Feel free to move this thread to wherever it belongs. I am having an issue with HA booting up on the pie. I am totally new to HA and have limited experience with the PI. But I do have some basic coding skills. If this means anything to any of you.
My OS is a Mac Book Pro
Hardware:
-Ras Pi 3 B+ V1.2
-Power Supply, 5V 2.5A (I did read something online about only using a proper power supply or the Pi will not work.) Went across town to the storage unit to grab that.
-Ethernet cable to router
-64GB SanDisk Ultra Plus Micro SD (Newish, only used in a digital camera and made sure to format before using “BalenaEtcher” to flash the “Hassos_rpi3-2.12.img” file. I believe this is the 32 Bit version of the OS as suggested on the HA site)
-HDMI connected to TV
Issue:
Tried to install the HA OS by flashing it to the MicroSD and installing it on the Pie while it was connected to the router like is saw on a YouTube video. The video shows that I should be able to do this and not have any issues. Of course on YouTube it worked perfectly. However when I did this nothing happened. Nothing on the TV screen, although I don’t believe anything would be, and nothing when I went to the address (Http://Hassio.local:8123) in my web browser. The lights on the ethernet port did not even light up. I tried the 64 Bit version also and nothing happened. After all of this I installed Raspian just to see if the PI was dead or not. That worked fine.
The only thing I can think of is that there is some setting on the router that is blocking the Pi. The HA site does say the “if your router does not support mDNS” (I dont even know what that is) that you should be able to go to the actual IP address to get access. But, after looking at my connected items on the router and “guessing” what the PI’s IP address was it still will not give me access.
What am I missing or skipping? Any help is appreciated.
Try a different sd card writing program. I tried to burn an sd card last week with etcher (for the first time) and it wouldn’t work. I ended up using win32diskimager and it worked right away after that.
I will certainly look into that. Does everything else seem to be in order? I did some more research and I came across a comment that suggested that maybe Im just not waiting long enough. Can that be an issue? How long after I power it up should I see life? 5 min? 20 min?
It depends on your speed on the 'net. It can easily take 20 minutes, or more. If you can monitor your console screen, you should be seeing a lot of text whizzing by as the system goes through getting the latest version of Hass.io and installing it.
Look at Step 4 of the installation instructions if you don’t have a way of looking at DHCP assignments on your router. You need to know the assignment so you can see the HA setup screen in your browser. If you need to, set up a static IP address. The URL should be something like this depending on your router:
http://192.168.xx.yy:8123
or
http://10.0.xx.yy:8123
The xx should be the same as your router subnet, typically 00 or 01. The yy should be any unassigned value, but not 0 or 255 (or above).
So… after many different attempts I still have not gotten HA to boot up on the PI. I even broke out the old Windows laptop. Still nothing.
What have I tried:
I followed the same steps as on the Mac on the Windows laptop. Formatted the SD card, downloaded Hass IO, unzipped it and flashed it onto the SD card. I know the disk formatting and the image flash worked because when everything was completed there was a new disk available called Hass Boot that showed up. I Properly ejected the SD card and inserted it into the PI. I still cannot get Hass IO to come up. Even after waiting a good amount of time.
My thoughts on the issue:
I believe I have a router issue. When I turn the PI on (disk inserted and network cable hooked up) it will not even show up in the “Attached Devices” list. This leads me to believe that the issue is the router. Unless this “Attached Items” list is for wifi attached items only. It seems that the PI and the router are not talking to each other. Problem is I am not too skilled in Router Wizardry. Also, someone mentioned that there should be lines of text that would show up on the TV (Connected via HDMI) during boot up. I don’t see that either. Any more info on this? Should I be seeing text on the TV? This leads me to believe the PI is not booting up at all.
Next steps:
Crack open another cold beer…
I believe the version I have been installing is the 32 Bit version of the OS. I’ll try the 64 Bit and see if that does anything different. After that I’ll try and hit the master reset on the router (and piss off the GF again) and see if that does anything. After this, Order a brand new router off Amazon, wait two days, and see if that works. Maybe the router I have does not support whatever I’m trying to do. After that… well I have no idea…
You have connectivity on your router. Hopefully, you don’t have any security settings on your router requiring the MAC address or some other thing before it allows a connection. And if you have any open ports, delete them unless you know what you’re doing. They are an invitation to mischief.
Before buying a new router, I’d try assigning a fixed IP address. It requires the things in Step 4, including editing a text file, putting it on a USB stick, and then leaving it in the Pi during software installation. Here’s the relevant portion of the file content of mine:
You would assign the ‘xx’ and the '/24" is necessary as it defines the subnet mask. The 192.168.0.1, or something similar, would be your router address (i.e. gateway). The dns line is probably not needed and shows the default values. Mine is different since I have different local and public resolver assignments. Just assign the correct filename (‘my-network’, no extension) and put it in the proper directory (‘folder’) as described by Step 4 of the instructions.
FYI, the router won’t even see your RPi until some portion of the software loads. After the IP address is assigned and you have 'net connectivity, things start happening faster than they can be read. Docker containers are created, the latest version of the software is installed, a fairly large directory of integrations is downloaded, and more. I can’t remember how long it took to load everything, but it was 10s of minutes before I typed in the URL (with the assigned IP address, not ‘Hassio.local’) and got the setup screen. I waited for the console to stop scrolling text before trying. If I recall correctly, every 30 seconds or so, it would spit out a warning about not having IPV6 connectivity. You can ignore those messages if you see them.
After spending some time exploring the router last night and looking through the different tabs I don’t believe I have any security enabled that requires a MAC ID for any device. I have had a few hard wired items on the router and I have never had any issues with connecting them. Also, I don’t believe I have any open ports, but Ill be getting back into it tonight and verifying this. If I do I’ll be sure to delete them. Thanks for the heads up on that.
So… if I’m interpreting this correctly (You referred to a “step 4”. What step 4 are you referring to? The step 4 on the HA web page?), I’ll need to format a USB thumb drive, Include some folders, Add the text file with the information in “step 4”, Assign an IP address for the PI, and then plug it into the PI when I boot it up?
It sounds like this method basically manually forces the PI to connect to the router. Is this just because of the type of router I have? Does it maybe have to do with how old the router is? Its not to old, 4 years maybe…
That’s essentially it. You don’t necessarily have to reformat the thumb drive if it’s already formatted FAT32. I’m pretty sure there can be data already on it. There are other requirements, however. They’re listed in Step 4. Just make sure its plain text you’re entering when you create the ‘my-network’ file.
I’m pretty sure most any router will allow a connection if you just connect the Ethernet cable between a local LAN port and the Rpi. Typically, it’ll go through a negotiation sequence of assigning an IP address using DHCP unless the node has been preset to a value. Age of the router shouldn’t matter. Mine is old enough to vote.
The main reason for the static address is to know where to try to find the user interface. Right now, it sounds like guesswork. The URL in your browser should look like…
Here’s a thought. I’ve seen cases where an HDMI cable will not work until it’s unplugged and plugged back in. So, I’d wait a some time after applying power to the Rpi before connecting the cable.
Here’s another thread that seems relevant to what you’re experiencing: