# \[SOLVED\] Upgrade Bullseye to Bookworm: Matrix-Synapse not upgraded
**URL:** https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [November 17, 2025, 8:30am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006 "2025-11-17T08:30:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jonny](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/jonny)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2025, 8:30am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/1 "2025-11-17T08:30:29Z")
Hi everybody,
a few days ago I finally did the upgrade from Bullseye to Bookworm (the Debian way, because it didn’t work using Plinith).
The upgrade took some time but did well - or so I thought.
Now I saw that still the old matrix-synapse package is installed
- `matrix-synapse (1.78.0-1~bpo11+1)`
- `matrix-synapse-ldap3 (0.1.4+git20201015+a3c7a9f-1)`
and apparently there is no package available in the new bookworm-sources. The old server still works - its just well, old.
The Distribution Update page in Plinith tells me:
So I believe I might have done something wrong changing the source files manually from bullseye to bookworm?
Does somebody have a clou what went wrong here?
Thanks a lot!
Jonny
---
### Author:  [@jvalleroy](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/jvalleroy)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2025, 4:53pm UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/2 "2025-11-17T16:53:27Z")
Can you please share the current contents of your apt source files, including `/etc/apt/sources.list` and any files under `/etc/apt/sources.list.d`?
---
### Author:  [@jonny](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/jonny)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2025, 2:50am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/3 "2025-11-18T02:50:36Z")
Hi @jvalleroy and thank you for your response.
This is `/etc/apt/sources.list`:
```auto
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free
```
This is `/etc/apt/sources.list.d/freedombox2.list`:
```auto
# This file is managed by FreedomBox, do not edit.
# Allow carefully selected updates to 'freedombox' from backports.
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main
```
---
### Author:  [@jonny](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/jonny)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2025, 3:59am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/4 "2025-11-23T03:59:12Z")
Is there someone who is willing to share the “original” apt source files of his Freedombox Bookworm installation with me?
---
### Author:  [@Sunil](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/Sunil)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2025, 7:04am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/5 "2025-11-25T07:04:25Z")
Hi @jonny ,
The original apt sources files for Bookworm look somewhat like this:
```auto
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main
```
and
```auto
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main
```
When FreedomBox says that the current distribution is “Unknown or mixed”, then it is trying to parse all the files in the /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d. Then it extracts all the “distribution” parts from there. In your case it is “bookworm”, “bookworm-updates” and “bookworm-security”. Then it strips the ‘-updates’ and ‘-security’. Then there should only one be one distribution code remaining. If multiple distribution codes are present, it shows “unknown or mixed”. From your posting, everything looks okay with your sources files. Are there any other sources files in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory? If so, temporarily move them. Let FreedomBox complete the distribution upgrade to Trixie and then setup those sources again.
---
### Author:  [@jonny](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/jonny)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2025, 3:24am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/6 "2025-11-26T03:24:41Z")
Thank you for providing the original source files @Sunil !
I checked again the _Distribution update_ page and now it says:
So now it seems to be okay again. The only thing I changed was, I removed the double entry for `bookworm-backports` in `/etc/apt/sources.list` (last line).
There are no other source files apart from the standard two.
Now the original problem unfortunately still persists. I checked the [backport packages for bookworm](https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=bookworm-backports&searchon=names&keywords=matrix-synapse) and could not find matrix-synapse in it. I don’t understand, where does Freedombox source the package files from?
---
### Author:  [@Sunil](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/Sunil)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/7 "2025-11-28T16:22:08Z")
> [@jonny](#):
>
> So now it seems to be okay again. The only thing I changed was, I removed the double entry for `bookworm-backports` in `/etc/apt/sources.list` (last line).
Aah! I see the problem now. The distribution update code is expecting the backports to be in a separate file. I will fix this part.
> [@jonny](#):
>
> Now the original problem unfortunately still persists. I checked the [backport packages for bookworm](https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=bookworm-backports&searchon=names&keywords=matrix-synapse) and could not find matrix-synapse in it. I don’t understand, where does Freedombox source the package files from?
Sorry, I forgot to mention in my previous mail. Matrix Synapse was available in Bookworm because it was present in bookworm-backports. It was never included in Bookworm. However, later it got removed from bookworm-backports. So, there is no easy way to install Matrix Synapse in Bookworm.
In Trixie, we are installing Matrix Synapse from ‘unstable’ (very specific use) after some careful testing. If you wish to use Matrix Synapse this way, please upgrade to Trixie.
---
### Author:  [@jonny](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/jonny)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2025, 7:22am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/8 "2025-11-29T07:22:41Z")
Okay, I assumed that already. Thank you for the clarification!
> [@Sunil](#):
>
> In Trixie, we are installing Matrix Synapse from ‘unstable’ (very specific use) after some careful testing. If you wish to use Matrix Synapse this way, please upgrade to Trixie.
I’ll give it a try next year, since my current installation - still - is working well and I don’t currently want to change the running system 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Sunil](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/Sunil)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/9 "2025-11-29T23:07:56Z")
Matrix is a fast moving platform due to its ongoing evolution, decentralized nature, and having to apply security fixes through major protocol updates. There seems to be no clear way to deal with it on a stable distribution release.
We certainly don’t have the resources to try out the unstable packages on “oldstable” and fix problems if they arise in future. There is also a real risk that existing setups will stop working one fine day and we will be powerless to do something about it. So, we focus on the current stable. Thank you for your understanding.
---
### Author:  [@jonny](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/jonny)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2025, 7:35am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/10 "2025-11-30T07:35:42Z")
Would a setup using the [Docker container](https://hub.docker.com/r/matrixdotorg/synapse) with Podman be a viable alternative to the Debian packages?
---
### Author:  [@Sunil](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/Sunil)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2025, 8:26am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/11 "2025-11-30T08:26:12Z")
Indeed it is. For your setup, you can try this. In FreedomBox however, we evaluated both options and since supporting oldstable was not a goal, we picked the Debian package from unstable. If the situation changes on how favorable the Debian package is, we will switch to using a container using Podman.
---
### Author:  [@jonny](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/jonny)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/solved-upgrade-bullseye-to-bookworm-matrix-synapse-not-upgraded/4006/12 "2025-12-01T01:35:45Z")
Okay I understand. I will look into it. 👍