Installing Home Assistant on a RPi 4b with SSD boot

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427

Now trying to do a fresh install of HA OS 5.10 (+snapshot) instead of upgrading from 5.3 via the GUI.

The very first thing that went wrong was that the Raspbee II serial address had flipped from “/dev/ttyAMA0” to “/dev/ttyS0” which borked Deconz installation. Luckily it started working after switching the address, although one of the Hue dimmers borked too and needed a battery reset.

I have the old HA OS 5.3 installation on a separate SSD now, so I can switch back to the 5.3 by simply switching the SSD when/if the 5.10 starts locking up again.

EDIT: Aaaand it locked up. At this point I’ll just give up and keep using the HA OS 5.3 until something actually breaks.
EDIT2: There is a chance that the problem is in the EEPROM, but I’m sick and tired of troubleshooting this mess so I’ll check it sometime later.

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428

I added a new chapter “Problems on reboot / warm boot / soft boot” to the guide. This may be exactly what you are looking for.

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429

it works well here,

  • PI 4 4GB,
  • Ugreen USB3.1 Gen2 SSD-case
  • Samsung 860 EVO SSD

no Raspbee, HA 5.10 runs since days.

430

is there someone who found a workaround for the USB devices that doesn’t work until you unplug and replug them after a host reboot?
is there a solution to the problem?

431

Just the posting above yours…

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432

Thank you @Jpsy!
After reading the post you recommended I’m now trying a beta eeprom firmware and will report back after some testing.

Edit:
Rebooted 10 times with new firmware, issue seems to be gone!

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433

yeah, rebooted 10 times and the issue is gone.
this solved the issue:

sudo -E rpi-eeprom-config --edit
USB_MSD_PWR_OFF_TIME=0

but why the default is 1000 milliseconds?

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434

forgot to thank you @Jpsy this thread is the best thread in the HA history

435

@Jpsy
latest firmware fixed the issue on boot with USB devices not being recognized until unplug/replug.

no need for

USB_MSD_PWR_OFF_TIME=0

anymore.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo rpi-eeprom-update
BCM2711 detected
Dedicated VL805 EEPROM detected
BOOTLOADER: up-to-date
CURRENT: Sat 16 Jan 14:10:13 UTC 2021 (1610806213)
 LATEST: Sat 16 Jan 14:10:13 UTC 2021 (1610806213)
 FW DIR: /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/stable
VL805: up-to-date
CURRENT: 000138a1
 LATEST: 000138a1
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436

Thanks for the great guide :+1:.
Running now for 2 weeks on the pi4 2gb with SSD. Only on usb 2.0 because the adapter won’t work on the usb 3.0. But i can deal with that.

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437

Wow, thanks for this! Successfully migrated from micro sd to SSD in about an hour.

PNY CS900 240GB, no external case
StarTech 3.1 adapter

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438

Thanks! Took me a few tries because as it turns out the 32 bit version of the 5.10 core does not boot at all from SSD, only the 64 bit one does on my pi 4 2gb

Patriot Burst 240 gb
StarTech 3.1 adapter

Note: I find the 64 bit version less snappy. Even though I am now using a faster medium, some parts of HA like supervisor take significant longer to load, especially when accessed over https. Also the restore left me with a few failing integrations ( Toon and MariaDB for instance). Load averages have gone up considerably too which I find odd. Where I used to look at 0.0x load averages with the SD card/32bit bit version they are on my 64 bit/SSD version around 0.5x Not sure yet if I will continue to use this setup. :frowning:

439

Hi -

Really sorry if this was posted here previously but when I searched could not find specifically what I am asking…

Does this process move the database and ALL files that will take heavy R/W activity off of the SD card?

I am looking to perform this process this weekend on my Pi4 but am curious since the R/W activity is what everyone points to for ruining their cards.

440

This process eliminates the use of a sd card.
After using the ssd, there is no need anymore for sd cards

441

You need to stop the MariaDB prior to making the snapshot. If not it will be corrupted. If you use the google drive snapshot add on there is a setting to automatically stop it prior to making the snapshot.

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442

Cool. Thanks @b3ng3

443

I suggest that you completely exclude your history database from being snapshotted. No matter whether it is Maria or Sqlite. It considerably bloats the snapshots. And the history data is deleted after a short time anyway (default = 10 days).

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444

Why? Stopping it prevents it from being corrupted. When you restore you are as you were before you switched hardware.

445

I have the HA app installed on LineageOS 17 (Android 10) on a RPi 4 8G and it all works via a 4k TV, until the 15.6 inch FHD touch monitor arrives.
Given the dramas associated with using an USB to SATA connection, has anyone given any thought to using a SATA HAT instead so it is a native SATA connection? For $40AUD, I think it might be worth a try.

Edit: I didn’t look closely enough. A SATA HAT is still based on an USB connector (USB3), bugger, since I was hoping to avoid USB altogether.

446

yes i am using rpi4 4gb with X862 board and M.2 SSD 120gb from WD.
SSD is on USB3. Poweradaptor 4A.

Been running now for a month without problems

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