# Raspberry Pi drivers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raspberry-pi-drivers/1028149>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 2, 2026, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raspberry-pi-drivers/1028149 "2026-03-02T23:07:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bauble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@bauble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bauble)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raspberry-pi-drivers/1028149/1 "2026-03-02T23:07:11Z")

</div>

Confession: I’m not well-versed (or even really partially-versed) in Linux.

I’m wanting to upgrade one of my Raspberry Pis to a newer version (so I can use Raspberry Pi Connect). My concern is that I have it in a case with a display and I’m not sure that will work with out re-downloading the drivers…and I’ve forgotten where I did that.

Is there a way to back up those drivers? Am I overthinking this and the drivers are sort of generic?  
Are there other, better, options that I don’t know enough to think of?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raspberry-pi-drivers/1028149/2 "2026-03-02T23:09:30Z")

</div>

I’d start by just setting up the new one with the display and see if you even need to worry about it. My WAG is that it’ll work fine.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bauble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@bauble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bauble)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raspberry-pi-drivers/1028149/3 "2026-03-02T23:55:29Z")

</div>

It turns out you were right, sir (or ma’am or whatever pronoun is correct)! Thank you!!!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raspberry-pi-drivers/1028149/4 "2026-03-02T23:55:44Z")

</div>

What display is it? Raspberry Pi video modes especially with HDMI TVs (e.g. non-computer) can be pretty problematic. These are in CEA mode instead of DMT. The “tvservice” command lets you identify which work with your display. This is separate from “drivers” which may be plug and play, but depends on the display.

You may wish to make sure it’s connected to wifi and has SSH access so you can do it headless, or have a spare display on hand to fix the other one if it stops working. Then update.