FSF criticizes Raspberry Pi DRM blocking RAM upgrades

The Free Software Foundation condemned Raspberry Pi firmware that since 2024 refuses to recognize user-installed RAM or fails to boot with it. Raspberry Pi justifies the restriction as a defense against resellers swapping memory on cheaper boards. The FSF proposes cryptographically verifiable factory configuration instead of DRM.

• The restriction appeared in Raspberry Pi firmware around 2024
• Firmware may reject even a same-capacity memory module
• FSF proposes factory-config verification instead of blocking
• The limit can be bypassed by reflashing the bootloader via rpiboot