Advanced mode in Docker

[konstantin.bode]

Hello guys,

I am completely new to the world of Home assistant (and sadly also to the world of docker etc.). I have a fresh installation of Raspberry OS on my Raspberry Pi 400, then docker and afterwards portainer. Than I managed to install Home Assistant via portainer. So far so good. (only took me 10 hours ).
Now I have the problem that I am not able to go into the supervisor settings from my Home assistant. I can enable the advanced mode but the “Supervisor” tab that is supposed to pop up in the sidebar won´t come up. I tried rebooting in every different combination and several different browsers. It would not work. Now I am unable to install add-ons etc. and I can´t use Home Assistant to its fullest potential.

I already searched this forum and the internet for two hours but can not find the solution. I read somewhere that the advanced mode is not working with docker. Is that true? If yes, why would you install Home assistant in docker in the first place?

Thank you for helping an absolute beginner out.

Cheers

[finity]

That’s likely because you didn’t install the correct version of HA.

you wanted “HA Supervised” but you installed “HA Container” instead.

If you want a Supervisor you need to install either HA OS or run the Supervised installer script.

[mwav3 (Tim)]

There is no addon store when running the home assistant container version. See this thread.

Where is the add-on store when running from docker?

tl;dr Where is the add-on store when running from docker? Background: I was using HA in venv, in ubuntu 18.04, and it worked pretty well most of the time. But the installation was not smooth and whenever I wanted to add functionality like zigbee or secure connection issues arise. I’ve decided to take the recommended approach and install in docker and use the add-ons. I’ve created a directory ‘homeassistant’ (I plan on copying my old settings there later on) and according to this guide I ran: …

Technically, the addons are themselves docker containers that are managed by the home assistant supervisor. What addons did you want to use? You generally can install the equivalent full version of the addon in docker. For example, you already installed portainer so wouldn’t need the portainer addon. I have zwavejs2mqtt, Zigbee2mqtt, and node red all installed independently through docker, but they still work with Home Assistant container. I can post install instructions on one you would need if I’m familiar with them.

@konstantin.bode

If yes, why would you install Home assistant in docker in the first place?

I posted about reasons why in the thread below.

The benefits of docker / core / rasp

I agree with @finity and run the docker install also for the same reasons. I have an old Mac mini that is running Ubuntu and a Shinobi NVR already, so none of the other install methods would work for me unless I went and created a virtual machine somehow. Docker is much more light weight and a VM would bog the system down. The biggest downside is you can’t use add-ons with the container version, but you usually can install them separately as their own docker containers. That is a bit more wo…

The main reason is you can install other software on the machine besides homeassistant. With hassos, you can only install addons. Other options include “supervised”, which has a lot of requirements (if using raspberry OS you already aren’t meeting them), and a VM, which isn’t as efficient at managing resources as docker.

If you’re not going to use the rpi for anything beside home assistant or the addons though, best to just use homeassistant os as detailed here, with full access to the addon store.

Raspberry Pi

[konstantin.bode]

Thank you for your answers. Really appreciate it. So it seems that I have chosen a wrong way to install Home assistant.

Sadly I want to use the rpi for other things as well like pihole and nextcloud. So I thought my docker and portainer approach would the be right way.

In home assistant I want to use add-ons for waste management, alexa… I think it will be too difficult for me to install all of them in seperate containers (just don´t have the know-how).
Is there a possibility for me to use Home Assistant supervisor with docker(portainer) on the raspberry OS? It seems there is no installation guide, so it propably does not work.

What would your recommendation be for someone who needs it as simple as possible? Start from scratch again, try to install debian an then docker with home assistant supervisor?

Thanks for your help.

[mwav3 (Tim)]

@konstantin.bode

Start from scratch again, try to install debian an then docker with home assistant supervisor?

The Debian supervised install is anything but simple. I really would not recomend it, and the documentation also has multiple warnings to steer people away.

If you don’t want to take the time to learn docker, and need to run other software, installing Home Assistant in a VM might be the way to go. Home Assistant and addons will run in the VM, and everything else like pihole and nextcloud will run outside it in raspberry OS. I haven’t installed a VM on raspberry (have on windows). It’s not the most efficient way but the raspberry 400 should have enough processing power to do it. Others im sure can weigh in.

VM install instructions are below

Linux

If the VM route doesn’t work for you, you might want to consider purchasing a seperate rpi just to run Home Assistant.

[konstantin.bode]

I hoped there would be a solution that everyone is working with, because to me it seems like that it should be a problem everybody is facing.

Would it be possible to run Home Assistant OS and then also use Nextcloud and something like pihole on the same raspberry?

I think I try to learn docker a little bit more and work via the containers. If that does not work I try a VM. Could you recommend a guide for a beginner with docker? Maybe in the first place install the containers for working with alexa or just some general approaches…

Thank you for helping me.

[mwav3 (Tim)]

@konstantin.bode

I hoped there would be a solution that everyone is working with, because to me it seems like that it should be a problem everybody is facing.

When you want to run home assistant, addons, and other nonaddon software all on the same machine, you will find there is no “perfect” easy solution. There are a lot of threads in the forum on people wanting an easy way to do this. Unfortunately, there isn’t one that is perfect, simple, and universally agreed on. There are also multiple ways to do it, all with their advantages and disadvantages, as mentioned above by running supervised, VM, or a container install. With the VM install, the are even more options, like proxmox. It’s nice to have all these options, but with so many options, it can lead to confusion.

I started with the container install. I’m not going to sugar coat it- it was painful. There is no comprehensive guide and I had to scour the forum, YouTube, and Google for various solutions as I ran into issues. Also, the minority of users run it this way. You are already ahead of where I was when I started by knowing how to use Portainer, so I’m sure with some time you could do it. Now that I know it though, I wouldn’t go back to a “supervised” install with addons.

@konstantin.bode

Could you recommend a guide for a beginner with docker?

Your best bet is to continue using portainer to setup and work with docker. I use it all the time and hardly have to mess with the command line at all. Most containers you install will give you sample docker compose files. You can use the stack option in portainer to use the compose to create your containers. See this guide which is pretty good.

Stacks = docker-compose, the Portainer way

As far as updating a container, it’s as easy as clicking recreate and toggle “pull latest image” to on. I posted more about how to do that here.

Migrating Container install to Operating System install

I definitely get that, and that’s really the way Home Assistant is designed to be. The OS install is the way I would recommend as an install for any new user not familiar with the basics of linux and docker. It was very hard for me to start out this way, but I didn’t really have a choice because I’m running an NVR and Ubuntu, and would have had to give that up or get another machine. The container install gave me the flexibility to run everything on the same machine and keep my OS. But for …