Hi, first time poster… I’ve had Home Assistant via hassio Raspberry Pi image running for a couple days and just got my first light switch connected. GREAT project!!!
So far I’ve figured most things out, but I have an overall question.
I see a lot of articles that discuss how to do things for “advanced” users. The problem is, the Docker aspect of hass.io means that the toolset seems to be quite limited.
Here is an example:
The article discusses using sqlite3 command on the sqlite file. I’m familiar with that and want to remove a renamed Automation from the database. However hassio doesn’t have a sqlite3 command for me to use. Should I be copying the .db file off, editing it, and copying it back, for example? I have the ssh add-on installed and can scp the file easily enough but this is a bit clunky.
Another example:
This discusses a Vizio TV sync tool to install with pip. I don’t have pip or python with hass.io. I suppose in this case I might be able to run it from my Mac however if the TV doesn’t mind token being obtained from a different client.
Lastly, debugging my Insteon PLM was a little tricky since the articles described another pip utility to install that wasn’t easily possible on Raspberry Pi / Docker / hassio / ResinOS. But that’s where I should run it since that’s the device connected to the Insteon PLM.
I guess my overall question is, for “power usage” would I be better off running Home Assistant as a regular Linux application rather than hassio? Or is there a recommendation for how to get a full toolset plus get the nice Docker advantages of hassio?
I found the same problems with hassio. It’s great, really great for most users who have straightforward setups and I used it myself for quite a while.
Now I’m using a Chromebox with a Debian 9 minimal install and docker-compose for home assistant, mosquitto, homebridge, and nginx (reverse proxy). I get all the benefits of Docker (including super easy updates, just docker-compose down, docker-compose pull, and docker-compose up -d to update and restart all containers in the correct order). I also get the flexibility of running on Linux, like being able to install additional programs or utilities, or spin up additional Docker containers to handle those extra things. Finally, because it’s a Chromebox, I also get the energy savings of the (essentially a NUC) platform.
Let me know if you’d like my docker-compose.yml, I’m happy to share.
