How to run 'sudo apt ...' on a headless pi running HA

I have HA installed on a pi 3+, headless (HA OS). I would like to try out bluetooth tracking but need to install the bluetooth module on the HA computer. The standard way for that is of course ‘sudo apt install bluetooth’ but when I go to the HA computer via terminal, ‘sudo’ is not recognized nor is any other normal linux command or so it seems.
Searching the HA community board seems to suggest that there is no way of doing this remotely but all the answers were fairly old and I am having a tough time believing that I would have to set up a monitor and keyboard just to install a file in the HA computer.
So, is there a way of doing this or am I seriously required to set up a keyboard and display for what seems like a pretty basic operation?

I don’t use HA OS, but can’t you run (sudo) docker exec -it homeassistant bash from the host (Pi) or something similar to run terminal commands on the container?

I know nothing about containers other that they are normally on big ships :slight_smile:
I also know nothing about dockers other than those big ships need to get docked here and there!
I took a micro SD card, put the operating system on it (Home Assistant OS), plugged it into the pi and presto.
The OS that displays when I use the terminal add-on in HA to access the pi that HA is installed on does not appear to accept normal linux commands and only offers whatever HA allows which does not include things like ‘sudo’ or most anything else.
Sorry that I can’t be of more help here but I am well out of my league. Come to think of it, I don’t even know that if I stuck a keyboard and screen onto the pi that I would see anything else other than what the terminal screen gives me.

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Thanks Tom, I was following this link:


I assume this documentation is outdated then?
I have added this to my configuration.yaml file:
device_tracker:
  - platform: bluetooth_tracker
    track_new_devices: true

I restarted HA and I see at least one bluetooth device but the entity has no reference to the fact that it is bluetooth. Is it possible to configure HA in such a way that device tracker identifies the entity as a bluetooth entity? I found the one entry by accident (I have a lot of entities in the list)
Thanks for your help!

Looking at all the entities, I am not sure if the entity I thought was a bluetooth device isn’t just the tracked connection on my router. I have not found a way to see any mac address associated with the tracked entity.
Is there a way to give ‘friendly’ names to the entities that are tracked ?