2.0 Release Update

Whilst i agree the devs should get credit for what they have produced, once you monetise anything there are people who would then see that they have a right to demand something is fixed or added just because they have paid.

You are right, and that’s something Robbie should think about…

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Unfortunately no… not even the last few posts. You’d think if you had a problem it wouldn’t be too hard to do that.

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I think I did explain that… the why… as to WHEN… the next day or so I expect (and I explained that delay as well)

Should it have been in the release notes? Maybe… but at the time, it was intended that the beta would have an imminent fix…

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It’s a very interesting discussion topic and the right conversation to have (also let’s avoid the blame and flame and focus on what we are trying to achieve here as a homeassistant family…
In summary:
If enough users are having a problem is it a user behavior problem? (Yes it may be laziness, but also may be lack of knowledge). What can be done to help mitigate in this instance the iOS app not working and users raising the same repeated issue - but more broadly how can we help users help themselves before posting (simplify release notes, breaking changes and alert system)?

So there is a temporary fix but it’s very hacky and maybe outside the ability of many people… but here it is:

If using Docker (hass.io)
from ssh (or a console in portainer - don’t need the first command)
docker exec -t -i homeassistant /bin/bash
vi /usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/const.py
and change the version to 99 and 4 then restart home assistant

If using hassbian:
Edit the same const.py in /srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.7/site-packages/homeassistant/

Once you edit the file, restart home assistant.

I have done this in hass.io and the app works again.

You will get the splash screen saying 99.4 but the system health will say 0.100.1 Also the iOS app will say 0.100.1

You will need to repeat this if 0.100.2 comes out before the fix to the iOS app.

Like I said it’s a nasty hack. If you have a version sensor it may tell you to upgrade as well.

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I wouldn’t call that a nasty hack, rather clever trickery. I’d mark it akin to some software license relying on a specific date range to work and rolling the system clock back to make it work again. It may break other things but it gets stuff to work again until officially updated.

To someone who has never seen these threads before they will most likely think it is a thread about the issue they have and will scroll to the very top. And all i am saying is HA incompatibility or issues with update should have more separated out threads easily google searchable. As for my wife being able to set this up maybe it is an exaggeration but judging from the amount of documentation on how to set things up I wouldn’t be surprised if she could. Maybe the configuration.yaml would be nice and neat like mine(hahaha thats a joke) but just copy and pasting code is enough nowadays. [quote=“febalci, post:182, topic:122298, full:true”]
Hey lishan, you say yo do not have time to read this giant thread, yet you write a very longggg response and i couldn’t finish reading what you wrote…

I, for one, don’t use this 2.0 companion, yet even i know 2.0 doesn’t work with 0.100. It is a common practice to read at least the last 10-20 comments of the related community topic,if someone had any issues with the latest version. Have a nice day.
[/quote]
@febalci
Sorry this is news to me to read 20 comments of a thread about ios app before updating the HA server. Thats like expecting someone to read 20 comments about microsoft word before updating windows 10. But i guess i know now that these are not made by the same entity and that there is not communication between them. Since i did read patch notes before updating

I think there is tight communication between Robbie & Balloob - it’s just the fix is taking longer than expected and compounded by problems in Robbies dev machine - so it was intended that no one would even notice an issue with the app.

But seriously, almost every post in this thread since 0.100.x was released are to do with this crashing issue so the answer is right in your face here. When you have a problem, yes, you should read maybe 1/2 a dozen posts otherwise not only will people just ignore you (like they will if you post questions but have not spent any time trying to work out an issue for yourself… people here are incredibly patient and willing to help when they see YOU putting in an effort). Coming t this thread and posting ‘me too’ and nothing else isn’t that helpful. Like I said, the answer is right in front of you if you take a little effort.

Regarding release notes, most people don’t read them or they come here swinging when something breaks. It’s just the nature of things. Even HA itself is still beta! Stuff breaking should be expected. I know it’s frustrating but there’s almost no pain these days…

There is a fix on the way… there is a temp hack fix I posted above.

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That is not the point he is making @lishan89uc.

He is suggesting that if you checked in on the forums regularly, and read the most recent 10-20 posts, this thread would have come up as it has been posted in very often over the past 2 weeks.

If you use an item in HA that is a current, let’s call it, “Hot Topic” on the forums, you can read and bring yourself up to speed with any issues or other information that may be useful to you.

Comparing updating updating Windows 10 or other Microsoft software, with updating beta, open source software like Home Assistant, is not even in the same ballpark. It’s an inaccurate comparison.

I did not do that, it was done by the forums admins.

Not particularly, I own and run a business that I work in 50 hours a week. I still find time to read the forums, and post replies to try and assist, spend time writing guides to help others with installation, etc.

The point to all this is if you wish to use beta software, and choose to be on the bleeding edge of updates, and don’t keep yourself up to date with problems that are occurring on the bleeding edge, then you only have yourself to blame for problems that occur.

The issue here is that people’s (general consumers) behavior is driven by how Microsoft, Apple, Google etc institutionalize their users. Back in the day beta was a closed system to the devs in a company or at best special invite only. Now the big software giants are pushing out very reliable betas (mostly as they are very near release and not actually beta).
So that expectation is driving users to expect that of every piece of software. Is it HAs fault, not at all, is it the users fault, not really. However should we as a community consider this behavior, yes.
If the answer has been posted 1000 times and still people are missing it, who is at fault? arguably everyone (laziness for not reading, complexity of finding, all the above).
Who has read the user agreement for their apps they download (probably only a few % of users).
For the record I don’t agree with this ethos of just ‘gimme gimme gimme’ without taking time to read, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider that as a reality for many users.

The real question (now we’ve kind of agreed this happens, A LOT) is how do we save the time of community contributors from constantly providing the same comments (and get frustrated by the lack of self service from some users), but equally provide a self service experience that is on par with the simplicity of installation and configuration?
Can the HA team talk to the roadmap for breaking changes, known issue.

My preference would be a button in the config menu under server config, instead of validate config, would be “check upgrade”. It would take all the components that user has utilitzed, and query them against the next release (or current release?) and report a list of things that break, or need changing and highlight that to the user?

Point is we’ve highlighted an issue with breaking changes/change log discoverability. This will continue until the system is changed to manage how users are alerted and driven to triage their problems.

Ok, so why was the app crashing not put on the patch notes? Also thank you for posting the work around. I can’t believe its that simple. OMG is there a way to sticky your workaround post?

@kanga_who
Aye i hear you. like i said its jsut working so well you forget that this is beta software or that it is open source. As for following these threads just in the past 2 days i have spent more than 3 hours reading and replying. So i should really shut up about it using too much time. That being said though, the fact that it took me this long to find out that things about the app is only allowed to be discussed here is concerning still. I am voting for the easily googlable approach. Also https://alerts.home-assistant.io/ still have not posted the issue.
@jaburges

I just want to say if its been posted 1000 times and doesn’t show up on google searches its useless. But i do hear you, and i want to reiterate its mostly my fault for forgeting this is beta open source software. However if this were to grow its got to be google searchable. Even now if i google “home assistant 0.100.1 ios” the only thing that shows up is a closed thread. Thankfully that thread does link to here and also thanks to Kanga_who who showed me to this thread.

this isnt directed at you, as i agree with your points and trying to help the wider community think about how they tackle this issue discoverability. I mean at least you knew to search “0.100.1 ios”. Some users dont get that far, but my point is should they need to know, or should they just check a single site for any new issues / alerts as mentioned above.

why do people need to use google., just use the search function of the forum
the 3rd item when searching for ios, 0.100 is an item warning about it.

As the companion app 2.0 is still beta. that’s probably why its not there

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Google is life now whether you like or not LOL! when you don’t know something you google it. I also understand this is a beta app but when the beta app works better than the non beta one kind of wanted a heads up regardless.

Thanks David this seems to be working for me so far on Hassbian.

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I just want to say that your little trick did work for me and thank you very much.

Thanks I will try this tonight!! Seems pretty straightforward.

Works great. Thanks a lot

Hi @DavidFW1960

I have Homeassistant in a docker (Not hass.io) when i use portatiner console it opens the const.py and i can see the whole file but it does not allow me to edit it.

I also tried to use ssh and the same thing.

Any Help Please.

EDIT: I think i sorted it just used Google to find the Vim Editor Commands

i and Enter Insert mode
Esc + :w Save changes

Thanks iPhone ios13 Hass Companion 2.0.0 (63) App working with HA 0.100.2.

Thanks Again.