Installing HAOS on a dedicated x86-64 PC

Installation Home Assistant OS
1

I’m afraid I can’t follow (understand) the instruction at Generic x86-64 - Home Assistant

I have an old, surplus Windows PC that I want to dedicate to HAOS, replacing Windows. Clearly this will mean making HAOS the primary/boot operating system on that PC.

The instruction above says:

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To use this method, follow the instructions of your Live distribution (e.g., this Ubuntu guide). Once you booted the live operating system, follow the steps described in the procedure below: Write the image to your boot media.
WRITE THE IMAGE TO YOUR BOOT MEDIA
Attach the Home Assistant boot media (storage device) to your computer

Download and start Balena Etcher. (You may need to run it with administrator privileges on Windows).

Select “Flash from URL”

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I’ve installed Ubuntu onto a 4GB drive as instructed, which was fairly straightforward, and booted the surplus PC using the “live” Ubuntu (rather than installing it). However, this is where I’m stuck. The instruction says “You may need to run [Balena Etcher] with administrator privileges on Windows” - but I’m not now running Windows, I’ve just booted with Ubuntu… Also, if I’m meant to flash the HAOS image from a URL, where does “attach the Home Assistant boot media to your computer” come in? I take the instruction to mean I can download the image and flash it directly to the PC’s (built in) boot disc.

Can anyone clarify this?

Thanks.

2 Likes
2

John

Here is a link where I helped someone having similar issues.

You need to download Balena Etcher using the Linux OS and browser that is running from the Live System you booted from. This will allow you to select the internal drive as the target.

Hope this helps.

Stan

3

Thanks Stan. It makes sense that I need to download the image first - I suppose where I got confused was the mention of Windows. I guess I might need a second FAT32 formatted flash drive to store the downloaded HAOS, as Ubuntu will be unable to use the existing Windows-formatted drives (even the secondary hard disc) on the target PC…?

1 Like
4

Even before I get to the issue of where to store the downloaded HAOS I’m stuck again. Balena Etcher refuses to run even though I have the 64 bit version on 64 bit Ubuntu. I keep getting an “error loading libfuse.so.2” and “AppImages require FUSE to run” even after installing FUSE2 libraries manually (and it’s the latest Ubuntu which apparently comes with FUSE anyway). Not encouraging for a HAOS beginner (who considers himself fairly tech-savvy, if not well-versed in Linux). Any further help would be appreciated.

5

I’ve managed to resolve this. There was a clue in the instruction

AppImages require FUSE to run.
You might still be able to extract the contents of this AppImage
if you run it with the --appimage-extract option.

I found that typing balenaEtcher-1.7.9-x64.appimage --appimage-extract extracted a lot of files to a subdirectory. By trial and error (and this doesn’t seem to be in any instructions) I found that I could then run Etcher by going into the subfolder in the Files application and double-clicking balena-etcher-electron.bin (I’ve no idea of the significance of “electron”.)

After downloading from the URL given and bypassing warnings that I was about to erase my system drive, I was able to write the boot image to the PC’s SSD (primary boot drive). After rebooting I had to change my BIOS settings to “Other OS” otherwise I got a persistent error on restarting that there had been “unauthorised changes on the firmware, operating system or UEFI drivers”.

Hopefully this information will be useful to other users.

1 Like
6

Excellent! I had written a response but you were able to solve the issue.

Good luck and enjoy HA!

7

When I tried this some time ago I had the same issues starting Balena. I just gave up at that point and took the drive out the PC and plugged it into a USB port on my windows machine and used Balena there instead. Even Balenas website had no clues how to run the Linux download.

It would be good if someone who understands this could write a step by step guide that works and explains how to run Balena.

1 Like
8

Couldn’t have done it without you. I was only able to run it with balenaEtcher-1.7.9-x64.appimage, latest stable only gave a white screen. Trying to install HAOS through an Ubuntu USB

9

I was able to flash a system using a Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS Live distro from USB.

After booting from the live distro of Ubuntu open up a terminal.
Type:

sudo su

Type:

add-apt-repository universe
apt update
apt install libfuse2 -y

After that installs, we’re going to use steps provided by Balena to install a deb package for Etcher.
Type:

curl -1sLf \
'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/balena/etcher/setup.deb.sh' \
 | sudo -E bash

Now we can install it.
Type:

apt update
apt install balena-etcher-electron -y

Once it finished installing I was able to launch it from the application list in Ubuntu.
With Balena Etcher Open:

  1. Select “Flash from URL”
  2. Enter the web URL: https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/9.4/haos_generic-x86-64-9.4.img.xz
  3. Click on “Select Target”
  4. Choose the desired drive
    4a. I had to go to “Show 1 Hidden”
    4b. Then I selected the drive /dev/sda
  5. Click “Flash!”
  6. Wait for it to complete, unplug USB drives and restart.

I hope this helps others get Home Assistant x86 up and running on a system drive faster.

2 Likes
10

I’ve been fighting with this for almost 7 hours. Your post saved my bacon! Thank you!!

11

A very easy, pure GUI, way to install the x86 OS is by:

  1. Boot your x86 system with a live Ubuntu USB3 (3 for speed) stick
  2. Download the x86 OS image to e.g. Downloads folder
  3. Start the “Disks” program (WIndows key, find the “Disks” program).
  4. Select your target PC harddisk (not the USB disk), press the “three dots” menu buttom on the right (not the “three lines” menu on the left), and select “Restore disk image…”.
  5. Now you can simply select the downloaded image and it will be written onto your selected target disk. Dont mind the warning about size difference (unless you installed too small a disk :slight_smile:).
  6. Reboot and follow the onboarding procedure described elsewhere
9 Likes
12

After battling with installing Balena and trying to find other ways to make this work, this (using Disks on Ubuntu/Debian) was an absolute breeze - thanks for sharing!

13

This method does no longer work (installing Balena Etcher)
I created a complete guide with the updated instructions

14

Absolutely agree.
Spent a lot of time experimenting over the past month & did manage success with Balena, but it’s very Version specific.

“Restore disk image…” is an absolute breeze.

I’ve taken a slight tangent with that now…

I have now burnt the Ubuntu USB using Rufus, which allows you to create it with persistent storage.

That means all my settings & more relevant, downloads & bookmarks are still present each time I boot off the USB.

So boot, got to the Disks & Restore the already present download & the jobs done in under 10 minutes.

Admittedly not of benefit to everyone, but an IT Guy here & have dozens of abandoned machines on the shelves.

Aside from my main Pi waiting migration, I currently have 3 other installs on spare x86’s each doing nothing more than providing a test platform for a specific case on a clean environment.

2 Likes
15

Amazing… I fought with Etcher errors for multiple hours. Your Disks / Restore Image solution is so much simpler and should be the standard guidance.

2 Likes
16

Trying to install on a new device, I’ve been tearing my hair out for 5 hours with Balena Etcher and got nowhere (just a whole raft of errors about dependencies, none apparently resolvable by installing anything). When I try to use your method in the Disks program, I don’t see Restore Disk Image, only New Disk Image and Attach Disk Image. Will one of these work and, if so, which one?

Thanks.

17

Hi,
You need to select the “three doots” menu on the right, not the “three lines” menu on the left. HTH.
PS: remeber to select your target disk first (where the HA OS will be installed)

18

Thanks Michael. I spotted this late in the day and finally managed to install HAOS. I’m kicking myself for not realising earlier, but had got stressed trying everything under the sun to get Balena Etcher to install: it should come with a health warning!

19

Hello,

In dire need of some help. I created a bootable usb with Ubuntu Live on it. On a separate usb drive was Balena Etcher and I ran it and used the app to write home assistant to the SSD that is in the dedicated computer. On reboot I keep receiving messages. I am at such a lost. I also tried taking the SSD out and burning HA to it on my Windows 10 computer. Also tried Raspberry Pi imager. Striking out royally. BIOS has UEFI enabled and secure boot disabled. BIOS fairly up to date (September of 2022)

20

I hope the below guide can assist you.