Just wanted to update this post, as I came here looking for this answer. I run HA in a docker container as well and wanted to try the Wyze addon via HACS. I used the instructions on HACS to get it going, which was a snap. (Download | HACS)
Open a terminal
Go inside the container with docker exec -it homeassistant bash
Run the HACS download script
wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash -
FWIW I do have a local directory so it persists across containers/host reboots.
Wow, this got heated.
IMHO, the maintainers are making a mistake trying to develop an OS supervisor. The requirements for installing home assistant supervisor are just… draconian and very limiting. Why can’t the supervisor just manage docker containers and host system configurations if that is needed by a container instead of just taking over everything on the host? Why does it require network-manager, for example? Are you trying to develop a web interface that replaces X server or are you developing a home automation system?
I have to agree mostly with the OP. Today’s tendance goes to micro service infrastructures and there are good reasons for that (no virtualization layer, interoperability, compartmentalized concerns & security, etc.).
VMs are still used a lot today because there are a buttload of tools & OSes to manage them, but their usage should slowly decrease for the benefit of containerized applications.
I also agree with @chedim about the supervisor, there will always be dependencies for all applications (at least database, files, network, etc.) and an application developer should try to open his app to allow these dependencies to work with it rather than including them in a home made OS because it might be more and more difficult to maintain.
I originally chose HA over Jeedom because it had a nice Docker image available (that’s the first thing I check when choosing a service), and I hope it’ll stay as powerful as today.
Maybe nothing related but I’m a developer for >20 years like @aigarius
Jumping in here… I’m on the side of the OP on this. I think this is ridiculous that the maintainers here are choosing to build their own operating system for this. This is counter to current technology trends and frankly is probably sucking a lot of time and resources from core features. Let OS developers develop OS’s. You guys are doing NOTHING special that requires an entire OS. If you want to be able to manage docker containers for your environment you guys should look at docker in docker.
Float a core docker image to setup HA, supervisor etc, then run add-ons within that is DIND containers. Problem solved, and if someone wants to dedicate a whole OS you system will still work even on bare metal.
Sounds like you guys have gone way down the wrong path and are making excuses as to why you cannot go back to something easier.
Making an app that only runs on a specific OS, specifically developed for the app is a 1970’s approach to computing.
HA have launched the yellow and now the green in the last 2 years, which is perfectly reasonable IMO to want to have a custom OS where they control every aspect to ensure the best user experience.
This description is not at all accurate for addons.
addons are literally just docker containers with some extra sauce to make things simpler inside HA OS. They are still available and able to be run in any docker environment. I have had no problems loading up the docker containers for the recent voice integrations, matter in HA, etc.
So now they are selling hardware to make up for the fact that they have a poor design? Again the whole concept is contrary to everything in computing today. Let’s use more power and have more physical dependencies, more heat generation etc etc… when completely unnecessary.
Again, are the maintainers really prepared to deal with hardware and an OS stack? Soon they will spend more time keeping up with is and hardware security patches than maintaining the actual app. And there is no reason at all for that.
I disagree. Its not like they designed an OS from scratch. It is linux based using build root. A lot of hardware runs stripped down versions of linux like this as it’s os.
If the user wants simplicity, the developers need to manage the system more and it needs to be more locked down, hence its own os/supervisor/etc. What would happen if someone used the supervisor to install an addon, but also installed something like watchtower on their own that automatically updates containers independent of the supervisor? The system would break.
Home assistant already supports multiple install types, and you want them to create more options? A user at the end of the day needs to choose- do they want a managed system that is easy yet more controlled/locked down (ie home assistant OS). Or do they want to mange it themselves, which is more difficult, but lets the user install/run it however they want (home assistant container). Running some in between option even exists with Home Assets supervised, but i generally see more problems with that type of install.
I’m not saying it doesn’t have its place. But having different install options that don’t produce the same functionality is a problem, ie the ability to use addons through the interface . Docker was specifically designed to solve that problem but it seems home assistant has taken that and reproduced the problems docker was meant to solve and they used docker to do it.
It would be nice for the people who don’t want to either purchase or build and maintain dedicated hardware for hass to be able to run this in containerized environment like almost every other modern app but without additional extensive management and setup work with addons. Am I capable of doing that, of course, but I already have a full time job managing technology and just want a simple solution I can use that doesn’t require me to purchase, setup, or maintain dedicated hardware. Especially when I have several other apps already running in docker containers.
If everything took the hass approach we would require a whole rack of servers to run your average house.
If you know how to run docker containers then the only thing missing would be the ability to Google / search well. I have yet to find an “addon” that I wanted to use that didn’t have the ability to also run it directly in docker, which is how I run everything including HA. That’s because addons are just docker containers that the supervisor runs, so there is an underlying docker container that can be run as well.
hum, so if they are litteraly docker containers…why saying they are not available to HA docker users? Why not saying these addons are available but with advanced skills ? and make them available to download for users who need these functionalities?