My observation is that the vast majority of “software updates” and “patch releases” are for what I perceive to be as “bloatware”.
I understand updates to fix communication standards for multiple device vendors like zigbee, mqtt, zwave or improving HA graphing or logging, whatever.
What I keep seeing are things like “Bump thermobeacon-ble”, “Bump pysmartthings”, “Bump aiowebdav2”, “Update govee-local-api”,…
Why isn’t that device specific code being managed through the device interface? One of my zigbee devices has an update, why isn’t that being pushed as a patch release like “aiowebdav2”?
I understand the OP.
The HA core comes with a lot of integrations included, and probably no user will ever use them all, so there are a lot of unused code being loaded.
I do not have any SmartThing devices so that integration is just “bloat” for me.
I could see the idea of making it more modular than it is, but it is how the dev team have decided to do it.
I am not running with the default_config in my configuration.yaml either for that reason.
Agree, I used to have to deal with this with end users and windows in my prior life.
“But I don’t want Xyz. So I should not be forced to…”
And, all the other software has dependencies on these modules. Bugs get found and fixed. And… If dev doesn’t ship them other crap breaks. You can consider it bloat… I consider it crap they have to send to make sure your stuff keeps working. (this btw is why people also complain about the speed of updates but that’s a whole different conversation)
It basically amounts to… If you don’t want it don’t update but then accept you won’t get new features or security updates. The second one being a big deal.
I understand and agree with the dependancies point.
When I do a linux update I download and install updates for what I have installed. I don’t have to install everything and the kitchen sink each time.
I don’t think I should be having to read through pages of patch update logs trying to figure out each time if this particular patch is useful or a waste of bandwidth, my time, and the risk of blowing up a good working system. Twice burned, three times shy now. Automatic updates are a sure fire way to wake up to a broken system and wasted hours trying to fix something that shouldn’t have got broken so my kitchen lights turn on properly when I hit the switch…or my heater or fans turn on when they are supposed to.
If I see a relevant security patch or a bug fix for something on mqtt, zigbee or zwave I’ll probably allow the update. Installing a patch because someone decided to install some sort of “A.I. add-on” or a dependancy for some esoteric device or service I’ll never use just adds to security and system stability risks by opening up new back-doors to my network I don’t want or need.
The included utility program jq, which probably isn’t for you but your install should have it anyway, is, I suspect, a good example of consolidating by design, to get a thing to work without needing prolific and liable-to-change dependencies, sub-dependencies, sub-cross-dependencies, which all need changing because a cross-sub-dependency was discontinued or malconfigured for next year’s hardware. The Doze is an example of a software platform which seems designed from the outset to annoy you with 4 second delays on passable older hardware, 8 second delays on the next older, and is a treadmill of updates need updates needing updates.
I just got most of operating a Home Assistant on the better computer to work happily out of a 64MB tab of a web browser of a 32bit 1GB 900MHz computer which is more than ten years old. There have been a couple of repeatable ‘won’t do that’ moments for which I had to find a workaround, but in the main, 64MB from a web browser plus 24MB of graphics seems to be sufficient for much of what really gets done to log in to and operate Home Assistant, which is running on a better computer nearby. The trouble is that the updates seek to make it more liable to ‘need’ ten or twenty times bigger than gets used. Perhaps they need to hide some needles in more MegaHaystacks.
Back to jq. No dependencies. It is an extra feature, but that one shouldn’t oblige you to gainless updates. Couldn’t more of HA be like that ?
Yes, which is why no one in their right mind does automatic updates.
Wait for the update to hit, read the release notes and user feedback, then decide whether you should update right now or at a time when you’re available to deal with any issues should they crop up.
Im a Ex Microsoft TAM and I agree with this statement.
If you know any ex tams you also know how weird that is coming out of my mouth, we are trained in one thing… If the binaries are on the box you SHOULD deploy the update. But… That’s for Windows Desktop.
HA IS NOT at a a Wndows desktop. It’s more like a boutique server - one with a picky business client requiring heavy change control because it manages a business critical function. Those servers are, to steal a phrase from a friend… Cats - not cattle.
If your cat gets cancer you take him to the vet.
If your cow gets cancer he becomes brisket and you get two more just like him.
Windows desktop is a cow. Let the update fly and if it blows up restore.
That ha box. Have good backups. Multiples. Some off box and some offsite. Read the release notes understand them. Have a plan and sit there while the box updates. If it’s bad. Roll back (you did have a backup? ) and figure it out. It’s a cat.
There is ZERO way that auto install updates e er gets turned on on my HA box.
I turned off all autoupdates over a decade ago after having the privilege of waking up to dozens of angry phone calls from various managers when a hundred plus computers on the office network went down after M$ pushed an update to a video driver that blue screened every machine in the office.
I still cringe when people tell me how awesome it is that their Tesla’s do automatic updates and how that’s a great feature for their transportation device that they rely on to get them to work in the morning.
I see updates first and foremost as job security for IT types. Like I really need a 4GB download on a slow network to get new poop emoji on my device…
That video driver incident is bad IT ops hygiene not Microsoft, sorry to bust your M$ bubble. It management should always use a ring philosophy to test first then deploy… Ask CrowdStrike about that.
But your point is still valid. I wish they’d kill the auto update in HA.
I have no camera, so gå2rtc is not needed.
Currently I am not using assist, so conversation and assist can be shipped and home assistant cloud is also not used.
Yes there is core stuff that is needed, like TCP stack, mDNS, SSDP and so on, but there are stuff that are not core, but related only to a single vendors ecosystem.
My Windows machine does also not have a mail server installed just because I have TCP/IP installed.
I’ve never used Energy, Sections, Labs, and about 80% of the stuff there.
Just don’t use it and get over it.
They are making a Service Truck that carry’s stuff for many many people, not a ZR1X Corvette that goes 240mph…