Error during setting up HA on my Pi 3b (logs included)

Hi, I used Balena Etcher to install the HA image onto my sd card. I tried to install the image via the direct link but it gave me some archive error message.

I opened the link in a new window and downloaded the image on my Windows 10 (LTSC) PC. The writing and verifiying process went fine but at the setting up page it threw me errors. It seems that this Superviser is the issue. Here is the log. Thank you.

P.S. Sorry, I had to upload the log since I as a new user am not allowed to post more than 2 links

“system is not healthy”
I only saw this when trying to install Home Assistant on an Ubuntu computer. But since you are installing the image file for Raspberry Pi, this should not be an issue.

I have never gotten this to work. I just download the image and use etcher to flash my boot device.

So far, you have done everything right, so I don’t know why you are getting the “not healthy” error. Did the setup page give you any other errors?

Which image file did you download, specifically?
Do you have an Ethernet connection to your router? (Install won’t work over WiFi).

If you search the forums you will find the solution.

TL;DR: etcher manipulates writes (tracks users and shows ads) - don’t use it!

With the link, I got many lines of text but I could not copy anything so I tried to manually download the image. That worked…

I downloaded the image from here https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/11.4/haos_rpi3-64-11.4.img.xz

Yes, my RP is connected via an ethernet cable

I tried Rufus and got better results. I am now setting up HA but it is stuck at that window for more than 2 hours even if it says that it can take up to 20 min.

1 Like

2 hours is long.
However those 20minutes are a bit optimistic.
I think it depends on you internet speed also. I would wait a bit more. But if that doesn’t help. Maybe try another sd card.
Btw rpi imager now can download HA image directly.

Try refreshing the page - sometimes mostly works wonders

NOT if you download directly from Etcher. I’ve never, ever seen an advertisement while using Etcher.

How are you connecting to the Internet?
If you can find the IP address of the Raspberry Pi, maybe through your router, you can try opening Home Assistant from a browser:

http://your_IP:8123

For example: http://192.168.1.50:8123

Exactly then, check the githubs for some examples - here is just one issue

But the main problem are not the ads and tracking for most users but the fact that balena etcher actually manipulates writes and fails to do it’s (only) job.

I settled with usbimager which has no ads, no tracking and does it’s job.

So, you’ve never seen an ad when using Etcher?
And in your example: “Password” ??? There is no password to use Etcher.

You may have had some bad luck with Balena Etcher but I have used it dozens, maybe hundreds of times to flash lots of devices. Etcher has never let me down.

Is taken from the official etcher repo.

It depends with what user rights you run etcher. Best practice for the last decade is not to use admin/root but limited privileged user accounts instead. Depending on your OS you then need additional system rights to write - that’s where you can expect a password prompt from your OS (also might differ if the drive to write is consider internal or external). YMMV.

Not only me, check this forum, check github.

Most of the FOSS projects I follow/use abandoned etcher already. HA is probably one of the last ones still “recommend” etcher (still in the install docs) despite even nabu casa staff(?) already opened issues over at the etcher repo.

Etcher also includes not fixed vulnerabilities that are not fixed because they are based on an EOL browser.

In case you don’t see ads you ether have a very old etcher version (before ads were introduced) or blocking internet access to etcher.

If you are seeing ads you downloaded a fake etcher.
balena-etcher .com is a fake site. https://etcher.balena.io/ is the real one.

Just because you are using a fake Etcher doesn’t give you license to bash Balena for everyone else.

can you please remove the link to the fake one?
you do not want people to click it by accident.

1 Like

No, the official etcher contains ads and tracking (the later one can be turned off in the settings).

The authors of balena etcher stayed on the github issues about ads (have them optional, allow them to be turned off etc.) that they have no intention to do so for now. Also the tracking (which “accidentally” was shared with many third parties in the past) will stay opt-out rather then opt-in (what the european GDPR would require).

I use usbimager which has no code base with etcher at all.

While etcher was the gold standard in the past (first program verifying writes by default) it turned into this fat, spying, heavy, vulnerable and buggy application that really made itself obsolete.

Comparison

Description balenaEtcher WIN32 Disk Imager USBImager
Multiplatform :heavy_check_mark: âś— :heavy_check_mark:
Minimum Windows Win 7 Win XP Win XP
Minimum MacOSX (1) 10.15 âś— 10.10
Available on Raspbian âś— âś— :heavy_check_mark:
Program size (2) 130 Mb âś— 300 Kb
Dependencies lots, ~300 Mb Qt, ~8 Mb âś— none
Spyware-free and ad-free âś— :heavy_check_mark: :heavy_check_mark:
Native interface âś— âś— :heavy_check_mark:
Guarantee on data writes (3) âś— âś— :heavy_check_mark:
Verify data written :heavy_check_mark: âś— :heavy_check_mark:
Compressed images :heavy_check_mark: âś— :heavy_check_mark:
Raw write time (4) 23:16 23:28 24:05
Compressed write time (4) 01:12:51 âś— 30:47

beside I prefer faster writes…