HomeAssistant
Installation
There are two methods below. The recommeneded method IMO is KVM. You could use VirtualBox and maybe that would be simpler if you are already familiar. I wanted to learn about KVMs.
Docker Compose
This method of installation does not support add-ons. To use add-ons in home assistant see the KVM installation method.
https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/linux#docker-compose
services:
homeassistant:
container_name: homeassistant
image: "ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable"
volumes:
- /home/shaun/home-assistant/config:/config
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /run/dbus:/run/dbus:ro
restart: unless-stopped
privileged: true
network_mode: host
Kernel-based Virtual Machine
They don't offer much to the KVM newcomer, but here are the official instructions to install HAOS on a KVM -
Official Linux HomeAssistant OS Installation Instructions Using KVM
KVM Host Setup
# Download qcow2 KVM file and unzip it.
wget https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/13.2/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2.xz
unxz haos_ova-13.2.qcow2.xz
sudo apt install virtinst
# This is the next command in the official documentation.
# I ran into some errors and work through each of them in the next code block.
virt-install --name haos --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=4096 --vcpus=2 --disk /home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2,bus=scsi --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi --import --graphics none --boot uefi
# Reboot after installing `virtinst` to fix this error
virt-install --name haos --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=4096 --vcpus=2 --disk /home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2,bus=scsi --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi --import --graphics none --boot uefi
ERROR binary '/usr/sbin/libvirtd' does not exist in $PATH: No such file or directory
# Install `libvirt-daemon-system` to fix this error.
virt-install --name haos --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=4096 --vcpus=2 --disk /home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2,bus=scsi --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi --import --graphics none --boot uefi
ERROR Failed to connect socket to '/var/run/libvirt/libvirt-sock': No such file or directory
# Add your user to the libvirt group by running `newgrp libvirt` to fix this error.
virt-install --name haos --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=4096 --vcpus=2 --disk /home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2,bus=scsi --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi --import --graphics none --boot uefi
ERROR Failed to connect socket to '/var/run/libvirt/libvirt-sock': Permission denied
# Almost there...
# To fix this error, run `sudo -E vim /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf` and make the changes shown in the code block below.
virt-install --name haos --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=4096 --vcpus=2 --disk /home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2,bus=scsi --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi --import --graphics none --boot uefi
WARNING /home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2.xz may not be accessible by the hypervisor. You will need to grant the 'libvirt-qemu' user search permissions for the following directories: ['/home/shaun']
WARNING Using --osinfo generic, VM performance may suffer. Specify an accurate OS for optimal results.
Starting install...
ERROR internal error: process exited while connecting to monitor: 2024-10-19T18:18:10.481547Z qemu-system-x86_64: -blockdev {"driver":"file","filename":"/home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2.xz","node-name":"libvirt-1-storage","auto-read-only":true,"discard":"unmap"}: Could not open '/home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2.xz': Permission denied
Domain installation does not appear to have been successful.
If it was, you can restart your domain by running:
virsh --connect qemu:///system start haos
otherwise, please restart your installation.
These are the changes to fix the last error above. The changes set the user to shaun which allows access to /home/shaun and the group to the default libvirt. There is a lot in this file and these lines will be commented out. Uncomment them and set them accordingly (your username might be different) -
# Some examples of valid values are:
#
# user = "qemu" # A user named "qemu"
# user = "+0" # Super user (uid=0)
# user = "100" # A user named "100" or a user with uid=100
#
user = "shaun"
# The group for QEMU processes run by the system instance. It can be
# specified in a similar way to user.
group = "libvirt"
# Restart libvirt service after making the changes above
sudo systemctl restart libvirtd.service
# At this point the command works for me. See below for next steps.
virt-install --name haos --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=4096 --vcpus=2 --disk /home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2,bus=scsi --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi --import --graphics none --boot uefi
If you ever want to start over and try to install again with the same guest name this is how
virt-install --name haos --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=4096 --vcpus=2 --disk /home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2,bus=scsi --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi --import --graphics none --boot uefi
WARNING Using --osinfo generic, VM performance may suffer. Specify an accurate OS for optimal results.
Starting install...
ERROR Guest name 'haos' is already in use.
Domain installation does not appear to have been successful.
If it was, you can restart your domain by running:
virsh --connect qemu:///system start haos
otherwise, please restart your installation.
Run the following commands -
shaun@bee:~$ virsh list --all
Id Name State
----------------------
1 haos running
shaun@bee:~$ virsh undefine haos --remove-all-storage --nvram
Domain 'haos' destroyed
shaun@bee:~$ virsh list --all
Id Name State
-----------------------
Now the command works so we can install HAOS
virt-install --name haos --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=4096 --vcpus=2 --disk /home/shaun/homelab/home-assistant/haos_ova-13.2.qcow2,bus=scsi --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi --import --graphics none --boot uefi
# Lots of output...
[ 2.167746] systemd[1]: Finished Load Kernel Module efi_pstore.
[ 2.169682] systemd[1]: modprobe@fuse.service: Deactivated successfully.
[ 2.171076] systemd[1]: Finished Load Kernel Module fuse.
[ 2.173527] systemd[1]: Finished Generate network units from Kernel command line.
[ 2.177128] zram2: detected capacity change from 0 to 32768
[ 2.178697] systemd[1]: Finished Remount Root and Kernel File Systems.
[ 2.180025] systemd[1]: Reached target Preparation for Network.
[ 2.184575] zram1: detected capacity change from 0 to 65536
[ 2.186413] systemd[1]: Mounting FUSE Control File System...
[ 2.187304] systemd[1]: Kernel Configuration File System was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionPathExists=/sys/kernel/config).
[ 2.190522] systemd[1]: Starting Create Static Device Nodes in /dev gracefully...
[ 2.192376] systemd[1]: Started Journal Service.
[ 2.237290] audit: type=1334 audit(1729364732.280:2): prog-id=6 op=LOAD
[ 2.238125] audit: type=1334 audit(1729364732.280:3): prog-id=7 op=LOAD
[ 2.306989] e1000 0000:00:02.0 enp0s2: renamed from eth0
[ 2.563354] EXT4-fs (sda7): mounted filesystem 276bcccc-2827-4ba2-95cc-28ae4d61cfcd r/w with ordered data mode. Quota mode: none.
Welcome to Home Assistant
homeassistant login:
Network Bridge
Now we need to setup a bridge for our network so our virtual machine will show up on our local network. Once this is done home assistant will show up on your wifi router's list of devices with it's own local IP address. You can visit this local address 192.168.143.123:8123 to see the home assistant application from any device while connected to your network.
Here are two good resources that helped me here:
# Show connections
nmcli con show
NAME UUID TYPE DEVICE
Wired connection 1 32ad924c-de8c-3d5f-8574-0350b5013a33 ethernet enp1s0
bridge-br0 a426ed13-efe4-4102-9f5d-8d300ebb563c bridge br0
br-5d311c779ca4 3d407712-4123-40ea-af62-fc47236f44ef bridge br-5d311c779ca4
lo 1f94cfef-9a19-4a35-8a69-034b88a92162 loopback lo
br-f46f9264b01d 4c45c652-ba1f-4266-819b-15cd21afc66a bridge br-f46f9264b01d
docker0 ed8b0fe6-ee1c-4eda-908a-796e1253599a bridge docker0
virbr0 db82dd0c-9afc-41c1-8ba9-25c172b8a725 bridge virbr0
8hz-WAN-IP a1c5be8a-50da-4bcc-846e-0b8b15f1da8d wifi --
Wired connection 2 77b2cb41-bfca-3c15-90bf-6984f6c16a10 ethernet --
# Show only active connections
nmcli con show --active
NAME UUID TYPE DEVICE
Wired connection 1 32ad924c-de8c-3d5f-8574-0350b5013a33 ethernet enp1s0
bridge-br0 a426ed13-efe4-4102-9f5d-8d300ebb563c bridge br0
lo 1f94cfef-9a19-4a35-8a69-034b88a92162 loopback lo
br-f46f9264b01d 4c45c652-ba1f-4266-819b-15cd21afc66a bridge br-f46f9264b01d
docker0 ed8b0fe6-ee1c-4eda-908a-796e1253599a bridge docker0
virbr0 db82dd0c-9afc-41c1-8ba9-25c172b8a725 bridge virbr0
# Show devices and their status
nmcli device
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
enp1s0 ethernet connected Wired connection 1
br-5d311c779ca4 bridge connected (externally) br-5d311c779ca4
lo loopback connected (externally) lo
br-f46f9264b01d bridge connected (externally) br-f46f9264b01d
docker0 bridge connected (externally) docker0
virbr0 bridge connected (externally) virbr0
wlo1 wifi disconnected --
p2p-dev-wlo1 wifi-p2p disconnected --
enp2s0 ethernet unavailable --
vethc3db6aa ethernet unmanaged --
We need to create a bridge that will connect to our current ethernet connection from the list above -
# Create the bridge
nmcli con add type bridge ifname br0
Connection 'bridge-br0' (a426ed13-efe4-4102-9f5d-8d300ebb563c) successfully added.
# The bridge is now in the list of connections but it is not yet active
nmcli con show
NAME UUID TYPE DEVICE
Wired connection 1 32ad924c-de8c-3d5f-8574-0350b5013a33 ethernet enp1s0
br-5d311c779ca4 3d407712-4123-40ea-af62-fc47236f44ef bridge br-5d311c779ca4
lo 1f94cfef-9a19-4a35-8a69-034b88a92162 loopback lo
br-f46f9264b01d 4c45c652-ba1f-4266-819b-15cd21afc66a bridge br-f46f9264b01d
docker0 ed8b0fe6-ee1c-4eda-908a-796e1253599a bridge docker0
virbr0 db82dd0c-9afc-41c1-8ba9-25c172b8a725 bridge virbr0
8hz-WAN-IP a1c5be8a-50da-4bcc-846e-0b8b15f1da8d wifi --
bridge-br0 a426ed13-efe4-4102-9f5d-8d300ebb563c bridge br0
Wired connection 2 77b2cb41-bfca-3c15-90bf-6984f6c16a10 ethernet --
Now make the connection from our ethernet to the bridge so that the KVM we host using the bridge network will appear on our local network. This is a slave connection that will always start with the bridge connection so that we are always tied to our ethernet.
nmcli con add type bridge-slave ifname enp1s0 master br0
Connection 'bridge-slave-enp1s0' (3065e93d-aa12-41f0-9f81-a7f215cc224b) successfully added.
Now bring up the bridge connection
nmcli con up bridge-br0
Connection successfully activated (master waiting for slaves) (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/32)
# Check device to see the status of the bridge connection is good. Here, we are waiting to connect. This can take some time.
nmcli device
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
enp1s0 ethernet connected Wired connection 1
br0 bridge connecting (getting IP configuration) bridge-br0
br-5d311c779ca4 bridge connected (externally) br-5d311c779ca4
lo loopback connected (externally) lo
br-f46f9264b01d bridge connected (externally) br-f46f9264b01d
docker0 bridge connected (externally) docker0
virbr0 bridge connected (externally) virbr0
wlo1 wifi disconnected --
p2p-dev-wlo1 wifi-p2p disconnected --
enp2s0 ethernet unavailable --
vethc3db6aa ethernet unmanaged --
# Check device status again and see that the connection is good. Note enp1s0 is now connected to bridge-slave-enp1s0 under CONNECTION column.
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
br0 bridge connected bridge-br0
enp1s0 ethernet connected bridge-slave-enp1s0
br-5d311c779ca4 bridge connected (externally) br-5d311c779ca4
lo loopback connected (externally) lo
br-f46f9264b01d bridge connected (externally) br-f46f9264b01d
docker0 bridge connected (externally) docker0
virbr0 bridge connected (externally) virbr0
wlo1 wifi disconnected --
p2p-dev-wlo1 wifi-p2p disconnected --
enp2s0 ethernet unavailable --
vethc3db6aa ethernet unmanaged --
Sometimes it can take a couple of minutes to connect if you have been toying around a lot, so give it a bit and check devices again if it says it's still trying to connect or something to that effect.
If you want this to be the default connection from now on you should enable autoconnect -
nmcli device set br0 autoconnect yes
KVM Host Configuration
Now we just need to tell our KVM host to use thet bridge network we just created. To do this we first need to define the network in virt-manager so if you haven't already..
sudo apt install virt-manager
List networks currently available to virt-manager -
virsh net-list --all
Name State Autostart Persistent
--------------------------------------------
default active yes yes
Define the bridge using a new XML file in any directory as temporary input to virsh net-define -
vim br0.xml
# The file should look like this...
<network>
<name>br0</name>
<forward mode="bridge"/>
<bridge name="br0" />
</network>
# Define the network using the temporary XML file we just created
virsh net-define br0.xml
# Start the network
virsh net-start br0
# Mark the network for autostarting
virsh net-autostart br0
Network br0 marked as autostarted
virsh net-list --all
Name State Autostart Persistent
--------------------------------------------
br0 active yes yes
default active yes yes
Now open virt-manager, if you see a permisssions denied error connecting to libvirt socket then just reboot and the error will go away.
Change the Network source to use br0 -
Restart the KVM and you should now see the virtual machine listed in your router's devices. For me this means I can assign a static lease so that I know home assistant's local IP address at all times and it will never change. You can usually do this in your router's configuration panel.
HACS Installation
Enable Advanced mode in your user panel -
Settings->Add-ons->Add-on-Store then click the ... at the top right to open a drop-down menu and select repositories.
Add the HACS repo to the list https://github.com/hacs/addons
Install Get HACS in the Add-on store -
Run the add-on and view the logs to see the details.
So restart home by going to Settings->System and clicking the power button at the top-right.
Once the reboot is finished go to Settings->Devices and click Add Intergration at the bottom-right of the screen
Follow the steps and HACS will appear in the side-bar
Share Host Bluetooth Device
To enable Bluettoth connections in home assistant, you need a bluetooth dongle attached to your host machine. My host has an internal bluetooth adapter and I found it, but was not successful in sharing it with the KVM. A cheap USB bluetooth dongle worked perfectly though, first try using the steps below.
# List USB devices to find the bluetooth dongle use for bluetooth. Look for mention of hci, the kernel module for bluetooth.
sudo lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 25a7:fa67 Areson Technology Corp 2.4G Receiver
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 8087:0026 Intel Corp. AX201 Bluetooth
Bus 003 Device 013: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
In the above output my cheap USB dongle is Bus 003 Device 013: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode), and my system's internal bluetooth device that I could not get working is Bus 003 Device 004: ID 8087:0026 Intel Corp. AX201 Bluetooth. For the sake of sanity below I will not bother showing the attempt to use the system device, I will only show using the USB device that worked for me.
In virt-manager, open the KVM details panel and click Add Hardware, then select USB Host Device and find the device in the list.
Add the device and reboot HAOS. You can now go to Settings->Devices->Add-Intergration->Bluetooth and a bluetooth receiver will be detected.
Frigate
version: "3.9"
services:
frigate:
container_name: frigate
privileged: true # this may not be necessary for all setups
restart: unless-stopped
image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
shm_size: "115mb" # update for your cameras based on calculation above
devices:
- /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb # Passes the USB Coral, needs to be modified for other versions
volumes:
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /home/shaun/frigate/config:/config
- /home/shaun/frigate/storage:/media/frigate
- type: tmpfs # Optional: 1GB of memory, reduces SSD/SD Card wear
target: /tmp/cache
tmpfs:
size: 1000000000
ports:
- "8971:8971"
- "8554:8554" # RTSP feeds
- "8555:8555/tcp" # WebRTC over tcp
- "8555:8555/udp" # WebRTC over udp
#- "5000:5000" # Internal unauthenticated access. Expose carefully.
environment:
FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD: "password"
Coral Setup
https://coral.ai/docs/accelerator/get-started/#pycoral-on-linux
Edge TPU Runtime
echo "deb https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt coral-edgetpu-stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/coral-edgetpu.list
curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libedgetpu1-std
PyCoral Library
The docs would have asked you to use apt, but this fails on ubuntu 24.04 -
[sudo] password for shaun:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
python3-pycoral : Depends: python3-tflite-runtime (= 2.5.0.post1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: python3 (< 3.10) but 3.12.3-0ubuntu1 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
Coral supports only pthon <= 3.10 https://realpython.com/intro-to-pyenv/#why-not-use-system-python
sudo apt-get install -y make build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev python-openssl
curl https://pyenv.run | bash
You get this output, put the last 3 lines in ~/.bash_aliases
WARNING: seems you still have not added 'pyenv' to the load path.
Load pyenv automatically by adding
the following to ~/.bashrc:
export PATH="$HOME/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"
eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"
Install python 3.9 -
pyenv install 3.9
pyenv global 3.9
python -V
Python 3.9.0
If python version does not switch, run eval "$(pyenv init -)" and try again. If this works you should add this line to your ~/.bash_aliases.
Last, install pycoral library now that we are on python 3.9 -
python3 -m pip install --extra-index-url https://google-coral.github.io/py-repo/ pycoral~=2.0
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