Install HAOS on NUC7i3

Installation
#1

This is my first time to contact the community and hopefully this is the right forum for my questions.
I’m sorry, I’m not experienced regarding software installations on NUC. As of today I have installed latest Ubuntu (SSD configured with one partition) on my NUC which works well.
Now I want to install home assistant , but the OS version which promises to make my life as easy as possible. I’m not sure to have understood the Home Assistant doc completely. Please confirm or correct my understanding.

  1. If I use HAOS I will get rid of the Ubuntu OS
  2. To put HAOS on the machine I would download the image for NUC and write an USB stick by balenaEtcher (which I installed on my Windows laptop for this purpose)
  3. In my understanding balenaEtcher creates a bootable USB device.
  4. Next I will boot the NUC from USB and this will download and write all required data to my SSD in the NUC box.
  5. Restart NUC without USB stick which hopefully end up in a running HAOS

May be my understanding is totally wrong.
I would be happy to get a more detailed Instruction how to install HAOS on NUC.

Thanks a lot for reading this message

#2

I recently installed hassos on a NUC, tried your steps as detailed above, but didn’t work for me. What did work flawlessly was to connect the ssd with a sata to usb converter to a pc and write the downloaded image directly to the ssd using balena etcher.

#3

If I read documentation correctly, the images create a bootable system on the target media. These are not installer images. For your NUC, you would „burn“ that image directly on SSD.

#4

May be I did not understand item 5 correctly
“Turn on your device or virtual appliance. On first boot, it downloads the latest version of Home Assistant which takes around 20 minutes (slower/faster depending on the platform and your Internet connection).”
However, as Camiel and you stated it is probably the best way to write the ssd directly. My hope was that I don’t need to open the NUC box at all.
Anyhow, I will order a sata to usb kabel as it is not very expensive.

#5

It downloads the actual runtime components of HA OS (container images) to current disc, but the OS/Supervisor is part of the image.

It’s like you install Windows first and it downloads drivers and updates after it has been started.

#6

Actually, it a waste of resources to turn an SSD powered NUC into a HA appliance, where an RPI4 would be enough.

You could go for HA Container Installation method or (if you care for a supported OS) switch to Debian OS with Home Assistant Supervised.

Just my 2 cents …

#7

Ok, now i got it. You are probably right that a RPI4 would do. In the past I got some warnings that an RPI might be at its limits. I hope e/o next week I will be successful.

Thank you very much for all the feedback

#8

I’m facing the same problem as you. It’s very helpful to check your post. Use the haos system directly in nuc11

#9

It’s actually very easy to install HAOS directly on a NUC, or whatever closed AMD/Intel PC device without removing the SSD inside.

Create a trial USB stick with e.g. Ubuntu.
Use that to boot from USB (without installing the OS)
In that booted OS, download and install Balena.
Download the HAOS image in Balena using the HAOS URL.
As a target, select the SSD (or harddisk) from the host computer (so the internal SSD or eMMC)
Write the image.
Remove the USB stick, reboot from the target disk, and enjoy HAOS without removing the HD or SSD.