Installing Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi or a PC
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- Опубликовано: 12 июн 2024
- Your guide to installing the Home Assistant Operating System on a Raspberry Pi or an old PC or Laptop.
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Links:
Home Assistant Docker playlist:
Zigbee and Home Assistant playlist:
Home Assistant Installation Instructions: www.home-assistant.io/install...
How to install the Home Assistant OS on a NUC or PC: www.homeautomationguy.io/home...
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:25 - Different Home Assistant Installation Methods
02:41 - Zigbee USB Dongles
04:02 - Installing Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi
07:35 - Installing the Home Assistant OS on a NUC or PC 
Хобби
Following along with my setup for my new home. Looking forward to taking this journey with you!
Welcome along!
I love how informative and inspiring your videos are, thanks for that.
Currently I'm running HA on a Raspberry PI 4, but I want to switch over to something like Docker or Proxmox on an Intel NUC.
I haven't really gotten into it, but since I think a Proxmox video is coming soon I will wait for that.
How could you explain why do you want to switch to a NUC ?
why not to use thin client like dell wyse 5020? hp t620??
Keep the videos coming, great content!
When I first thought about trying HA, I went to the HA web site and found that they offered an OVA file for setting up a virtual machine. I set up that VM on my QNAP NAS and the process was absolutely simple and flawless. I wouldn't do it any other way if you have a NAS. Presumably this also works on Synology NAS's as well.
Super clean Video, Big thank you!
I've been using the Home-Assistant snap and it's been great. Zero issues.
Great stuff man! I enjoy your content
Best Smart Home series
Thank you!
Great video. You know Home Assistant
In a previous life, I helped manage data communication networks attached to IBM computers like AS400. I remember using a "Sniffer" about the size of a laptop. I could attach it to the network and "see" the traffic. There were competing "protocols" as various products connected. It was especially helpful when users complained about long response times and the challenge was to see what bully was clogging the wires. I'd like to have that tool to get visibility into my PC network. Perhaps I could then "see" where the Radio Browser signal or sun signal comes from and what language they speak.
Thanks for this and all other vids Alan! 👌
I've been playing around HA on a RPi4 and now I want to install it on a thin client. What are your learnings about zigbee implementation (dongle, coverage, meshed network) when moving your home server away from either your studio, or to a laundry room? I've watched your other videos and couldn't find your insights on how to ensure proper zigbee coverage throughout your entire home when your home server is "hidden" in a laundry room or basement... 🤔
Thanks again from Chile 👍!
had loads of failures during install on an old PC. Noticed on your video your destination disk has /dev, however the code in your article on the website does not. Great video thanks.
thanks for instruction
Looking forward to seeing how you implemented the proxmox version. I have a server running unraid for my Nas and run several docker components on it but I run HA in a virtual machine. The main reason is the backup ability. I can backup my home assistant config and store it on a pen drive. If my server goes down for any reason (like a failed power supply for example) I can have my smart home up and running again on another raspberry pi or VM pretty quickly keeping my home functional. Not an option that was easy to do with docker installations
This video is now available on my channel! Sorry it took so long
Thanks for video. I'm building first small smart home, unfortunately I have 1 RPi 3 and several desktops. Can't decide where to Install Home Assistance. Maybe Proxmox video will help.
Good timing, I just went from the Proxmox solution to a dedicated box. This install method unfortunately didn't work for me though. It ran the command with the correct drive name swapped in (and using sda1 instead of the nvme one since my mini-pc only has a sata m.2), it was working on something for a while, said files were copied, but the drive was still empty after rebooting... I have an M.2 > USB coming tomorrow and hope I can flash it from my windows machine with that.
Running mine on XCP-ng+XOA, with USB passthrough. Previously an Intel ZX-01.
Proxmox solution sounds very interesting. I'm running HA in a VM on a Synology NAS which has the advantage of being stored on a BTRFS drive. This then allows for snapshots which can easily be rolled back to when something goes wrong. This save my configuration already a few times when a power-failure messed up my HA database which prevent the system from starting.
That said, next step is a UPS of course to prevent unwanted power failures.
I have a Synology nas and was wondering if it’s possible to make some kind of home assistant with voice recognition that understeand multiple languages, for handle smart devices and lights, and answer question with chat gpt 3.5 capability. Too early meaby?
I am thinking of an UPS as well, to handle both the DS920+ and 2 R.Pi.
@@the_bogeyman. I do not know, I do not use the voice component of Home Assistant as I do not believe in that form of interface.
Thanks for a greate video. The install of HA will be a project for tomorrow. I have a Debian server here at home with Teamspeak 3 server on. So ubunut is built on Debian. But i have never run Debian/ubuntu with graphics before.
Hi @HomeAutomationGuy
Which sonoff dongle do you recommend, the P or E version?
I run it o my synology nas in Virtual machine with 2gb ram dedicated just for HA and it runs smoothly so far...
I've ordered a HA Yellow but while I wait for it I'd like to use an old Win7-era PC which has a clean formatted (640Gb) hard drive. The specifications are quite old, but it runs 64-bit, has a quad-core intel processor and 4Gb RAM. However, it does not have UEFI bios which I understand is a requirement. I can't find a way to update the BIOS and don't know if its possible to 'update' to UEFI or whether this is a hardware limitation of the mainboard and chipset. Any ideas, please? Many thanks, Andy (UK)
I bought a raspberry Pi3 B+ kit and i have no clue what is it used for? and how to configure it to start
I’m planning to have a laptop for this, is there a way I can use hubitat as a bridge for the zig bee signal instead?
Just use a modern laptop - low power use and buildt in battery backup. A big plus is that you have a keyboard and screen also ready.
Hmm...NUC Install seems more involved than it needs to be by using 2 USB drives and Ubuntu. All I did was connect the NUC internal NVME or SSD as a USB drive using a $20 adapter and flash the OS with Etcher as normal. Reinstall the drive in the NUC and you're good to go.
Yeh, that is a solid option. I was trying to use things people may already have at home and some people get put off when screwdrivers become involved
@homeautomationguy I followed these steps, but my Lenevo thin client still boots to windows. Ubuntu Terminal says the files copied. I must be missing something? …. Thanks for your awesome info
I managed ok to put onold pc but now I got a pi I am struggling a little ....is it possible to take my settings and info from pc and transfer to my pi ? any help appreciated...thanks for sharing..
The thing is, Home Assistant Yellow still represents reasonable value for money when compared against buying a new Pi4 or NUC. Sure, if you have one lying around, then just buying the Zigbee dongle is way cheaper. You're looking at something like a £20 - £40 premium (over a Pi, SkyConnect, dedicated power supply, and a case to fit it all in) for having Home Assistant on a box, compared to having to install it yourself, which will probably take a few hours even in the best case where everything just works.
Of course, if it's not in stock, and you need it *now* I guess all bets are off 😄
New NUC is an even worse value proposition, as I can't see one in the UK for less than ~£200 (and that's a couple of NUC generations old Celeron)
Re-using an old PC might cost you a bit in the long run, as the TDP on the chip and graphics might be way higher. It'll use much more power, and since it'll be on 24/7...
been waiting for you make a video about installing HA to a PC. since getting my hands on a raspberry pi is getting difficult
I hope this helps!
Will you add this year your Docker playlist link? Or maybe in 2025?
You can do so much with Home Assistant. So much more than most other hubs can do. Unfortunately the Home Assistant Yellow is limited by the Raspberry Pi CM4, which is the main reason the Yellow is always out of stock, becuase it is virtually impossible to get a Raspberry Pi CM4. Also, unfortunately, the Raspberry Pi platform is not the most efficient for Home Assistant,. I have a Yellow because I wanted to support Nabu Casa, but I will be keeping the Odroid based Home Assistant Blue, with the SkyConnect, for my production because ODroid is more powerful than the Raspberry Pi platform. It's so easy to get addicted to automation on a platform like Home Assistant where you can virtually do anything you can dream of.
Thanks for the tips! I've never personally used the oDroid but heard good things. I think you can tell that I'm 100% addicted to home automation...
@@HomeAutomationGuy Odroid is not as high end as an x86 based machine like a NUC, but it is a lot more powerful than the Raspberry Pi 4. When the HA Blue was released, it was on an ODroid N2+ with 4GB RAM and 128GB eMMC. Considerably faster with HA than the Yellow is, and I went for a CM4 with 8GB and 32eMMC. I will use the yellow for my dev environment :) If you ever get your hands on an ODroid, it might be worth playing with. Uses less power than a full computer :) .
There are also some Lenovo thin clients that work also that can be purchased off eBay for around 150 to 200. Some still have a spinning drive but do have an nVme slot so that would add to the cost but considering how much a yellow and a CM4 costs it still works out to be cheaper. Especially if you want to run the yellow off an nVme drive also.
Also, recorder/history configuration is also important. Once you get to 100+ entities it can slow things down to keep history for every entity. I mean, do you really need history for every time a script is run? Possibly for a select few but most you don't need history for and it can slow everything down when you are doing history for every entity which HA does by default. That and it makes backups faster.
Lastly, the first thing you should do is switch from the default SQL database to Maria DB add on which is much more efficient. At least in my experience.
Thank you for the video's. After watching a few you are confusing me too much on what you advise as the best solution for installing/running HA.
I am sorry. Unfortunately there's no "right answer" that works for everyone. I'm just trying to present all the options so people can pick the best one for their situation.
As a general rule:
- If you're just starting out, I recommend a Yellow.
- If you're just starting out and have some old hardware at home, then install Home Assistant on that hardware using these directions.
- If you're hard core and have a docker setup at home already, then use Home Assistant Container.
- If you already have some sort of virtualization environment then I'd suggest running Home Assistant Operating System in a VM on that.
Thanks for the video, I'm having an issue the HA file is un the second USB but when i try to mount it in ubuntu with the xz procedure, it gives me the "no such file or directory" i have tried with all in sdb i'm stuck can anyone please help
gthank you
I do the same without the home assistant dongle and I get to home assistant CLI, there is no UI, any suggestions ?
At 7:10 “You should see that it’s detected any compatible smart devices on your network including whatever USB Zigbee stick…” In my case, I had not installed the Zigbee dongle or any smart devices when booting the initial HA OS. But it showed several devices to my surprise. Three devices have the blue status “Discovered” with “Configure” option: My router (two items) and my pc. How am I to learn what these are? What part of my computer is considered a “compatible smart device”? There are many more, like Google Cast, Radio Browser, the Raspberry Pi Power Supply (how can that be a smart device?), an unknown Bluetooth device, and even the sun. Why are they not all “Discovered”, if they show here? If not Discovered, what is their status? Where am I supposed to learn about these “smart devices”? Before installing specific devices (as you have nicely explained) I’d like to know what’s already there.
What do you do if the flash to SD fails?
There is a problem - I'm flashing USB with HAOS, but under ubuntu don't shows me img file....shows me 8 partitions.....
I just installed HOME ASSISTANT on my PROXMOX Server in the basement. Now I'm looking for a device that's enables my PROXMOX HOME ASSISTENT to communicate with other smart devices I'll soon be buying (I believe this is called a smart home hub?). Is there a device you can recommend that features multiple protocols (at least Zigbee), is reliable and gets frequent updates? Thanks.
Can we install on an android tv box ?
I can't get HAOS to flash to the USB drive with the url , just straight up fails, and I can't find any advice online about it
In my opinion, Proxmox + Home Assistant VM or Docker is the King. I am running mine on a HP elitedesk mini.
Just one question though, do you run your Z2M on a docker container or inside home assistant ? I'll really like to know which works best. i see some people running z2m as a standalone container.
Did you start out in Proxmox, or did you migrate in? If so, how did that go? I'm just getting to the point now where my RPi3 isn't always keeping up with things, but the idea of setting things up from zero keeps me from taking the next step.
@@nate_river_ I started with a RP4 and the Argon case + SSD before i migrated to proxmox. I got to that point too where my pie couldn't keep up so i had to move. i did a back up and imported everything into the HA VM except the OS. then moved to Z2M from ZHA and started developing from there.
@@nate_river_ did the same as the person your asking, installed home assistant OS and after installing and booting for the first time, it asks if you would like to restore from a backup, then select the backup and everything should work. There's a script to install home assistant OS on proxmox, to make things easier (google should bring it up, on the home assistant forum). The only thing I had to do was pass through my USB devices to the VM.
My setup:
- HP Prodesk 600 G3 (good balance of power consumption + performance)
- VMware ESXi
- HAOS as one of the few VM guests
- Skyconnect, simply added as a USB device to the guest.
Great guide otherwise - I will likely use the Ubuntu + HAOS for a friends setup ❤️
Home Assistant OS only recognizes USB storage devices (and the FSTAB file is password locked). So if you want to run it on hardware with SATA or SAS drives (like old servers), you’re out of luck unless you install it using a hypervisor virtual machine. This way you can provide ‘USB’ storage to HASS without it seeing the actual hardware.
Tried to install it to my NUC but all I get after all this was 'No bootable device has not been detected.'
I think I try to just write it directly to SSD. I just need adaptor for the SSD. But that should work.
I’m running HA in my Debian fileserver ATM, in Docker. I have a Conbee zigbee modem and ESPHome in another container. All works swell and is stable. But if it’s going to be on when we are away for a few weeks (I’d like to move the heating schedule onto it) I’ll probably want it on a super low power board vs the 40W or so machine it’s currently running on (it’s also the network fileserver). Using a Pi doesn’t sound particularly appealing so I’m wondering if anyone has any advice on very low power x86 boards?
You could take a look at the Morefine M9 mini pc. It has the new Intel N100 cpu, with only 6W tdp this cpu still is pretty powerful.
Hi, I’m trying to install on a PC I’m getting into the command part of the install and noticed the command on your video is different to the command on your site.
It just doesn’t seem to copy the image file across from the 2nd usb. Please help
Having the same issue. I tried using both lines of codes (switching it with my file paths of course) and I’m getting the error that it can’t find the file
How does adding an extension cable to the Zigbee usb dangle improve its connection? Are you saying the RPi produces electronic interference which affects the Zigbee dongle and by using an extension cable it moves it away from the RPi thereby reducing the interference?
That is exactly how it works. Check out some videos on the Home Assistant channel where they show it actually happening.
@@HomeAutomationGuy thanks. Will do.
awesome! can i use a usb wifi to connect in my raspberry pi4?
Yes you can, but I always recommend hard wiring in important network devices such as the Home Assistant server
Do you need the home assistant dangle if I don't have zigbee stuff
Nope
I'm wondering how it's possible for anyone to have a "couple of hundred" smart devices. For my part, I've pretty much turned every electronic device that is currently in my home into a smart device already in addition to adding sensors. Even at that, I haven't quite reached 100 devices yet. For clarification, I live in an "average" sized home (260 sq.m/2600 sq.ft). Am I missing out on some potential smart devices that I haven't considered?
I've personally got around 80 devices in Home Assistant, but I have spoken to some people with twice that many!
for the sonoff dongle the plus rather than the 'E' version currently
Thanks for the clarification, you're absolutely right
Hi, I need help please!!!! I have followed all the instructions several times and I still have the same issue every time I try to flash the image to the HD on my PC. After entering the command to copy the image, it tells me there is an error, not enough space in /sda. Only 1.9gb are copied. If I use Etched, it also stops between 28 to 36% all the time. I have 32gb HD space. I also remove and delete the Windows partition having all free space and still the same problem.
Could you please help me to fix the problem? I read a lot of people have the same issue?
Thanks and I appreciate your feed back.
Hi, I finally managed to install it. I found the answer in the comments thread. Some points I would like to see included in the video that are not clear and created some issue for me. First, reference to change BIOS to UEFI. I found this information in the HA Instructions for generic image. Because I didn't change this setting, when I tried to boot, nothing happen.
Second, flashing the image by URL with Balena to an USB, it creates a "bootable" USB. When I tried to copy the image to my HD, it told me the file was not found. I realized that the actual image file need to be copied to the USB, not extracted as what happen when you use Balena Etcher. Once I copied the xz file to my second USB, I could run the xz command.
Lastly, the original issue I had when tried to flash the image to my HD was because the right path must include /dev/your HD, not /your HD. By doing this, I was able to successfully install my first HA in a PC.
By the way, using Balena Etcher to flash the image to the HD didn't work for me. Using the command was the way for me. Good luck!!!!!
@@charik Thanks! saved me a big headache /dev/targetHD is the right way for me as well! the other on give me the 'not enough space 'error as well!
@@JulienBrami Glad to be of help.
So have tried this many times now and I can't get Ubuntu to run from the usb drive. It keeps trying to install and asks me to give a user name and password. This is a Dell 9020m which does support uefi and usb is selected. If i let it finish it does not load into a desktop but rather a prompt.
Am I missing a step?
You should try to bios first and maybe you can boot the right thing
this only seems to work on 64bit systems ... if using an old 32bit slim client or laptop run it in a docker
Great to know, thanks for sharing
Could you put home assistance on a server?
Yes, run home assistant OS as a VM and pass through USB devices to the VM.
Does it have to be a (fairly) new laptop? When I try to boot the Ubuntu usb-drive on my 2009 laptop, after the GRUB message and selecting "try or install Ubuntu", the cursor blinks , and that's it!
It shouldn't need to be that new, that's an odd one. Sorry I can't help, I've never seen that before
@@HomeAutomationGuy Thanks for your fast reply! I was thinking, the laptop I'm using doesn't have UEFI bios. Can that be the problem?
Did all of the above and it boots to Windows
When running the command "xz -dc /media/ubuntu/USBKey/haos_generic-x86-64-9.5.img.xz | dd of=/nvme0n1 bs=4M conv=fsync" I am getting an error "dd: error writing /nvme0n1: No space left on device". I've tried formatting the disk using disks but keep getting the same error? Any ideas? Don't know ubuntu at all. Thanks
My SSD is defiantly /nvme0n1 and I've also tried /nvme0n1p1
@@marcfuller7531 The correct path to your nvme drive should be /dev/nvme0n1 instead of just /nvme0n1 also don't forget to put sudo in front of xz
@@t0d0r Many thanks indeed
@@marcfuller7531 THX, worked for me
😁
If you guys were reading off the website and you have an issue saying your drive doea not have enough space, you need to add /dev/ to your drive, so my sda drive was /dev/sda, then it worked fine
Thanks for sharing!
Can I just run home assistant on a dedicated mini windows pc?
You can if you do it in a VM. Home Assistant doesn't run natively on Windows.
@HomeAutomationGuy Would it be better to run HA os as a VM on windows or full HA os. Looking at a alderlake n100 mini pc with wifi6. Is this mini pc overkill for home assistant? Thought if it's running windows it could be used for other things as well. Sorry for noob question
@@ivana6141I would run HA OS inside a VM in that case. Take a look at the video on my channel about building my own home server using VMs via Proxmox. Whilst Proxmox is not Windows, the principles should be the same.
Do you need a Zigbee dongle if you use a old pc or laptop?
this is the radio that connects to your zigbee IoT devices, you will need it anyway
If you don't have zigbee devices, then you won't need the dongle
thanks, it has now worked, I used an old thin client with HomeAssistant OS and a Sonoof zigbee dongle
why is home assist so difficult on windows :/
lost me 4 mins in on about zigbee, and then not quickly saying what it was, did or required. so therefore if i don't know if i can use home assitant without having to purchase extra bits there is no point in carrying on.
I'd suggest watching the many videos I have on my channel about Zigbee.
I installed HA on a little Raspberry Pi (clone, Rock 4 SE) board 2 days ago, and I've been screaming at the screen ever since.
Screaming with joy?
@@HomeAutomationGuy Frustration so far, mosty.
I count myself quite tech savvy with 120+ smart devices of some sort already, using Homey currently.
Wanting to get more advanced and more detailed, so decided to try HA. Homey is powerful, but lacks in certain areas.
This is next level... Going to be a long learning experience.
@@FaradHusky This is the disadvantage of clone boards. You'd be better off with an Odroid or going full on and getting NUC. Home Assistant is only tested on genuine Raspberry Pi's, and can be major issues with a lot of clone boards.
@@EsotericArctos Up until now it was straightforward to install and its working fine and as expected. Its more the general complexity of HA vs what I'm used to that caught me off guard, and makes me scratch my head.
I use a pi3
Os diet pi
Docker container
Have all the functions of home assistant os
And is stable, and does not crash ever
@@ecoterrorist1402 until your SD card dies
can't have plugins in docker right?
@@MrDead1975 nope! running a ssd via usb, in any case with dietpi os, it read/write to ram first then only when full write to disk.
Can HACS be installed on the docker version ?
Optiplex 7040 micros with intel 6th gen processors are going for about 250AUD, plenty more powerful then a yellow.
Prices might fall off a cliff too as they don't support windows 11.
WARNING: Many who buy a Raspberry Pi spend considerable time installing the Raspberry Pi OS, not an easy task. I had installed a monitor and saw the beautiful RPI OS desktop screen. I had not realized that Home Assistant is an OS, not an application. Before installing Home Assistant OS, the user should be warned that the RPI OS will no longer exist to run applications like Python. That may not be a great loss for you, but others may value running RPI OS applications. If a user wants to save that resource, could they simply get a second SD card for the Home Assistant OS, rebooting as needed?
And I wonder what happens when you install HA OS on a PC. Does it replace the Ubuntu OS or perhaps Windows OS?
It would be nice to have a Home Assistant application (not an OS) for beginners or those simply wanting to learn about sensor networks.
100% agree, this is actually great to see someone write down in the comments this as a warning to new users
Plis subtítulos en spanish!!!!
Yo no hablar Espanol. I'm sorry 😞
I'm sorry for my coarse words. I was referring to the Spanish subtitle option on RUclips, I see that you talk about very interesting topics but it is almost impossible for me to follow you in your language.
don't install HA on a Raspberry Pi, the heat will make error on the SD Card, and do - that the HA crash.
HA need to be on a disk/NVMe, not on a useless SD Card.
If you use an SD card, HA is guaranteed to shit it’s pants. It’s not if, but when
really stop using those raspberry pies....
if you got a nas, run it on a nas.
if you dont, find a second hand intel nuc, dell optiflex, or anything with a intel U or better T processor.
they are so much cheaper and stronger and the power usage bump is tiny
WARNING: do not follow this guide unless you know what you’re doing. I followed this step by step and when I restarted the computer to load up HA for the first time it bricked my laptop
how did it brick your laptop? Surely something only went wrong with the OS install. So it didn't load. not actually destroying components... can you update and clarify?
OF COURSE PC!!! RASPBERY PI IS OVERPRICED CRAP. FOR 140 EUR YOU CNA BUY DECENT INTEL SMALL PC THAT WILL BE AT LEAST 10X FASTER.
I know this is supposed to be a quick video on how to get the basics done, but when you install to the internal drive of the PC what do you do about the original partitions on the drive? The one I am installing to had a previous windows installation. I tried the command 'xz -dc /media/ubuntu/USBKey/haos_generic-x86-64-9.5.img.xz | dd of=/nvme0n1 bs=4M conv=fsync' and it seems to do something and then tells me "DD: error writing 'nvme0n1': No Space Left On Device". It is a 128GB NVMe drive. I tried again after removing the partitions on the device. That still gave me the error. What is the file system that should be on the partition or does the command partition the drive automagically? I tried once after formatting it with a FAT16 partition, still got the same result. Booting isn't working because the UEFI isn't seeing the drive with anything to boot it.
I am an IT guy, I work on windows computers all day long, never do I have any of the kinds of troubles that I do when I try a "simple" 10 minute instructional video that includes 3 linux commands. I do use linux for other things, I have a TrueNAS core server where I have had to use commands to do stuff there. I have even used linux to repair windows password lockouts. But every time someone says, "try some linux commands" "it'll be easy" they said... I get grief...
Here's hoping that the linux users in this community are more friendly that others I have had to deal with...
And would you look at that, xz -dc /media/ubuntu/USBKey/haos_generic-x86-64-9.5.img.xz | dd of=/dev/nvme0n1 bs=4M conv=fsync made it work.
@@DawnTreader777 Thank you for that! I had the same issue and it was driving me nuts. Thank you for giving me back some time in my night!
Thanks for video. I'm building first small smart home, unfortunately I have 1 RPi 3 and several desktops. Can't decide where to Install Home Assistance. Maybe Proxmox video will help.