I am completely new to Home Assistant and any type of custom automation (have several devices, but all Alexa or Homekit based).
I have been “tinkering” with home assistant, setting it up on my Mac mini (running Catalina). I followed the macOS instructions but I was unable to configure it to autorun. I did some research (other sites, you tube videos) but have not been able to successfully set it up.
Currently the only way I have home assistant running is if I launch this command through terminal and then leave terminal running." python3 -m home assistant. " I found this command when I was searching on how to get this enabled.
I am a complete amateur when it comes to scripts/codes.
I’d try to move towards HassIO. As your HA setup expands, it will be a lot easier. To do this on your Mac, there are a few options. I’ve listed what I think will be easiest below (not able to provide links for everything as I’m typing on mobile):
Install VirtualBox (free). This will allow your Mac to run virtual machines. You can setup your Mac to auto login as a user and have that user auto start virtual box.
Go to HassIO/HassOS github and download the virtual machine release (which is probably an OVA file). Check VirtualBox’s manual for how to load this type of virtual machine. Set networking to bridged!
Once VM setup, tell virtualbox to auto start that VM when the app starts.
Your VM will have a different IP address than the Mac. Use that IP for all HA stuff.
If the above won’t work:
Install Docker on your Mac and load HassIO.
Or
Wipe OSX from mini and install Ubuntu 18.04.3 and follow instructions online for installing Docker and HassIO.
Or
Buy a RaspberryPi and follow any one of the many guides for installing HassOS.