, then powering off, takes you forward to the newer version.

The loader doesn't need to know about rollbacks: at every shutdown, ps5-bootc-sync puts the version that starts next on the boot partition as bzImage, initrd.img and cmdline.txt, and keeps the previous version's kernel under ostree/<id>/. ROLLBACK.txt on the boot partition names both, and describes how to start the previous version from a PC if a new version doesn't start at all. That manual rollback needs bazzite-bootc-loader: it uses path-override.txt, and only this loader applies it to cmdline.txt and vram.txt as well as to the kernel and initrd. Another loader would start the previous kernel with the new version's cmdline.txt.