I realize that this is going to be a slightly controversial thread, and that the first instinct of a lot of people is going to be to say that I should run HAOS directly on bare metal … which I am currently doing … but …
I’m consolidating all of my systems on to a single server using Virtualbox to run a number of different virtual machines so that they can be backed up and remotely administered together with only one system needing to pass through my firewall and over my VPN rather than a dozen, and only one server needing connecting to a UPS.
It’s a done deal, and a good solution for me.
I have migrated my existing HAOS installation to Virtualbox and it runs really quickly and really smoothly. There is just one thing left that I’m having trouble with and that’s passing the Skyconnect dongle through from the physucal server to the virtual server.
I’m using Virtualbox 7.0.16 with extension pack 7.0.16r installed.
I have the V1 version of the Skyconnect dongle.
I’m using HAOS 14.1 and core 2025.1.0.
I have confirmed that the dongle is installed on the server OS (Ubuntu), and that the dongle is visible in virtualbox (See screenshot)
However, when I run the HAOS virtual machine, the dongle isn’t visible.
On my bare metal system it looks like this
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Nabu_Casa_SkyConnect_v1.0_5433d0fb1b97ed119083c998a7669f5d-if00-port0
/dev/serial/by-path/pci-0000:00:12.0-usb-0:3:1.0-port0
/dev/serial/by-path/pci-0000:00:12.0-usbv1-0:3:1.0-port0
DEVNAME: /dev/ttyUSB0
DEVPATH: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.0/usb2/2-3/2-3:1.0/ttyUSB0/tty/ttyUSB0
ID_BUS: usb
ID_MODEL: SkyConnect_v1.0
ID_MODEL_ENC: SkyConnect\x20v1.0
ID_MODEL_ID: ea60
ID_PATH: pci-0000:00:12.0-usb-0:3:1.0
ID_PATH_TAG: pci-0000_00_12_0-usb-0_3_1_0
ID_PATH_WITH_USB_REVISION: pci-0000:00:12.0-usbv1-0:3:1.0
ID_REVISION: '0100'
ID_SERIAL: Nabu_Casa_SkyConnect_v1.0_5433d0fb1b97ed119083c998a7669f5d
ID_SERIAL_SHORT: 5433d0fb1b97ed119083c998a7669f5d
ID_TYPE: generic
ID_USB_DRIVER: cp210x
ID_USB_INTERFACES: ':ff0000:'
ID_USB_INTERFACE_NUM: '00'
ID_USB_MODEL: SkyConnect_v1.0
ID_USB_MODEL_ENC: SkyConnect\x20v1.0
ID_USB_MODEL_ID: ea60
ID_USB_REVISION: '0100'
ID_USB_SERIAL: Nabu_Casa_SkyConnect_v1.0_5433d0fb1b97ed119083c998a7669f5d
ID_USB_SERIAL_SHORT: 5433d0fb1b97ed119083c998a7669f5d
ID_USB_TYPE: generic
ID_USB_VENDOR: Nabu_Casa
ID_USB_VENDOR_ENC: Nabu\x20Casa
ID_USB_VENDOR_ID: 10c4
ID_VENDOR: Nabu_Casa
ID_VENDOR_ENC: Nabu\x20Casa
ID_VENDOR_ID: 10c4
MAJOR: '188'
MINOR: '0'
SUBSYSTEM: tty
TAGS: ':systemd:'
USEC_INITIALIZED: '1210552544544'
on my virtualized system the dongle doesn’t seem to be recognized at all.
Other USB devices are recognized and passed through
Right now, I’m not certain if this means that it’s not properly installed on the server OS, if it’s not properly configured in Virtualbox, or if this is a problem with how I have Home Assistant configured.
Some help at least figuring out which component the problem is with would be greatly appreciated.
I’m also trying to get this tackled on the Ubuntu and Virtualbox forums in case this isn’t a Home Assistant problem.
Aside form this one snag, HAOS runs really nicely as a virtual machine.
I should mention that I’m still getting used to Linux, so if any commands need to be run, settings need to be checked, or logs need to be viewed, I will probably need some help with that as well.