Hey guys! I’m trying to use a Macbook Pro Retina 2013 (i7 processor) as the home assistant operating system, that is, without installing another system and virtual machines. I managed to transfer the boot using the dd command, but the MacBook does not boot automatically, making it necessary to hold down the option key all the time to access the menu. I’m a very layman user with very little knowledge of Linux and programming. Do you know of any distro that does the complete installation on the SSD and already resolves the boot issue, like other Linux distros? Or like Rpi do. Thank you in advance for your help.
Welcome to Home Assistant @djalberto!
Your request is confusing: you don’t want to install another system but you want to boot into another system. Holding down ALT is saying you want to boot from an external drive. Are you wanting to keep MacOS and dual boot onto an external SSD for Home Assistant? Are you wanting to wipe out MacOS entirely and use a linux distro instead (another system)?
If you have it working on an external drive then you can boot your MacBook into recovery mode and set the start up drive there - or if you have MacOS already installed you can change the default boot drive via the OS directly without recovery mode. If you have MacOS already then you can simply go to Settings → General → Startup Disk.
Please clarify your needs for more specific help if this is not what you are wanting to do.
Hi CO_4X4! Thank you for you answer my question and sorry if I was not clear enough.
My goal would be install “home assistant OS” on macbook intel. Reading some discutions in the internet, I understood that (maybe) the only possibility would be using balena etcher or Rufus software to write the image directly in the macbook`s SSD. For that I need to find an USB adapter to connect the SSD in another PC and burn the image. This is due HAOS doesnt install in SSD and run only by USB in memory stick (at least for macbook).
There some issues I couldnt to solve as install wifi drivers, etc, because Linux is too new for me and I have very, very basic. knwlodgement. Anyway, yesterday I installed the Ubuntu and despite I read that in the Linux, Mac or even Windows, the only way would be through of Virtual Machines, but I found a Home Assistant that can be installed in Ubuntu and I saw that it appear to have all the resources HAOS interfaces (without need to VM) and already install all drivers and works for me. Probably it solve my question, but, even that, I’ll try to install HAOS in the macbook’s ssd and share with you if I had success.
Thank you again to take your time to help me.
BR
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I am thinking of doing the same: installing HAOS on an old intel mac.
Any success?
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I am still trying to figure out if you have a specific setup in mind, I recommend using Proxmox as my os and having Home Assistant on proxmox with whatever other os you want(this will turn the main computer into a server terminal and you’ll need another computer and browser to access it).
This thread can explain a little better using mac os but I think they still use a VM.
Otherwise Is there a specific thing your after with this install? Do you still want the computer to run macos? Do you want to learn Ubuntu? Do you want Home Assistant to be the OS on the mac?
My proxmox is on a system meant only for it and my home assistant, it is never used as a normal computer to prevent anything from happening to my home assistant.
Also I think you can boot Linux from USB and use Balena on USB linux to write the SSD.
I would like HAOS on macbook bare metal. Is that possible?
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Are you referring to apples cloud hosting service or as the only os? if the only os what silicone is in the machine or what is it?
I’ve got a similar question to @Fed above–that is, I have an old Macbook Pro, 64bit Intel silicon (Intel Core i5). I believe that what Fed meant by “bare metal” is that he, like me, would like to wipe the entire HD, and install HAOS as the primary OS, and use the laptop as the HA server.
I did see a link about “ProxMox”, but that seems rather complex, so I was hoping that HAOS was just installable on a bare Intel processor laptop.
If not, guess I’ll have to spend a weekend on the Proxmox route.
TIA!
in my experience either will probably take the same amount of time.
An intel core i5 should be as simple as going the generic haos route.
and I imagine your computer has uefi but if it doesn’t.
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1d7fy79/you_dont_need_uefi_to_install_haos_heres_a_simple/
(only try this if you know you dont have uefi).
if you want to completely remove macos dont use the bootcamp if you have it.
- Write linux ubuntu to usb with balenaetcher
- using the generic x86 method youll need to restart the mac and press or hold option to get it into the boot manager
- launch a linux usb and either restore from disk or use etcher again to write the haos(download from the generic x86-64 page) to the macbook.
- restart mac and remove usb
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Thanks for the reply. After a little more digging, I’ve decided to go the route of installing Proxmox on bare metal on the old Macbook. It’s just as simple as installing any other OS on it. Not using Boot Camp either, just a straight install of ProxMox.
Then VM’s for HAOS, and likely some other services, such as a VPN server, AdGuard, etc. Haven’t decided if I’ll virtualize those, or run them from Docker containers, but it will all be run on Proxmox on this repurposed Macbook.
In my experience this route works very well for running a dedicated HA instance on an old Macbook. The Macbook also provides a level of UPS with the integrated battery.
It would be great if integration existed for Mac devices (battery, screen, keyboard illumination, speakers, microphone, IR Receiver). Not for any specific reason - but turning the screen off would be a nice feature.
I did start with Proxmox but really wasn’t using any Proxmox features than running HA within it - so in the end decided on going this route. Quick and very easy implementation. HA runs like a dream. USB, and Bluetooth work OTB and network obviously. Recommend this to anyone with old Macbook.
I imagine for haos you can edit machine properties in the bootloader.
Im running proxmox with haos and a linux server.
From my experience even when giving haos access to all the machine components or properties its only able to barely use Bluetooth for very specific things.